Hair Highlights Confusion: Help Appreciated. :)

[Stripes]

Um hey there everyone. :D
I wouldn't really call this a request, since I view it more like an issue I need help with. I don't think it'd that hard either ( . . . I think) if you're good with shading; that's why I won't use the request form. I can easily clarify without it. ^^

So I've been working on the heroine of my game, but I needed to add the hair. As I was looking through the RTP, Angel04's hairstyle interested me, so I went ahead and frankensprited the first frame on a blank template to see what I can do to make it fit my expectations. Here's where my efforts have reached:

(Highlights Removed | Recolored | Original)

My eyes aren't that inexperienced, so I was able to tell that the original's hair was pillowshaded, with the highlights serving as the base light color - which was serving as anti-aliasing for the darker outline. Even after recoloring with softer colors, the problem persisted, so I went ahead and removed the highlights altogether, filling it with the second lightest color. After minor editing, I tried to place the highlights properly, but it wouldn't look right at all.
Here's where you come in. I need help placing the highlights on the sprite to the left in a way so as to leave it normal and more fitting with the rest of the sprites and RTP. So the request is simply to place the lightest color in the palette (placed at the upper right corner of the frame) properly on the hair as highlights. I only need this frame as well, as I've got the rest figured out.

I hope this didn't seem so complicated. :S If anyone needs more clarification, I'd be more than glad to do so, and thanks in advance to anyone who can spare the time to help. ^^ Also, even though this seems so minor, I'm willing to give credit for it. ^^

 

[RavenTDA]

I won't do it for you, but I can offer you pointers. Your outlines are good but then all of your shading is wrong. You're having trouble placing the highlights because the rest isn't right. My suggestion to you would be to look at other sprites from the rtp and see how they do the shading as a whole. What you have there is pillow shading. The shading is probably the harder thing to do... highlights are just a "halo" around the head. It'll never look right until you fix the original pillow shading. Don't think of hair as strands on sprites but rather the object as clumps and as a whole. Just look at the other sprites close up. You seem to do well so far. In the long run it'll be better if you can do it yourself.

 

[Stripes]

The surprising thing is that the hairstyle originally came from the RTP, and can be seen on the right before any editing. I recolored it to the color I wanted but the problem persisted, as I had expected it to do (that would be on the middle), so I went ahead and removed the highlights hoping to try doing so myself.

I know that the highlights are supposed to be a halo around the sprite's head, but when I tried doing that on the sprite to the left, it looked out of place with other sprites. I came here asking for some help in order to learn from another user's successful attempt, and see what I did wrong when I tried. I still need help with this, so if you can go into more detail with your explanation on highlights and how to put them accordingly, it'd really be helpful to me. Otherwise, I'd really appreciate it if you'd show me how I was supposed to do it by trying to apply the highlights on the hairstyle to the left, which currently lacks any highlights of any sort.

Thanks for replying though, I really appreciate your help. ^^

 

[Holder]

I gave it a bit of a go for you, I've been re-wroking with RTP recently (though I still hate the way some things are done with it) so I know it can be a pain to duplicate.

I tilted the halo with the parting as the far left is lower than the fringe, and also extended it down where it hangs over the face.
Also I made the highlight colour more towards yellow and raised the Saturation and Luminance

Sorry about the edit image size, I just did a quick gyazo :grin:

 

[Stripes]

Thank you so much Holder! This looks amazing! :D I can definitely see where I went wrong with my edits now, thank you so so much! ^^
Yeah, the RTP is hard to mess around with, each sprite seems to be done in a slightly different manner. Your edit looks great though, I love how you've made the highlights look, he hair's so shiny now~ :D Time for me to go back to GIMP to complete the sprite then. Thank you so much! ^^

How do you prefer to be credited btw? I really appreciate your help. ^^

 

[Holder]

Just a 'Project couldn't be complete without' title should do :wink:
Nah don't worry about it, I'm just glad you're able to learn from it.

In regards to GIMP I'm not sure how the colour select is done but if you're using RGB then try to alter it to HSL, it helps choosing highlights and shade.

 

[Stripes]

Thank you Holder! :D
I'll be sure to give you credit then. lol Nah, don't worry, I will. XD