(http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1787/kevina.png)
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5097/kevin2.png)
Okay - for some of you it's probably silly as hell but here he is - Kevin the furry cat man from another dimension.
Tried to keep the style from the first character (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=36861.msg484438#msg484438 (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=36861.msg484438#msg484438)).
Any help how to make him better? Crtitique? I tried my best ^^" It's still not enough - I know.
As for the colors - he has to be blue/blonde mix as he's my friends character :)
EDIT: look for reshade below :)
I think it would look better if you show more of the tail to his side rather than behind. Check out some swat kats maybe
yea I thought about it too but I want to see it animated first. You know, with idle and walk animations tail could look good even when behind :)
Um..anyone else? :)
I won't belive that it's perfect :P I know that pixelart gurus here can point out probably 100 anatomy errors and 1000 lighting issues :)
I have to admit that I see that I made some progress and it looks much better compared with the first character before modifications proposed by SpacePirateCaine :)
Somehow the yellow beard and hair doesn't fit the rest of the character. It's too much contrast in his face, I guess. But maybe it's just me ;).
Quote from: kaioshin on Thu 09/04/2009 21:59:39
Somehow the yellow beard and hair doesn't fit the rest of the character. It's too much contrast in his face, I guess. But maybe it's just me ;).
Hmm..Now when you mention it..He does seem to be unbalanced. The face yellow colors are much brighter than any other part of the body..Maybe I should add something in the same tones lower...no idea what could it be though :)
Blue and blonde is really a weird combination..
Unless you try and take that blonde from yellow like to golden like,
I like the color choices, I think it looks pretty cool honestly. Kind of alien and maybe a little 80s cartoon.
Quote from: theRedPress on Fri 10/04/2009 00:28:28
I like the color choices, I think it looks pretty cool honestly. Kind of alien and maybe a little 80s cartoon.
Hey, thanks :) I like 80's cartoons :)
Reshade:
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7673/kevintopdown.png)
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5927/kevintopdownd.png)
Compare:
(http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1787/kevina.png)(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7673/kevintopdown.png)
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7733/kevindsv.png)(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5927/kevintopdownd.png)
Total reshade. (orginal on the left, reshade on the right)
SpacePirateCaine told me to try to achive top-down lighting as the first version looked too much pillow shaded. I reshaded whole character then :) What do you think about it now? Any better? :)
Unfortunately I cannot give any criticism because me criticizing pixel art is like a 600 pound man giving dieting advice to the general public. All I can really do for you is stare blankly with my mouth open and say that is AWESOME!
So...
That IS Awesome! :o
Quote from: Domithan on Fri 10/04/2009 05:50:21
Unfortunately I cannot give any criticism because me criticizing pixel art is like a 600 pound man giving dieting advice to the general public. All I can really do for you is stare blankly with my mouth open and say that is AWESOME!
So...
That IS Awesome! :o
Heheh thank you ^^" Now I'm feeling quite embarased ^^"
You just need to practice, post stuff, listen to the critique and advice people give you. Learn from it and never go emo or berseker because someone tells you there's something wrong with the artwork you posted ;)
Besides, you're overreacting :P I'm not even close to great artists myself because I don't draw too often :)
Nahhh, it's good! Clearly took time. Pixel art is something I may get into in the future, but not now, I've just recently learned how to draw depth and keep things in proportion, which is actually a huge step for me.
Anyways keep it up!
The outfit and clothes look good, but I'm not really getting 'cat' from it.
And I'm with those above about the face-colors. Blue and Yellow do go together well, but not all in his face like it is. The contrast is too much and it's hard to pick out facial features.
~Trent
Quote from: Trent R on Fri 10/04/2009 06:22:37
And I'm with those above about the face-colors. Blue and Yellow do go together well, but not all in his face like it is. The contrast is too much and it's hard to pick out facial features.
Yeah this is the main thing that keeps bothering me right now. Any ideas to the tones I should pick? maybe a quick paint over? :)
EDIT:
came up only with this desaturated version lol:
(http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/6286/kevin.png)
(http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/8886/kevin400.png)
I tried to do a quick color-edit. I made his snout white, to make it sticking out a bit. I also made the blonde a bit darker, more gold-like.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a147/kaio89/kevin_edit.png)
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a147/kaio89/kevin_edit.png)
I hope it helps :). If not, well, nevermind.
