Fixing the shading on crazy hair? [c64 palette]

[Scavenger]

[imgzoom]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/50882197/temp/nell_talksprite_wip.PNG[/imgzoom]

I'm currently spriting some online avatars for some of the characters, and I'm having a bit of trouble with this girl's hair. It's supposed to be crazy punk hair, and it looked good on paper, but I just can't get it to look right. It looks kind of flat, and I don't like that. But since it's crazy hair, I'm not sure where to put the highlights and lowlights - my usual tack for it isn't working as well as I'd like it to.

Any suggestions?

[amateurhour]

I really dig the color you've got going with the hair, but it's like you're combining 3 different hair styles to achieve "crazy" status.

First off, I'd lose the little pony tail that's hanging in the middle between the two || || strands. (I love those though, keep them, because that screams "how the hell did you get your hair to do that")

Second, the little scraggly bits on her back right shoulder need to be cleaned up, as well as the scraggly bits at the top. I'd try keeping everything straight like the two front strands and make it look like it's almost molded onto her head, personally. It's a fantastic start though and I love the body of the character.

Also a nitpick, but i'd change the color of the belt so it doesn't match the hair exactly. It makes it seem like she's got her hair wrapped around her waist.

[Scavenger]

[imgzoom]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/50882197/temp/nell_talksprite_wip2.PNG[/imgzoom]

Fixed up the hair and made it feather a bit, turned the loose tentacle of hair into a braid.

Still not sure about the placement of the highlights, though.

[amateurhour]

Looks way better!     

[Pinback]

I think maybe just try to shade the hair with the same light source (bottom right-ish) as the rest of the image might help, accentuate the curves etc.

If you haven't already, check out pixeljoint.com - great forum for sprite artists interested in C64 paletts and all that stuff. Some incredibly talented pixel artists there give critique regularly.

[imgzoom]http://s8.postimage.org/xcxyk0jo5/nell_talksprite_wip2_Pinb_Paintover.png[/imgzoom]

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

One of the main issues you're having trouble with is the shape of the hair is just all over the place to the point where sections don't seem to connect at all or in confusing ways, particularly at the top of the head.  To address this, I made an edit:

1.  Altered the top hair pattern to connect visually with the rest of the hair and then fanned it out.
2.  Reshaded the hair, lighting it from the top-front while darkening areas turned away from the source.
3.  Added gray as a midtone shade.

When you're working with a limited palette make sure you experiment with the colors.  You'll find that some colors (grays and browns in particular) can make great midtone shades for other colors.

[imgzoom]http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr218/ProgZmax/nell_hairex_zps357408e7.png[/imgzoom]

[Scavenger]

Okay, ProgZmax, you have blown my spriting out of the water in one deft hit. That hair looks absolutely gorgeous.

Rather than try to imitate it on the same sprite (and fail miserably, seriously that is way above my competency right now), I instead took the pointers you showed in this edit and applied it to a couple of other sprites I did:

Old Version
[imgzoom]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/50882197/temp/jake_talksprite_wip2.PNG[/imgzoom]

Old Version
[imgzoom]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/50882197/temp/desiree_talksprite_wip2.PNG[/imgzoom]

Am I anywhere close to getting it? Any other pointers you could give to take advantage of this palette?

Also, would it be wrong to ask if I could use that edit in my game? It's seriously very nice.

[ThreeOhFour]

Heh, of course ProgZ would be the one to take this (already great) sprite to the next level.

Awesome work.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

You sell your skills short, and the use of gray as a shadow for red works well in those images.  The more comfortable you get with maximizing the value of a few colors the better you'll get at shading and picking complimentary colors. Nice work