Welcome to HBGames, a leading amateur game development forum and Discord server. All are welcome, and amongst our ranks you will find experts in their field from all aspects of video game design and development.
Because this thread will just die off quickly, before I can actually set up my "Art Thread", I decided to share some artwork I've been developing for the project "Leekspin" by Dopples. Andy6000 (Whom is obviously a member here) chose a character from FLCL. The versions below are 'chibi-fied' versions of that character with details added. My style was pretty unstable from October to now and was changing pretty much every time I drew something. I'm not someone who really watches Anime or reads Manga on a regular occasion.
The main reason I'm essentially posting this is for:
i) Criticism (Constructive).
ii) Show off some of Leekspin's over-the-top characters.
Looking back at this image, which was created roughly 4 to 5 months ago, I really have trouble with it. Proportions, lighting, colour, lineart / contour, the works really.
You've been whoring this out on irc, and you know I love it. The style is amazing- it's a serious departure from your other anime-styled stuff, and if you continue working with this style, you can definitely get someting unique going on.
Wow I really dig that second one! The only thing I can really suggest is that the casing is going in the wrong direction - casings will fly out to the right, only flipping upward slightly (and believe me, I've had enough hot casings fly down my shirt and between my face and glasses from the guy to my left on the firing line to have taken this to heart), so when he fires the gun upside down like that the casing should be positioned diagonally away from the point where he fired it. That will be somewhat behind him too since he's obviously in motion, meaning your casing should be, say, somewhere over or to the side of his torso at this point.
Also of note, the position of the slide on the right gun is all the way to the rear, indicating he's empty (the motion of the slide on a semi-auto handgun is so fast it's nearly impossible to catch it in that fully rear position otherwise). I assume that's what you were going for, in which case I suggest showing some more of the casings from the bullets he's fired in a trail behind him to help indicate motion. Though with his hair hanging downward he could also easily be hanging from his midsection on a rope, so I may have this whole thing wrong!
So assuming I don't have it all wrong for a second, his hair also should not be hanging downward. If I do and he is hanging, my other suggestions stand but place the casing(s) in appropriate places :D
Edit: Looking back at the gun a little more, the design, I don't want to say it's wrong but it's definitely "unique". The major error is on the right gun, you have the slide locked to the rear but the barrel is penetrating through it; the barrel actually terminates right over the trigger, that empty section on the top of the slide is there to release the casings during the firing action and there's nothing inside it. You should be seeing the back side of the slide and the firing chamber - what happens in that motion is that the slide goes back, pushing the hammer back and recocking the gun, and then it's pushed back forward by a spring around the smaller cylinder below the barrel. Er, hang on I'm going to find you a reference photo.
Okay here we go, this is a Beretta M9, I picked it since it's the service pistol I used to carry and I'm most familiar with it. The top piece there is the slide, the second piece is the barrel, the third piece is the shaft and spring that provides the forward tension to push the slide back during the last part of the firing action.
This one shows you what happens on the inside. When you fire the slide is pushed back by the force of the bullet, which lifts and ejects the casing and recocks the hammer. Then that spring pushes the slide back forward, which lifts a new round out of the magazine and into place in the firing chamber (the magazine is pushing up on the shell with another small spring inside).
Whew I hope that's clear to you. I'm not a gun nut, btw...
It's a character design and he's doing a flip per-se. So in all honesty the guns don't matter. I don't want me style to be aiming toward realistic (for Leekspin) either.