I made a few minor edits to your last (pre-desaturation) version, nothing really important since you already did a very good job :) I applied more detailed shading to the head and the tail, increased contrast in a few spots (particularly his shirt) and added some highlights.
More importantly though, how about making his tail yellow instead of blue? Blue tail blends with his pants, so the tail is sorta hard to make out when looking at the picture.
(http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/758/catman00.png)
Quote from: Kastchey on Fri 10/04/2009 11:54:50
More importantly though, how about making his tail yellow instead of blue? Blue tail blends with his pants, so the tail is sorta hard to make out when looking at the picture.
Heheh :) It looks better I admit. I will either make it blonde or delete it completely :)
I see that you made the light come more from our left :P Any reason to that? :P
(http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9485/kevini.png)
(http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/8886/kevin400.png)
Reedit :) Changed the jacket color - now it's more military like. I kind of like it this way. Also added one shadow tone to the pants. I didnt want to highlight the jacket as I dont want it to look too shiny. :)
QuoteI see that you made the light come more from our left :P Any reason to that? :P
Well, no, no reason at all. I just, you know, pick some random spot for a light source and let it go wild. Next time I think I'll make it go from under his feet. Or from the tip of his tail, maybe.
...and seriously speaking, it's just a shadowing style which places the main light source in the upper left side of the image. I use it because as far as I can observe, the main light rarely comes directly from above so I find it more natural to always use some side shading. But as I said it's just a style, so you can ignore all my edits and your sprite will surely look very nice :) My main point was the tail.
Heh, he looks a bit like a run-down war veteran now.
Lemme tell ya somethin', kiddo. Sometimes, when the shit really has hit the fan and is ruining your fur forever, ya just don't have no choice. Lost half my family and tail to those bastards. Now YOU call ME a mad serial killer? Hmph. But whatever, I guess ya got me outgunned, and I ain't unreasonable. Tell ya what, officer. I'll just claw his eyeballs out and the two of us'll be game.
Also, nice spritin' there. := :P
Quote from: Kastchey on Fri 10/04/2009 17:10:40
QuoteI see that you made the light come more from our left :P Any reason to that? :P
Well, no, no reason at all. I just, you know, pick some random spot for a light source and let it go wild. Next time I think I'll make it go from under his feet. Or from the tip of his tail, maybe.
...and seriously speaking, it's just a shadowing style which places the main light source in the upper left side of the image. I use it because as far as I can observe, the main light rarely comes directly from above so I find it more natural to always use some side shading. But as I said it's just a style, so you can ignore all my edits and your sprite will surely look very nice :) My main point was the tail.
i think for character sprites it's better for the light to come from above, that way you can flip them if needed. You wouldn't need to flip this front pose, but for a sideways view it would look really weird if the lightsource would change when the character changes direction.
SpacePaw - your extra shade on the pants is creating some banding. If you don't know what that is, this might help you - http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=8110.msg92434#msg92434
(http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4491/keving.png)
(http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/8886/kevin400.png)
Is it any better now?
To be honest I never heard about banding. I'm quite new to pixel art after all. Very interesting subject. Unfortunately I can't really see it yet, I'm not even sure if I corrected it (and I have a bad feeling that it became too jagged now :/)
I have no idea how to fix it correctly...
Quotei think for character sprites it's better for the light to come from above, that way you can flip them if needed. You wouldn't need to flip this front pose, but for a sideways view it would look really weird if the lightsource would change when the character changes direction.
You're right, and I usually make two different side walk animations (like here (http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/1913/charsprite01.png)) to avoid the weird effect you described. Though it can be called a time-wasting method, I guess.
SpacePaw: It is better now, even if a bit messy.
Quote from: Kastchey on Fri 10/04/2009 23:33:57
Quotei think for character sprites it's better for the light to come from above, that way you can flip them if needed. You wouldn't need to flip this front pose, but for a sideways view it would look really weird if the lightsource would change when the character changes direction.
