Pixel Joint Forum: Fire emblem style portraits

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Adcrusher
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Joined: 04 January 2016
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Posts: 148

Topic: Fire emblem style portraits
Posted: 18 November 2009 at 7:44pm

Hi I'm new to this forum, but I'm also a member at WayOfThePixel. Lately, I've been working on some fire emblem portraits and sprites,and i would like to receive some C+C.

First, the main character portrait:

and his animation:

And also my first baddy portrait:

thanks guys!

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MagicKoi
Midshipman

Joined: 11 December 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 23

Posted: 22 November 2009 at 9:07am

First of all, if you compare your portraits (mugs/mugshots) to the in-game ones, the proportions are off. So his head is too small, his hair is too jagged and his armor is oddly shaped. The biggest thing is his shading, it is pillow-shaded, plus you have too many colors.

Now this may sound like your main character is bad, but he really isn't. A good thing about your work, is he does look like a main character and the concept is terrific. I like how his armor has rings around the shoulders and a flowing green cape and I do like your palette choice, it simply needs some tuning.

You simply need practice, and there are tutorials all over the internet, specifically for fire emblem styled pieces.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/BwdYeti/FullCustomTutorial.gif (sprite)
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h303/Abyss_End/MugandSpriteMatching1.png (mug and sprite)
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/1470/limittut.png (colors)

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Manupix
Commander

Joined: 05 November 2024
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Posts: 771

Posted: 22 November 2009 at 1:48pm

The anim definitely needs more frames.

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Hatch
Admiral
Admiral

Joined: 05 August 2015
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1387

Posted: 22 November 2009 at 1:53pm

The_Merc_FCS has many great Fire Emblem style pieces. May want to take a close look at them.

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Adcrusher
Commander

Joined: 04 January 2016
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 148

Posted: 24 November 2009 at 2:55pm

Okay I got an update

I tried to do everything you told me to.

magickoi: do you mean the lines are jaggy for the hair or the actually hair is jaggy? I don't know if I asked that right.

Also I have the baddy sprite:

Thanks for the tutorials also. I'll get to the animation soon.

C+C please!

Edited by Adcrusher524 - 25 November 2009 at 8:48pm

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MagicKoi
Midshipman

Joined: 11 December 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 23

Posted: 27 November 2009 at 7:20pm

[This post will soon be replaced with a massive tutorial, made specifically for Adcrusher524. Not to worry, other people may benefit from this tutorial as well.]

UPDATE:

http://magickoi.deviantart.com/art/Fire-Emblem-Styled-Mug-Tut-145166263

tutorial on deviantart (refer to my later post)

Edited by MagicKoi - 29 November 2009 at 9:39am

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Adcrusher
Commander

Joined: 04 January 2016
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Posts: 148

Posted: 28 November 2009 at 2:16pm

Okay, I've got an update.

I've got no clue where to go from here.

Magickoi: I'm excited for that tutorial!

Edited by Adcrusher524 - 28 November 2009 at 2:18pm

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MagicKoi
Midshipman

Joined: 11 December 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 23

Posted: 28 November 2009 at 6:12pm

Oh, wow that is a lot of progress!

You shaded it better, it's a lot smoother, the jawline looks a lot nicer.

Keep going.

EDIT/UPDATE:

I have uploaded the tutorial to my deviantart, I gave you credit for the original design. If you want me to take it down, I will.

Edited by MagicKoi - 29 November 2009 at 9:39am

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Adcrusher
Commander

Joined: 04 January 2016
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 148

Posted: 29 November 2009 at 7:09pm

Wow thanks a lot! I'll try to have an update soon.

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Adcrusher
Commander

Joined: 04 January 2016
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 148

Posted: 30 November 2009 at 3:46pm

Alright, I took a crack at your tutorial, and I changed the line art and then recolored all of it. Any better?

