The VG Resource

The catch is: use only a handful of colors. A sprite this size could easily get away with 8 colors max and still be very detailed enough.

in the end, there is no rule as to how many colors you can use.

however, using partially transparent brushes to paint over looks basically dull and ugly. and thats who colors have been choosen to shade this.

^Is this a better choice of colors?

you really do not need the darkest yellow, nor the third blue.

also, the helmet is suposed to be a cilinder(thats why i put a highlit on top of it when i edited it.) therefore, if you get a highlight like the one you placed now, one asumes the lightsource is placed behind the character.

yet on his body the shadows are cast on the side/back of the character.

Any better? I got rid of those two colors and swapped where the first two shades of blue were placed. And then I added the other line as well

when something isn't looking the way you want it to, don't be afraid to go back a couple of steps. Often, if the base elements are taken care of well, it is a lot easier to finish with a complete, interesting result. Also, as you are getting used to the genre, chances are you still need practice on the basics anyway. The first thing is silhouette. Make sure it reads well in a black and white form. Next, the eye sees volumes of color, so define the different sections in a readable way. Your palette needs work, note that I made due with 6 colors, and I think it looks better than many with more colors.

Always pay attention to contrast. Keep in mind that does not only mean light and dark, but rather any attribute that sets things apart; hue, saturation, value, line, space, etc.

Don't over-brighten, -saturate, -darken, etc. Look how almost sharp feeling your blue is in comparison to the rest of the image. Look how piercing those highlights are.

but thats not s few steps backwards, thats more of a reverse somersault

My edit goes back to the drawing board, but it really just illustrates the point. Even just recoloring with a different palette would have helped, I just tried to show the impact all of the factors can have when combined properly (and I honestly am still pretty new to this, if you've seen ANY of my past stuff, that is painfully obvious).

EDIT: I did a simpler edit to highlight the only things that really needed changing, as opposed to making it the way I would have...

Pay attention to the highlights and the shadow. Shadow does not just give an edge to things, it tends to make up a large portion of an object, and what it does is give volume.

highlights don't have to be white, and except for really shiny metal, they often aren't. As a rule, try to avoid pure gray, as it does not really occur in nature, and feels lifeless and bland. In fact, most shadows you see have a bluish tint anyway from diffuse lighting from the blue sky, so the blue in my palette was easily reused. Try to only use the black color for outlines that really need that contrast, like separating parts from each other.

When I pick my colors, I use gimp's scales tab of the color picker, rather than other options, such as the color wheel. I can see what the effects of changing hsv and rgb are right there, and can see all of the options lying before me. This also makes hue/saturation shifting a lot easier.



also, I will admit that this is actually one of my best sprites I have worked on, and found myself having way too much fun with it...

More contraaaast, gave it a little bit of sel-out and reshaded it a little. And please I know the sprite is overworked.

went for more of a classic newgrounds feel here, showing how you don't even need white or black to still have good form. Selout is also used, color count down to five.

So i haven't been in this forum for what... about 5 to 10 years? had to recreate my account and everything. all to say that this sprite looks fantastic and that Alexsani's coloring reminds me of a gameboy color sprite. it looks awesome even with 5 colors.

i was looking for an actual sheet of a castle crashers character in all his poses but seeing this makes up for the fact that so far i have found nothing. glad to see there are still talented people on this site

Quote:So i haven't been in this forum for what... about 5 to 10 years?

then you might've forgotten the rules because you did a month-old bump.


don't bump old threads please. This is a verbal warning.

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MasqueNoMercy in a PM Wrote:really? a verbal warning for a post only a month old? time to disappear for another decade apparently

and nothing of value was lost \o/