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Ooops, so sorry, wrong button ->double post! Can someone delete this, please?

Here's the paintover. It's my first try at anything similar, so I dare not claim it's any better.

vs

- removed the black outlines
- added lots of lighting
- tried to match perspective of the bushes with the rest of the tiles
- tried a different green bg

Hi! Some nice work there. This looks interesting, for what type of game and what resolution is it intended?

Drawing tiles in IMO quite difficult (also because of the fact that they are repeated many times on the screen and must blend smoothly). I am by no means experienced in this area, my first attempt would probably look similar.

Still it needs a major overhaul. If you tried to actually put a few tiles together, you must have noticed:
- the background (grass etc) is too noisy and repetetive
- the objects do not stand out enough
- the objects look flat
- overall impression is not very neat

What I'd do:
- cut down the contrast of the grass significantly and make it's texture less regular
- drop those black outlines!
- put up a light source to the upper left and shade the objects
- avoid using too pure colors / different shades with the same hue (for example: give the dark green a blue tint and, leave the middle green, and give the light green a yellow tint)
- use different value/hue for a tree's green than for the grass
- make the tree's shape simpler and better recognizable
- The "noodle bushes" look like something halfway between a green fence and a thicket, I beleive you should make them look more like one or another, this looks very unnatural
- Right now there's too much green! That green grass must be only one of several types of terrain, too much green would make the players eyes sick fast

For a great reference play Warcraft I. (Sorry, I can't seem to get a screenshot out of it, but I'll keep trying).

I'll also try to do a paintover, but don't expect very much, as I never tried this seriously before.

That's the best walkcycle I've seen in a very long time!

[exotically]

This looks fantastic, Sektor13!

Is it an alien ship? Because to me it looks as if someone made a cardboard model of the STS (Space Shuttle), then created a huge version of the cardboard model from some metal (copper or bronze or something like that).

That's for the following reasons:
- it's monolythic surface - no windows, no doors, no hatches, markings, service panels, etc, etc all that stuff that spaceships have
- the blocky shape (not very aerodynamic)
- the material is very exotic, like something out of Dune
- the ship's shape makes it look VERY heavy

This would all point to some advanced technology, with the crew having no other means of getting in/out than using a beam transporter (since the hole looks like a hole after an explosion, instead of a door), and no means of seeing anything other than a sensor array (since there are no windows). Also the ship's propulsion would have to be extremely powerful, since the (apparent) weight of the ship.

So if it indeed was your intention to draw a very exotically looking ship built by a mysterious and highly advanced alien race, than it's spot on. (Perhaps except for the overall shape, which doesn't look very elegant, since it's so blocky and the rear seems too big)

If it's meant to be more human, then you should probably add lots of stuff to make the ship's functioning more obvious.

This kind of subject makes it very tempting to just take a picture from the movie and trace it. To what degree can we use reference pictures?

Oh and can it be a vessel from an animated SCI-FI series?

Hooray! Since today was my last exam, I've had the time to update my background - to actually finish itÃ,  - so I updated my previous post. Quiz: Find 3 threatsÃ, 

The most painful death of Orlando Bloom



Next: The first dolphin to become a president.

The size of your image is 962x471. That's not very usable for a background. When you start painting a background in Paint, first adjust the image size to something standard. (I'd recommend 320x240, other options: 640x480, 320x200, 640x400)

I recommend 320x240 because
- the aspect ratio is square
- lower resolution = less work + easier work!!

If you don't want to start your background again from scratch, resize it in some program and then paint over it. (thus using it as a sketch)

Moreover, I'd recommend sketching the background a few times before actually starting to draw it. A sketch should only take you a few minutes and only define the most prominent features of the image (perspective, positioning of large objects - doors, windows, bed, etc.)

Code: ags

Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  ^
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, --- ---
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  /_______\
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  /| . . |\Ã,  
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, / |Ã,  ^Ã,  | \
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  /Ã,  Ã, \ - /Ã,  /
Ã,  Ã,  Ã, /\ \---__|__--
Ã,  Ã,  ///\Ã,  Ã, /Ã,  oÃ,  \
Ã,  Ã, /////\ / \ v / \
Ã,  /**//Ã,  OÃ,  /---\Ã,  O
Ã,  \*//Ã,  Ã,  Ã, /Ã,  Ã,  Ã, \
Ã,  Ã, \/Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  -------
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  || ||
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  || ||
Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã,  Ã, /=+ +=\

Next: Beauty and the beast

Wow, what's that 18th-century street lamp at a medieval castle?Ã,  :o

As much as I like The Chronicles of Narnia, this is really out of place. 

