Anyway, I’m continuing to work on the CCY character sprites. It’s been a challenge so far trying to emulate Choux’s technique, because I pretty much suck at gradient shading and color blending when it comes to characters. See the results below.
Sora Kanzaki is colored with flat areas of solid color, unlike the character she was based off of. She is pleasant enough to look at, but a flat coloring method would clash with the style already established. lolikit said he wasn’t concerned about clashing styles, but it would be better if I could emulate Choux’s style.
Above is Choux’s illustration. Even if I don’t change the proportions and the shape of the face there are significant stylistic differences in the coloring, most obviously in the eyes. Her characters’ eyes aren’t solid black like the ones in my illustrations. Also, in the hair, her color boundaries are less sharp than in my illustrations. I’ve tried to use similar color gradients in the skin, but have been only partially successful so far.
See, this is why even a $2/hour rate is a bad deal for my clients: because I will spend a lot of time trying things that don’t work. I really should move on to the next background, where I know I’ll be more productive.
CCY’s blog is called Mega Megane Moe, so naturally a character based off of him would need to be 1) wearing glasses and 2) mega moe. The idea behind this design was “a cute, somewhat girly boy with glasses and hair like Yuki Nagato.” I threw in the pink hair because he likes Lucky Star’s Miyuki also.
I think for the most part you don’t need to worry about the eye-coloring. Dudes in these kinds of things typically have less colorful, less emotive eyes than the girls. CCY looks good so far, keep it up. It -does- look less like your usual fare and more like Choux’s so you’re doing a good job.
BTW do you need Choux’s PSDs for reference? You should have access to all the images I used in-game because they’re … inside… the game I sent you, but they’re downscaled. Lemme know.
Also, at least CCY’s art is higher priority than the backgrounds at this point I think. So no you’re not wasting anyone’s time by experimenting. Besides, what you learn with one of set of character art will help you with all the rest.
Wow, I want to take myself home. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll use that picture of me-senpai for my avatar for a while being. ^^
Makes me wonder how people would do in a blind test on identifying the gender of that picture, but that sounds kind of like what lk intended.
I must say I am really looking forward to the results of your partnership with lk, as the character art from last time looks solid and combined with Choux’s work will definitely add a lot of life to the game. Or maybe I’m just amused by having a “face” to all the people I don’t really know.
Well, that’s all I can say not being a fantastic judge of art, myself. But keep it up!
That looks really good. Sorry for not doing constructive critique, but I really don’t see anything bad…
Hahaha, that so perfectly fits CCY
“Wow, I want to take myself home.”
So quotable!
How’s it looking?
I have to go to work (as in, at the office) both days this weekend. I’m afraid I haven’t been able to make much progress. I think I can finish coloring this one character this evening though.