Final Fantasy Hacktics

Modding => Spriting => Topic started by: Mimi on August 30, 2010, 07:52:22 am

Title: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on August 30, 2010, 07:52:22 am
I have to admit I'm not much of an artist so I didn't get very far. I started with the hair. I am having
a hard time making the portrait look like the picture. Please help.

Here is the picture
(http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb432/PsionHacks/game%20graphics/mimipic.jpg)

and here is the portrait I was working on.
(http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb432/PsionHacks/game%20graphics/mimitry.jpg)
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Asmo X on August 30, 2010, 08:11:03 am
you're trying to make a portrait from scratch. Do not do this. Try to combine elements from existing portraits. I'm sure if you looked through the database you could find a combination of portraits that would give you all the features you want.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on August 30, 2010, 08:41:05 am
I tried to do what you suggested. I got her face from alma because she favors her. The hair is
more difficult to reproduce since not many characters in the game have brown hair and most
of them are male. I tried to recolor ramza's bangs but it ended up looking horrible. Any help
on her hair would be appreciated.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on August 30, 2010, 09:18:16 am
Don't worry about the hair color just yet, look for hair that has the shape you want. Colors can be replaced literally in seconds. Also, you can only have 16 colors (15 if you count the gray background). Portraits are actually my weakness, but I think what Asmo said is the best way to start. Never make something from scratch unless you are really skilled (which you said you're not). Welcome to FFH btw.

Edit: Is that Mist from FE without a nose by any chance?
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on August 30, 2010, 11:22:30 am
Thanks Asmo and Jon for the helpful advice. I tried to put togother different hairstyles to make one similar but
the combinations looked so horrible I just chopped off Alma's hair and recolored it. I know it is not good enough
yet.

This is what it looks like. The first one I kept the eyes brown. The second one I recolored them blue.

(http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb432/PsionHacks/game%20graphics/mimichoice.jpg)

If you have any suggestions as how to improve it, please tell me. Since this is my first portait, I need all
the help I can get. :-)
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: SilvasRuin on August 30, 2010, 02:05:33 pm
You're going to need more than two colors to give the hair any depth.  Once you do manage more colors for the hair, you'll need to have softer transitions between light and shadow.  If you keep the transitions as drastic as they are now, it will not look good.

There is still a brown pixel in the blue eye.  Farthest left column, I think it's the third pixel up.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on August 30, 2010, 04:20:06 pm
Ya if you can add 1 more brown and use the darkest shade more in the hair to give it more depth. Keep it up
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Zozma on August 31, 2010, 12:25:26 am
stop , i havent read anything so far. but based on the current visual i see that you can combine at least 2 skin tones into the hair color! rember the fft lighting!!
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on August 31, 2010, 01:26:51 am
Thanks for all your help. I took your advice and tried to put an extra darker shade for the hair but that did not turn out so well. So, I used a lighter shade instead.

Here is what it looks like.

(http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb432/PsionHacks/game%20graphics/mimichoice2-1.jpg)

I would appreciate any help or advice. You all have been very helpful.

Edit: The pic is really a self-portrait; but now that I think about. It does resemble Mist from Fire Emblem.

(http://media.strategywiki.org/images/c/c9/FERD_mist.png)
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on August 31, 2010, 05:21:48 am
Ha! I thought it was Mist, Ike's lil sister! Anyway, now that you have the shape of hair you want, you really need to study already existing sprite portraits and sorta immitate the way the lighting hits them on the head. I've noticed that usually they use the lightest color (your lightest brown here) really only on strands to highlight bits and pieces, to give it a shiny, glossy feel. Then the next lightest brown, which should be only a bit darker covers most of the upper part of the head, like the mass of hair getting hit most by the sun, but not directly (that is where the lightest shade goes). Then comes the 3rd darkest which usually gives the shape of the hair strands and then comes the darkest color which shows where hair overlays hair underneath it. (I hope this isn't confusing you and also that I am not writing crap here...) Also, you have still a brown pixel on her right eye now, 4th one up. Can't see it too clearly, but also the same (4th pixel up) on the left eye. And are those the exact same blues from here clothes? If not, use those blues. One important rule is to always use (as a beginner) existing colors from the game, funny I'm saying this because I never follow this rule to begin with, but in theory you should. Good luck!
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on August 31, 2010, 11:53:25 pm
Thanks for all your helpful advice Jon. I tried shading the hair with the lightest color and I think it looks better now.
After that, I tried shading the hair with the darkest color; but I could never get it to look right. Here is a pic of
the portrait before I shaded the hair with the lightest color and after.

