Character Portraits

[ThreeOhFour]

Hey all,

Just tried my hand at my first character speech portraits - hoping to get some feedback on them. I've put the intended sprites next to them for comparisons sake.





I get the feeling that the fella might be a bit feminine, and I couldn't get his hair looking very good, but I'm fairly happy with them as first efforts.

Tried to keep the colour count under 10 for the portraits to make animating easier - and didn't want to do dithering.

[Peter Bear]

not bad !

the girl in the portrait has a larger fronthead than in the sprite

the remaining looks good

[Sylvr]

Looks nice! All I can think of is that on the girl on the right side of the portrait (us looking AT her), her eye isn't lined up correctly with the nose. I guess like the eyes are facing directly at us while the rest of the face is at a slight angle? I don't know how to better describe it.

Looks good!

[Oliwerko]

Yup, right about that angle.

But beside that, they are lovely! I like the hair of the girl, reaaaaly nice!!!

[ciborium]

They guy need some lines on his face or some beard stain or something to make him look a little rougher.  The cha sprite makes him look like a tough guy, but the portrait kinda looks feminine, like you said.

[LeafThief]

Probably an "edgier" jawbone would make him look more masculine.
I can't make out whether his lips are shut or supposed to be open, but if they're shut, I'd recommend to make the reflection on his lower lip a little less "intense" (otherwise looks like he's wearing lip gloss).
You could also try to give him a little more eyebrowns...

All in all I think those are great looking portraits - thumbs up!

[Nightfable]

How about like this? 

[Uhfgood]

First thing I did was to swap the eye colors.  I did this for a few reasons.  First, the green eyes on the male drew attention to them, since they were fairly bright it made the image look "prettier".  Not that green eyes on men don't look pretty to women, but they sort of added to that pretty look on the guy.  Secondly female's hair was red (ish... okay more like purple but gives me the impression of red hair), and I like redhead's with green eyes anyways :-).  The male's hair is sort of bluish, so I figured the eyes matched with it better.

Now on to image specific critiques.

The female image -


Firstly I cut off that black part under the hair.  Not sure whether you intended a shadow, a background, or just as an extension to her hair, but since it didn't look like the smaller icon then I just cut it to where to me it looked similar.

Next, I moved the part over.  In the original I felt the hair was a bit limp, and that the part was neither directly down the middle or to the side.  So I moved it even more to the side.  Plus it matches the shadow in the smaller image.  Next someone pointed out there's too much forehead, so I dropped the hairline down a bit.  Finally I added a little wisp of hair out the front, as if it's not entirely in place, just to give it a bit more character.

The only other thing I did to the female image, was to grab the red color from her clothes, so her lips would look a bit more defined, like she had on lipstick or something. 

I tried to stay within your color range but I did borrow from the smaller image the red for the lips.

I also removed the line from the bottom of her nose.  In pretty females we tend not to notice the nose much anyways, so this sort of makes her seem a little prettier.

I might would also given extra time thin out her eyebrows a tad and move them more apart from each other.

The male image -


Okay this guy needed some help (no offense Ben but you even said yourself it looks more female).

Hmm... Where to start.  Okay firstly I messed with the lips.  They looked too much like lips heh.  Normally you notice lips more in women than men.  So I basically reduced it to a line, and a line for the under lip.  This draws attention away from his mouth.

Then I worked the nose.  He didn't seem to have any part for the nostrils.  I defined this to give more shape because he's male, in essence, maybe making a little more ugly or something (you kind of get the idea, not really ugly but more defined because we might not think of a woman's nose becuase it's smaller and more delicate, but a man's nose is a little more "out there").  I hope that didn't confuse you though.

I did modify the eyes somewhat.  Firstly that line above, i sort of cut off the edges.  We don't want to think the guy has eyelashes as women usually will use makeup and men won't so our lashes are more plain, not to mention shorter usually.  The eyebrows were too thin for a male.  So I thickend them up.

