your shading is messing the perspective actually. the desing of the teeth suggest a 3/4 point of view, but the smaller eyes are in a frontal PoV, and the bigger ones are in a more angular 3/4. this is caused by the aligment of each part size and placement. i suggest you tu unify and define the anatomy of your character asap, or else any futher progress would be messed too. i'm not telling you to mirror it. it doesn't need to be simetrical. but your current settings make it look twisted, while it should be more like a smooth caparace, similar to the ones seen in the Zerg's Hydralisk(wich i may assume may be a source of inspiration for this desing).

also, i want to point that you mentioned that you want to give this a metal slug feel. you should be aware that most metal slug sprites have their ligthsource placed at the top rigth left corner(sprite was mirroed), as show in this example(ignore its editness):




Edited by Metaru - 24 May 2008 at 11:58am

wait, would you care to quickly show me what to fix on the eyes cause i see the prob a bit but im not to sure how to fix it, like just draw red circles where the deppest point should be on my pic, cause im not to familiar with all these 3/4th angle thingys n sh*t like that, i know what you mean but im still a bit of "TH3 N00B"

Edited by QuaziGNRLnose - 16 June 2008 at 8:39am

I can't tell, is this just a kid or a troll? Seriously.

well actually i am a kid, and yeah, im pretty confused because i have alot of choices i can make and i just want this to be done perfectly

i know alot of ppl are interested in SHUMP's and i wanna advertise my WIP shump DDF, so plz take a look at it :D and i know this isnt the right place but wtv http://www.moddb.com/games/10088/ddf-side-scrolling-shooter oh ya i added more colours to my alien thingy, making it smoother im gonna dither it all when its done

Edited by QuaziGNRLnose - 27 May 2008 at 6:25pm

you might be surprised if I tell you that the whale has 18~20 colors, and yours has 34?

if you consider the size of the whale though, its a diff story, my piece real big, so i tend to need more colours to get the same effect, also do you think my pallette looks right?, it seems a little strange how grey it gets, im not sure exactly how saturated some colours should or shouldnt be, and what hue they should get to 

Edited by QuaziGNRLnose - 28 May 2008 at 3:56am

i dont mean that size is the #1 factor, but i do mean that if i want to get the same affect but imagine the head is on the same style and scale as the whale, it would need more colours to bridge the gap, i do realise i use way too many colours, but for my colour area to look similar to the whales white colour area i will need more colours, or else it will look over dithered and too much space between shades, giving it a rocky surface, instead of kinda smooth surface

ill use Paintshop pro, HSL image divider to change the pallette a bit

Edited by QuaziGNRLnose - 29 May 2008 at 3:42am

Am I the only one who dont know what are those programs mentionned?

Sorry I am not able to help you more than the others, but I think your alien is a bit deformed: prospectively the left "wing" should be smaller than the right one, but in your drawing it's the opposite, and is quite evident in your height map: have the red lines to be symmetrical?

this image doesnt have large gaps,  the wrinkles compensate for its size, making it easy to bridge without looking plain, my image is one smooth flowing surface

well im currently doing that, as i showed i removed the 25% and 75% gradients now and now i made up for that by adding dithered patches next 2 the 50% and 0%/100%

Edited by QuaziGNRLnose - 29 May 2008 at 2:55pm

contrast

just an update

before. or else, if something fails you have to re-dither everything = waste of time and effort.

care to show me what you mean? doesnt have to be anything fancy, just overlay on what i currently have.

Edited by QuaziGNRLnose - 16 June 2008 at 8:39am

im pretty sure of the look i want, just need suggestions to help me get there

Edited by QuaziGNRLnose - 16 June 2008 at 8:38am

test

k srry, but just for the record there not ripped, i made them by resizing sprites then recompiling and editing them, anyways, theres no rule against putting something NPA in your sig

no im not waiting or anything like that, i just havnt posted any updates in a while

This article has moved to pixelation after way too much lack of intrest in this forum, find it there.