(http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb432/PsionHacks/game%20graphics/mimichoice3.jpg)

The one on the left is the before portrait. The one on the right is the after portrait.

BTW:  I did use the same color in her eyes as in her clothes.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 01, 2010, 01:08:49 pm
Its definitely getting there and this isn't bad for a first portrait at all. Also its good that you used the blues from the clothes. I wish I could help you but actually I am not so great at portraits. When you are coloring this do you have the original Alma also open as reference? I have no idea what you should do for the end of the hair, but the top still needs a bit of shading. Right now I see 1 light color, the medium color and 1 dark color in the hair. You might want to add more of the darkest brown in parts of the hair, just to give it a bit of shading variation. Use other portraits as reference too, like chapter 2-3 Ramza, Izlude, and the Fur shop owner (haha just kidding, he has no hair). Imitate how those characters hair is colored. And I am guessing the further down the hair goes, the darker it gets, so you are gonna probably want to use a lot of the 2nd darkest brown near the bottom and the darkest brown to sorta give the shape of the hair. Good luck!
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 02, 2010, 12:32:43 pm
I did have the alma picture up as a reference but it didn't help much with the back of the hair since her hair is
braided.  I did try shading the back of the hair. It made her hair look shorter. So I gave her longer hair.

This is what it looks like.

(http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb432/PsionHacks/game%20graphics/mimichoice-1.jpg)

here is the portrait that goes along with it.

(http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb432/PsionHacks/game%20graphics/mimitry5.jpg)

Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.

PS: I like the new dark knight sprite you made. It looks cool. How long did it take you to learn how to
make sprites? I would like to make my own sprites but pixel art seems much harder than making portraits.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 02, 2010, 01:03:49 pm
The Dark Knight was really easy, I just changed ch.2-3 Ramza's colors all to the purple colors originally, painted on Gafgarion's helmet also with the purple colors and then finally changed the purples to Smash's Cavalier's blues. Took about 4 hours for total completion. The Cannoneer however was a nightmare, but thats another story. I think there are a bunch of tutorials on here teaching you how to sprite if you are interested, they were mostly written by people better than me, so read those if you want to learn the craft of spriting. As for the portrait, it seems to be getting much better, but you gotta change the shading. You still unfortunetly need to use more of the darkest brown and more of the second darkest brown. Portraits are so hard...
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: MiKeMiTchi on September 02, 2010, 01:50:47 pm
The hair definitely needs some shading make-over. :)
Try getting hair from other pre-existing portraits.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Kagebunji on September 04, 2010, 01:29:07 pm
Yeah, I agree with both Jon and Mike, I wonder where original Alma's hair shading dissappeard to...
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 10, 2010, 08:11:24 pm
The original Alma's hair shading was on the before picture. There I just recolored her hair. Could someone please help me with the hair shading on the portrait since all of my attempts have been unsuccessful.  I would really appreciate it.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: SilvasRuin on September 13, 2010, 03:13:50 am
If that IS using Alma's shading (... are you sure you didn't lower the amount of colors it originally had?), then what you lost in transition was the lower amount of contrast.  Your shades are drastically different from each other in comparison.