C+C please

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Anoniguy
Seaman
Seaman

Joined: 17 May 2009
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 37

Posted: 30 November 2009 at 11:20pm

The way you did his cheek makes him look very gaunt. Like he's starving, and his face is becoming more skeletal, you know what I'm saying...?

While the hair and shading are much improved, I think his face still seems a little scrunched, although it's better than before. But you thickened his neck, which does help make his jawline look better.

Till My Hands Fall Off: My Daily Sketch Blog

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Adcrusher
Commander

Joined: 04 January 2016
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Posts: 148

Posted: 01 December 2009 at 2:34pm

Haha your right his face looks really skinny.

Any better? Should you be able to see the second eye or not I'm not sure.

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MagicKoi
Midshipman

Joined: 11 December 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 23

Posted: 01 December 2009 at 3:47pm

Look how much you've improved! The colors are much more solid now and the shading is definitely better too. The shoulder pads have a much nicer shape, the hair is getting there.

Remember it's not about having perfect anatomy, because you can have round faces or skinny faces. His haircut is very creative and his shirt is very wrinkly.

Try looking at more fire emblem faces to compare his eye to the other characters eyes and hair too.

You're doing really well, keep making more characters and keep perfecting them.

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Adcrusher
Commander

Joined: 04 January 2016
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Posts: 148

Posted: 02 December 2009 at 2:53pm

Okay, update!

I added another outline color to make things more smooth, but the color count is still 16 because I used the color from the armor. When I looked at the fire emblem portraits, some characters had large eyes and some had smaller eyes. I also changed the jaw line a bit.
EDIT: maybe his face should be a bit more pointy

Also, I would like to recieve some crit on this bandit:

C+C

Edited by Adcrusher524 - 02 December 2009 at 3:49pm

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Artisan
Commander

Joined: 29 August 2023
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 219

Posted: 03 December 2009 at 11:47pm

it looks like you have come a long way already, some things i will mention are

A: that you are not defining your shapes well enough.
- you should try and take advantage of the angles pixel art allows to help define smoother and clearer shapes, try not to rely on AA.

B: you are adding too many colours and using too much AA.

try to fix both these things, you are not far off the first point so some tweaking here and there should be fine,

as for the second point i think you might need to look at shading his face again.

if you want me to do an edit let me know. keep up the good work!

I like shiny things, i do indeed.

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Zeemis
Seaman
Seaman

Joined: 31 August 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5

Posted: 04 December 2009 at 9:24am

Adcrusher, you should do a few portraits for my project. :P

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Adcrusher
Commander

Joined: 04 January 2016
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 148

Posted: 04 December 2009 at 2:36pm

alright update!

I didn't like the newer head as much, so used the jaw of the old one and put it on the newer one.

Artisan: The color max in Fire Emblem is 16 and that's how many colors I have so I don't think it's too much.

Thanks!!
C+C please!

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X0-000
Seaman
Seaman

Joined: 01 April 2020
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4

Posted: 04 December 2009 at 10:08pm

How closely do you want to emulate the Fire Emblem style? There are a few stylistic differences that your mug uses that the Fire Emblem ones don't. The outline of Fire Emblem mugs are one color, yours changes a lot (mostly on the hair and the left shoulderpad) and a really minor technicality is that the area between the lip and the nose needs a bit more shading; see the official references to see what I mean.

For non-stylistic errors, the eyes of the sprite are closer than the should be. The left eye needs to be moved, and the hair may need to be edited so it doesn't look weird with the eye. His face is also very cramped and his large hair gives the impression that his head is big. He also seems to lack a back to his head, that or an ear.

The linework for the hair looks odd on the back with the 3 pointed parts poking out. I'm not sure exactly what they're supposed to be, stray hair?

His chin is too sharply angled for the angle he's facing. Look at Eliwood's chin for a general idea of how to angle it. (I can't really explain this well, sorry.) The antialiasing on the right side of his face can also use some improvement, especially the areas where you use (I believe) 2 vertical pixels of the 3rd shade. The neck area is also pillow shaded, you should shade it while considering the main artery that goes through it.