Now the hair.  It had an affect on whether it looked more male or female, although the hair itself was rather androgynous but also looked more like a cap than hair.  So since I take it you were going for either a rounded or flat-top where there was no real part, i had to actually put in the hairline.  by bringing the center down more.  You'll notice from guys that are nearly shaved you just have a hairline, you don't have a part, because a part comes from growing the hair out.  I also added some height to the hair as it's sitting on top of the skull, not in it ;-)

Finally with the hair is the shading.  There's that "pillow shading" i keep reading about.  Where concentric rings of shading go out.  It just looked weird.  So I defined the hair direction.  Notice now he has some form to his hair.  I went with the flat top.  I removed the brightest color, so now it's down to 3 shades.  I took the next lightest and put that at the top of his hair.  Then used the next one down as a transition between dark and light.  Putting that middle shade all the way across the hairline.

Also the ears.  Since he's not covering up his ears with his hair I felt I should raise it, remember in my version he's got a flat top, most likely his hair was cut from his ears.  But I also felt he should have the sideburns a bit to go along with his look.

Now finally I modified the small images, well the side view small one.  I noticed that the chest was too high on the guy, they sort of looked more like breasts, however, even though front view may have been that high, the side just looks weird.  So I lowered the chest a bit, so now it looks more like a flat chest and thus more manly.  I also filled out the back area so he looks al ittle more chunky like he's got muscles.  (by the way i didn't change the arm side views, so I could have added more definition to his arm muscles).

Next the pants (or trousers if you're anywhere but the US).  They looked like flared or bellbottoms.  Since i'm assuming this isn't the 70's, and he's male, and his whole wardrobe is not trying to look like he's from the 70's I simply straightend the leg a bit.  I also filled out the backside a little bit more.  We don't want to give him the rear like the woman, because he's male... it's more umm square or something ;-).  So all in all I made the pants fit his image.  I left the woman's alone because women even today will wear flared pants sometimes, and it doesn't look all that odd.

Finally the last thing I did was mess with the face a bit on the small full body images.  They sort of looked female too.  Basically i started with the eyes, and tried to define the white part better.  Then I removed the "eye liner" because he's male.  Instead I just had the fleshcolored area cover that.  Then I lightened the eyebrows, and raised that whole thing.  I also raised the sideview and added a darker tone to the bottom of the nose.  So it doesn't look so petite.

One thing I could have done was added a little extra hairline to the small version, but that's ok.

There's all kinds of tweaks that could be made, but I think i've done enough for now.  Ben you can take it or leave it, i'm not an expert artist by any means, but at least I know a little bit about faces (i'm trying to learn to draw portraits).

Forgive me if I stepped on anything :-)

These are only suggestions.

Keith

[Sparky]

The sprite versions sort of remind me of Nightfable's sprites. Which is a good thing, in case there was any confusion.

Uhfgood- I really like your paintovers, they have a lot of polish. I can see why Ben might want to go with a less 'pretty' female face than yours, but that's a matter of taste rather than quality. As for the male face, I was going to make some of the same suggestions until I saw your post. I think the broader nose and fatter lip help. I'd add  chunkier eyebrows to the mix to make him look more like the sprite, maybe some more definition around his eyes and nose too? I figure he's a tough cookie, so he gets more bones and wrinkles.

Ack, I broke with your style a bit, Ben.

[ThreeOhFour]

Woah.

Lots of awesome advice - thankyou everyone for your efforts. I can see its going to take me a while to fix these suckers up. Nightfable, Uhfgood and Sparky, thankyou for taking the time to do paintovers. Uhfgood - thankyou also for your in depth detailing of what you've done.

I'm not on my own computer at the moment, but as soon as I get the chance I'm gonna play with these things and see what I can do. Your support is very much appreciated, all.

[Uhfgood]

Sparky - actually like what you did too... that's sort of what i was going for (chunky eyebrows and all)... but further defining the nose area has given him a bit more character.

Ben - it was fun...

