Woop - New character...

[Rincewind]

Well, I haven't been doing a lot of characters for my upcoming game yet - It's mostly been bg's, but today I sat down and did some work on one of the more important characters in the game.



I based this sprite on another one I did a while ago, (The "devil woman" one, if anyone remembers...) and I think I've been able to make it a bit better this time.
Still, I'm not genious when it comes to bodies/proportions, so any critisism/comments is as always welcome!

[Darth Mandarb]

Not too bad at all!

There's something with the ear(s) that bothers me.  Maybe they're just too big?

I did a quick paint-over:

- changed the hair a little
- made the ears smaller
- changed the shading on the pants/shirt (added a light shading)
- changed the eyes/eye brows
- tweaked the hands a little
- edit oops ... added more to the breast area too!

I'm no expert ...  These were just things I thought could use some improvement!!

])]v[

[Sam.]

is she supposed to look a bit geeky? she kinda looks kite shaped. i dunno looks odd. too rigid or something. i may do a quick paintover i i have time but, busy busy busy...

[Ben]

I think the face looks really good.

The only problem I see is that the legs are too short. I think a combination of lengthening the legs and slightly shortening the torso at the stomach would make it look better..

Darth: I like what you did with the hands, ears, and shading.. I think the eyes are more realistic on the original, though. You made her look constipated.. Pardon my french  

[James Kay]

Nice! I actually prefer the eyes of the original, rather than Darth Mandarb's retouch.  

The legs are too short and/or the arms are. Stand up, rest your arms beside your body. See how low the hands come, at least halfway down the upper leg. Check some anatomy books. You should learn the rules of how the human body is proportioned (all pretty mathematical), which should greatly imrpvoe the over character.
As a start, it's very nice! Good luck animating her, that should be very cool!

[loominous]

While since i did a modification, here we go:

I really like the character, though she seems very stiff. My alteration changed her persona quite much and turned her into more of a vamp. Not very happy about this but perhaps you ll find something you ll like.



What I did: (from the top of her head)

(i) made the hair less edgy and added a black tone on the shaded side.
(ii) hid on ear, mainly to get out of doing the ear
(iii) lowered her eyebrow and increased width
(iv) redid eyes, removed bluecolor and increased width to give impression of eyelashes
(v) added darker shade to face to give a sense of shape
(vi) redid mouth, added a darker upper line to resemble the upper lip
(vii) shaded her top removing the outlines partially (not much for outlines)
(viii) narrowed her waist to give her a more 'timeglass' shaped body.
(ix) raised her hip, women have a longer and wider hip area then men.
(x) narrowed her arms
(xi) removed thumbs that stuck out in a stiff manner.
(xii) redid crotch area
(xiii) made her pants a bit more legshaped like (very sloppy)
(xiv) accentuated her knees with a shade
(xv) made her pants longer, more natural imo.
(xvi) added darker shade to the feet.

Hm, these lists take longer than the actual editing.

Hope it helps.

[Sam.]

ooh loominus liking your paintover. looks more relaxed. thats what i was trying to get over in my last post. not higely good with words. so i just make noises. which you of course can't hear. cause i'm typing. blooblaa

[Pet Terry]

Nice character, I also like what loominous did with his edit. Although the arms and legs needs some work so that she looks more relaxed.

[Rincewind]

Hey, thanks and thanks again for the constructive critisism!

Darth:
Yeah, you were right about the ears - I've made them a bit smaller now. I'm not really sure about the face, though - I really like the original one i made, since it captured the personality of her character perfectly, I think... So, it's not quite what I'm looking for, but it's a nice edit, none the less... Thanks for the comments!

Zooty:
Well, no - At least that's not what I was aiming at... She works as a waitress at a local restaurant, although this is her casual wear, of course. I'll be doing her in her "uniform" later on... (And don't you be getting any weird ideas about that one!)

Ben:
Ah, I'm glad that you like it!
Aye, I was thinking about that as well - I'll try and edit the legs a bit.

James:
Hm, great tips - I have some papers on human anatomy somewhere, but I'll be damned if I know where they are... But I think I get the general idea anyway - I'll see what I'll do...

Loominous:
Dude, as usual: Kickass editing...
I think that's more along the lines of what I want, although she is a wee bit too vampy, yes... I'll study your picture and see if I can improve upon it...  
 
Right... Back to work, then...  

[Rincewind]

Okeydokey, here's a new version in it's full glory...
No big changes, I just followed some of the tips and comments, and left the face almost unchanged... I'm not quite finsihed yet, though - It's still something that bugs me, but I don't know what... But on the whole, I'm pretty satisfied...  

[loominous]

Looks real nice, definately prefer the face over my version.

I d go with shading on one side though, that is, either from upper left or upper right. Frontal lighting is the least interesting alternative; imo anyway.

[Rincewind]

Ah, thanks! Glad you like it...

Hm, you may be right - I could at least try and see how it turns out...  

[Ben]

actually. I wouldn't reccomend shading on one side for a character that's going to move around a lot. Since light sources can come from any side, it would look odd in many parts of your game. I'd suggest shading as if the light source is directly above your character. That would look the best, since most light sources come from above.. That's the kind of shading you're most likely to see in games that use sprites.

[n3tgraph]

thank you loominus

you made her a lot sexier

[auhsor]

Just another opinion: I think that she looks a bit too symmetrical. If this is her normal stance she would probably need to be in a more relaxed pose.

Nice character tho. Good work.

[Rincewind]

Ben & Loom:
I've been trying out some other types of shaing, but I found out that I like it pretty much as it is, even though it may look a bit uninteresting... But thanks again for your tips - I really appreciate it!

Auhsor:
True, true - I'll see if I can make her look more relaxed...

[Ogre]

I kinda liked how geeky and sad she looked in the first one. the art kept improving but I think the character lost some of her character in the process..

I mean if that's not the character then that's just not the character. if she is not suposed to be geeky and sad. but she reminded me of a friend of mine bieng all geeky and sad(A friend who would kill me for saying that) and I liked it

[Rincewind]

Hehe, glad to hear that you liked it! I was however, not aiming at a geeky, sad character, so I really like it better this way... To describe her character a bit, I could just say that she's pretty easy-going, openminded and laughs a lot... I don't want to say more at this point...

[plastic]

i also liked that particular look she had in the first version.
i'm not sure this can be of any help to you, but i couldn't resist making some changes to her face.

[Hollister Man]

Nice job, plastic!  That looks just like my sister.  

I mean really.