The left shoulderpad is reasonable, although there are minor jags that could be smoothed out. The far one is inconsistent though with the zigzaggy shading.

For the shirt, I think you should just eliminate the current shading for now because it looks very wrinkly and focus on it later, just outlining the different sections with flat colors. I believe it would be better if you focused on improving the head until you are satisfied with it.

On the cape, the lineart could be a tad smoother than it currently is. You should also take advantage of the extra shading tones from the hair to give more depth, but as I said for the shirt I think you should focus on the head first.

The dark blue you use for the shirt should be lightened a bit, because right now the contrast with the light blue is too strong, so the shading isn't smooth. For the skin, the 2nd shade doesn't feel like it's contributing much to the overall antialiasing because its contrast with the 3rd is not noticeable, and the contrast with the 1st skin tone might be too strong.

There are a lot more things I'd nitpick about, but I don't want you to be unfocused while working on this and most of them require some delicate editing.

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MagicKoi
Midshipman

Joined: 11 December 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 23

Posted: 05 December 2009 at 9:33am

You're getting the hang of shading his hair quite well! Try going for a more realistic shape for hair (keep using my tutorial and look for others online, you are doing very good), unless you like it the way it is, after all it is your character.

Do you have access to all the fire emblem faces? I know a website that has all of them: http://www.feplanet.net/sprites-archive-character-sheets

They are organized alphabetically, by the names of the characters.

For your bandit character, look at "Dart" he's very similar.

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Adcrusher
Commander

Joined: 04 January 2016
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 148

Posted: 05 December 2009 at 3:09pm

Thanks for the critique!

I'll get to the theif soon, and this update is mainly on the face.

Better?

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MagicKoi
Midshipman

Joined: 11 December 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 23

Posted: 08 December 2009 at 5:04pm

Worse, try looking at other faces as a reference. Your shading is very pillow-like, try using the original mugs as guides to how they shade their faces.

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WIP (Work In Progress)
Pixel Joint Forum : Pixel Art : WIP (Work In Progress)

Author	Message
Adcrusher Commander Joined: 04 January 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 148	Topic: Fire emblem style portraits Posted: 18 November 2009 at 7:44pm
	Hi I'm new to this forum, but I'm also a member at WayOfThePixel. Lately, I've been working on some fire emblem portraits and sprites,and i would like to receive some C+C. First, the main character portrait: and his animation: And also my first baddy portrait: thanks guys!
	IP Logged

