ShadeDBZ's Workshop

[Shade]

CURRENT

Older things

I would like to come back to these at some point, so don't just think I forgot about them!

[Garamonde]

Kudos for making the table actually look wooden.

[Shade]

So, here's another I'm working on..

Needs a lot of work but I'd like to fix the big problems first..
Suggestions?

[StarSock64]

The way the hood just sort of attaches itself to the shoulder doesn't really make sense. The zipper isn't centered, there's a serious lack of contrast, and there's pillow shading/banding (banding is mostly in the face, weird knee shading, etc.)

Have you tried making sure the body makes sense under the clothes? Try to give the shoulder better definition. Maybe try to mess with the bottom of the hoody so it's not just a straight line? It kind of looks like a weird metal bar that doesn't wrap around the waist properly right now.

The legs could use a bit of shaping. The way the farther leg can be visually broken up as three big boxes is really distracting. The negative space (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_space) forms a lot of distracting rectangular chunks too.

Try to find a few references!

[Shade]

Thanks Starsock!

What do you think of this?

[Thor]

Don't AA the outline. It makes your sprite's outline look either blended or too thick, the latter in this case. (It also gives sharper/more drastic edges, which you want to avoid!)

The legs seem out of place and somewhat misshapen; either this is the case, or the torso is turned awkwardly, which I'm guessing is also a factor. Furthermore, the torso is still a straight line on our right/its left side; try to give the body definition. Don't forget to add clothing folds, as it will make your character's clothing seem more realistic. In addition, the zipper is barely noticeable and does not seem to have changed much: I recommend making it thinner and slightly more pronounced than the hoodie.
There is also not much of a definite light source on the torso: the shading on the hood is from below, our left/its right sleeve's shading is coming from the bottom right, and the torso itself is coming from slightly above the front (not to mention the feet; its right/our left foot's light source is coming from behind, whilst the other foot's light source comes from above)! This makes the shading clash, which is not good.

Someone may have mentioned this already (I wouldn't doubt it in the least), but you should study anatomy more. Certain parts of this (namely the arms and the torso) are not quite anatomically correct. The arms should be a little longer and the torso should have a bit more of a shape than a straight line.

[Shade]

New pose

[Gors]

the problem is that you don't have any logic when shading stuff. Really, see your sprite and ask yourself, 'does this look 3D?' Probably your answer will be 'no'.

Please try fixing a visible lightsource, and try working from there. Don't be afraid to check references, too, as they are great help.

[Zapchu25]

I don't want to give you too much on your plate, but the color palette needs some fixing up as well. Try to use less saturated colors, the ones on the sprite at the moment are too vivid, making your dark character look less threatening. In fact, he looks like he is made of candy.

You could blame one of two things, the color choice, or the palette itself. The former would be fixed by looking up references of real clothing. Google what you have in your head and try to design an outfit for your character. More realistic styles or different styles are more interesting to look at.

If your color palette is off, you can run your sprite through programs like GameMaker and GraphicsGale. They are both free and you can use their color adjustment options to make your sprite look much better.

[Shade]

Help is appreciated!

[Shade]

[Strasteo]

This was a rush job, so there's some things out of place, but...

-Changed the blue and purple colors to be more interesting.
-Exaggerated and spiked the hair. It's just cooler that way, imo.
-Changed the pose to more of a fight stance. (arms up and legs spaced out)
-Shifted/changed eyes and features around and increased the shading present so that it became more intimidating.
-Restructured the face.
-Did... something to the shirt. Added white round button things to the top fer some reason.
-Added a pocket to the pants just for some detail.

Hope studying this gives you some ideas. What he's really missing is something interesting that sets him apart from other guys wearing jackets and pants aside from having purple hair.

[SimplyMatt]

Just some basic practice..

I think this may do some good for the wood. Otherwise, I like it. You other sprites don't seem perfect, as others have said, but they beat my attempts.

[Shade]

I had an interesting idea for a puzzle game and this little guy suddenly appeared. I would really appreciate help.

(Ignore the inverted poses, please.)

[Baegal]

I think you need to darken the gray. Right now, it looks odd because it's almost lighter than the darkest blue. There is also banding around the face.