You're right, and I usually make two different side walk animations (like here (http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/1913/charsprite01.png)) to avoid the weird effect you described. Though it can be called a time-wasting method, I guess.
SpacePaw: It is better now, even if a bit messy.
No, I agree with you. Better to make two different side walk animations, put the extra work into it, rather than just flip it and be lazy. I think when you put more work into it like that, that ultimately it will turn out better looking and not stale like all the flipped views tend to look. But that's just my opinion.
Here you go mate. As offered, I've revised Kevin for you.
(http://www.shuugouteki.net/paul/Development/kevin_revised_400.gif)
Hope you like him. ;)
Cheers,
Sparky.
Woah great edit :) Another proof that I have long way to go :P The thing that amazes me is how quick you managed to do that. Kevin took me days to get him to look decent T.T
Anyways. I love how you made the hands and I dig onto the shading although I tried to be very restrictive with colors :P (want to make 256 color game with 2 main characters :P)
Lol, I uploaded wrong file before. Here is the newest version - sorry :P
(http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8886/kevin400.png)
Very good! A clear improvement in the shading and a tidy-up on the silhouette.
Me likey! Keep tweaking away. I would suggest you think about posture and proportions at some stage but for now just concentrate on the shading and minor color tweaks. Well done.
Sparky.
Quote from: subspark on Sat 11/04/2009 06:14:41
I would suggest you think about posture and proportions at some stage but for now just concentrate on the shading and minor color tweaks.
Why is that? wouldn't it mean he'd have to redo the shading after the form has changed?
(http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8886/kevin400.png) > (http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/1909/catn.png)
just a color edit, i shifted the hues a bit
By the way SpacePaw you don't have to upload your sprite at different sizes, you can just specifiy the width and height for an image in the img tag: [img height=220 width=80]
EDIT:
i found this short tutorial about shifting hues: http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/1618/rampsak6.png
Quote from: bog on Sat 11/04/2009 08:45:33
By the way SpacePaw you don't have to upload your sprite at different sizes, you can just specifiy the width and height for an image in the img tag: [img height=220 width=80]
For people using browsers like Firefox 3, please do upload at both sizes: we see the resized images blurry. :(
Quote from: bog on Sat 11/04/2009 08:45:33
Why is that? wouldn't it mean he'd have to redo the shading after the form has changed?
By the way SpacePaw you don't have to upload your sprite at different sizes, you can just specifiy the width and height for an image in the img tag: [img height=220 width=80]
EDIT:
i found this short tutorial about shifting hues: http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/1618/rampsak6.png
Just like Jimmy said - it's for people with browsers that blur resized images. I use chrome lately so I know what it means :P
As for the hues thanks on the tutorial. I tried to keep everything contrasted, thought it looked ok already :)
oh sorry, i did not know that, i use opera mostly but i did check it now with firefox and it's horrible
QuoteWhy is that? wouldn't it mean he'd have to redo the shading after the form has changed?
Certainly. But this is a learning exercise for SpacePaw. Something that is going to take lots of practice. I wish him well on this journey.
I have no doubt in my mind that his artistic skills will develop as strongly as his programming skills have, given a bit of time and patience.
Cheers,
Sparky.
Overall the design of it, isn't bad at all. I say use bog's colour choices.
Oh definitely. Bog has chosen a warmer set of colours for the hair which is easier on the eye.
The original hair appeared a little green against the contrast of the jacket but that kind of stuff can easily slip past you if your not on a constant lookout. :)
Well done Bog, and keep up the good work SpacePaw. Watching your character evolve is a positive and delightful experience.
Cheers,
Sparky.
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8886/kevin400.png)
Changed the colors a bit (warmer hair as suggested) and resigned from so restricted pallette, aimed for more Sparky-like shading instead :)
EDIT:
And just for showing you guys how you all help me and how this forum motivates me to work on my style and stuff:
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7246/kevinold400.png)>(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8886/kevin400.png)
Hey dude the hands are much better! Well done! 8)
Sparky.
Wow, what a difference! Good job! ;)