Britchik's HK Workshop (updated 1 April)

[Britchik]

Britchik's Workshop

Welcome to my workshop. Most of what you'll find here is HKCP resources that I'm working on. Finished pieces will be available through the HKCP gallery.

Updates
1-4-08: More naga frames added.
25-3-08: Updated the naga with some more frames and edits.
24-3-08: New stuff added!
20-3-08: A minor update to the walls. I've recoloured the highlighted walls, and have added a new wall at the bottom. The stone and wood wall is still in progress; I'm trying to figure out the best way to shade the wood.
11-3-08: Well, in preparation for the eHKCP, I'm working on tileset stuff again, mainly RTP stuff that has been edited / redrawn to fit with HK. I'm working on interior walls first, then I'll move on to wall add-ons (windows, interior doors, etc.).
Also, I'm still struggling with the child's winter cloak, and any help at all would be great, please!

Without further blabbering, here goes.

HKCP

Spoiler: Fur lined cloak - Child

Inspired by seeing RTP snow towns with villagers wearing summer clothing. I'm hoping to do some winter clothes for child, adult female, and adult male, and will possibly do some for the other templates if I have time / if people actually want them.
Edit: Newest version here. I'm still really unsure of the back moving frames (as you can probably tell, since they're unfinished). Any advice or reference pics would be appreciated.

Spoiler: Peasant clothes - Child (Completed)

Done! Here's the pieces separated:

These pieces have been uploaded to the HKCP gallery, plus recolours.

eHKCP

Spoiler: RTP Walls

Nothing too horribly exciting, and still a work in progress, but comments are appreciated. *Updated 20-3-08

aHKCP

Spoiler: Naga WIP (updated 25-3-08)

This is probably the hardest thing I've ever tried to make, so please let me know if something's wrong with it so I can fix it! I used Snake03 from the RTP as a guide for the shape, but repixelled the shading myself.

(25-3-08)
Edit to lessen the highlights and add some more scales:

Also, I've started working on some of the other frames. The animation is... well, not great, so advice would be appreciated. The alignment isn't quite right, because I plan to do that after I've finished all the frames.

(1-4-08)
Most recent update. The animation still needs a little work, but overall I'm happy with the motion, so after a little tinkering and lots of shading the side views will be done! The front views also need to be shaded still, obviously. The back views.... well, let's not go there just yet. (Translation: yikes.)

Credit to Showkaizer for the HK template.

 

[Grathea]

A lot of the bed stuff seems pixelated, like it was just enlarged. Are you going to redo those?

 

[Britchik]

The beds are actually Venetia's from her HK farmhouse tileset. The only things I changed were the headboard and the colours of the sheets. Maybe it's the RTP colour palette that makes it look pixelated? I'll toy with it and see if I can make it look better. Thanks for the comment.

 

[Venetia]

I think the problem with the sheet option colors is that you colored the fold-down blanket, including the shadows of the sheet beneath it, giving it a "glow". So reduce the outline there and you'll be good.

From what I can see on this crummy monitor, the headboard looks fine. Something's bothering me about the texture on the stairs, but I'll take a closer look when I get home since these monitors at work are awful.

 

[Britchik]

Update! I've added a new (completed) tileset. Also the castle town interior has been updated.

 

[Britchik]

(Bump)
Took down the tilesets until the eHKCP gets going, but added a sprite WIP for the HKCP. Any critiques to improve it would be appreciated!

 

[Showkaizer]

I think its a good start to an even greater Idea. I was working on the same thing with a few of my newer sprites.

As for the sprite. I think the hood looks great on the front view. For the back view however, it may be a good Idea to reference an RTP sprite. They have a character with a hood in it that could help a lot with the shading. as it is now, the way you shaded it makes it look like a brown "button"

I think the folds in the cloak may need reconsidering as well. The way they are shaded resembles bat wings instead of cloth. To be honest, since this is fur. it is unlikely that it would fold that much or even at all really. I think all you need to do is capture the shape of the body underneath it through shading.

