Art Dump

[munk3yboy]

Hi friends!  :wink:

Welcome to my art dump.

I had a really rough year, so I didn't get to draw much. Most of this stuff is really old. I don't remember if I've posted my stuff here before though so it's probably new to you. If it isn't, I'm sure I'll eventually make more. Anyhow enjoy!~ :crazy:

Spoiler: Random

Some concept art for my RPG Maker game. Just general characters really. The robots are me using the X-Box 360's infamous hardware failure (Red Ring of Death) and turning it into an enemy to fight (RROD Model of Mechs). I tend to do that sort of stuff quite a lot. Other stuff is just random doodles, that can come out of something as simple as a stray line. Usually I just wind up with some illogical nonsense, but occasionally I wind up with something I like. The block guy at the end is kind of an example of that. I like the idea of a futuristic oil drills based on mosquitoes so I'll probably revisit that idea someday too. I also am constantly trying to find exciting new ways to draw a girl with very little if any clothing on.

Spoiler: Sprites and Facesets

I really hate making sprites, so I hardly ever do. I had more than this but I lost a whole load of stuff due to a hard-drive death a few months ago. Facesets are very heavily inspired by Xenogears. I'll have to redo them, since these are the only copies I currently have and they have nasty jaypeg artifacts. I think I want to go in a style that I can make more expressions easier anyway. I played through The Way series not too long ago again, and I really liked the extra punch changing the face expressions gives to the dialogue.

Spoiler: Experiments and some Landscape stuff

Like I said I hate spriting for whatever reason, and I really don't like the way mapping works in RMVX. It just has some features over XP that I do prefer, and since it has the panorama map option more realistically doable than it is in RMXP I'm probably going that route. So the first two are Panorama map tests. They're to get sort of used to the distorted perspective, and also just to see how far I can bend the grid before the collision detection starts to break down. The waterfall works out fairly well, which isnt' a surprise since I'm not pushing it much. The little tudor house test for the most part works ok too, except for the little fence. I think in RMXP it would work since it has directional passage control, RMVX is only a yes or no per square unfortunately. So, I'm still testing things. Others are half-assed landscapes. I think they're really boring to do, but occasionally I'll force myself to do one, because I'm far weaker in that area than I am doing characters.

 

[Cruelty]

you got skill man. a good deal of the stuff in the spoiler is really cool! :}

and the kid with the wooden sword looks rally neat imo

 

[arbiter]

;D

 

[munk3yboy]

That's a pretty polished dump. You must have the digestive tract of a God. Mine always have little pieces of shrapnel in it. I probably need more fiber in my diet.

 

[$t3v0]

it almost looks good enough to eat

 

[Makasu]

Yeah so you're pretty much awesome. I swear I've seen this art before. On like conceptart.org or something. A lot of it is very familiar to me...Possibly a new favorite artist for me?

 

[Shadow_Strike]

I do love watching a skilled artist do his work. There is always a sense of mysticism and fundamental knowledge involved, a certain working of things that only shows up when its rooted deep in the subconscious.
You have a fun color palette, its vibrant without being overly ridiculous. You also seem to know where to lay down lines and hues without hesitation. You do have some pretty intense lighting on your figures though, which is weird but you make it make sense.
Props to ye.

 

[arbiter]

;D

 

[munk3yboy]

@Makasu
Hmmm, it couldn't be conceptart cause I only lurk there and never post. ^_^ I'm not confident enough in my ability yet to hang with the really big dogs. =P I've probably posted a few of them here before. I lost track years ago of where all of my stuff is.