GULP. That's gorgeous, BB!Ã, 

What a hilarious character!

How about this?

vs.Ã, 

(Color consumption: 17 vs. 13)

EDIT: added the sword, too

I could use this one as the down-left angle, if you dont mind..,

Of course I don't mind! That's what paintovers are for.Ã,  But I don't know if it will work, it is rotated by much less than 45 degrees..

Anyways, good job Seaduck, you keep surprising me with your fine art..

Gee, thanks! I only started drawing quite recently, there's still so much to learn...

It's the monitor I'm using here (way too dark) so i cant do good colors, thanks a lot.. its really helping..

Unfortunately I'm using an LCD, so I don't see much color either.Ã, 

Would be nice to see you warmed up then

In that case I usually paintover a picture beyond recognitionÃ, 



Ok, anatomy time!

AFTER:
- watch closely the crotch joint - her legs were too apart and the height of her pelvis unnaturally small - just moved the legs and repainted the crotch joint
- made the head look reasonably high (see the hair/head joining point)
- reshaped arms - gave her some elbows, etc.
- loosened the shoulders a bit

ROTATED:
- I wanted to try a slight contraposto, I think it's generally a good idea, but I think I didn't succeed making it as nice as your direct front view

What a lovely character!



- changed the colours (she looked as if she were behind an orange haze) - increased the contrasts both in lightness and in hue (note that her top is outlined in purple)
- some stretching of the profile to make it match the front view
- made the nose round rather than square
- moved the mouth upward in profile
- removed the double pixels

But hey, I didn't even warm up yet! If I get some time I'll look into the following:
- her forehead seems too high/the head is a bit oddly shaped
- a more dynamic stance (not 100% front, not 100% profile)
- the arms are a bit shapeless, especially in the profile
- shading

She looks really cool and cute, excellent work!

Lovely car!



- Even if it's a stateman's car, it doesn't have to be black, does it? (If it weren't a stateman's, wine-red and green would work great too)
- the whole car is from total profile, changed the seats to profile too
- not that even in the right image those are not 100% desaturated grays, they have a slight blu tint (examine the palette).
- added some highlights, shadows, and made the splashers brighter
- slight tint to every color

Great so far, keep it up!

Nice work!

A little too monochromatic for my tastes. Even though it's concrete, it shouldn't be totaly desaturated. Old wet concrete walls have all sorts of color tints... green from algae (microscopic plants), white from condensed salts, yellow/red/brown from condensed iron, etc.

I suppose te grates are iron, they look like concrete. You should make them a different colour.

You used luminiscent tubes for the light, they're brighter than light bulbs, but still not completely desaturated. They are either yellowish or blueish depending on the type of gas they are filled with (sodium yellow, potassium blue, I think, but I maybe I'm mistaken).

BTW Don't be tempted to put too much empty corridors in, it would be boring.

Ok, I'll try to show you the difference between the two stances:



Not the slant of the lines representing their left legs. For the girl it's like /, while for your sprite it's more like \.
The girl has her center of gravity above her left foot, while Hitler doesn't.

The girl is standing on a tiptoe of her right leg, even though her right foot is not extended so far away as your sprite's (considering the leg length). Your sprite's leg right leg would have to be much longer than the left to do this.

Your sprite's right hip is far too low.

A person typically stands on their left leg (|\) or right leg (/|) yours is standing on neither (/\) and both feet are in front of the center of gravity, which means the person would probably fall. You must pull both feet backwards considerably.

Looks much better!

Some suggestions:

- use lower resolution (320x200 or 320x240) it will save you a lot of time and you have a better chance of getting it right!
- the castle door is too big
- roads almost never go straight up a hil, they wind along the slope
- add more variations around the horizontal axis, i.e. let the hills have peaks at different places
- more details on the castle - roof, windows, etc.

A modified layout for your inspiration (Note: this took me about two minutes to draw...)