 

[Venetia]

Yeah, I agree. Really tone down the shadows in the "pleats" of the cape, and add some more rounded highlights. Also a round highlight on the back of the head would make the button-ish look go away. Lastly I think the fur fringes need a little outlining.

But I love the idea and it's so cute :D

 

[Britchik]

Thanks for the comments! Because I (apparently) have no life, I've already tried to make some changes:

Image removed, see top post for most recent update.

The old ones are on the left, new ones on the right. Is this any better? I think the reason I was using such dark colours in the folds was because some of my reference pictures were velvet, and the shadows looked super dark. Here are some of the other reference pics I was using, if anyone's interested:

http://www.cloakmaker.com/avail_cloaks.html

 

[Akaire]

I think it's looking better.  But for the folds, they still look a bit 'jaggy' to me, though not as much as before.  When I was working on some hems and had the same problem, I tried to smooth it out like this:

Spoiler

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/la2citrus/hem1.gif[/img]The "after" picture is first, then the "before". Oops.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/ ... s/hem2.gif[/img]

I'm kind of new to it too, so my example might not be perfect.
You also may want to add back a bit more shadow on the right side of the cloak so that it's consistent with the level of shadow on the hood.  If you'd like, I could post a rough edit of a slightly different way to shade the cloak.

Despite that, I think it's a pretty cute piece and I'm looking forward to seeing more Winter clothes.  :smile:

 

[Britchik]

Akaire: Yes, please! I love your shading style, so any help on this one would be appreciated. Somehow I keep wanting to sprite things that are a bit over my head... Heh, no wonder it takes me awhile to finish things!

 

[Akaire]

Nah, it's good to challenge yourself sometimes.  And thanks for the compliment, I really appreciate it.  :smile:

Here's the edit:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/ ... tcloak.png[/img]
Taking from Showkaizer and Venetia's crits, I tried to make the folds a little softer and added rounded highlights.  Most of the lines of shadow along the folds don't connect, but rather taper off.  Again, my example is probably not perfect, but I hope it helps. <Insert Disclaimer> 

 

[Grathea]

Well, for the hood in the back view, here's what I did on a piece of mine.
http://www.pixelcocktail.com/HKCP/Cloth ... ratheo.png[/img]
...Now that I look at this, I really need to fix the side-views of the hood.

 

[Britchik]

Whee for having way too much time on my hands at the moment...
Updated first post with cloak edit, and some peasant clothes I've started working on.

 

[Tassadar]

The first frame of the cloak is looking much better. The only thing I can really see that's looking 'wrong' is that there's no shading under the clothes.

 

[Britchik]

Tassadar: Thanks! And a quick comment on the shading, there's shading under the cloak's hood, but not the rest because it's meant to go over other clothing. I just plain forgot to do it for the peasant clothes though, so thanks for pointing that out. :smile:


Edit to avoid double-posting: Updated first post.

 

[Britchik]

Update! Child's peasant outfit has been finished, just looking for anything that looks out of place before recolouring. Also, I'm having a bit of trouble with the back of the cloak, any suggestions?

 

[Britchik]

Another update, some eHKCP stuff this time. Nothing really exciting, but hopefully useful. :smile:

 

[Grathea]

They look good to me, Britch.

However, the shadow at the base of the boards in the first few walls seems a little ...odd... to me. Maybe have it either a touch lighter or with an intermediate shade at the edges?
The only other problem I can find is with the boards around the fort area...thing.
On the right, just before they turn to the side, the last board seems a little unusually lined up. Maybe it'd be better for it to be turned a little more, almost tangent to the wall?

 

[Venetia]

These are great add-ons. I'll try to figure out how you can clean up that cloak a little in the backview. I can probably show you that on Thursday (I have to do a bunch of crap tomorrow D. I agree about gratheo's comments, and also I think the "highlighted" walls need a little more contast; they look a bit washed-out.

VERY VERY useful though!!!!