(Fricking dangit, I've lost that link to the site that had a copy of each palette of each sprite, and I'm not currently where I can access the game data, so I can't check for sure.)
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 13, 2010, 10:48:51 am
(http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz26/jonsbucketsprites/alma.png)

If you don't like the hair color, I can change it for you in an instant, but you must describe then what color you want exactly. The hair is also a bit shortened, hope you don't mind Mimi. I think my portrait skills are improving, stuff like this really helps. Side note: You cannot use this in game, only for the site.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Zozma on September 13, 2010, 08:11:33 pm
oh more than 16 colors?
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 14, 2010, 06:36:31 am
Well, does Mimi want the portrait for this site or for in game? I could in theory get it down to 16 colors and change the hair color, but its up to her. If its just for the site, you could have as many colors as you wish I guess. Like green eyes, brown hair, red coat, whatever.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 14, 2010, 02:44:35 pm
Wow! You did a really good job on that portrait Jon. I'm kinda sad that I can't use it in my hack though. Would you allow me to use it if I gave you credit for it? I think it is far better than any portrait I could draw. Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it. :-)

PS: I hope you do not mind if I make the eyes blue again since I have blue eyes.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 15, 2010, 07:01:28 am
This is a new version, 16 colors which you can use in game, but to use on the site you will need to double its size (64x96 I believe) and flip the canvas horizontal. Tell me if you have problems doing this. And yes, you may use this for whatever you want Mimi.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 15, 2010, 09:31:41 am
Thanks Jon! I really appreciate all your help.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 15, 2010, 09:40:37 am
My pleasure! I just wanted to practice portraits. Here, I made this and would be sorta honored if you use it as your avatar on here:
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 15, 2010, 09:50:19 am
Okay. I changed it back. I just applied my pallet because my sprite will be wearing blue.
You did a really good job, Jon. I think your portraits are great.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: mav on September 15, 2010, 11:31:44 pm
Make the face and clothes more unique and you'll have a winner. Good work, Jon.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Zozma on September 16, 2010, 02:59:34 am
one suggestion, copy what they did with clouds eyes with a few background colored pixel being used to blend it (that shade of blue) into the skin tone that its bumping into

actually, i did the same thing with the green eyes in my avatar if u look closely
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 16, 2010, 07:27:27 am
I was looking at Kletian when doing this, but I drew it all free hand because his robe is way to big for Alma's slender body:

For the game
(http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz26/jonsbucketsprites/newalmakletianrobe.png)

For this site
(http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz26/jonsbucketsprites/newalmakletianrobe2.png)

Last time with the previous portrait, I missed reading the part that she wants blue clothes  XD
As for the facial gesture, I think Mimi can make a smile or sad face or whatever she wants on her own. I took your advice Z, I made the eyes similar to your avatars, just added another blue, the dark teal green from the background would make this avatars eyes sorta pop, like when you imagine those cute chibi cats looking adorable.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 16, 2010, 11:41:59 am
The clothes look great. it looks just like the jacket in the picture. I also like how you colored the eyes.
It looks awesome! You did a really good job Jon. Thank you so much.

Now, I'll have to get started on the sprite. I'll probably look at every tutorial on spriting because I've never
made a sprite before. BTW I'll probably leave the face like it is. It looks good and I prefer portraits that
have a straight face.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 16, 2010, 06:08:26 pm
:mrgreen: No problem, I just wanted to practice portraits.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: mav on September 16, 2010, 06:28:08 pm
I'd suggest desaturating the blues a little bit. And add a different expression to the face--straight faces are fine, but she shouldn't be an Alma clone.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Zozma on September 16, 2010, 07:08:57 pm
sigh, i told them about the blue but they didnt listen lol
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: GeneralStrife on September 16, 2010, 07:18:28 pm
Blue is oversaturated.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Zozma on September 16, 2010, 07:36:04 pm
now look, even with the oversaturated blue... its still
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 17, 2010, 07:27:04 am
Did you mean I should use Cloud's blues, Zozma? I can do that if thats whatcha meant.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 18, 2010, 02:06:25 pm
Use these, Rofel blues in different variations:
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 18, 2010, 02:37:47 pm
Thanks Jon! I chose the first one for my avatar. You did a really good job. I really appreciate your help.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 18, 2010, 03:40:33 pm
No problem. Today I seem to have been doing a lot of portraits for practice, like I updated my own avatar as well. Are you going to make a sprite based off of the Alma sprite sheet as well?
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 18, 2010, 07:29:26 pm
Yes. I've been trying to modify the Alma sprite but it has been slow going.  I recolored her shirt a light blue and her skirt a medium blue. I have to confess. It's going to take me awhile. I have never made a sprite before.