Actually looks like I didn't do too well on the pants for the male in the small sideview...  It could still use some improvement, but at least the description is there as to why I did it.

This was actually my first attempt at a paintover and critique... 

Still nice work Ben :-)

[ThreeOhFour]

Alrighty!

I've done a bit of mucking around - here is what they're looking like presently. I also have redone the sprites for 640x480 resolution.

I have to admit it's been ages since I've tried to do anything for 640x480 so I probably made loads of mistakes, but I guess I'm kinda happy with them currently.




All crits appreciated  .

[zabnat]

There is something wrong in the guy's sideview. He has a good posture but his head is entended forward like he had a hunchbak, which he don't. Also his head is smaller than in front view and is slightly lower. If you want to make him a little hunched you should start the bend further down the spine.

Some similiar problems are on the girl also.

Look into these, most of these are just stuff that same part of the body is on different height in the front view and side view. Remember to start measuring the front view from the second lowest pixel (because of the perspective)

[paolo]

Another thought on the portraits, Ben - I would suggest losing the line round the bottom of the neck to show that they continue downwards, or else it looks like they've been decapitated. Or will these images be cropped when they are shown as portraits? If so, this doesn't matter.

[TheJBurger]

I haven't read all the replies but:

I think you did a good job translating them into 640x480. The male's side view is much improved over the last one. The other one was a tad too feminine.

As far as the portraits go, they both look good. The male's jaw line (or whatever you call it on the side coming down on the cheek) could be more refined IMO, and his mouth looks a little bit too wide. That might just be a personal preference though. Also, you might want to check the length of his forehead being of realistic proportions. Lastly, I think a drop shadow beneath the chin might look good.

I'd just like to say that I really like your sprite work. It has a very nice style to it.

[Sparky]

I really like the male's eyebrows in the most recent portrait version, Ben. The two shading colors really make them look solid, and the antialiasing / shading around them is nicely done. You've clearly got an eye for detail.

The new sprites are good. All I've got to offer is nitpicks, so in the spirit of constructive criticism here's a set of suggestions. I'm not at home, and can't do a paintover here but I'll try to offer enough details to compensate.

The sprites are nicely drawn, but perhaps a little stiff. I think a more asymmetrical, relaxed pose would work better as a 'standing' view in a game.

I agree with some of zabnat's notes on the side views. They have a bit of a rigid spine issue. I think they'd be more lively with a little more curviness, more forward-backward play in them. For instance, I like the way the woman's head is behind her torso. Some other ideas (for either character) are pulling the shoulder blades back, or playing with the angle of the hips. Here's an image of people with various types of posture for ideas:


It seems like the center of gravity is a little inconsistent. It's subtle, but the woman's head is far enough back that her feet should be further back as well. (Forgive me if you already know this, but the center of gravity falls between the two feet when standing still.) The male's head is pretty far forward, which is nice if he's slouching slightly, but his feet might be moved forward to make him more balanced.

Great work, I'm only nitpicking because I know you have insanely high quality standards. I look forward to more edits!

[ThreeOhFour]

Hey everyone,

Thankyou for your latest crits on the images - and nice comments.

I see that I need to adjust posture - thanks for the tips here, I shall be doing this tonight. My computer does not actually have internet access currently, so I have to transfer files onto this one to upload which means things take a little longer for me to put the up, but expect an update soon. I'm also trying my first background for ages in 640x480 - so expect to see something about that soon  .

Thanks again, all.

[ThreeOhFour]

Alright, some edits and a new one for y'all:





As usual, all crits appreciated.

[zabnat]

There is something wrong with the first female head, but I can't seem to pinpoint the problem. Maybe eyes are too close to each other? On a different level?
The new head looks great and it doesn't have the same problems as the first one.

[Montague]

The first portrait: The angle is pretty hard to get right if you don't mirror the image a lot.

This is an edit of the image in your first post that I tried to mirror and adjust "the wrong way" before flipping it back to its original direction. I've also pronounced the mouth and the chin and added one shade to the mix.