MagicKoi Midshipman Joined: 11 December 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 23	Posted: 22 November 2009 at 9:07am
	First of all, if you compare your portraits (mugs/mugshots) to the in-game ones, the proportions are off. So his head is too small, his hair is too jagged and his armor is oddly shaped. The biggest thing is his shading, it is pillow-shaded, plus you have too many colors. Now this may sound like your main character is bad, but he really isn't. A good thing about your work, is he does look like a main character and the concept is terrific. I like how his armor has rings around the shoulders and a flowing green cape and I do like your palette choice, it simply needs some tuning. You simply need practice, and there are tutorials all over the internet, specifically for fire emblem styled pieces. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/BwdYeti/FullCustomTutorial.gif (sprite) http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h303/Abyss_End/MugandSpriteMatching1.png (mug and sprite) http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/1470/limittut.png (colors)
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Manupix Commander Joined: 05 November 2024 Online Status: Offline Posts: 771	Posted: 22 November 2009 at 1:48pm
	The anim definitely needs more frames.
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Hatch Admiral Joined: 05 August 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1387	Posted: 22 November 2009 at 1:53pm
	The_Merc_FCS has many great Fire Emblem style pieces. May want to take a close look at them.
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Adcrusher Commander Joined: 04 January 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 148	Posted: 24 November 2009 at 2:55pm
	Okay I got an update I tried to do everything you told me to. magickoi: do you mean the lines are jaggy for the hair or the actually hair is jaggy? I don't know if I asked that right. Also I have the baddy sprite: Thanks for the tutorials also. I'll get to the animation soon. C+C please! Edited by Adcrusher524 - 25 November 2009 at 8:48pm
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MagicKoi Midshipman Joined: 11 December 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 23	Posted: 27 November 2009 at 7:20pm
	[This post will soon be replaced with a massive tutorial, made specifically for Adcrusher524. Not to worry, other people may benefit from this tutorial as well.] UPDATE: http://magickoi.deviantart.com/art/Fire-Emblem-Styled-Mug-Tut-145166263 tutorial on deviantart (refer to my later post) Edited by MagicKoi - 29 November 2009 at 9:39am
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Adcrusher Commander Joined: 04 January 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 148	Posted: 28 November 2009 at 2:16pm
	Okay, I've got an update. I've got no clue where to go from here. Magickoi: I'm excited for that tutorial! Edited by Adcrusher524 - 28 November 2009 at 2:18pm
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MagicKoi Midshipman Joined: 11 December 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 23	Posted: 28 November 2009 at 6:12pm
	Oh, wow that is a lot of progress! You shaded it better, it's a lot smoother, the jawline looks a lot nicer. Keep going. EDIT/UPDATE: I have uploaded the tutorial to my deviantart, I gave you credit for the original design. If you want me to take it down, I will. Edited by MagicKoi - 29 November 2009 at 9:39am
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Adcrusher Commander Joined: 04 January 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 148	Posted: 29 November 2009 at 7:09pm
	Wow thanks a lot! I'll try to have an update soon.
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Adcrusher Commander Joined: 04 January 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 148	Posted: 30 November 2009 at 3:46pm
	Alright, I took a crack at your tutorial, and I changed the line art and then recolored all of it. Any better? C+C please
	IP Logged

Anoniguy Seaman Joined: 17 May 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 37	Posted: 30 November 2009 at 11:20pm
	The way you did his cheek makes him look very gaunt. Like he's starving, and his face is becoming more skeletal, you know what I'm saying...? While the hair and shading are much improved, I think his face still seems a little scrunched, although it's better than before. But you thickened his neck, which does help make his jawline look better.
	Till My Hands Fall Off: My Daily Sketch Blog
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Adcrusher Commander Joined: 04 January 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 148	Posted: 01 December 2009 at 2:34pm
	Haha your right his face looks really skinny. Any better? Should you be able to see the second eye or not I'm not sure.
	IP Logged

MagicKoi Midshipman Joined: 11 December 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 23	Posted: 01 December 2009 at 3:47pm
	Look how much you've improved! The colors are much more solid now and the shading is definitely better too. The shoulder pads have a much nicer shape, the hair is getting there. Remember it's not about having perfect anatomy, because you can have round faces or skinny faces. His haircut is very creative and his shirt is very wrinkly. Try looking at more fire emblem faces to compare his eye to the other characters eyes and hair too. You're doing really well, keep making more characters and keep perfecting them.
	IP Logged

Adcrusher Commander Joined: 04 January 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 148	Posted: 02 December 2009 at 2:53pm
	Okay, update! I added another outline color to make things more smooth, but the color count is still 16 because I used the color from the armor. When I looked at the fire emblem portraits, some characters had large eyes and some had smaller eyes. I also changed the jaw line a bit. EDIT: maybe his face should be a bit more pointy Also, I would like to recieve some crit on this bandit: C+C Edited by Adcrusher524 - 02 December 2009 at 3:49pm
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Artisan Commander Joined: 29 August 2023 Online Status: Offline Posts: 219	Posted: 03 December 2009 at 11:47pm
	it looks like you have come a long way already, some things i will mention are A: that you are not defining your shapes well enough. - you should try and take advantage of the angles pixel art allows to help define smoother and clearer shapes, try not to rely on AA. B: you are adding too many colours and using too much AA. try to fix both these things, you are not far off the first point so some tweaking here and there should be fine, as for the second point i think you might need to look at shading his face again. if you want me to do an edit let me know. keep up the good work!
	I like shiny things, i do indeed.
	IP Logged