BTW: You're avitar looks great. Is that some kind of new ninja that you're working on?
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 23, 2010, 02:14:49 pm
No, no Ninja is being developed, I just wanted to look like one :shock:
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 24, 2010, 12:49:50 am
I have recolored it but I'm having a hard time getting it to look right. I am especially having trouble with the hair. Her hair is hard to recolor. Plus she has that ponytail in the back. So far it just looks like alma wearing blue clothes. :-( I'm thinking of using someone like Teta as a base instead because her hair is already brown. I would appreciate any help.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 24, 2010, 05:12:50 am
There is a 100% finished Teta, use that one if you wanna use a Teta as a base. Also, it would be quite difficult to change Alma's hair color because I think that it also is the skin color, meaning either a dark skinned Alma (if hair is changed to brown) or going over the 16 color limit. Neither Alma nor Teta are wearing a robe though. I like the blues you are using, they look perfect. Just use these on Teta and you will be well on your way. Keep submitting, I think you're on the right path here.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 24, 2010, 07:22:33 am
I used Zozma's 100% Teta sprite as a base. This is what it looks like so far. I'm trying to figure out how to make it look like she's wearing a jacket and skirt instead of a dress.

.[attachment=1:1m1porgs]mimitetabase.BMP[/attachment:1m1porgs]

I also found a wonderful sprite Zozma made but didn't finish. It would be perfect if it were finished and recolored blue.

[attachment=0:1m1porgs]shopdaughter.png[/attachment:1m1porgs]
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 24, 2010, 01:40:35 pm
My advice is to find a sprite with hair that you want, doesn't matter what color. It has to be the shape and length you want. Like Teta's hair is fine color wise, but it might be a bit too long compared to your portrait. Try looking through Shishi and on the downloads here and find the "right" hair. Then you might need to do a head swap, which isn't hard, just time consuming, on a body you like. I think saving to do the coloring for last is probably the best if you do this. But first find a head with the right hair. Zozma made tons of sprites with custom hair, my best bet is to find one of them.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on September 24, 2010, 04:57:31 pm
Alma is colored crazily. She's yellow and her hair and skin share a lot of colors.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 24, 2010, 09:25:55 pm
You're definately right Lijj. When I tried to recolor her hair, her arms turned brown. I think it's kind of weird that
her face and arms are so differently colored. As for the shape of the hair, what about the Miang sprite Zozma made?
I recolored her hair brown and it is about the same length.

[attachment=0:2li3zq2q]miangmimibase1.BMP[/attachment:2li3zq2q]

What do you think?
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on September 24, 2010, 10:28:47 pm
Oh wow I like that sprite of Zozma's I didn't see that last time..
I think the colors are good but the hair style doesn't quite look right. Do you want me to draw a few heads for you? If your hair is like the avi; You have bangs and shortish hair?
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 24, 2010, 11:17:46 pm
I would really appreciate it Lijj. Female sprites with short hair are kind of hard to find and you draw sprites so well. I really like the unmasked mime and female warlock you made.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on September 25, 2010, 06:39:05 am
Here is one idea for the sprite itself
(http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/6674/mimix.png) (http://img39.imageshack.us/i/mimix.png/)


