Suggestions?

ID:257936
 
Dec 11 2007, 7:22 am (Edited on Dec 11 2007, 7:31 am)


Any suggestions would be great. I can outline the base and all, it's just the shading I'm usually having problems with.

As you can see, that was the base I made, and used.
Dec 20 2007, 8:52 am
The legs look a little wonky. If you look at the small version, it looks almost like they are bow legged, and the big version makes them look like they are doing the hammer dance.
Dec 24 2007, 10:20 pm (Edited on Dec 25 2007, 7:18 am)
In response to Danial.Beta


Hope it helps.
Dec 25 2007, 7:43 am
In response to Kataharo Tayoko
The arms look like its too much together looks ike curved in its pocket.
Jan 7 2008, 11:47 am
Lexio wrote:
Any suggestions would be great. I can outline the base and all, it's just the shading I'm usually having problems with.

Well, I think the legs are ok, actually, so I don't think it's quite Hammertime yet, and, IMO, your outline is good for a standard BYOND base. As far as shading goes, I'll offer an edit, too:




Original on the left, edit on the right. Your sprite has more depth than most, but you've mainly achieved that by 'button-shading' which is to fill the main forms with a mid color and do the top (right or left) with a highlight color and the lower (opposite side) with a darker color. This can make forms pop out a bit, but still leaves them somewhat flat, like a bas-relief carving. I'd suggest experimenting with shading towards the center and more inside the main form. Try doing some spheres and other curved shapes with a color ramp of 8 colors. Your eye and brain will tell you when it's looking right and it'll come more easily each time you try it.

Another possible problem might be your color ramp for the base:

(Original above, edit below)
Where I marked as the circled 1 is an example where you've got two shades that are almost the same (at least for an 6-8 color sprite). The red arrows are places where your ramp may be jumping too much. For example, the 5th color from the left is too dark in comparison to the one to it's left. That jump in value can cause jaggies and make the form more defined than you may want it to. By bringing the luminosity of the one to the left down a bit, not only can you help differentiate it from the one to its left (marked by that circled 1), but also it'll allow you to make more gradiated shading. IOW, if you're color ramp was compared to a ladder, you're rungs wouldn't be evenly spaced; they would 'jump'. This makes it hard to properly shade curves.

The arrows inside the second ramp indicate where I changed a colors luminosity up or down.

I also tried some selout on the outline to see if that might work, and accentuated his right forearm a bit.

Anyway, I hope that's clear. Shading is really tricky to both learn and explain. It's really something that comes with a lot of practice, so keep at it.

Keep going