(Renamed) - Asclepius' general art critique and help-me-with-stuff thread

[Asclepius]

The sprite's temporary for now - just the first sprite I found to paint over. When I get a bit better at drawing them I'll come up with an OC.

[Asclepius]

Here's an attempt at a more original character - You can probably tell I used the shading on Sophia's face as a bit of a reference but I think the whole thing (the face included) has a different look - more like the character I had in my head. The plan eventually is to have both a male and a female player character.



She definitely needs some work, but I'm pleased at the first attempt.

[cianty]

Still looks very Sophia. Why don't you change the hair colour? That would be a huge step forward in dropping the similarity.

[Khris]

Btw, you don't have to scale up the image in your paint program. Just double or triple the sprite's width and put that into the img tag:

Code: ags

[img width=270]...[/img]

This will also make it easier for us to produce paintovers.

[Corby]

Maybe needs a little more detail and some more "stuff"? Quick example. Black hair is kinda cool.

[Calin Leafshade]

I decided to have a play.

I changed too much to list but the main points:

- updated proportions so she wasnt a chubby dwarf
- changed hair colour
- tried to give her a contra-pose (I forget the italian name)

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Contrapposto.  But neither sprite takes into account the position of the hips when resting a hand on it.  Bringing the hips to the left and adjusting the legs will make the character look like it's in more of a relaxed, natural pose.  Also, if he's trying to mimic the style of Fate of Atlantis then he doesn't really need to worry about the 7-heads rule since the style used wasn't proportionate.

My advice is to take it more in the direction of Corby's edit, but pay special attention to shading and where highlights and shadows would appear naturally.  If you want to make the sprite more realistic then pay attention to Calin's advice with the 7-head rule.

Either way, work on your shading and the character pose and I think you'll be on the right track!

[Asclepius]

Chubby dwarf indeed! :o She looks like a good healthy Welsh girl to me :p

I'm not too worried about making her completely anatomically correct and proportionate - I quite like the slightly big head style.

Here's my second attempt:



There's something a bit off with the pose and I can't quite put my finger on it. Also still having trouble with shading - does anybody know where there are some good pixel art shading tutorials knocking about? Or is it a matter of learning by trial and error?

EDIT:

Btw, you don't have to scale up the image in your paint program. Just double or triple the sprite's width and put that into the img tag

Thanks! Made things a lot easier

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

The main thing is her pose is too wooden.  Don't be afraid to look at some reference images of women standing (nudes are great as an artist's reference).  For example, when a woman rests a hand on her hip, her hips tilt naturally toward that hand, like so:

http://www.shopequip.co.uk/admin/uploads/550/2684_Full_932_550.jpg


I'm using a mannequin here as an example, but you can google hundreds of results with similar poses.


Applying some of this to the sprite (I actually made the right arm and leg more relaxed), I ended up with this:


1.  I removed some colors that were so close in hue to the others as to be wasted.

2.  Cleaned up the randomness of the shading so highlights fall on the top of her hair, shoulders, top of the bent arm, breasts, and right knee.

3.  Slimmed the legs and feet just a bit to further emphasize female form.

4.  Brought the hips to the right and spaced out the legs to give her a more relaxed, provocative, stance.






Now, you may not want her to look sexy...I don't know.  It all depends on how this character will be portrayed.  If you want her to have a 'tougher' look you can tilt her hips but cross her arms, or instead of tilting the hips place a hand on each hip, like wonder-woman.  My advice is to look at some photos of women in various standing poses and then try to simulate your favorite one with a real reference.  Once you do this a few times you'll get the hang of it and will only need to consult references rarely if at all to achieve a pleasant result.

Good luck!

[Asclepius]

Right - I'm off to 'research' naked women in provocative poses 

Thanks for the tips/paintover ProgZmax. Tis awesome indeed.

[Asclepius]

Here's an attempt at a front-on walkcycle. I'm pretty happy with the head/legs, but the arm swing still doesn't look quite right.



EDIT: Sprite resized as per Calin's advice

[Calin Leafshade]

I would perhaps not enlarge the sprite that much.

It very difficult to comprehend the sprite at that size.

2X or possibly 3X is usually enough.

[Anian]

Maybe a little less hair movement, it moves like she's running, not walking. Maybe a bit less of the hand waving as well, though how much is up to you.

[Damien]

The head movement doesn't look natural. Sadly, it can't be removed since head is 6px wide and the shoulders 13 and that one pixel does make a difference at this resolution.

I tried a quick edit narrowing the upper body to 12px but it makes the sprite look disproportionate:

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Okay, it looks like you're off to a good start, but I still notice some lingering shading and color issues which I've addressed in my edit.

1.  Removed one skin tone color that was barely noticeable even when I zoomed in.

2.  Adjusted shading on the pants so it didn't look so random/grainy.

3.  Adjusted walk so she moves down 1 pixel on a down step and removed the head side-side motion.

4.  Made the feet and legs move back more gradually after a downstep.

5.  Added some torso and arm swaying.







The main thing to focus on here is natural motion, or a reasonable approximation.  Since we are dealing with 6 frames, we can reasonably show some vertical motion on a down step which adds to the overall sense of motion.  At the same time, making the arms and legs shrink as they draw away from the viewer adds some needed depth.  The torso swaying itself isn't as important as the natural motion of the arms forward and back, so if you want to you can leave the torso alone, though again, these touches add to the illusion of movement.  You could also add a pixel 'up step' just before she puts her leg out (frames 1 and 4), though this will increase the amount she appears to move down on a down step, so it's up to you what looks best.

One more thing to consider is that females tend to sway their hips when they walk (which I have not shown in this edit).  In other words, when they put down a foot, their hips are swaying in the opposite direction, like so:






What I've done here is add some basic hip swaying and an up step so you can see how some of these additions affect the movement.

[Monsieur OUXX]

The same issue appears in all your backgrounds : You don't connect the ground with vertical objects.
It's like there's a completely flat ground, with vertical objects standing on it.

- In the forest, the grass does not hide the stone and the bushes enough.
- On the beach, the sand is too flat and does not connect well with the cliff.
- In the city, the ground is not well connected wit the buidings.

The limit between the ground and the vertical objects is definitely too sharp.

Work on that! That's the immediate flaw I spot, and that's a quick win for you!
The rest is lovely in my humble opinion