The VG Resource

Update2

Update:
friends/other kids at school wanted to see a pixel out of me. I don't know why I'm really not good at this stuff. Ah well C+C is really appreciated here.

These white pixels in the corners are intentional? Because they don't make the sprite looks better.

I hate when I get that reaction from people at school & family & stuff when they hear I do this.
Agreed with Darking. Ambient light source not achieved. Trade the gray for a darker purple, no loss in the color budget, although with 9+trans I doubt you were using a color limit. Also, that light blue on the tooth is invisible on the end result.
In general otherwise though, pretty good. Left side of the jaw is a bit blocky, and the forehead shading is a bit messy at the edges, but in general its pretty appealing.

Good luck!

Also, 100th post for me!

Update, no big changes just simple tune-ups based on what you guys said. If it needs further work I'll do as you all say. Also, I really need to start working with pallete limits.

Try a little more contrast with each shade to make it 'pop' more. I don't necessarily mean colour contrast, but the shading/highlighting colour just looking darker/lighter compared to the base.

@neslug: Wait, what? Isn't that still color contrast? Although I agree, make the brights a bit brighter.

As for the edit, its a step in the right direction. First things first: You're not done clearing away waste colors. I just counted on the edit, and we're at 11+trans. With some smart cutting, we can put you at 7+trans, which is a standard color limit. The first color is an easy drop; you know that gray from the sides we trashed? Its still hiding in his left eye and the bulb at the top. NOT NECCESARY. Just replace it with a surrounding color, we don't care for it. Second, you know that light gray we took from the tooth? Yeah. Still in the eyes. You can't even see it from zoomed out, so just replace it with the white. Easy. Third, this new blue in the tooth. You don't need blue, just use an existing purple from the body. It doesn't look like the body bleeding in if it generally stays just AA in there. Now, see that light yellow in the bulb? Change it to white, there's almost no difference anyway.
Congratulations, you're at 7+trans! If you want to try holding a palette limit, go ahead. If not, say so, so I can stop typing these blocks about color count.

Now that that's done with, to the rest of the sprite! Now, unfortunately, the jaw looks spiky. I don't think it's necessary to have it jut out so far anyway.
The purple you chose to replace the gray is a bit TOO dark, but that's a hard color to get right in such a low contrast environment. Just keep fiddling with it.
I'm only noticing it now, but the chin is a bit jaggy on the left side. The forehead also has a ripple in it, it would probably look better as a perfectly round curve. Actually, I think the primary issue with the messy-looking shading is that it needs to be rounded out properly.
Also, SOMETHING bugs me about the eyes. I think the one on our left is too close for the perspective.

Just for fun, I made an edit. I got carried away a bit though, so a lot of the choices I made were stylistic ones. I could spend another hour making a basic edit JUST fixing the bare minimum, but I thought it would be nice for you to see another angle on your little creature.

New colors, colored outline, radically altered shading shapes. However, you can see what I fixed with the jaw thing, the chin, and the forehead. Also, creative color manipulation let me get another highlight out. Shit, now I sound self-centered for calling myself clever.
Here's what the shading looks like when I put it back into your colors, minus the ones I said to remove.


Also, this little guy reminds me of the one digimon, the pink one owned by the short kid in season 1, you know, the one that turned into Patamon. Can't recall its name, but it reminds me of it.
Good luck!

(02-17-2010, 03:24 AM)Ego Wrote: [ -> ]@neslug: Wait, what? Isn't that still color contrast?

Well call it whatever you wish, but I meant making the colours brighter and darker as necessary without making them more vivid at all (what I meant by not necessarily upping the colour contrast).

So I just changed some hues around a bit and made the shadow a little darker.

Those colors dont look right.

@Neslug: Okay yeah, in my mind I still define that as contrast, but terms don't matter so much.
As for your edit, I think it might havebeen wise to move your hues in the opposite direction. Because you moved the highlight toward blue, it got darker, and by moving the shadows toward red, tgey got a little warmer. By moviing in th OPPOSITE direction, you'd get warmer highlights and cooler shadows.
Also, the contrast between your base purple and the shade purple is HUGE. I usually recommend a more gradual color shift than that, but that's a preference probably.

Besides, I think before fiddling with getting the exact colors right we should remove any of the glitches in the lines and shading, so we see where our colors are really going.

@Bluline: Who's? There are a few different variations within the thread, WHO'S colors don't look right?

The ones on Neslugs one, but you pretty much explained what i was thinking.

Okay, that's cool, thanks for clarifying .

It was just a quick edit. You say you expected effort? Here's an improved version.

Hey, you made an edit JUST editing the hues of the existing shades, and I thought it incorrect. When you change only one thing, and I think it incorrect, I feel I should comment on it. Also, there's no way of me knowing it was "just a quick edit," and I never said I expected effort, just correctness.
The improved sprite is nice, btw. Couple of choices I personally find curious(the second brightest highlight color mostly, that pink one, it doesn't seem visible from zoomed out, could probably use contrast), but overall nice.

Made some little tweaks.

I still think that second highest pink is too close to the following purple. I also think that the dark blue is a smidge too dark. Looks good though.

I just noticed something iffy about the DESIGN of the jaw of the sprite. Um, if he has such a large under-bite, HOW is there a tooth sticking down over that jutting lower jaw?

But with the jutting lower jaw, G-Man, look at Neslug's. The jaw shape perfected what I was trying to say before.