The sprite practice thread.

[Rainstarkitty]

Was the comment about the lines having places more than one pixel thick for the raccoon, or the water thing? If it was for the water thing, I thought I had gotten the lines right. Is it a general problem where I need to go back and take a closer look at the whole thing, or just a couple spots? If so, could you tell me or circle where so that I can better identify how it looks when it's off?

 

If it was the raccoon, I know those lines were really messy, I just wanted to do some shading, musculature, and most importantly practice with furry textures. It wasn't supposed to be a high quality product, just a tool for certain elements to be practiced I'll fix the lines for that tonight or tomorrow probably as line touch-up practice, but since I wasn't working on lines at the time I didn't bother making them spotless.

I was talking about both. And it's mainly a general problem. I would describe exactly where and what to do, but my head hurts really bad right now and I can barely think enough to type this. Gah, I'll come back on when I feel a little better. x_x

 

Blessed Be! ~Rain

[tinakhal]

Was the comment about the lines having places more than one pixel thick for the raccoon, or the water thing? If it was for the water thing, I thought I had gotten the lines right. Is it a general problem where I need to go back and take a closer look at the whole thing, or just a couple spots? If so, could you tell me or circle where so that I can better identify how it looks when it's off?

 

If it was the raccoon, I know those lines were really messy, I just wanted to do some shading, musculature, and most importantly practice with furry textures. It wasn't supposed to be a high quality product, just a tool for certain elements to be practiced I'll fix the lines for that tonight or tomorrow probably as line touch-up practice, but since I wasn't working on lines at the time I didn't bother making them spotless.

I don't think you're quite grasping what Rain is saying. Most of the outline is two pixels thick. It should be only one pixel thick. *Tries to think of a way to explain that.*

 

Ok, so here is your sprite, zoomed in:

Notice how on the right, the sprites are two pixels thick. Those are extra, unnecessary pixels.

 

Here is a one pixel version:

Mind you, I did it in a couple minutes, so it's not that good, but it still demonstrates the point, right? [i didn't fix them all, as that would take too long, and I think I fixed just enough to be sufficient knowledge for you to get the point.]

 

Does that help explain?

Edited August 9, 2011 by tinakhal

[00n0b0dy]

Yes! I see what you mean now. That was intentional, and a technical error on my part. Thanks for the pointer!

[Whitefire]

everything hates me.

[00n0b0dy]

Haven't had as much time as I'd hoped to practice lately. Are these lines any better?

 

There are still some places where there are lines two pixels thick, but those were parts with details that couldn't be fully defined otherwise in my humble opinion. Comments very welcome!

Edited August 15, 2011 by 00n0b0dy

[Obscure_Trash]

Pretty nice!

 

Most of the work now is smoothing the lines. The guide here might help explain how to smooth those curves. (Curves are hard!)

[Tiki G]

Well I've been working on this for a few days here and there and just thought I would get some opinions on it. I'm trying to learn how to define muscles a little better.

 

This is from a few months ago when I first made the sprite:

 

And this is after a few revisions to the sprite and new shading:

 

I'm not really sure how to shade the body or the tail. So I'm kind of stuck right now. Any pointers would be much appreciated.

[sapphiredragon73]

tiki- the base of the tail looks flat, then it looks like it rounds out. was that the effect you were going for? maybe even shading all around, with similar highlights on all of the tail?

[Tiki G]

I hadn't really worked on the tail too much, as I wasn't sure about how to shade it. I was really working on the leg, face, and neck/chest muscles mostly. Which is why the mid section isn't very shaded either. I'm not sure how to go about doing it quite yet. =\

[Skellybones]

 

Wolfsbane dragon female... I haven't finished my "shading" but I was looking for crits...

The yellow circle is the light source... I'm really happy with the top of the wing but not with the rest of it...

Help????

[Tiki G]

Shaded the tail some more:

 

Does it look any better?

[dragonfreak]

I like dragons Spam removed

Edited August 29, 2011 by NixAyum

[Snow Plow]

Can someone help me with this?

The lines are really rough, but I'm not sure of how to fix them.

[Siryuki]

Yay thread is alive, first of all what I notice about it at first, is that really twisted claw it has, that is looking back while it should be looking front,

then the lines on the tail are really jaggy looking, maybe try making them more curvy and less diagonal.