This could be done; it's a combination of Female Geomancer and the Terra sprite I 1st made.
I actually have another idea for the hair.. but I'll have to try that another time, most likely tomorrow dear. I have a good idea for your hair style. This is a good body for you though maybe..IDK. Must sleep for now.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 25, 2010, 08:11:50 am
Needs a bit of shading on the back and side view back frames, other than that looks real snazzy! Those are female Thief legs am I right? Also, I think the eyes are blue...not brown...just a tiny detail though...
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 25, 2010, 11:35:44 am
Wow Lijj, that looks really good. It's just like I imagined her wearing a blue jacket and a white shirt underneath and a blue skirt. Thank you!
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: mav on September 25, 2010, 03:01:12 pm
Hair and clothes need a lot more shading. Right now it looks super flat.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mari on September 25, 2010, 07:01:25 pm
As he said, it's just an idea.
Not like he's showing a finished or even near finished sprite, people!
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on September 25, 2010, 08:26:47 pm
True Mari.. It's a concept. Thanks
Does look flat though.. I'll try to get some diferent hair frames done tonight.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on September 27, 2010, 07:13:52 pm
Here are new heads Mimi:

(http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/6674/mimix.png) (http://img841.imageshack.us/i/mimix.png/)
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Zozma on September 27, 2010, 07:32:07 pm
hah that last head looks like a brownhaired asellus hairdo
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on September 27, 2010, 07:36:13 pm
It is.. Only I got rid of the stripeyness in the back views.. The little icon is a slight edit from her original sprite in Saga Frontier. I love her chapter in that game.. great story and Mesarthim was a great sprite.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Zozma on September 27, 2010, 07:58:23 pm
lol, i like mesarthim's hair...
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: GeneralStrife on September 27, 2010, 08:01:39 pm
Zozma : Hair fetish.
Now we know why you are so good at hair in sprites.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Zozma on September 27, 2010, 08:10:42 pm
lol no, i just recognize the design of asellus, she has the most potential of any character on that game being the only human/mystic half which gives her access to the "special" catagory that normally only the mec characters have
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on September 28, 2010, 05:29:42 am
Hey, thats how I get most things done, look at other sprites from completely different games. Especially for the portraits, Fire Emblem has better portraits when it comes to the body, I use those as reference. They also have nice hair designs :D
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on September 28, 2010, 12:32:27 pm
Thanks Lijj! The heads look great.
Title: Working with portraits
Post by: Mimi on October 12, 2010, 10:28:35 pm
I've been working on putting portraits together and trying to make avatars.
These are what I've finished so far:

Male Soldier (a recolor of priest hair + monk + archer)
[attachment=2:21c9c6rz]soldier.bmp[/attachment:21c9c6rz]

Female Alchemist  (chemist + summoner)
[attachment=1:21c9c6rz]alchemistsite.bmp[/attachment:21c9c6rz]

Male Wizard Unmasked  (wizard + calculator)
[attachment=0:21c9c6rz]magus.bmp[/attachment:21c9c6rz]


Please tell me what you think of these.
I'm a beginner at this so I would appreciate any helpful comments.  :)
Title: Re: Working with portraits
Post by: mav on October 12, 2010, 10:35:08 pm
Not too shabby. This is a great way to learn the fundamentals of portrait-making. One thing to remember is that simply copying over and replacing colors isn't always enough--you will occasionally need to re-shade parts of the face. It's evident on all three portraits, but let's look at portrait with the red hair: the bandanna needs to be darker where it meets the hair. Also keep proportions and angles in mind: the neck on the redhead could probably be a little bit longer and the hat on the Calculator/Black Mage shouldn't be at such a slant. When it comes to hats, you need to make sure that the face and the hat are the same angle, unless you're intentionally going for a weird look.

Again, good starts on all three. Keep at it, cause these skills are all you need to make some decent custom characters. Good luck to ya.
Title: Re: Working with portraits
Post by: Jon on October 13, 2010, 05:31:29 am
I will be honest with just like Mav, the last two don't look right. Especially the Calculator Black Mage, his hat is angled wrong (sorry for repeating that). If you angle that correctly so its more flat, then you will need to add the 3rd darkest or 4th darkest tone of skin under the brim, but that also is a bit tricky. The first portrait looks like it could have some potential here actually: its not too bad. It needs a bit of shading underneath the bandana and where the hair would cast a shadow on the bandana. Are those 16 colors on the first portrait? If not, an easy way to reduce colors would be to use the teal from his clothes on the bandana, or blues on the clothes, so vice versa. I like the first one the best, reminds me of Fire Emblem characters.
Title: Re: Working with portraits
Post by: Cheetah on October 13, 2010, 01:10:50 pm
These are definite improvements over your last attempt Mimi. I am going to merge this topic with your other one though, since they are both topics about your personal portrait projects.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on October 14, 2010, 06:42:01 pm
I like all of these Mimi. Keep it up. Yes a little shadow under the hair etc. I like the Calculator BM combo; though, as they said about the angle. It could work if the hat on the sprite was tilted as so.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on October 15, 2010, 03:14:57 pm
Thanks for all your helpful comments. I know I need to work on the shading because shading has always been one of my weaknesses. I did a little extra work on the two male portraits.

