Dear PixelJoint-Community!

Currently I am practicing an outline-style and would appreciate your feedback.

I started to work on two pieces:

The first one is "Mei Misaki" from the manga/anime "Another".


What I do not like / struggle with:

- The hair
I wanted to add a highlight but I struggle with combining the dark colours with some new light one and keeping everything consistent.

Reference for the hair:



I know that my shape is not quite accurate to the original, however I will fix that later on.

- Concept & Anatomy
The left hand is seems not to fit but I do not know what to do with it. Maybe I should rework the whole gesture?
If there is anything wrong with the anatomy (which probably is), I would be happy to hear about it.


The second image is Faris Nyannyan from the manga/anime "Steins;Gate".



What I want to fix/improve:

- The hair
The colours occur to be washed out. The bright pink has a really soft transition, letting the darker pink be useless/unrecognizable and confronting to hard with the red.

- The ribbons
I could not manage to make them better. Any ideas to make them less giant with this style?

- Anatomy, Outline & AA banding
The arms  and legs. Specially the arms though. The hands are still pretty much work in progress but the arms volume feel wrong. I am not quite sure how to tackle or fix this.
Additionally I think there is some AA banding. Would you agree? Is there a possibility to fix that? Specially long lines, keeping a consistent direction are my problem...

Here is a reference for her:



Please keep in mind: These are still work in progress :)

Thanks for taking your time to read and I am looking forward for your ideas, suggestions, edits and help in general.






Edited by Lakelezz - 31 January 2015 at 9:24am

I guess you are right, RebeaLeion! However how to manage that with an outline around all the objects? On this way there will be always a thickness of 3 pixels (1 red of the ribbon - 2 for the dark red outline on each side).
However I tried a little edit + skipping the red outline whenever I felt it would improve readability. Though this is still kinda against the style.. I guess.




Edited by Lakelezz - 31 January 2015 at 7:10pm

Oh, you at least tried giving me ideas :)

I came up with this:


In this attempt I tried simply AAing the ribbons. Kinda works but still.. hmmm..

I appreciate any kind of help - must not be about the ribbon. There is a list of struggles in the first post :)


Edited by Lakelezz - 01 February 2015 at 2:04pm

Here's an edit.  Mainly a color/face edit.  I found the face a bit creepy.  Is it supposed to be? 

Maybe it can give you some ideas. 

Also, you had a lot of colors so close to each other, it was very hard to tell them apart.

The dress and legs looks great (nice pixel clusters).  The arms could use some reshaping...smaller wrists?  larger hands?

I have done some updates. Though my time was limited again.



First of all I tried myself on adding the hands.
Also the hair has been tweaked around and the darkish border of the pony got removed with something much more fitting.
Additionally I added some small shadows on the right bright side of the dress.
Lastly there have been some pixels moved from one place to another or added - just some little stuff.

What I just realized is the missing shading of frilly stuff. However I might gonna completely rework them in order to get closer to the original. While that do not mind them for now, haha.


Edited by Lakelezz - 05 February 2015 at 1:32pm

The white pixels around the eyes just doesn't look right.  I see it in the reference, but at this size it just looks confusing and hard to read.

Starting off with this update: I felt like her legs were too thick and clunky.
I prefer this change by far - though I might do some more changes on the right leg's shadow.



The colours were lowered from 24 to 15.






Edited by Lakelezz - 07 February 2015 at 5:41pm

Old:


New:


Changes:

• Colour amount got reduced down to 30.

• Outfit shades got adjusted - purple tone.

• Soda bottled added into the left hand.

• Neck is now longer.

• The long strand is now closer to the original one.

• Left sleeve got more detailed.

• Neck part is now closer to the original.

• Minor changes.
  

This still a pretty experimental change - fixes and edits may be taken soon.
Whenever you have an idea, suggestion, or an conceptual edit feel free to share this with me :)



Edited by Lakelezz - 09 February 2015 at 9:17am

Oh, I am glad you like watching my WIPs :) Did not really think that they are that great but rather slow and tenacious.

Yes, I added those colours and told myself: It okay.. I probably need them...
Bad excuse, haha.

So I started to work on the following edit thanks to you.



Down from 30 to 24 colours! Though I use the pure black on the inner. I might go up to 25 or something to replace the pure black.

Ok, a last tweak on Faris. I will publish her now. If something pops up into my mind I can still apply little edits anyway.



I used some darker skin tones to emphasize on the leather skin of the eye.
Added some more texture on the right curly hair.
Some minor changes here and there.

Thank you, RebeaLeion! There will be many more to come. Right now I am figuring out which character try myself on next, haha.

While I am thinking, I am applying some new changes to Mei Misaki.

New changes! I might publish her soon, too.



So I did some changes in her face. Specially to emphasize on the shadows and use my variety on tones much more.

