Faeldspr's Top-Down Sprites

[Hoeloe]

No, Now it's pillow shaded. Don't shade around the edges. Consider a lightsource. If it helps, draw a little sun in the corner, with lines coming off it, and put your highlights where the lines would hit most, and the shadows where they'd hit least. Also, I'm not sure you've got the best palette choice there. I might make a quick edit.

EDIT: Here's a quick edit I made. Picked out a new palette and reshaded it. I also redid some of your lines, because they were horribly wonky. It looked like you'd just sketched the outline and then coloured it. Don't do that. By all means sketch it, but neaten it off afterwards.



There's too much shading for this to be TFR style, but I'm trying to get across the idea of lightsource.

EDIT 2: It occurred to me to point out that I added another horn, to show the larger one on the other side of his head. The reason for this is that no matter how perfectly you try to look at the side of an object, perspective still exists and so you will more or less always see something of objects in the background like that. Keep in mind that, though you're drawing in a 2D medium, the object you're drawing represents 3D space.

[Jamuk]

That looks much better, thanks! My reason for picking the slightly more muted browns, was that the light red looks way too bright to me.

It looked like you'd just sketched the outline and then coloured it. Don't do that. By all means sketch it, but neaten it off afterwards.

I did sketch the outline, but I thought I did neaten it, can you just point out where the worst bits were so I can bear it in mind for the future, please?
Anyway, I did some more work, and added some scaly plates along his flank. I tried out the technique (I don't know if it has a name) used on SMB pipes, where there are stripes of shading to make it look round. (Note: Ignore the blank outline of the rest of him, I'll change that as it comes.)

Crit please.

[Hoeloe]

That was a major problem. The colours you picked didn't follow a colour gradient, so they looked out of place, and also washed out.

I also recommend redoing the head yourself, so you can try out some of the techniques I used.
The worst problems with the outline were the jaggies. They were all over the place. If you're making a curve, try to use a consistent pattern. One of the horns on your outlines had something like a 2-5-2-1-3 pattern, or something equally ridiculous, which I replaced with 5-4-4.

As for the neck so far, your jaggies are still there (take a look at the top, you've got a 5-4-1-4 pattern, which is just stupid). The shading is nice, but not following the lightsource. Remember, all the light is coming from the left, at the moment, and your scales make it appear to come from just above the viewer, while the head is still using a left-based lightsource.

[Jamuk]

I didn't realise about the jaggy-pattern, I'll bear that in mind.

Is this shading any better? I took out some of highlights coming from the top.

[Hoeloe]

No, no. The jaggies are still there, for one thing, and the highlights haven't improved.

It's not that highlights appear in certain spots when light is there, it's that the shape and position of the highlights change depending on the lighting. Rotation in 3D space occurs on 3 axes, and by removing highlights to the top, you've dropped it down on one axis, i.e. the vertical axis. That change makes it worse, because now you have light coming from 3 different positions: The left, above the viewer and from the viewer's face.

[Jamuk]

Hopefully that's the jaggy abomination banished from the neck. Ok, I added the light back in, but kept it confined and made it look like it was from the top-left angle. I removed the 'pipe' shading as well.

[Hoeloe]

Jaggies are still there. The shading is a lot better, though. Here, let me highlight the jaggy bits for you...



That's ignoring every area you haven't fully shaded yet.

Oh, and another thing: You don't need to outline everything. Use the darkest shade as a colour, and not just to draw lines around things. Notice how I used that grey only to outline the very edges of the sprite, but relied on the colours themselves to form the shape of the head.

[Jamuk]

Sorry I was slow on the jaggies. I replaced some of the outline colour with dark red. I also added some spikes to the back.

[Hoeloe]

Most of the jaggies are gone, but you REALLY missed the point of the outline thing. Here, let me do an edit:


Notice how I don't have a line between the plates on the neck, but that each is still clearly visible.

This isn't a perfect example, but it gets across the idea.

[Jamuk]

Ah right yes I see now. I had a thick line whereas I should have had a shadowy line that conveys the shape. What on the head needs work, and where in particular are the jaggies?

[Hoeloe]

Well, the head needs work because it was my example, and you should probably try and make your own version of it.

As for the jaggies, have a look at the spriting dictionary thread, that explains how to spot them quite nicely.

[Jamuk]

Haven't changed much on this one apart from refining some of the head curves and various shading.

I'm not actually sure how I want him to perform in tFR, but as I see it I have several options:
1) His head comes on the side and breathes fire, then goes away.
2) He runs across the entire screen, damaging anyone in his way (similar to King Bulblin on the 'Bridge of Eldin' SSBB stage.)
3) He walks around attacking and fire breathing contestants.

Personally, I'm veering towards 2, as it would take less time and have an effect I'd prefer. Thoughts?

[Hoeloe]

That's much nicer, though you shouldn't shade each neck plate the same, because it makes them look flat.

[Korby]

I'm not sure if it's my screen, but I think it looks really dark and the dark brown shading is pretty hard to differentiate from the dark red/black.

[Jamuk]

I've got to use the set palette so I guess the only thing I can do is to change the colour of it. I'd be reluctant to do that seeing as I think he looks good in red.