A: Eddie Riggs

Karuji

So I decided to take the main character from my favourite video game. After a day of studying business I decided to yell FUCK IT IMA MAKE ME SOME CRAPPY PIXELS!!!!!

So in terms of reference




And the result (Which I almost don't want to post.)





First iteration





Second iteration





Third iteration





Fourth iteration





Fifth iteration





Sixth iteration





Seventh iteration





Eighth iteration





Ninth iteration





Tenth iteration





Eleventh iteration





Twelfth iteration





Thirteenth iteration (will it never end, I don't want it to)

Tuism

Oh so you mean you're doing Jack Black? :P

Suggestion - bigger, broader shoulders, smaller legs :) The dude looks like he has a top-heavier build (unlick Jack Black lol)

Get more consistent in your use of outline - some bits are broken. And then the one side of his head is more sloped than the other - the hair is fine, but the outline should remain the same both side cos he's not asymmetrical.

Cool start dude :)

Rigormortis

Moar Biceps!!!! That is all.

Karuji

So Eddie went to the Gym, and sho is is ripped now boy!

Fengol

I looks like he's been stung by bees; his forearms are swollen.

I think the shoulders should carry the bulk rather than the bicep for pixel art. His pecs should also be bigger than his waist giving his upper body a bit of a V-shape and make him look top heavy like the reference pics

His hair should also go all around the back of his head, instead of just on the sides.

Otherwise looking good!

Nandrew

Cool! I'd say overall his head should be lower and sink into his shoulders a little more, based on the reference material ... a little more, uh, no-neck-ness needed maybe :P

Tachyon

Nice 1, what everyone else said but then: why is he wearing a suit? Also, from your reference he should have white sneakers.

Karuji

God those steroids wear off fast





@Tachyon only the toe of the sneaker is really white. Maybe the sole as well, but I think the white right at the bottom would look rather weird.

I'm actually rather happy with this one! Also characters who wear just black is fucking hard :<

Rigormortis

Woah! Looks much better. Well done :)

You could put a black outline around the bottom of the shoe to make it look like white sole?

Karuji

@Rigortormis true, and I have the space since I dropped the head height. But I have to get back to studying now so next iteration later today.

edg3

That looks much better, holy crap.

Also, rather than the black outline you could even make the background a grey (or rather a dark red or something) to emphasise the other colours and show off the white soles too.

Nandrew

Awesome. I like that you're going for "givin' the horns", but I'd recommend if you're going that route you should maybe consider just having one hand doing it, not both (with the limited number of pixels, they can look like strange pincer-hands or something).

Fengol

Definitely a huge improvement! Removing the black outline was also a good move

Karuji

So I changed the colours to be more in line with the reference. Trying to add some colour differentiation in the individual sprite itself.





@Nandrew actually in terms of throwing horns it is in correct as the thumb is protruding. But for the art I want a thumb.

Tuism

Black outlines are an easy way to frame characters but it seems often to destroy the creative possibilities. Agreed with removal :)

Try to use greys on the shoes instead of the black edges to get the sneaker white tip colour.

In terms of throwing horn, try lift his one arm up? :)

retroFuture

The color differentiation is a good idea, but rather use it to accentuate the shape of the whole arm, rather than just the biceps. This way makes it look a bit blotchy (especially on such a small image), whereas working on the arm as a whole will give it mass. Add the shadow to the inner part of the arms.

retroFuture

Also... use the same flesh shadow to give him his 5'o clock shadow.

Karuji

@Tuism it was really useful when I was trying to get the shape of the character down. I started by trying to make a silhouette. And I started adding colour from there. But once I had the colour and proportions filled it did really become a draw back and Eddie looks much better for it.

Will use more grey on the shoes in the next iteration.

I will eventually raise the arm, but baby steps here. No use to jump to using pointers before you understand arrays.

@retroFuture any tips, or links, on how I can do that? Improving the colouring (to accentuate the body and such) is really what I want to work on now before I head onto positioning the body.

And back to business. Thank the gods for pixel art. It's the only thing keeping me happy today.

Tuism

uh oh, what's a pointer? guess I gotta look it up. Am doing arrays now though :)

Rigormortis

@Tuism, don't even worry about it. :P Pointers are the stuff that "smart" programmers use to give themselves terrible headaches.

But it's basically a RAM memory address you can pass around and stuff.

retroFuture

Try applying this kind of shading. Also, I thought I should add some pixels to the forearm and the armpit to balance to mass a bit.

Rigormortis

@retroFuture, damn you artists for making stuff look so easy! :D

retroFuture

The more you practice and learn basic principles... the easier it gets :)

Rigormortis

I still hate you though. :P

Rigormortis

@Karuji, are you planning on putting in the axe/guitar?

