my second attempt at a custom character.

[serithica]

I really do'nt know how to shade or blend colors right to get that realistic look. But I hope you guys can tell me if I am off to A good start. I'm using the muscular half kaizer template credit to ShowKaizer and Tana.
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l195/ ... sprite.png[/IMG]

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l195/ ... nshot1.jpg[/IMG]

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l195/ ... nshot2.jpg[/IMG]

If this doesnt look good ill probably give up on pixel art and just print off this template and draw how I want it to look and scan the finished product.

 

[geox-2.0]

im not good with anything but small templates, but I still think you should shade it

 

[Venetia]

No no no, you've got it backwards. Don't worry about shading yet. Draw the outline, plan your palette, fill it, revise outlines, and THEN shade.

Here is a very quick example. Yes, I made it. Yes, it took about 5 minutes. It's just to give a quick rundown.

http://pixelcocktail.com/hosted_items/i ... hade01.png[/IMG] First, draw the outline. Consider outlining shines as well as the overall outline.

Next, find a palette. I used one from Sparkling Ice. She says credit isn't necessary but it is appreciated.

http://pixelcocktail.com/hosted_items/i ... hade02.png[/IMG] Next, find the middle color of your palette. Fill your shape with that. If you have bright shines, fill that with the brightest color.

http://pixelcocktail.com/hosted_items/i ... hade03.png[/IMG] 4th, revise your outlines using more colors in the palette. Here I used the next darkest color and the next lightest for the shine, then one somewhere more towards the middle for the portion of the ball closest to the light source.

http://pixelcocktail.com/hosted_items/i ... hade04.png[/IMG] 5th, outline and fill the brightest portion and the darkest portion of the object. This is to prevent pillow shading. Never stray from the palette, remember.

http://pixelcocktail.com/hosted_items/i ... hade05.png[/IMG] Using a 1x1 dither pattern, flesh out your object by adding more shading. If your object is metal, don't dither, but rather use bands of color.

http://pixelcocktail.com/hosted_items/i ... hade06.png[/IMG] Go down the line in the palette and your object will be even more defined and well-shaded! Don't stress over being perfect in your dither pattern. Imperfections are the spice of life :p. Note that if you are trying to follow the gRTP thing, you can only use 3 colors. That kinda means you have to stop before this step. I personally don't like using 3 colors, but it is much faster than the way I do stuff.


I hope that helps.

:#

 

[serithica]

yea this helps somewhat. but what is a 1x1 dither pattern? im using a program called graphics gale. I'm still confused on how to go about what colors to use for shading, for example, my characters armor is black metal and grey. I havent decided on how I want to make the shirt or pants and boots yet. or what colors I should be using. I really don't know how to use the pallete correctly.

 

[Venetia]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... d_blue.png[/IMG] <<< These are dither patterns. The one that almost looks purple because the red and blue colors are only 1 pixel by 1 pixel? That's a 1x1 dither pattern. Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dithering for more info on dithering.

Spoiler: Big Bad Armor Reference

http://teza1.free.fr/bc/T6/warrior/orcf.jpg[/IMG]

Here is some armor. I just plugged "evil armor" into Google Images. You can also use http://www.live.com to find images. Just scroll through the images until you see something you like, or else you can sketch it out. When you start getting good at it, you lose the need for reference pictures. You don't need to use every single element of a reference picture. You can mix and match to your liking.

I won't go so far as to draw this for you, but basically you just look at the lines in the picture and go from that. Watch how the lines move and outline it. Once it's outlined you've got the hardest part done. Just remember to try and keep the outlines as thin as possible, not too jaggy.

Look at this Pixel Art Tutorial: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/paintshoppro/ig/rosecottage/01begin.htm

Spoiler: Un-Shaded Outline Example

http://z.about.com/d/graphicssoft/1/0/L/j/4/ak23-03basecolor.gif[/IMG]

You see? Outlines with fills. THEN you can shade.

And I pretty much handed you a link to a huge number of palettes that are specifically designed for pixel art (Sparkling Ice), so you can't really say you don't know how to work with palettes. I kinda suck at finding good colors, too, but just use other things as references for palettes. Hell, you can use the reference picture. Just pick about 8-9 (or 3 colors for gRTP), ranging from dark to light, and use them. You use a palette for the different parts of the pixel art, I'm not saying to use 8 colors total for the entire dude.

Just try it. You'll get better with practice. Don't expect to show up Tana or Showkaizer in one sitting! :D

 

[serithica]

now this was very helpfull. thank you very much. I appreciate it Venetia.

 

[Venetia]

That's what I like to do .

Post your progress, I'd like to see it! :#