@Shadow_Strike
Yep, I definitely agree on lighting. Lame thing is I know what I'm doing wrong and I just fail to actually do it right. Basically what the deal is, is I boost the saturation in the shadows instead of properly decreasing it. I do quick cell shade passes to do a light check, and I'm not even sure if I'm going to render or not until I actually start rendering. When I cell shade I usually boost the shadows saturation to give it a more vibrant cartoon look. However, when/if i go over it with a render, I usually forget to drop the higher saturation levels back down to their correct levels. Most of my stuff is just little doodles never intended to stand on their own so I rarely go back and fix them. I really should, since it's starting to really develop into a bad habit. Anyway, the results of it are exactly as you said, weird sometimes, but usually manage to still look correct. A positive side effect is it tends to eliminate the muddy colors I wind up with when I knock the saturation too low.  :straightthumb:

@Arbiter
Haha, actually your earlier post made me wish I had put something like 'tits' rather than 'dump' in my threads title so I could have at least got something I liked look at. =P

 

[Mascarpone]

it reminds me allot of the art from Xenogears and zenosaga.

like allot-allot.

 

[Makasu]

Yeah I feel you on that. I lurk. I never post. I don't know. Its just your style is very similar to someone's style...I can't place my finger on it though...

Low and behold!

THIS IS IT!!!

The itch studios guy. Just like his style. I've always adored it and I'd love to have it. You have it so that means I have to hate you. and I don't want to do that.

 

[munk3yboy]

Ah I getcha. Yeah, I'm certainly not Arne, but he is definitely a hero of mine too. Big part of how I do my rendering now was learned from some of his tutorials. He still has way more confident brush strokes than I do though, which is a big part in how he gets the look that he does. I still can't come close to any of his more finished stuff either. So I still gotta cross my t's and dot my i's before I'm really there. I grew up the same time as him too so I go into the same nostalgic coma's he does for many of the same retro games he writes about, haha. Just follow his tutorials though, you'll get there. :shades:

Zhuzhu, and Mullins are a couple other guys whose things I really admire. They're very loose which is something I always struggle with. I always feel compelled to polish stuff until it has no imperfections and I wind up with really stagnant looking stuff with no focus. :sad:

Spoiler: junk

 

[Makasu]

I'm familiar with both of those artists. You do have a style similar to them. I wish I had it that way. Either wyas you're doing damn fine work. I'm quite jealous of you and envious. Zhuzhu's stuff took a weird turn though. It went for a more anime style one. While its still great stuff it just got kinda odd to me.

 

[Venetia]

this is some nice ass stuff. I, too, like to stick to very clean lines and vector-like curves, straying from imperfections. I particularly admire your eye for color.

One unfortunate thing though, in your digital-painted pieces, the ones that are shooting for more "realistic" blending, it's TOO perfect. Too smooth, no texture. Kind of plastic-looking.

Otherwise, -- In particular, this is my favorite:

look at him flail! :D So much character in such a little thing.

 

[Akirau]

Ugh, you've made me jealous. I absolutely love your work right now. Your spriting is good and I think if you didn't hate it, you could be a great spriter. Your colors are really splashing out at me and I love that about them.

 

[munk3yboy]

@Venetia - Thanks! My texture kung-fu does tend to be weak sometimes (I usually skip it completely). Really surprised by this place. I figured since it's not an art-centric board (well besides pixel art) I wouldn't get any crits, especially such solid ones. Even on art boards I frequently just get the "hmmm I think something is off but I don't really know what" kinda stuff.

@Akirau - Ick, jealous never taught anyone anything You should be inspired instead! Anyway to clarify, I don't hate them so much that I'll never do them. Actually hate is probably way to harsh a word anyway - how about "don't like doing nearly as much as painting." ^_^ My issue with them is that filling little blocks tends to be really boring. That said, when I animate them its really cool to see them "come alive" so to speak.

Here is my sprite process. I'll do one on color too sometime. You can also take any that I do crack em open in whatever sprite app you use and copy them, or whatever if it helps. I don't mind, especially if its for learning. :smoke:

Step 1
Silhouette
I usually start with a rough silhouette. It's not aimless though, I do have an idea in my head to start with. You can, and I'd guess many probably do, start at my step 2 - I just find it quicker to deal with blobs than I do lines when spriting is all. This actually isn't a very strong silhouette due to his arm helmet area, but should be alright. What it actually does though is reinforces anything I might screw up later. It basically plays off the same part of the mind that makes people ruin perfectly good pieces of toast because they can see the face of Jesus on it. How it helps in sprites is you can royally screw up an entire arm later, but if your silhouette is strong and humanoid, people will still know it's supposed to be an arm. If you're working from templates this stuff is handled for you already.

