Ordon Link

[Paladin]

Back to Zelda. It seems like my patience is getting worse for every thread I make...



Some of the shading sucks, the pose is a little awkward, the arms and legs are horrible and I kind of lost track of what I was doing while making it. Please help me fix it!

[E-Man]

Well, besides the odd shading placement on the lower arms, the other thing that really sticks out to me is the face. Maybe you could change the face to make it look more appealing?

[Iocus]

Okay, so maybe I went a little overboard with the editing...on to the C+C I suppose.

First off, I want to say that since you stated it was Ordon Link, I used this image as reference, disregarding stylistic choices. In your last topic, you made another Link sprite, and you said you preferred making him a little bulkier, so I'm not sure if that translates to this one too.

I felt the hair needed to be altered dramatically in order to make it more like the reference, so I did just that (I'd argue it also looks a tad less gritty, too.) Notice how his bangs extend past the sides of his face, and his sideburns grow down to about his shoulder.

Link's facial features are fine in most of his modern appearances (certainly in TP) so I slimmed his face and neck down and messed with his face a little. I think he's the kind of character that seems perpetually angry, so I slapped some eyebrows there too.

The shoulderline seems too high, and his shoulders do not seem to be very well defined. On the topic of the arms, they should become slimmer as they converge into the hands. I think you were marking the bicep a little too high, too. The shoulder cloth seemed to be glued to his body, which requires some subtle pixel manipulation at the corners (where the cloth ends and the skin or cloth underneath start) to make them seem more like they're overlapping the other parts. The reference also suggests the collar is much wider.

From what I can see, you struggle a bit with clothing and the way the folding behaves. I found this link around the forums, originally posted by Sengir (I believe), which you might find useful for that. Generally, in your sprite, the cloth seems relaxed despite the lines suggesting it should be strained, and in the case of the pants, they kind of go the wrong ways.

Finally, I added some of the details you omitted (not sure if you intended to omit them or found them too troublesome to add) reangled the feet, and tweaked the hands. About the colors, they are generally good, though I think the blue, could be a somewhat more saturated. The greens could use some hue shifting, particularly in the darker colors (I changed one of the shades for the sake of contrast). I must admit though, it puzzles me that you went through the trouble of using two hues of green, but didn't bother setting apart a color or two for the orange sash. Unfortunately, those browns don't quite do the trick...

Well, guess that's it for now!

[Paladin]

Well, I didn't plan to make him very detailed, but that's probably just because I'm lazy. Your edit looks great.

About colours that you mentioned being weird (green and orange), I posted that I lost track of what I was doing while making it.
To be precise, I made the head and one arm, took a break for 8 hours and then got back to working on it.
By the time I continued I really just did it because I was bored and didn't care much about how he turned out.
So, the lower half of of him was kind of sloppily hurried together, and I didn't bother to clean up anything afterwards.
That's really the explanation behind all of the mistakes in the sprites.

TLDR; I was lazy and really should have cleaned the sprite before I posted it. Thanks for the edit.

---

Alright, I like your edit better, but I didn't feel like just stealing it. I might have stolen your legs, though. I suck at legs...


Thoughts?

[Virtuaboy123]

Hmm I think its head looks a little wide, and the arms seem short/skinny. Edited the shoulders too.

In fact I'd also make the hands a little smaller.

[Paladin]

Minor update + Hero Tunic. I'm probably finishing Ordon Link before I move on, though.
Crits please.

Ok, I have to be honest, I feel that I'm doing too little work here. I think it wouldn't have turned out this good without your edits.
Now, I'm not saying I don't want edits, but I would like to ask: Am I being half-assed?

[Virtuaboy123]

Not at all, but this time I'll give advice without editing.

The Tunic Link's legs are rather skinny along with the boots, and seem almost bow legged. Another area that could use some work around the shoulders/sleeves IMO.

[Paladin]

I don't know if the legs are better or worse now...



Also, tried to clean the shoulders a bit, but I didn't really know how to fix them.

