low-res sprite and shading

[Azaron]

This is my first real character sprite attempt. The character will be in a 320x200 resolution. As you can see, I have pillow-shaded the bejesus out of it, a clear indication of my complete inability to shade much of anything within a small space and without the use of an airbrush.

So on with it then:
x1:

x2:

I included the palette currently used by the character at the top. Any paintovers are welcome. Feel free to bash the crap out of this sprite.
Also, I'd like it to look good in the end, but I'm new at animating pixel-people, so I need to keep the color count low if possible to ease that process a bit.

[Babar]

His arms seem to be too far apart from his shoulders and torso (as if they're sticking out), and I think you should remove the whites of the eyes, because they're barely visible, and if you tried making them more visible, they'd make him look cross-eyed. Also, the elbow (the pixel dent in his arms?) should be higher up the arms.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Without going crazy with shading or detail I wanted to show you some tips on how to use shades more effectively and with better contrast.

1.  Adjusted skin tones so the three shades stand out more from each other.  Did the same with the vest and the pants shades.

2.  Added a 1 pixel neck area to the head and reshaded it using 3 colors for the hair and the face.  Brought eyes down one pixel and made them a lighter (less saturated) blue.  Also moved them apart and removed the whites, which give him a less cartoony look.

3.  Brought the arms in close to the torso as Babar mentioned and gave them more shape.  Also made them slightly longer.

4.  Made the legs longer and shaded the pants in a faux-camo style.

5.  Reduced the bulk of the boots slightly.

6.  Added a strap and quiver for the heck of it since he looks like a ranger or woodsman to me .






Again, I tried to keep the detail low on this so you could easily follow my changes.  You have a good base design to work with, hopefully this helps!

[Azaron]

Sorry it took a while to get back. First off, excellent paintover, Progz. I wracked my brian and tried to come up with something similar but, to be honest, you simply captured my character, period. If you don't mind, I'd like to use your paintover and work from that. I've never actually just taken a paintover from the cl, even though I know you're allowed, I've never allowed myself to do it, but I just don't think I could come up with anything that is any closer to what I'm trying for. The style and coloring are spot-on, and the complexity is perfect. And, quite frankly, it simply got me excited about working on this guy again.

So, hope you don't mind that I took your paintover and started on a back view:



I took out the quiver and replaced it with a backpack-type sack thing. I forget exactly what they are called, but it's kind of like a canvas duffle bag. Still working on the whole back view, but how's it coming so far? I'm mostly happy with the feet I think, and the bag is coming along. The hair is iffy, but I'm not giving up on it just yet.

If you don't want me running with your work, ProgZ, just say so. I was just too impressed and excited.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I don't mind as long as you learn something from it.  You'll be doing all the other characters and they'll need to match the style, after all .  As for the back view it's getting there, the two things you should focus on are his buttocks (right now it looks like a crotch still) and his arms.  Apply some different shading on the arms so the forearm is darker (bending away from the viewer) while his upper arm is lighter, and start with a line across his pants for the buttocks with a slight shade beneath it to emphasize that it is sticking out from the legs.  Keep at it!

[Azaron]

Thanks ProgZ, I'll post up some more progress in a couple of days.

[Azaron]

Okay, I added some shading to the forearms and hands in the back view and I kind of like the way the butt turned out, a straight line all the way across just stuck out too much and made him look like he had a ghetto booty. Are the shades on the arms too contrasted from one another? It looked odd at first, but if I tried more subtle colors I couldn't really tell that they were shaded at all, so I went with this.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Looks good!  The shading convinces me that his arms are bending forward so you've done it right.  Using a straight line was just to help you get an idea for making his rear stick out more, and you've done that.  One last thing you can do if you want is to shade the back of his legs differently from the front but it's up to you.  Now do a side or 3-quarter view .

[Azaron]

Alrighty. Took me a whhile to get this done with work and all, but I worked on it quite a bit. I got a view for each side and wanted to see what you thought.

[Mad]

Hey, nice sprite there, but I think his legs are a bit featureless. The front view suggest far baggier trousers than you've portrayed in the side view. His hair falls quite unnaturally, so I gave him a ponytail with some kind of silver ring or whatever. I also pushed some pixels in his face and arm, but I don't think it came out quite that well.



Sorry, not that good a paint-over, but it should give you an idea of what I'm on about.

[Andail]

Here's what I think you should do:
1. Darken his skin colour.
2. Add highlights to his clothes (bright green on the wrinkles of his pants, and bright brown on the jacket) as well as his skin (which you darkened overall in step 1).
3. Scale down his head slightly. It's too big now compared to his body.
4. Remove the blue from his eyes (just use some dark brown or so), and lower them one notch.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

You're coming along well.  I made a quick edit to adjust a few things for you.

1.  Brought his nose up a pixel to match the front view and moved the eye back just one pixel.

2.  Reduced the width of the upper arm slightly.

3.  Pulled chest in somewhat and made it a bit flatter.

4.  Reshaped legs, making them wider and more curved.






Hopefully we'll see a walk cycle soon!