Help with a "realistic" proportioned characters at 640x480 (edit with female)

[Alarconte]

Sadly (Because the idea of drawing characters in little 320x240 resolution was inspiring to me) I decided to change my very short 320x240 game in a short-medium game with 640x480 resolution. (Due things about the background, 3d backgrounds converted into 2d...)

This was the last topic, about the low res characters:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=37397.0

I simply Resized x2 the first pattern, and this is the new first nude sample (in comparation with the last, resized). As they (at least the nude, to be more or less realistic)  are dificult, I hope someone could help me with some basic things about my first "sometype-realistic" low res character. (my other lowres characters from others games aren't realistic)



x2 zoom


EDIT: Male and Female



x2 zoom

[GarageGothic]

I think a set of genitals would improve realism considerably 

Kidding aside, his lower legs need some work. Currently his calves are almost as thick as his thighs, it almost looks like he's wearing boots underneath flesh-colored tights. Good work though, you've come quite far from that original lo-res style.

[Alarconte]

Well, the thing is they are only nude patterns... In a final art they wear clothes, or if they're nude (not a walkable animation character, sure) they're better drawed to show the nude parts. (This is way the feets and the genitals are undone)

the thing is that I was experimenting 20 minuts with the legs and no found much solution... Actually I'm having problems with the female nude pattern xD

EDIT: Male and Female



x2 zoom

[Evil]

I don't think I'll ever understand everyone's inclination to draw nudes as super ripped, but on a tiny body. If the frame is small, they won't be that muscular. If you're going for super muscley, they're going to have the frame of a body builder, which is much different from that of a normal person.

Though yours does have more "volume," making them look like a cylinder isn't what gives them the depth they need. Shoulders, legs and head should present enough depth to make the character look real. Their stance in a reality (IE: placing them in a room) will also give them some appearance of depth.

I didn't work hard on the body, just mostly on the legs and feet. The face is terrible, and for that I'm sorry.




Again, a slight contrapposto and asymmetrical shading can really improve a characters stance.

[Alarconte]

a lot of thanks for your feedback, again. This time your help could be a lot more useful to me.

The unique reason of the "musculation" of the nudes, is that is only a pattern, a matrix to me, to know how its supossed to be the muscles in the nude patterns, for future animations of all characters. My next step when I will have fixed the legs will be the clothes, and there is when the "natural position" of the body, the shades and the face will make a character ^^

You maked the legs withouth references? I draw comics since I was a child, but I think the legs was always my worst point.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

If your goal is realism, you will have to make one of these two concessions before you even begin:

1.  Make the heads considerably smaller, potentially losing detail

2.  Make the sprite larger to compensate for a larger head and the 7.5/6 heads rule.


That said, your best tool for achieving accurate anatomy (aside from a steady hand and practice) is google and the wealth of both nude and non-nude images of models you can find with it.  Many professional artists will also purchase one or more poseable figurines (with high articulation) that they can model in different poses and sketch without having to visualize.  Obviously, this method isn't for everyone, so my advice is to try finding an image of a real person in a nice standing pose and then resize the image to roughly the dimensions you want your sprite and then base your proportions off of that.  It's a really simple and accurate way of getting proportions right.  You could also paint over it, but you might learn more just using a resized picture as a reference.  I remember posting an example of this approach in another thread but I can't remember which one.  Try it and if you have trouble let me know and I'll make an edit.

[cat]

A good tutorial on making paintovers from photos:

http://kafkaskoffee.com/tutorials/phototochartut.shtml