The area around her neck got changed a bit to stress out the neck and the surroundings.

Her legs had a small shadow tweak as well! Both knee had like 1 or 2 pixels changed and the right leg's shadow got removed because it would make no sense at that position.
Additionally the skirt cast shadow got brightened to provide a less strong transition.
Lastly the line between both legs got softened up.

Her mouth (which became a smile in the last update), got changed by some pixels.

Things to think about:

Moving her knees down. They might be too high.
Skin colours. Even though I like it right now, there might be something better.






Edited by Lakelezz - 14 February 2015 at 8:59am

I published Mei Misaki!
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/92726.htm


Additionally I tried to improve Faris Nyannyan.



The head has been lowered in order to fix anatomy.
Additionally her jaw has been softened because her chin being too sharp.

If you have any feedback, feel free to share it with me!
My next step will be about creating an animation with this style. Therefore I will create a base which should be customizable by me.



Edited by Lakelezz - 18 February 2015 at 8:53am

WOW!! Wow wow, her hair and face look amazing, like night and day! Very nice work, I found her face looked a little menacing before but now it looks so adorable and sweet! her hair reflection looks so much better too, as does her hair. Just wow, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I absolutely love watching your WIPS :3

Another edit, changed multiple minor things.



I tried to stress out the lines on her dress. However I am still not happy with this.
Any suggestions about those lines?



Edited by Lakelezz - 22 February 2015 at 8:57am

Her skirt is kinda flat. The shading doesn't really fit her form.

Thanks for your feedback, Limes. Also thanks for your one word impression, Iscalio.

However I made some huge updates - including a total makeover of her size and everything.



Nonetheless her skirt is still pretty flat but I am not sure too add a good depth. I tried different things but they all do not work out.
Any suggestions, ideas, edits?


Edited by Lakelezz - 28 February 2015 at 5:25am

I like that Aoba much, much better.

I'm glad you were able to fix up the proportions without any input. Good eye!

Just a small update on the shoes and the right sleeve:


Nonetheless I am not sure whether I let the right sleeve stay blank or let it as it is right now.


Limes, thanks for your input but for now the outline will be independent from the light source.

Boder, I am glad you like it : )

Dyluck, as I mentioned in Limes' reply, for now the outline wont be affected by the light.


However I am still stuck on adding depth onto the dress. Any suggestions without changing the outline's colour?




Edited by Lakelezz - 28 February 2015 at 6:26pm

New update!

I decided to go with selective outlining to improve the depth a bit more.
Though I tried to reuse the colours of her which ended up in only a small difference compared to the black outline.



As a result using new colours for the outlines could be a better idea to go with. Additionally making the blue darker ended up in a rather too strong contrast on the right sleeve.
That would underline the need of using different and more outstanding colours.

Still struggling with the depth of the skirt - this is really tough thing to get done well for me.


Edited by Lakelezz - 05 March 2015 at 2:45pm

Haha, the good old trusty bucket :D
Thanks for your idea, Friend!

It actually added depth but as you said: I would have to change the whole piece in terms of shading :/

However I came up with this, after the artist dpixer giving me an edit.



I really think the skirt looks better now. Lowering the usage of all the colours before just was not fitting to the references.

Haha, actually I could fix the little hair strand, too!

I am still thinking about the shoes... They need probably more changes.

--------

Edit:

I went for a perspective fix for the shoes.



Additionally the colour amount has been removed from 24 to 17 (without the background grey).




Edited by Lakelezz - 06 March 2015 at 5:40pm

I know its not noticeable at 1X but the single pixel line at the bottom of the elbow is considered a bad habit in pixelart. You hardly ever want to see that even in small sprites.

Edited by jalonso - 07 March 2015 at 4:45am

I'm not sure I understand either. There are single pixel thickness lines of a single color all over the model. What's going on at the elbow that's different? 0_o

um if you wanted suggestions...I guess the hand feel quite unfinished atm, maybe you were still getting around to that? on a related note her left lower arm (right side of image) feels bent and feels like it has as much or more thickness at the wrist than higher up the arm.

Edited by Iscalio - 07 March 2015 at 10:31am

Thanks for your feedback, Iscalio! I appreciate it!
Therefore I did an update on the hands :)

Jalonso, thanks you a lot for pointing out my mistakes! As a result I tried to remove all those single pixels!

Last but not least: The eyes got nearly completely updated!

Edit: I changed the hand's shading according to the rest.




Edited by Lakelezz - 07 March 2015 at 2:28pm

Thanks for the input! I checked all the lines whether they can be improved or not.

Nonetheless I decided to increase the saturation.

Here is a comparison via animated GIF:


Last but not least - the update without animation:



Edited by Lakelezz - 08 March 2015 at 6:24am