Oh look, a wizard!

[Hoeloe]

I sprited a Wizard. My character, Willem, to be exact.

33x76, 12 colours, no specific style.

[Gors]

the sprite is too messy with all those blobs, tone them down.

[Hoeloe]

Any improvement? Need to tone them down more? Or have I done it completely wrong?

[Gors]

still dirty as hell

you don't need all those stray pixels on his beard and clothing. Also don't mirror your sprite. The beard looks like a skull because of that.

[Hoeloe]

Trying to remove the messiness without losing the texture of the clothing/beard. Is this any better?

[Gors]

it kinda does, but I'd use an even simpler pixeling there (something in between the reference and the newest sprite). Also, the blue shades could have more contrast, it's almost unoticeable in my monitor.

[Hoeloe]

How about this? Load of edits to the clothes shading, mostly on the main robe, and also edited the beard a bit, along with the contrast of blue.

[triptych]

"loads of edits"

I see like
2 changes
and all they do is make it look pillowshaded (because it is) ((all of them are))

[Hoeloe]

They are mostly minor edits, and it's difficult to make something like this NOT pillowshaded when the lightsource is from the top. The "loads of edits" was referring to the shading, and most of these were in the robe, as I said before, meaning the bit just below the beard. You may notice that the shading there is almost completely different to the last one.

Plus, if my terminology is correct, pillowshading means shading around the edges of an object, which does not actually occur at any point in this sprite (except perhaps in the face). What may at first appear to be pillowshading is actually an outline, in one of the colours used for shading in order to cut down on colour usage.

[Gors]

it may not be pillowshading, but the result looks like it... not pleasant.

there are several banding issues too, you might want get rid of them. You are trying to overdetail things, just simplify them and you'll be okay.

[triptych]

Plus, if my terminology is correct, pillowshading means shading around the edges of an object

It means that the lightsource is directly in front, (the screen)


which is what your sprite is doing because using a lightsource from above is a stupid idea and people need to stop thinking otherwise unless they actually /know/ how to shade

[Hoeloe]

using a lightsource from above is a stupid idea

Well, where would you suggest I have my lightsource?

[Gors]

maybe top-right (or left, both are good), because this kind of lightsource is easier to pull off without making it look like a pillowed blot

[Hoeloe]

Well, since I'd already started, I finished up an edit for the top-down lightsource, trying to put more emphasis on shading the lower parts of the sprite. Also took care of some of the banding issues. If at all possible, I would like to keep the top down lightsource, in case I plan on making tilesets etc. and it will save a lot of time for objects with perspective that can be flipped in two rotations.

Anyway, major shading edit, hopefully an improvement:

[triptych]

I honestly have no clue how to reply to that



what in the fuck kind of game gives /everything/ a top down lightsource? (spoilers: none that look good do)
Your character would never need to have the same lightsource as your ground tiles anyways, what in the fuck would possess you to think otherwise? It's not a painting, stop thinking like it is.