Zeemis Seaman Joined: 31 August 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5	Posted: 04 December 2009 at 9:24am
	Adcrusher, you should do a few portraits for my project. :P
	IP Logged

Adcrusher Commander Joined: 04 January 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 148	Posted: 04 December 2009 at 2:36pm
	alright update! I didn't like the newer head as much, so used the jaw of the old one and put it on the newer one. Artisan: The color max in Fire Emblem is 16 and that's how many colors I have so I don't think it's too much. Thanks!! C+C please!
	IP Logged

X0-000 Seaman Joined: 01 April 2020 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4	Posted: 04 December 2009 at 10:08pm
	How closely do you want to emulate the Fire Emblem style? There are a few stylistic differences that your mug uses that the Fire Emblem ones don't. The outline of Fire Emblem mugs are one color, yours changes a lot (mostly on the hair and the left shoulderpad) and a really minor technicality is that the area between the lip and the nose needs a bit more shading; see the official references to see what I mean. For non-stylistic errors, the eyes of the sprite are closer than the should be. The left eye needs to be moved, and the hair may need to be edited so it doesn't look weird with the eye. His face is also very cramped and his large hair gives the impression that his head is big. He also seems to lack a back to his head, that or an ear. The linework for the hair looks odd on the back with the 3 pointed parts poking out. I'm not sure exactly what they're supposed to be, stray hair? His chin is too sharply angled for the angle he's facing. Look at Eliwood's chin for a general idea of how to angle it. (I can't really explain this well, sorry.) The antialiasing on the right side of his face can also use some improvement, especially the areas where you use (I believe) 2 vertical pixels of the 3rd shade. The neck area is also pillow shaded, you should shade it while considering the main artery that goes through it. The left shoulderpad is reasonable, although there are minor jags that could be smoothed out. The far one is inconsistent though with the zigzaggy shading. For the shirt, I think you should just eliminate the current shading for now because it looks very wrinkly and focus on it later, just outlining the different sections with flat colors. I believe it would be better if you focused on improving the head until you are satisfied with it. On the cape, the lineart could be a tad smoother than it currently is. You should also take advantage of the extra shading tones from the hair to give more depth, but as I said for the shirt I think you should focus on the head first. The dark blue you use for the shirt should be lightened a bit, because right now the contrast with the light blue is too strong, so the shading isn't smooth. For the skin, the 2nd shade doesn't feel like it's contributing much to the overall antialiasing because its contrast with the 3rd is not noticeable, and the contrast with the 1st skin tone might be too strong. There are a lot more things I'd nitpick about, but I don't want you to be unfocused while working on this and most of them require some delicate editing.
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MagicKoi Midshipman Joined: 11 December 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 23	Posted: 05 December 2009 at 9:33am
	You're getting the hang of shading his hair quite well! Try going for a more realistic shape for hair (keep using my tutorial and look for others online, you are doing very good), unless you like it the way it is, after all it is your character. Do you have access to all the fire emblem faces? I know a website that has all of them: http://www.feplanet.net/sprites-archive-character-sheets They are organized alphabetically, by the names of the characters. For your bandit character, look at "Dart" he's very similar.
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Adcrusher Commander Joined: 04 January 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 148	Posted: 05 December 2009 at 3:09pm
	Thanks for the critique! I'll get to the theif soon, and this update is mainly on the face. Better?
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MagicKoi Midshipman Joined: 11 December 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 23	Posted: 08 December 2009 at 5:04pm
	Worse, try looking at other faces as a reference. Your shading is very pillow-like, try using the original mugs as guides to how they shade their faces.
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