Here is the new soldier
[attachment=0:u34149d7]soldier2.bmp[/attachment:u34149d7]

Here is the new Wizard unmasked
[attachment=1:u34149d7]magus2.bmp[/attachment:u34149d7]

Thanks for all the positive comments. I will try to get better at shading and make more portraits soon. :)
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mari on October 15, 2010, 03:53:44 pm
The first one looks a lot better, yeah. But as you said, you've still got a little work to do! If you have any colours left over I'd try another darker shade under the hair, near the top to help with the depth!

And as for the second, the hat looks a lot better, except it still seems to be at an angle. Not the same angle like before, but like the hat is facing more left than the head is. (The portrait's left, not ours.)
Maybe it's just me.

I'm jealous, in any case. I wanna start working on spriting but it's not working out so well in my favour. =P
So I'll stick to numbers and letters!
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on October 15, 2010, 04:29:01 pm
Wait a second here.. the pixels are distorted. it needs to be redrawn over due to the smudging apparent from the transformed angles etc.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: mav on October 16, 2010, 01:15:52 am
Lijj is right. Remember a couple things: you should always aim to stay within the 16 color limit and you should always keep your edits to scale. On the first portrait you've got to get more shades on the bandanna. The placement of shadows is accurate enough, you just need to fill it in better.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on October 16, 2010, 01:50:13 am
I tried to fix the wizard's hat by using the alternate wizard hat instead.
This is what I came up with.
[attachment=0:23chugto]magus3.bmp[/attachment:23chugto]

The portraits haven't been reduced to 16 colors yet. I thought I'd get
them to look decent before I would work on the colors. Thanks for your
help everyone.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on October 16, 2010, 06:20:06 am
I think the wizards hat should be dropped actually by a few pixels downward, so the brim is closer to his eyes. Its not bad, in fact I like the brown parts on the far left of it, makes it look like its made out of straw or something like that. Just needs to be lowered, I think the best would be right above the eyebrows. Good luck!
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: mav on October 16, 2010, 12:54:27 pm
What happened to his hair on this version? The hat doesn't look like it fits either. A lot of your shading is too linear too and you're not using enough shades to make realistic shadows. It's leading to a loss of depth. Go back to the hat you used in the last version and manually remove the blurs you created.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on October 16, 2010, 03:12:34 pm
I have two new versions of the wizard. Please tell me which one you like the best.

The original wizard with less blur:
[attachment=1:3ix9k59x]magus2a.bmp[/attachment:3ix9k59x]

The last wizard with the hat that comes down lower:
[attachment=0:3ix9k59x]magus4.bmp[/attachment:3ix9k59x]
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Kill_Bones on October 16, 2010, 03:40:51 pm
Definately First one, it actually looks "wizardy". The second looks like a tribal hat tbh..
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: mav on October 16, 2010, 04:03:29 pm
Using the sharpening tool is not exactly what I meant. You can't just use tools, filters, and fancy programs to do your portrait work. This is still pixel art, after all.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on October 16, 2010, 05:26:02 pm
I'm just a beginner so redrawing each pixel on the hat would be too much of a challenge for me. That is why I sharpened it up a little bit. :) I guess I'll put the wizard on hold untill I get better at drawing. Here are some improvements I made to the other portraits.