Karuji

All things in due time. I want to get as close to the second reference as I can, then if there is time and such I will try and make a 64x64 pixel one with more detail and such. I'm having a lot of fun learning and iterating on this :D

retroFuture

@Rigormortis ... and I hate you too <3

Karuji

Quick update with some better shading.

retroFuture

Can't comment in much detail right now, but it looks much better. I suggest that the 5'o clock shadow be a solid color and not a dithered 'checkerboard' pattern. BTW... this may be a bit advanced, but well worth studying, the concept of pixel-banding. http://www.pixel.schlet.net/#C2 I see this banding effect on the upper arms on the T-shirt. I still maintain that you should add pixels to the forearm and underarm as I showed in my example I gave you.

retroFuture

Look at the discussion at the 'Spelunky' example. That gives you a good idea on what pixel banding is.

retroFuture

Note: In spite of my (somewhat limited) experience with producing pixel art, I am only gradually coming to grips with the concept of pixel-banding and the means to remedy it.

retroFuture

Eddies' pants look pretty good though :)

Tuism

Wow dude that's an awesome article, puts to words so many good ideas and stuff to look out for. Awesome :)

retroFuture

@Tuism I totally agree, it's one of the best things I've read about the finer technical side of pixel illustration. I'm still learning to apply it to my work. (I've had to rework my explosion effects, which were a mass of pixel bands.)

Rigormortis

@Karuji, I can't critique much as you surpassed my expertise, but I can say it's looking better and better.

@RetroFuture...no need to get personal :P Thanks for linking the article. I will work through it and then try to work on my entry some more. :)

Tuism

The current dithering makes them look like stubbles, which isn't necessarily wrong :) I'd look at the arm, as a rule, shoulders should be at least same size as arms :) its looking much improved! :)

Karuji

@retroFuture Banding is currently making my head hurt, but it was a really great read! Thanks a bunch :D

@Rigormortis please excuse retroFuture pseudo-hostile social interactions is his way of being friends.

@Tuism I thought the shoulder is the same size as the arm O_o could you elaborate on your point a bit for for the artistically retarded. Would really like to get this down before I start working on the pose and the axes.

TasticLuc

This looks great! well done. Can you give him some wrist straps? (just for lore reasons). But this is a a great piece of work! :)

Karuji

@TasticLuc the wrist straps are coming. I just want to have the skin colour right before I add them.

Tuism

it feels that the appendage known as an arm starts small, gets really big/swollen, then becomes smaller again. Where it's big is where anatomy tells me it's at its smallest (elbow joint), no matter what size the arm is. The shoulder looks really small...

Does that help?

creative630

@Karuji Excellent choice of character! The latest versions are looking great, keep it up!

@retroFuture What have you done?! I see banding everywhere now!

Karuji

@Tuism helped a lot! Though I really couldn't find a way to narrow for an elbow so I tried to shade it in. Also bulked the shoulders a bit, and made the forearms a bit thicker to try and minimize the lack of elbow.

retroFuture

It is important to simplify the shapes of small pixel illustrations. Simplifying the arm by removing the elbow will still leave you with the impression of a big, bulky arm. The overall form guides the rest of the smaller details. The thumbs can also be safely removed whilst still retaining the impression of a hand.

Karuji

So got around to adding the wrist band. Also did a lot of recolouring. I'm not really sure what I feel the spiky wristband. Thoughts?

Denzil

@Karuji woah this is beginning to really look amazing. I doubt I'd be able to do this!

I like this spiky wrist band!

dislekcia

I kinda feel like his head is too long and his shoulders are too narrow vertically. There's no hulking going on here, which is kinda what Riggs is all about.

What would it look like if you didn't give him individual eyes and sorta just hinted at a brow-line, like the headbangers in the actual game have?

Tuism

Hmmmmm the thing with the arms... They just don't seem to connect right. The shoulder part FEELS like it has a smaller joint between the shoulder and the body and the shoulder and the rest of the arm. Then the arms seem too thick for what the body is - YES widen the body maybe the rest will proportionally make better sense. He right now feels like a skinny guy with two huge arms. The body needs to support those arms to be hulking.

By wanting the shoulders to be wider I meant the actual rounded bits - the pointy bits you have actually look like shoulderpads from the 70s more than actual shoulders, or really big lapels for a cool suit. The grey bits are the shoulders.

The wrist strap is cool, but the one side si bigger than the other - should that be the case?

And in almost all cases of low-res art, the fist bends inwards not outwards, if that makes sense. Towards the body, by 1 pixel maybe.

Maybe make his pants a shade lighter to see that they're actually a different colour - right now they're very black-like.

Keep it up dude :) You're making good progress :)

Karuji

So Eddie is now shorter and broader. I hope I solved the shoulder issues. I feel that they are more connected now.





@Denzil I have a progress of the character in the OP. So it's really not hard to do with the feedback. Everyone who has posted his been great many thanks to all the guys \,,/

@dislekcia I tried a no eye Eddie while editing. It wasn't good. Also the headbangers in Brütal have the no-eye/browline because they use their heads as weapons so they have a large protruding skull. Eddie has an Axe (to be drawn).

@Tuism you can see in the second reference that the spike-band on his left arm is longer than the wrist band on his right arm.

Also that is suppose to be a flat hand >.> While I am concerned that I didn't convey that correctly the stance and hands should be changing soon(ish)

Fengol

If you take his t-shirt sleeves down an extra 1 pixel, will that not make his shoulders bigger?

duncanbellsa

Maybe also being his legs in a bit (a pixel or 2).
It will also help break up the silhouette a bit :).

Karuji

So now I tried posing Eddie differently. Not sure how I feel about the raised arm. Also PANTS!





I am having far too much fun with this :3