Show off your graphics!

Diretooth · Post by **Diretooth** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 3:30 pm

Thanks TMC. (I always have trouble with links...) Anyway, I'm fairly good with proportions if I can do them right, but I'm not so good with legs. (I'll probably need to do an extensive drawing-thing on legs to learn how they work, what sorts of weird angles they can get into and whatnot.

@Sheamkkennedy:
Thanks. The gradient is inspired by Final Fantasy, and I wanted to evoke a little bit of that old-school nostalgia before delivering something that would deliver a world that is both subtle and amazing, something memorable enough that people would enjoy it over and over again.

Meh, I tend to ramble on about the eggs the chicken has yet to lay.

EDIT:
Okay, getting some feedback on some of my early graphics.
I know the sidewalk looks like crap, but it's a placeholder until I can make it look decent. There's no logic to the placement, it's all there to show how it looks. (I have not begun on houses yet, because houses are evil and want me insane.)

I hope that the image will appear this time.

Diretooth · Post by **Diretooth** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 5:20 am

Okay, I made my first attempt at a portrait for my character, Frygg Vu Kodlak. As I've given up on getting images to show for once, I'm just going to post the link to the page and silently rage against how annoying the image thing is.
Frygg

*Incoherent cursing at the image thing.*

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 5:31 am

and here's how I did that:

Code: Select all

&#91;img&#93;http&#58;//i161.photobucket.com/albums/t202/Kris_Knox/Drakenmoorportrait0_zps46167106.png&#91;/img&#93;

Good luck in your future posting!

Diretooth · Post by **Diretooth** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 5:41 am

Why am I the only one that it doesn't work for?

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 6:05 am

Because you're copying the text from the address bar and putting it in between the img tags. You should put a direct link to the image, not the image page, in the img tags. Better yet, as you're using photobucket, use the tool they provide. Should be on the right and labeled "IMG" with some text beside it.

Diretooth · Post by **Diretooth** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 6:07 am

I honestly did not notice that.

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 6:14 am

Heh, yeah, can be a bit easy to miss at first.

Diretooth · Post by **Diretooth** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 6:17 am

Like this?

YAY!

Crappy sidewalk is crappy. :P But, is a decent placeholder.

sheamkennedy · Post by **sheamkennedy** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 2:55 pm

Here's a video of my game until now. I've limited the palette, added some more animation, and expanded on to the map a bit. Let me know what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjHYhCf ... hH6wejO_Rr

I may add a moon to the sky but feel it could get a bit cluttered. Also if I did so I'd like to have some sort of parallax and feel it may be more work than it's worth. We'll see...

Post by **TMC** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 4:27 pm

Diretooth wrote:Like this?

Is the grey stuff snow? If so, I think it should definitely have much less texture.

I actually like the sidewalk tiles, while random-noise textured tiles are a little dull. One thing you can do to improve the look of such grass tiles is to create several alternative tiles and place them randomly (this is fairly time consuming though, and there's no tool in teh map editor to speed it up).

sheamkennedy wrote:Also if I did so I'd like to have some sort of parallax and feel it may be more work than it's worth. We'll see...

James posted a script for parallax somewhere. It should be quite straightforward to add.

Diretooth · Post by **Diretooth** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 4:45 pm

I honestly don't like the sidewalk tiles and have them only as a placeholder. (Can't seem to get them right...)

The whitish-gray tiles are snow and are reminiscent of the large fields of snow I saw in Iowa.

sheamkennedy · Post by **sheamkennedy** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 7:10 pm

TMC wrote: James posted a script for parallax somewhere. It should be quite straightforward to add.

Thanks. I'll look it up and see if I can implement it.

BMR · Post by **BMR** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 6:04 am

Cyclops evolution!

Drawing time ≈ 2 hrs

And the step-by-step that I might write another guide to if I have the time.

I have identified legs and feet as one of my major weaknesses. I will study those in other sprites now in order to learn how to do them right.

Meowskivich · Post by **Meowskivich** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 6:11 am

to let you know, hands, legs, and feet are common major weaknesses in artists, so we can understand. and that cyclops looks dandy only....where's the eye?

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 6:26 am

Great work, BMR. Not to be a nag, but if you do choose to do another guide there's a few parts I'm particularly curious about. Namely, how do you make the decisions you do when you're still in the "lineart" phase?

I took the liberty of ripping these graphics from the animated gif you posted. What I mean to ask is, when you're making graphic A do you use some kind of reference image or do you just instinctively know more or less what a person looks like?

And then when you go from Step A to Step B, I notice that the basic pose changes somewhat significantly. How do you decide, for instance, to lower that left elbow so much compared to Step A? Or take his collarbone from being kind of shrimpy in B and C, and turn it into the awesome steroid looking thing we've got in D? And how do you keep from overlapping the parts you've already drawn? Do you use the OHR Editor, do you use layers? Keep lots of backups?

These are the steps that are the most mystifying to me and I'd be curious to know what kind of tools or logic you use when you're still in the "doing the outline" phase as opposed to filling in and coloring.