Red Riding Hood Sprite Again

[joelphilippage]

This is a sprite for a quick side project I'm working on. I've been trying different styles for a while. Any criticisms for this one?

[cat]

How old is she supposed to be? In the fairy tale she is a kid, but your sprite looks like at minimum 20.

[joelphilippage]

Probably about a 6th Grader. Any suggestions on making her look younger? I'm basing it off of a book so I got some Ideas from the cover art.

[heribertovalle]

The sprite is large enough. The first thing I would crit is the fact that her arms are too long. check out those proportions!

[Ghost]

Even on the book's cover she looks older than 10. Can't quite put a finger on it, but it might be the combination of rather dark clothes, dark hair, and a pretty stern face. To make her younger I'd try to lighten up the wardrobe a bit, and maybe go for a different hair colour, and reduce the shading of the face a good deal.

Arms are really extremely long, they almost reach the (invisible) KNEES!

Found some exactly one nice references on DevArt...
http://joysuke.deviantart.com/art/Little-Red-Riding-Hood-63065194
(the rest is teh nightmare fuel...)
(and pr0n)

[joelphilippage]

Here is an update


2X

[Ghost]

Ah- the face looks much better IMO. Subtle changes, but nice effect. The arms are also more natural now.

[heribertovalle]

Arms are more like it now. Allow some minutes and I'll make something for you. I think you just need a push in the right direction and having visual reference is always better than words. hold on a bit.

[heribertovalle]

I hope this is of help to you. Cheers!

[joelphilippage]

Wow looks awesome. I see how adding good proportions and having a good pre-design could help. Do you mind if I try again with your outline or do you think it would be better if I tried my own?

[heribertovalle]

oh if you want to use the outline to base the sprite on it DO go ahead. After all, I did it to help.

When you're lacking reference for how a character should be seen from several sides, Do the following: Check the internet for model sheets for animation. They're golden reference for this kind of character. Do a quick checkup on proportions. You can (of course) vary some of them like the head, or the proportional height of characters. But stuff like Short/long arms and legs stands out easily among other anatomical errors.

A good tip, proportions aside, is to check how the cape drapes around the girl. Use that cape for effect! Capes can look very dynamic done right.