[Snow Plow]

How's this?

The tail and feet are still giving me trouble. I'm really not sure how to get the tail at the correct angle without allowing it to be jaggy.

Edited September 11, 2011 by Snow Plow

[Anarya-Ameana]

So we're allowed to take these sketches and practice on them? (As long as we only post them on this thread and don't take credit for the sketches, etc.?)

 

Because I can definitely use the practice and I fell in love with two sketches that I'd love to practice spriting on, ^^

[sapphiredragon73]

tiki- looks a lot better. now the body looks a bit flat, though

[SpeedXaaa]

While I'm...really not new to pixel art at all, I saw this and thought it wouldn't hurt to try one of these and see how I do with it. Don't really get into dragons much.

After all, I don't give a crap about how good or awesome you may be. You always need to challenge yourself to do / work with something different and try to improve at it.

(See first sketch on the front page; that's this...though I guess that's obvious.)

Bottom-left is the final. Coloring's not necessarily vivid, per se; I moreso imagined this dragon to have a more sickly yellow color. The streak was added in as a bonus to make it a little less bland and actually turned out a little better than I had expected, really....

 

Just the thing I tend to get mixed up a bit is the muscle toning. Luckily, though, I had this convenient reference open in a new tab which helped drastically, but please let me know if you see any errors relating to such.

[Whitefire]

...

 

>_>

 

<_<

 

cannot for the life of me figure out how to shade the chest.

 

the area between the near foreleg, the far foreleg, and where the neck-depression ends.

 

also thinking about making the four darkest shades more blue :L [btw, im focusing on the dark green/body... the markings and feathers/fur will be attempted later]

 

 

light source is upper left.

 

EDIT: btw, im constantly tweeking this [even as i edit this ive changed quite a bit :L] so... yeah...

Edited September 25, 2011 by Whitefire

[Saloiq]

cannot for the life of me figure out how to shade the chest.

 

the area between the near foreleg, the far foreleg, and where the neck-depression ends.

 

also thinking about making the four darkest shades more blue :L [btw, im focusing on the dark green/body... the markings and feathers/fur will be attempted later]

 

 

light source is upper left.

I'm no expert, but I think you should reduce the area of the darkest green in the chest area, and replace it with the next darkest green so it matches the curve of the belly after the leg. Like this: (I didn't think I explained it well, so I tried to show what I meant. Tell me if you're not okay with me editing your work so I can remove it. >_<)

Edited September 25, 2011 by Saloiq

[Whitefire]

explanation-edits are fine :L

 

theres an idea... ima go try that.

 

 

EDIT:

 

myu?

 

EDIT2:

 

shaded the markings. if no one says anything different and i cant find anything, then the dark green and green shading is done :L

 

normal shades | blue hue

 

|

Edited September 25, 2011 by Whitefire

[Zovesta]

SpeedXaaa: Very nice, but some of the shading seems off, given where the lightsource seems to be coming from.

 

Whitefire: Can't think of anything to crit right now!

 

Snow Plow: The anatomy on the back front leg seems a little strange. Where'd its chest go? Also, yeah, quite a few jagged lines. If it doesn't look smooth enough that proper line colouring would fix it, it might be better to just plain erase and tweak the specific area.

 

tikigurl: Pretty cute so far, but it's missing the range of colour hue that shading needs, and its muscles don't seem properly shaded.

[Whitefire]

Fantastic.

 

 

Yellowed the brightest highlight one the dark green.

 

Attempted shading on feather-things and fur. I now hate fur. Fur hates me back.

[Tiki G]

>

 

I've still been working on this here and there. I can't work on it longer than an hour though, because then it just starts to get worse and worse.

 

I'm trying to experiment with blending, dithering, hues, shadows (which is the hardest for me, always has been) and all that fancy stuff. I'm still no where near good, but I'd like to think I'm getting there.

 

I somehow managed to give the back leg a 'shiny' look to it, but cannot, for the life of me, do it again.

Edited September 28, 2011 by tikigurl91

[Zovesta]

Looks great so far, tikigurl. I think more highlights on the back would work, though, since the light seems to come from the top of the picture.

 

Looks fantastic, Whitefire. :3