Pointers for a beginner (1st character)

[Popov]

Looks like this is my first post so...ah...Hi!

Here's a character that I painstakingly drew in the course of the last few days. Nothing fancy, really. I haven't drawn practically anything in ten years and never tried anything in the digital form, so this feels like I'm learning to walk again.  



As I'm starting from the bottom I drew over an existing character (can you still tell who?). I really could use some help with the legs (which look like coloured stick to me) and general shading.

Also, I want to say I found AGS only recently. It really is a dream come true. Thanks for making this possible!

edit: fixed the jacket

[Babar]

The jacket goes to the knees in the front, but you can see directly through the legs, as if there is no jacket there (which doesn't match up with the back view).

Also, I'm not sure if it is jpg artifacts (the images are PNGs?), but the image seems very blurry and "dirty".
I don't know who you painted over, but perhaps you scaled down a JPG image, that is why it looked so strange?

[Popov]

About the jacket: well bless me for being a total twat! *slap on forehead* All that time an I never even thought about it!

Yeah, the images tend to get ''dirty''. As I suck at everything related to computers I'm having a hard time finding out why. *sigh* Nothing's easy...

[Babar]

Easy enough to fix the 2nd problem.

If the original image you drew over (which I'm still not guessing, I must be pretty bad at playing games ) is a JPG, try finding a version on the net/where that is a PNG or GIF or BMP even. Or find a JPG with no artifacts (that weird dirtiness).

Dunno what program you are using, but in Photoshop at least (for example), there is an option to change Edit->Preferences->General and set "Imager Interpolation" to "Nearest Neighbour" instead of Bicubic or Bilinear or whatever it is on. This will stop it becoming blurry when you shrink it.

[Popov]

I couldn't find a lone picture of the character, so I settled for a screenshot of the game, cut out the character and drew over it (used GIMP). I can use any program and zoom as much as i like and still the images look just fine. But when I upload them to Photobucket they turn crap. Aargh.

[Matti]

But when I upload them to Photobucket they turn crap. Aargh.

Use this site for AGS-related image uploads:

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/upload/upload.html

[Popov]

But when I upload them to Photobucket they turn crap. Aargh.

Use this site for AGS-related image uploads:

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/upload/upload.html

Danke!

They're a little dingy but at least they're clean.

[Abisso]

He looks to me, a little like Full Throttle's main char, and a little like Gabriel Knight. Not at all bad for a first go, though.

For the legs... you should avoid mirroring, as it makes the char look less realistic: try to make the two legs different (one from the other), and give him a different stance, more relaxed. Same thing can be done qith the arms, and the position of the head. Try to give a shape to the trousers too, and use some more shadowing to bring life to the man.

The jacket is quite cool though. 

[Popov]

He looks to me, a little like Full Throttle's main char, and a little like Gabriel Knight. Not at all bad for a first go, though.

For the legs... you should avoid mirroring, as it makes the char look less realistic: try to make the two legs different (one from the other), and give him a different stance, more relaxed. Same thing can be done qith the arms, and the position of the head. Try to give a shape to the trousers too, and use some more shadowing to bring life to the man.

The jacket is quite cool though. 

Thanks. Yeah, it was drawn over GK. Didn't use mirroring though, the legs just became naturally unnatural. 

[Abisso]

Well, I didn't mean to say you used explicitly a mirror function on your painting program, but just that the legs are almost identical (but mirrored). Try to make one of them a little bit in the foreground and the other one a little bit in the background.

P.S. I want my free copy of the game for having guessed it was based upon Gabriel Knight! But I suppose the game will be freeware, so I just hope you can get it done sooner or later.

[Popov]

But I suppose the game will be freeware, so I just hope you can get it done sooner or later.

Sure. Just don't hold your breath on it.