Perhaps I must fix the shape of the legs a bit.

[Virtuaboy123]

Better still seems a little bow legged.

another problem, the boots aren't long enough.

I did two leg positions. The middle one I like better. Its not a very good edit but hopefully it helps.

[Paladin]

Ok, I'll see if I can do something similar, but for now I want to focus on Ordon Link.



This is still WIP, but I just can't figure out the legs. I guess legs are my weak point And everything else.

Could you please help?

[StarSock64]

Hi, sorry to go backwards on you but I made an edit.



I mostly messed with the proportions. They could still probably be better, but yours looked really top-heavy. I also changed the face back to the old width. You have to remember what you're spriting: you're not going for a semi-realistic random man, you're spriting Link. And Link, despite having some semi-realistic elements, still has some pretty darn cartoony proportions and a wider "anime" face. It's more recognizable, easier to read, and less squished to have his face the way you had it before.

I didn't really try very hard to shade it or mess with the selout, so don't take my arbitrary scribbles too seriously as suggestions. However, your shading and selout could both be better.

The hair is one place I think really needs to change. One of Link's strongest features is his big swoopy hair. I know what kind of technique you were going for or whatever, but it doesn't suggest the right shape. It reads as sorta random anime hair that lacks the strong directionality of Link's hair. If you want it to look like Link, I don't think you can possibly compromise on having anything but that big swoop.

I also see that you tried to put shading on his shirt that makes it look tucked into the blue part I think?


^But if you look at the official art, the blue part is so loose that the shirt doesn't really look like it should have any visible folds to suggest it's being tucked in there.

I didn't do this in my edit because I just realized it, but you should try changing the belt part on the blue thing to brown instead of green. The green blends in too much, and brown is closer to the original orange anyway.

The selout also generally looks more broken up than it needs to. I know you're trying to suggest depth with it and whatever, but places like the hair and feet have some distracting breaks in the lines.

Whew. Well, I hope that helps!

[Iocus]

I also see that you tried to put shading on his shirt that makes it look tucked into the blue part I think?

^But if you look at the official art, the blue part is so loose that the shirt doesn't really look like it should have any visible folds to suggest it's being tucked in there.

I didn't do this in my edit because I just realized it, but you should try changing the belt part on the blue thing to brown instead of green. The green blends in too much, and brown is closer to the original orange anyway.

These would be my doing. You are probably right that the sash isn't tied tight enough to pull on his shirt that much, so those folds are pretty excessive.

About the sash color, I disagree about the brown being a good alternative...at least judging from the very first sprite prior to revision. Personally, I would rather he added a new color altogether, but I made it green in the meantime.

Thanks for bringing attention to the hair issue though, I feel I didn't stress it as much as I should've.

As for your side sprite, Paladin, I would suggest that you look at some other RPG sprites around your sprite's scale in that direction. right now, the body is not sideways enough (particularly, I don't think you should be able to see that much of the further leg), and the perspective isn't as top-down as your front sprite suggests. That's just what I can spot at a glance, though.

[StarSock64]

About the sash color, I disagree about the brown being a good alternative...at least judging from the very first sprite prior to revision.

I think it would look a lot different on the current smaller version than the original version. It'd look pretty similar to the shoulder strap thing. The original doesn't look too good because it uses too much of that lighter brown over too much of a space and even uses an even lighter shade on top of that.

[Paladin]

Here's my go at it. I hope the hair seems better now...
I just hope Virtuaboy's help won't be wasted, seeing as a lot of the things I'm changing
are the opposite of what he suggested.

[Virtuaboy123]

Hmm it's no problem, I felt the roundness/widness of the head just seemed more child-like/toon link-ish.

Also the height has changed noticeably from the beginning. I'd say now change that because he seems almost like a midget proportion wise.


I didn't think Iocus/my slight edit looked top heavy if that's why you changed it.
edit:
heres what I would change. I made the face vertically longer, narrowed his shoulders, and a longer neck.

The other two are just for comparison.