help me to improve my character

[aussie]

I have two ideas:

1. His torso is as long as his legs. Try shortening it a little.
2. He's quite a hunk in the front view, while he looks skinny from the side. Maybe try to give him pecs.

But I quite like your char.

[seaduck]

He looks good, but you really need to harmonize his proportions. BTW I noticed he's about 150 pixels tall... what screen resolution is he for? In 320x200, he would take up 3/4 of screen height, in 320x240 about 1/2.

In the CMI demo, Guybrush takes 1/2 of the screen height - this is an extreme, and he's very slim at the same time. So for a x240 your character is rather big, for x200 too big, on the other hand if it's for x400 or x480, it's ok.

If I were you, I'd simplify the shading - use a smaller number of more contrasting colors. Your's is unnecessarily complex, it will make difficult animating him without the animation looking "noisy".

[InCreator]

Though you probably got way more help than you wanted to - I should say that the hands on your character look quite awful. Awful as with bad shape, shade isn't that bad. But you have to put more effort into outlines - these hands look more like logs to me!

A simple mspaint explanation: Left is correct, right one - yours.



Blue dots show places where you have to pay attention (and where things got wrong).
Always, always when drawing a person, observe yourself to have a clearer idea. Aren't your arms thinner just before palm?

Pressing on noticeable parts on your image helps to achieve more realistic feel.
Random google for you, to back up my point some more:



Ah, better one:



http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/rahaga-tahu/MOC/Misc/LifeSize/picture_389.jpg

Though pictures are not needed really, good reference is right in your direct reach, hehe

[Shade]

all right another update:

x1: x2:

- reduced the colors from 16 to 12
- made the shading more simple
- tried to make him a little bit more skinny in the front and back view
- made the upper body a bit smaller
- changed the arms

what about now?

i don't know if this is necessary but i put the development process of my character with all the tips you gave me into a helpfile which shows everything step by step. i thought it probably might help the people who have the same problems as i. here is the download link.
Tips on Sprites

what do you think?

Though you probably got way more help than you wanted to

probably more help than expected. i am glad that all of you still help meÃ,  . i am really happy about all the suggestions and advices i got. THANKSÃ, 

[skw]

Honestly, I don't like his head shape, so although I'm not good at pixelating faces, I did a paintover:

(5x)

Somewhat crappy but I used the same colors as you did. You might find it useful.

Just my two cents.

edited

[CaptainBinky]

Aside from the wrist thing that InCreator's mentioned, I think your forearms look too short - the way you've shaded them puts very little distance between where the elbow *looks* to be and the wrist. The forearm and upperarm should be roughly the same length.

I think if you move the entire forearm up a bit, you can address the length of the arm issue and the upperarm/forearm ratio at the same time.

Additionally, in the front view, your character has quite a small mouth (which looks good IMO), but in side view it extends back some distance which gives it a bit of a Beavus (or Butthead - can't remember which one's which) look.

Cheers,

CantainBinky

[Shade]

me againÃ,  without your help i would never have come so far. thanks a lot!Ã, 

x1: x2:

- made the arms shorter
- tried to make fore- and upperarm the same size
- changed head a little bit
- changed head and arm shading

hope it's a bit better now.

[Helm]

you're using a few million colors more than you need. Rule of thumb: if the colour variation you made cannot be discerned by the eye at 1x and 2x zoom? You are wasting it.

I don't mind the random dithery detail, just don't use it everywhere. Some forms do better simple, especially where there's darkness, and complement the busy detail.

the hands were very unhygenic looking, fixed. Posture remains (adds character) but crotch pulled up, hands a bit, to make the anatomy semi-correct.

[big brother]

loominoused!

[Helm]

No! No!

[Shade]

i am somehow confused. at first i used 16 and then reduced the colors to 12. are 12 colors still to much? and where exacly does it look dithery? IMO the shading is quiet simple but tell me if i am wrong.
anyway: i changed the color palette a bit, shading is a bit different, and the arms are also a bit different.

x1: x2:

[Afflict]

OK firstly helm nice paintover. Your hands look wierd 

Secondly Shade what helm ment was that if you cant notice the color varient when its in its original size your wasting the color you added.

On that note helm did use more colors not less to achieve what you see in his post. You reduced your colors to 12

Open up helms pic and study what he did with the colors how he blended and changed the shading etc.

Now again some crits. Your sideview is not matching up with front view. a guy with such broad shoulders wont be that skinny. either muscle him up or skinny him down.
IOW
* make his shoulder span shorter.
* or in sideview make his upper body wider including his arms.

ok not happy with new arms yet but its getting there. Remember shading is very dufficult i even still struggle with it you can always go for the cartoon approach which is less is more. and not the other way around.

More of the style where you use three primary colors per object a mid tone light tone and then a dark tone. COMIC BOOK STYLE