The new Alchemist (now based on the 20 yr old woman + chemist):
[attachment=0:5nkebm6v]alchemist2p.bmp[/attachment:5nkebm6v]

The new Soldier:
[attachment=1:5nkebm6v]soldier3.bmp[/attachment:5nkebm6v]

Please tell me what you think.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on October 16, 2010, 05:50:49 pm
The Soldier looks almost finished, just 2 things: There is a fly on his neck! Look closely! Also, the hair right above his ear where it forms sort of a cresant moon shape needs a bit of lightning. I like it, its almost done. Something is wrong with the 20 year old Alchemist, I think her hair has just vanished on the one braid. Still, this looks good.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Cheetah on October 16, 2010, 06:13:38 pm
Your main problem with both of these Mimi is that you are editing them in double or triple size. You wont be able to just shrink them down and put them in game. When you work on sprites you always do it at 100%. We just always blow them up a little for previews. That is why you get "flies" on their necks and just garbled pixels. These are looking decent but you are going to need to change your approach to editing.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on October 16, 2010, 07:23:40 pm
I did the alchemist and the soldier in the standard 32 x 48 format. I did the wizard in the 64 x 96 format. Maybe if I would have started in the original size like you suggested Cheetah, my wizard would have looked better. The "fly" on the soldiers neck came from when I edited the wizard and the soldier was in the background. I accidentally clicked on it and that little speck showed up on the neck. I just forgot to erase it.

@Jon, I re-shaded the soldiers hair above the ear. Does this look okay?
I know I am not at all good at shading hair. :) I also redid the alchemist a little to make her hair look longer.
Revisions
[attachment=1:12sro458]soldier3.bmp[/attachment:12sro458]  [attachment=0:12sro458]alchemist2p.bmp[/attachment:12sro458]
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Cheetah on October 16, 2010, 09:47:37 pm
They are both coming along nicely, but why is there a giant blob of random pixels at the bottom of the chemist portrait.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on October 17, 2010, 06:24:36 am
Ah, thats like a rule, never ever work on potraits besides there correct size, same goes for sprites, just zoom in if they are too small. I think the soldier looks better, but no, I don't know if you see what I mean with the chemist, maybe I will just fix the one part that seems strange, here pigtail hair strand (the one closer to us) just gets cut off by brown (clothing?).

Edit:
[attachment=1:9dz85zwb]alchemist.png[/attachment:9dz85zwb] [attachment=0:9dz85zwb]alchemist2.png[/attachment:9dz85zwb]
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on October 17, 2010, 08:38:20 pm
Thanks for helping me with the alchemist Jon. It looks so much better now.
What did you think about the soldier? Did I fix the problem with the hair?

BTW I gave the wizard a different hat? What do you think? Does it look okay?
[attachment=1:1sln1qjz]magus4p.bmp[/attachment:1sln1qjz]

Edit - I took Cheetah's advice and started over with the regular 32x48 size.
         I changed his hat to the female wizard's hat. What does everyone think?
[attachment=0:1sln1qjz]magus5p.bmp[/attachment:1sln1qjz]
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: VampragonLord on November 09, 2010, 05:10:42 pm
the hat seems a little bit out of place.... like its too high up in the portrait or something, id say shift the head to the left, and down slightly, to look more fft-ish
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on November 10, 2010, 10:25:26 pm
I'm out of town now, but when I get back I'll try lowering the hat.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: mav on November 11, 2010, 05:49:55 pm
Female wizard's hat fits much better. Great work, Mimi. Just lower it, as mentioned before.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on November 13, 2010, 02:32:34 pm
Thanks for all the input everyone.
Here is the wizard with the hat lowered a bit.
[attachment=0:2j6i8dyx]magus6.bmp[/attachment:2j6i8dyx]

Tell me what you think, okay? :-)
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on November 13, 2010, 02:53:34 pm
I think even a little more down 1-2 px would look good.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on November 13, 2010, 07:51:21 pm
Okay I lowered his hat a little more.
[attachment=0:3u3eq9b4]magus7.bmp[/attachment:3u3eq9b4]

