Hello

I posted this in another thread but I think it was the wrong one. If this is in the wrong section of the forum feel free to move it or delete it.

I am creating human avatars for an 2D pixel art MMO I'm making and I'm having some difficulty getting the shading and dithering down. I have read the big tutorial on the site here but I'm still a little lost.

This is the human male I'm working on:
Just FYI, a lot of this is unfinished purposely, because I'd rather be sure I'm doing this correctly than to do it all wrong and have to redo it all later.


I am certain that the arms are pillow shaded (even though part of it looks good to me) and there are parts of the body that seem not well shaded. To my eye it looks off but I am unsure of how to remedy it. Yes, this is the actual avatar size, so you're looking at 1:1 here.

Below are the parts I think I have shaded well (size blown up to show detail). Please share any pointers on how to make this better.


And the parts I think are not good, and I'm not sure how to fix them


When creating avatars, is it better to have the body the exact same on both sides? (ie draw one half and flip to finish the other half) or to have a light source on one side so it's more dynamic? In the example above, the avatar body is mirrored, but the underwear is dynamic.

These avatars in their finished stages will be fully movable with ability to walk around and gesture.

Any pointers on what to improve and how to do so would be greatly appreciated. I also have a female avatar that needs a lot of work but it's a lot worse than this one so I can't show it yet.

If anyone wants to help me design and create avatars for this game I'm making please get in touch with me! my email is michelle.mousel@gmail.com




Thank you!
Michelle

Hi thank you for your response

1) don't worry about the colors. the color palette consists of 24 replaceable colors, the default colors not being flesh colored (probably a combo of ugly grays etc)

See below, same image but with example color ramp (note this is just an example of colors)


The idea is to have the maximum number of color combos with a small palette, all colors being color replaceable.

The colors can change around if you think it would be better for shading (ie i can denote two ramps to skin color instead of one)

To give you a better idea, the female avatar (and items in the game) will be able to use all the ramps. So for instance the top and bottom undergarments can use the green and purple ramps.

But I think I will take your advice and allot a second ramp to skin color for more contrast.

2) yes I agree the pecs look weirdly lit. the example i took for this was a 3D rendering and i followed the lighting on it for one half and flipped it for the other half.

Can you explain how I can make it better for contrast?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts