Vipershark sucks at spriting

[Vipershark]

So yes, I'm terrible at spriting, but this is the first completely custom sprite that I've made that I'm actually somewhat proud of.

Still a WIP, and obviously I need crits.


Ref: http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e140/V...uruRef.png

Things to note:
1. Unsure if I should put any real shading since the ref doesn't have any. The dark parts aren't pillowing, they're actually outlines. The black lines were sort of a guideline and can be removed if needed.
2. I have no idea how to shade hair. At all. Can someone help?
3. If I add shading, the lightsource will be from an above-ish angle, somewhat like an rpg.
4. THE PALETTE IS NOT CORRECT YET. At the moment I'm using mostly colors from the SSB Project. I have to change them later.

Crits needed, EDITS WELCOME.

[Tea]

Good, but the feet lok a bit odd. I'm not sure why though, but yeah its pretty good.

[Adam]

The entire edges of the sprite, where you were attempting to anti-alias, you've banded. The AA shouldn't be a copy of the outline, it makes it look jaggy, it should be one pixel at each jaggy edge needing to be smoothed.

The outlines are also odd; she has a completely brown-outlined head, yet the rest of her body is black. It makes it look odd. You could also try and play with the contrast on the face, it still looks flat.

Otherwise, not bad!

[Gors]

too fat compared to the ref. Also, try giving detail to the ribbons.

EDIT: arms are too short too

[Vipershark]

Updated.


Ref: http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e140/V...uruRef.png

Changes:
1. Got rid of the black outline.
2. Made her 2 pixels skinner.
3. Made her arms about 2ish pixels longer.
4. Gave her an actual neck.
5. Added a little shading to the bow on her chest and her legs.
6. Changed a few of the colors to fit closer to the ref.

So, again, I have no idea how to correctly shade hair. For that matter, I'm not sure how to shade the rest of her at all, as I suck at shading.
Also, I'm not really sure what else to do with the ribbon on her chest. If I try to make it any bigger, it obscures other stuff and ends up too big.

Crits needed, EDITS WELCOME.

[Cobalt Blue]

the hair and face expresions are great, however, i feel like the character is 1/3 shorter than it should be. being a little more tall would make her look more skinny(seing the reference) and would give you more room to give the skirt a more natural shape, so it wouldn't look so stiff.

and give her a waist also.

[Vipershark]

Hmm... Now that you mention it, her torso does look a bit short, which makes the arms look too long.

[Gors]

Yeah... I usually make the arms longer enough to reach the pelvis' height. Right now, it looks like she can touch her knees.

[Vipershark]

Well, I was going for thigh length, but okay, I'll shorten them a bit.

[Cobalt Blue]

enlarge the torso thus giving her a waist in the process.

[Vipershark]

The only problem is that in the ref, she doesn't really have much of one. I'm not really sure how I'd go about doing that. :/

[Jovian-12]

her hair could use a little tweak too; Mikuru always struck me as having wavy-ish hair, as in the ref it sort of thickens out at the bottom...with what you got it makes it look perfectly straight. perhaps you could move it out nearer to her shoulders and squash it closer to her ears to give that sort of quality?

[Cobalt Blue]

remember, a reference is called "reference" for a reason. otherwise it would be a trace template.

[Vipershark]

M-M-M-M-MEGA BUMP!
Starsock convinced me to try spriting again. Picking up right where I left off, and using this thread because I still suck at spriting.


Ref: http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e140/V...uruRef.png

Changes:
1. Made her 2 pixels taller, hopefully giving her the skinnier look we were going for.
2. Made the bow on her chest a bit wider and longer.

So, again, I have no idea how to correctly shade hair. For that matter, I'm not sure how to shade the rest of her at all, as I suck at shading.

Crits needed, EDITS WELCOME.

edit- in retrospect, she still seems a tad too short. Will edit that.

[StarSock64]

Yessss that's one down

Rags and Kojjiro you're next because you said you would!!

will make useful post to take a break from TUGS later!!

edit: Okay, I played with it to get an idea of what you should do (but you don't get to see it yet!). You should consider redoing the lineart on the hair. I always copy/paste so I'm not afraid to make big changes, since I'll have a copy to go back to. You should probably make the outlines way dark so that you're able to effectively shade stuff in; I had the luminosity at about 40 on the hair outline, but do what works for you. So yeah, you should give shading a try. Keep that lightsource in mind and go for it. Stuff in a lot of contrast (like a thousand times higher than you have now). I lightly hue shifted the pink towards purple and hueshifted the red that way too so it'd fit in better. Make sure you don't just play with the luminosity slider thing when choosing shades. There's also a lot of opportunities for anti-aliasing here.

I'm just gonna leave you with some tips 'til I have more specific things to talk about...!