I also made a new portrait, the witch:
[attachment=1:3u3eq9b4]witchp.bmp[/attachment:3u3eq9b4]

Tell me what you think. :-)
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Amici on November 14, 2010, 01:04:58 am
Not any good with portraits, but the witch's expression looks a little crooked...
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Kagebunji on November 14, 2010, 08:38:42 am
You need to put more shades under the hat, there should be a shadow in that place.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: GeneralStrife on November 14, 2010, 09:20:24 am
It's just the mouth, but yeah, like kage said you need that hat to cast a shadow on her face for it to look legit.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on November 14, 2010, 12:50:28 pm
Thanks for all of the crits, everyone. They help alot.
Here is the new witch with the shading that I forgot and a straight mouth.
[attachment=0:1i89ktit]witch2p.bmp[/attachment:1i89ktit]

Tell me what you think. :-)
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Kagebunji on November 14, 2010, 01:12:12 pm
Wait, you changed mouth AND the chin line. And you changed it in the wrong way. You was supposed to fix mouth only, nothing else.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Zozma on November 14, 2010, 07:36:08 pm
i like the witch (the portrait before the more recent one), you need some shading where the hat connects to the face tho.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Kill_Bones on November 14, 2010, 08:38:49 pm
Agreed with Kage, just put the new mouth on the old face shape and add the hat shading.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on November 14, 2010, 11:17:10 pm
Okay. I tried to fix the face.
I don't know how it got like that.
Here is the newest attempt:
[attachment=0:1lc3gr07]witch3p.bmp[/attachment:1lc3gr07]
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Cheetah on November 14, 2010, 11:19:05 pm
You are shading under the hat, but it needs to be the darkest available skin tone. Mouth may need to be up a pixel.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Jon on November 15, 2010, 09:44:00 am
This portrait looks pretty good to me, but still looks a tad like the original base. Try to change things around slightly to make it look more unique (like Cheetah said, shading under the hat, plus maybe a new mouth all together or at least raised and different eyes, maybe with a different color like those blues I see?) One thing doesn't make sense, well at least to me, the hair is getting cut off by the brim of the hat, logically this to me doesn't seem right. I think the hair needs to cut the brim out, not the other way. Keep it up, looks well on its way :mrgreen:
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on November 16, 2010, 02:59:27 pm
Here is the witch with different eyes. I tried using a darker skin tone for shading but it looked kinda funny. BTW her hair is cut off by the hat. The hair that is showing is the hair in the back of the head.

Here is the newest portrait.
[attachment=0:1n25z6em]witch4p.bmp[/attachment:1n25z6em]

Tell me what you think. :-)
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on November 16, 2010, 03:32:22 pm
I think it looks good. maybe slake (lessen) some of the hair.
?  Jon got tha hammah? Was he trolling too much?
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: GeneralStrife on November 16, 2010, 06:13:47 pm
He got the hammer for a few days for thanking god sarcastically, as ffh is run by over 9000 athiests
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on November 17, 2010, 12:11:17 am
Okay, I got rid of a little of the hair.
[attachment=0:fl1rsl6m]witch5p.bmp[/attachment:fl1rsl6m]

Does it look better now? Please tell me what you think.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Lijj on November 17, 2010, 01:22:17 am
Yes looks better.. but why did the face get changed? The cheek looked better in the last example.
@General Strife: good... glad he didn't get permabanned
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on November 17, 2010, 08:24:00 am
I must have accidentally erased some of the cheek.
Here is a portrait the new hair with the original cheek.
[attachment=0:2jhpyd6c]witch5p.bmp[/attachment:2jhpyd6c]
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: DonyaDarko on November 17, 2010, 12:45:18 pm
it looks cool. can i have ur permission to use it as my avitar?
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: Mimi on November 17, 2010, 09:22:01 pm
It's okay. I don't mind if you or anyone else uses my protraits for their avatar. You might want to wait until no problems can be found with it first.
Title: Re: First portrait attempt - please help
Post by: DonyaDarko on November 23, 2010, 01:00:25 pm
it looks fine to me lol.