Bouncer sprite

[cobra79]

As another shading practice I created this bouncer. I kinda like him, but how could he be improved?

2x


Edit: I added some outlines.

[Evil]

Outlines aren't really necessary. He's very plain. Not a lot of detail in his hands and face. The contrast is good on the pants and shirt, but the face isn't. As for the muscles, unless he's wearing spandex then the abs won't show through. The pecks will show a bit, but he'll also need a shadow under his head, and less definition on his traps, or shoulders.

[SpacePirateCaine]

Well, let's see. I took the liberty of doing a quick paint-over of your bouncer to illustrate a few of the points I intend to make, so here it is (Double size, for ease of viewing):


Now, essentially, I kept the same palette you had (though I did edit the skin color a touch for contrast), but pushed a few pixels around to create a more directional light source. The biggest issue I saw with him is that he looks like he's wearing kevlar body armor with his muscles shaded in that manner. I know it does lead to a very 'Mr. Universe' character, but you can imply large muscles without being overly blatant through outlines, and making the pectorals a major spot where the light and dark switch.

As a general rule, I give most characters outlines using a single pixel width line of the darkest (or at least a darker) hue. It's not a necessity, but it helps define some of the edges a little bit better, I find. Otherwise, I use the different colors to define certain parts of the body, like knees, biceps, wrinkles or details of clothing, and so on. I would almost even suggest adding another shade to his jeans for even more definition, but they work without doing so, if you're budgeting colors.

Speaking of which, You've used a lot of low-contrast colors in his face. When I got in pretty close, I really noticed how much there actually were. You can usually do as much detail as needed with three or four shades.

In order to make him look a bit less like a soldier from DOOM, I added some wrinkles here and there to give it a more cloth-ish appearance. With his pecs the way they were originally, the positioning of his arms was not really that far off base, but I thought it'd be better if his stance was a little more relaxed and natural, so I brought his arms in a bit. His hips/crotch were a bit lower than I thought they should be as well, so I hiked them up a tad, and re-contoured parts of the legs to imply the thighs and calves a little better.

Now, I won't even pretend I'm the best here when it comes to shading. This here is all stuff I learned from picking apart a sprite or two that others here, like Helm, showed me, but I hope it helps a little bit.

Otherwise, I gave him a slight widow's peak, and put some writing on his shirt, just for fun.

[cobra79]

Thank you SPC. That is very informative, especially the light/dark switch thing. I also noticed that he looked a bit like he is posing at a bodybuilder competition, but did not know what to do about it.

[cobra79]

I redrew the char and tried to incorporate your advices. I also gave him a little belly. I think it is far better than my first try, although his face turned out a bit too boyish. In fact he now looks more like the kind of guy a bouncer would deny entry. 

[Hudders]

his face turned out a bit too boyish.

He looks more girlish than boyish to me.

You're right about the improvement over the original though. Keep trying and you'll get it.

[cobra79]

Oh, I meant a boy in contrast to a man. 

[zabnat]

I find your first one looks more like a bouncer to me than the edits. I mean bouncers need to be huge And I kinda liked the long face
Maybe you could try to edit the first version with the shading advice and look some body builder images for reference on body shape and proportions.

[Hudders]

I had a go at making him a bit beefier....

x2


Not sure whether it's what you're going for.

[cobra79]

Thanks Hudders. If I ever do an Indy game your sprite is going to be one of the Nazis. hehe
He looks really mean.   
I am not going for anything, just collecting ideas and techniques. That's why I so appreciate SPC's explanations. So far I could only look at sprites and think in terms of "looking good" and "looking bad", but not what made them good and bad.

zabnat I tried to apply the shading to the first sprite.



I think it looks ok, but the pose is really kind of stiff. Thank you all for your input.

[Jon]

It's looking better, but I would add outlines to his muscular stomach (or emphisise(sp) his beer belly).

[Hudders]

I think you need to pull in his torso a little to make him a bit more realistic shape:

x2


All I've done is do some erasing to give him more definition. Unfortunately, he now looks like he's wearing a corset!

[cobra79]

Ok this is probably the last version, because I am getting tired of him 



I also made this woman, tell me what you think.

[ThreeOhFour]

The bouncer still doesn't look that tough to me. How about something along these lines:



-Made face manly (bum chin, lantern jaw, manly frown, dark eyes)
-Made man boobs manly (less saggy)
-Made shoulders manly
-Made various other things manly

About the woman....

...she could kinda benefit from a bra. Those are some saggy knockers. Give them some shading to make them look supported. The pose is good.... wait a minute! I can see her belly button! I don't think I should be able to.

I'll do an edit if I'm sufficiently bored.

EDIT: And why did you give the dude a green mouth?

[cobra79]

Nice one Ben. He looks like a marine, while mine looks big and a bit dull. I think they would be both up to the job and since I don't have a story it doesn't matter. Why the green mouth? I just did not notice it, because I am looking at the picture for quite some time now.
About her chest I already made it smaller than initially drafted and I would like to see what you mean by bra.
I probably should have made a straight line between her breasts without the upward "v".

[ThreeOhFour]

Alright - I went a bit further than I probably should have, but I'll try and explain everything I've done. Not that much has changed from the original, pose wise. I just kept pushing pixels until it made more sense to me:



Ok, so, from the top down:

The head I redid completely. It was actually the last thing I did, trying to get a sort of pretty yet mean thing going on. The hair colours were kinda drab, so I scrapped them. Same with the skin colours.

The dress colours you got nearly perfect - I only added one and that was the highlight one. Tried to make it look bright and vibrant by giving he heaps of shading. Basic top down light source. Dropped the shoulders - women have shoulders that are kind of rounded, as opposed to masculine square ones.

Gave the breasts an appearance of being higher by shading them, and made her stomach slim, because I'm male, 19 and am force fed by the media into thinking that slim stomachs are beautiful. See how underneath the breasts the shading kinda follows the ribs, as opposed to the stomach in your version?

The arms were fairly good - changed the right hand a bit.

The legs... well when fabric stretches, it is rarely taught. You can expect to have folds and shadows and stuff. I've tried to capture this here. Basically figured out where the gap between the legs is and shaded that in, then added shadows and highlights as I saw fit. Altered the right leg a little as it looked like she had a really short calf.

The shoes I changed colour, because I felt like it. It seems as though you are trying to avoid using too many colours - that is certainly a good thing, but sometimes I find it easier to just chuck a few more in. This has 24 - maybe too many, but I'm not overly fussed.

You may find it useful to have a look at some anatomy pics (this is the internet - damn place is loaded with pics of the female anatomy) to get a better idea for it. Mine doesn't follow the rules strictly - I always make a point of making it a little cartoony - but still looks better for checking reference pics.

Ummm... I think that about covers it.

[cobra79]

Ok I understand what you mean. I just want the dress and her waist to have a little bit more volume, but I raised the chest like you suggested.

[Jon]

Her left bicep seems abnormally low, and I would reccomend flattening the bicep to make both forearms symetrical.