Step 2
Outline
After the silhouette I start drawing out the various sections in lines. The real point of this step for me is just so I can paint bucket flood fill in my base colors rather than having to block areas in with the pencil tool. However, I do pay attention to angles that aren't going to work (you can get away with screwy angles in fast animations but in a still sprite it looks really funky) - the sword for example I had to simplify the shape from what I originally wanted. It always is modified a great deal by the end though so I don't spend a whole lot of time on it - so double lines in places might still exist where other less lazy people would probably ensure they got trimmed before moving on.

Step 3
Base Color
Just block in my base colors. From these I'll add warm colors for highlights and cold colors for shadows. I use 3 colors per area plus I color the outline. These are the base colors, I'll add shadows and highlights to them typically dropping highlights I don't need. The colors I choose are usually fairly high saturation even in the shadows but other than that it's your typical warm -> cool transition. Not really much else to explain here till I expand on the actual color picking part. =P

Step 4
Shadows
Here I block in the shadows. Real shadows are actually desaturated (except if they're being hit by reflected light - and in some cases of subsurface scattering - both of which you typically won't have the room to do on small sprites). I tend to actually increase the saturation to make them more vibrant. Feel free to do the same on your stuff, but just be aware it's technically against the "rules of nature" and is really only suitable for cartoony things (like sprites, hey). Also it's not pictured here due to the pose, but if you have to overlap major parts (like feet in a sideview walk) make the distant one more faded and much less detailed. I think the XP RTP just uses light-purple blobs in their side-view walks, so check those out.

Step 5
Highlights
Here I add the highlights. In this phase I add them to everything, and sometimes I like the color more than the base I picked so I'll actually making it more prominent than the base. You do need to be careful though. Shiny things grab our attention and sometimes you won't want that. So later on the pants were unnecessarily grabbing too much attention so I wound up removing all the highlights there. Logic comes into play too. He's wearing cargo shorts, they shouldn't have as strong of highlights as say metal does.

Step 6
Details and Soften Lines
I usually add in all the little details here. This and the last step are really similar. So in this one it has some refinements that should have been in the last step and I actually added details I missed there that should have been here. I also usually color the lines - usually I take a color next to the outline and just go darker and colder for the outline. Sometimes I'll even shade the outline a little bit just to further soften it in areas. Much less so while animating, because again you start to get too many colors to keep track of and if you don't get them correct frame to frame it quickly starts to look like flickering noise.

Step 7
Refine, Polish, and Finish
Refine and just polish it up. This can be either the longest or shortest step depending on how rough I started. I'm basically just adjusting shapes and proportions as much as I can, boosting contrast if it's needed (usually is after the colored line pass), maybe deleting some pixels here and there. Sword could probably use a little more love, but overall that's basically it.



Edited a bunch of times for clarity (I ramble). Also just to note, I don't pay any attention to the exact number of colors I use - it varies depending on what I have to color. My only check mark is if they look nice or not. So if you're entering a pixel-joint competition my way probably won't work.

 

[Aran]

You're a beast, dude. What software do you use to paint and sprite? Photoshop or like Painter, or.... something?

 

[Sonata]

This is really, really good stuff. I love the scenario from your game, show us more!

 

[dadevvtsvre]

This stuff is amazing. Gotta love that kid with his wooden sword. I especially like the panoramas in your game. I've always wanted to be able to do that but I've never had enough patience or practice. How long does it take you to do one of those landscapes?

 

[Tindy]

You're amazing. I'm asking along with Aran - what program do you use? And for that matter, what tablet?