The VG Resource

[spoiler]I feel like I'm intruding on this site. Like I'm inactive for a long period of time, and then I decide I'm gonna start being active. I'm really sorry about the SMW:ASE thread. Let's hope that never happens again. I feel really bad about it, and I hope I will be forgiven for it. I'm really sorry. For everything.[/spoiler]
...Uh, I've always had an interest in spriting. I've gotten better over time, but it still appears I limit myself to editing Nintendo's official graphics. Albeit with much worse shading, because I really suck at shading for some reason even though there's a million extremely simple tutorials out there. But anyways. I thought I'd show you guys a very recent character I sprited.

This is a character I made named Alice. She is a Battle Android. I'm a big fan of Mine Yoshizaki's art style, and this is pretty evident with this character.


I'm really happy with how she came out. The next step, is of course, shading her. This is where I'm at a loss. But anyways, I just want to know what you guys think of this pixel art and how I should approach the shading.

She's pretty cute! As far as shading goes, you need to think about where your light source is coming from and how shadow would be cast on a object. For example, the highlights on her chest suggest light is coming from the upper left, so you should shade it something like this:

Keep in mind that different materials need to be shaded differently so they look convincing. Glass is shiny, metal is reflective etc. I also changed her legs a little, they looked kinda funky. Granted I'm no anatomy expert (or on anything, really) and I probably made them worse, so hopefully someone who knows better than I do can help.

And avoid pure black outlines!

the proportion is all wacky, but more important, avoid making completely symmetrical poses. it makes the piece very stiff and not dynamic.

not to mention it really turns your character into a bunch of shapes glued together, rather than a display of proper desing and development.

the way everythign is arranged looks completely unnatural, anatomically wise. it gets quite hard to read the pose as it is now.

Can you elaborate on the proportions? Her arms are a bit too big or wide, I think that's what you mean. I'm an idiot when it comes to these things. She's supposed to have her hands clasped behind her back, hovering, with a welcoming look to her. I don't know what changes I can make that will make her less symmetrical, without making her look weird. Possibly her hair I assume?

I'm sure you understand what we mean by symmetry, but look at this.



It doesn't seem that you've made one woman, you've made half a woman and mirrored her next to herself. I understand
the look she is supposed to have, but humans aren't symmetrical, and look strange when presented in such a fashion.
I'd suggest trying to vary these lines so her she doesn't seem to be just a bunch of hourglasses stacked on top of
one another.

I'm attempting a new pose. Her hair and left arm have been adjusted, as well as her choker.

It'll be harder to make this into a new pose than it would be to practice on a new sprite entirely.

i suggest you to start over, as tonberry said. This pose is really stiff, and a new body will better than tweaking some of the limbs.

Limbs aren't made of half-circles either, and the breasts look really out of place. Not to say that the 'hands on back' pose is really amateur-looking, as this avoids you from doing the hands. (I'm not saying that you should never put hands behind you when drawing/spriting, I'm just saying that in this case, it doesn't work).

i'll try making an edit soon to exemplify.