Rhea's Art

[RheaZen]

"Gtfo."

 

 

"... hi."

 

 

 

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Burnt out on helping, I wanna do my own stuff!

 

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Need advice on spriting? I'm not an expert, but I'll help with pointers.

 

HEY PEOPLE IF YOU WANT YOUR STUFF TO BE FOR DRAGON REQUESTS PLEASE MAKE THAT CLEAR SO THAT I CAN GIVE THE CORRECT LEVEL OF CRITIQUE

 

Tip #1: Practice makes perfect.

Tip #2: You can whine, moan, and complain, but don't actually give up. Unless it's on something really small and nitpicky, in which case it's probably not a big deal.

 

Tip #1 example, lol:

 

Helpful links:

Wing anatomy graphics #1 and #2.

Dragon skeleton.

Wyvern skeleton.

 

DC-related spriting links, but still helpful overall:

The Guide to Spriting in Dragon Requests.

The Ultimate Guide to the Dragon Requests Board. Contains Rules & FAQ.

The Completed List. (Great for finding examples and such of how to shade, texture, etc. Learn by looking!)

 

 

 

Other stuff I'm putting in here 'cause they're useful and it's a pain in the ass to keep looking for them:

Fur spriting tutorial

Edited July 19, 2011 by RheaZen

[Sandface]

 

What to do..what to do?

[RheaZen]

The head looks better than last time as it has more shape

 

However, it's a bit large for the body still. For a good idea for proportions, take a look at the sunsong:

 

 

You should also look at real-life animals. Since dragons are imaginary, we have to draw upon other things for anatomy.

 

 

Currently, what you have might be okay for a young dragon, as babies tend to have larger heads in proportion to their body. If you want it to be an adult, you'll have to make the body larger. Also, I suggest leaving the belly scales out until you have the mail body finished.

Edited January 29, 2011 by RheaZen

[EternalSpring]

i liek dis fread, rhea. :3

[Sandface]

The head looks better than last time as it has more shape

 

However, it's a bit large for the body still. For a good idea for proportions, take a look at the sunsong:

 

snip

 

You should also look at real-life animals. Since dragons are imaginary, we have to draw upon other things for anatomy.

 

snip

 

Currently, what you have might be okay for a young dragon, as babies tend to have larger heads in proportion to their body. If you want it to be an adult, you'll have to make the body larger. Also, I suggest leaving the belly scales out until you have the mail body finished.

so basically re-do the whole thing? :/

 

Edited January 29, 2011 by Sandface

[RheaZen]

... possibly.

 

This new one has smoother curves, which is good. However, its body is still quite skinny. Try extending it more, perhaps curving it around like how it is in the sunsong.

[Googleplaxin]

lulz.

Be expecting some of my terrible spriting in here Rhea |D

[Sandface]

:/

 

 

i'll probably just have to start over :/

[RheaZen]

Be seeing you then, Googs xp

 

It might make it easier for you. Or you could practice lining someone else's art, so that you can get practice without the frustration of making it from scratch. Want to try?

[Sandface]

thats someone elses art..not something that i came up with...not sure how lining works..because i know nothing

[RheaZen]

It's quite simple. You just take a sketch (with permission of course) and shrink it down to sprite size (100x100 for DC sprites, though if you're just spriting whatever it doesn't matter much. However, smaller can be easier as there's less you have to work on.) Then, you work over the sketch, using the sketchlines to guide where your spritelines will go.

[Tiki G]

Heya, since no one has given me any feedback in my thread, perhaps you could help me out with this?

 

 

I've tried to fix it but I'm kind of bad at anatomy, so I'm stuck. Any suggestions?

[RheaZen]

Hm... it lacks a defined waist, and the waist would probably be a bit farther down on the dragon. Also, it might help to make the chest a bit deeper, as it's a wyvern and would show off its chest muscles more. The tail also protrudes out a bit stiffly. I'd say get rid of it until you get the body issues resolved, as otherwise you'll end up redoing it over and over again.

[Sandface]

Would i have any sort of chance of making this a sprite? or should i just advoid this? :/

 

 

*edit*

guess i should've cropped that ^^

Edited January 29, 2011 by Sandface

[RheaZen]

o.o Please do crop it, or at least turn it into a link. The former is preferable.

 

It's already a sprite, albeit a rough one, but you can fix it up no problem. Is that what you want? Also, did you make it, or is it a base from somewhere else?

[Xythus]

Awesome!! Thanks for making a thread for spriting advice, it is sure to be useful. :3

[Tiki G]

Hm... it lacks a defined waist, and the waist would probably be a bit farther down on the dragon. Also, it might help to make the chest a bit deeper, as it's a wyvern and would show off its chest muscles more. The tail also protrudes out a bit stiffly. I'd say get rid of it until you get the body issues resolved, as otherwise you'll end up redoing it over and over again.

I have done the tail over and over again, it's one of the things that really bothers me and I could not figure out for the life of me how to fix it, but now I do.

 

Thanks, I'll try to work on it tonight and see if I can fix it.

[RheaZen]

Xythus: That's my hope, haha.

 

tiki: Glad I could help.

 

*Goes to add links to the OP*

[Sandface]

o.o Please do crop it, or at least turn it into a link. The former is preferable.

 

It's already a sprite, albeit a rough one, but you can fix it up no problem. Is that what you want? Also, did you make it, or is it a base from somewhere else?

base

and if the former is preferable..then why should i re-do it?

 

[RheaZen]

Oh, just crop the empty space from the image, 's what I meant.

 

Okay, so it's from that site, huh? No wonder it seemed familiar.

[Sandface]

cropped

[RheaZen]

Better. Now, let's see...

 

The neck is a bit skinny. Add maybe a line or two of pixels to it to thicken it up. The waist is a bit small, giving the body an appearance of tapering, which is odd, so go all "I like big butts and I cannot lie". The forearm closest to us (left arm) is set a little too far forward on the body, so bring it back a little and give it a shoulder.

 

Let's take it a few steps at a time.

[Sandface]

any better?

 

[Tiki G]

Messed with it a bit. Still not finished but would like a little more input before I continue.

 

 

I feel like the back looks a bit better but the chest still bothers me. And something about the legs but I can't quite put my finger on it...

[RheaZen]

Sand: The neck is better, but add a few pixels to the right part of the neck, where it connects to the back; it's still a bit skinny there. The shoulder you added is odd; as for the foreleg, change it so that it seems to have a shoulder closer to the wing joint, as opposed to the neck. This means you'll have to delete and redo a bit. As for the rump, the part you've made larger is good, but it looks like it's in front of the wing membrane - bring the wing membrane down a bit, maybe delete the back line where the wing membrane meets the body, and smooth out the connection of the rump and tail. You might want to bring the tail up to do that, actually.

 

tiki: The thing with the legs is that they're a bit large-looking. Mind if I suggest keeping the tail off until you're done getting crit? It's easier to focus on the body that way. You still don't have as prominent of a waist as there should be, and the chest needs a tad more expansion. Lemme grab an example...

http://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showtopic=110242 Glowy green and black dragon. See how defined the waist and chest are?