Castle Paradox

Newbie_Power · Joined: 04 Sep 2006 Posts: 1762

Ah.

I don't think there's enough contrast between the mask and the face, though. I like the air hole mask the best simply because it reads best as a mask.
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TheGiz> Am I the only one who likes to imagine that Elijah Wood's character in Back to the Future 2, the kid at the Wild Gunman machine in the Cafe 80's, is some future descendant of the AVGN?

Mariel · Joined: 15 Oct 2008 Posts: 78 Location: In your dreams

I really shouldn't be working on portraits yet--I have so much other stuff to do on the game, but I couldn't resist.

Which background color do you think looks better?

Blue Pixel · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 2:04 pm Post subject:

wow! super nice portrait!

i like the top one better, if you would add some kind of styled boarder to it. the black one doesnt cause enought contrats for the outlines to be visable.
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Newbie_Power · Joined: 04 Sep 2006 Posts: 1762

The whole point of outlines is to stand out on backgrounds of multiple colors and styles. The portrait does a fine job on the black background, and shape of the character still exists.

Take the Megaman sprite from the NES games. It does fine on black backgrounds, because its his inside colors that will let him stand out on darker backgrounds, and the black outline will let him stand out on lighter backgrounds.

Mariel's portrait is built to stand out on both the light and dark background.
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TheGiz> Am I the only one who likes to imagine that Elijah Wood's character in Back to the Future 2, the kid at the Wild Gunman machine in the Cafe 80's, is some future descendant of the AVGN?

Onlyoneinall · **Bug finder** Joined: 16 Jul 2005 Posts: 746

Rimudora · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 2:51 pm Post subject:

I like the black background better. I don't like the pink background as much because it blends in too much with her skin color. I agree with the-dude that it could use a border if you're going to use a light background color. You might also want to try a dark blue or green background just to see how it looks.

Mariel · Joined: 15 Oct 2008 Posts: 78 Location: In your dreams

The male hero now, using the same palette

I'm not very good at drawing guys, so help is appreciated. I tried not to make him look too feminine, even though he's supposed to be young. (Think 15-18 )

Newbie_Power · Joined: 04 Sep 2006 Posts: 1762

The most feminine it gets is that he ends up coming off as a middle aged woman.

I found that lessening the intensity of the wrinkles on the side of his face will make him appear more masculine and young immediately while still keeping the folds in his skin that show muscle movement.
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TheGiz> Am I the only one who likes to imagine that Elijah Wood's character in Back to the Future 2, the kid at the Wild Gunman machine in the Cafe 80's, is some future descendant of the AVGN?

Moogle1 · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 11:11 am Post subject:

If you want him to look more masculine, two things immediately come to mind:

- The flip of his hair on the back of his neck: make it smaller or remove it. Easily confused for a more feminine hairstyle.
- Enlarging his jaw will make him look more masculine and more heroic at the same time, without necessarily making him look older.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

Mariel · Joined: 15 Oct 2008 Posts: 78 Location: In your dreams

Thanks for the advice, guys. I made some changes. Improvements?

First one:

Second one:

Moogle1 · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 12:27 pm Post subject:

Yep, that looks much better IMO.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

The Drizzle · **Who is the Drizzle?** Joined: 12 Nov 2003 Posts: 432

Already a huge improvement.

Other things you might consider are lowering the cheekbone (high cheekbones are pretty feminine), bringing the eyebrows closer to the face, lessen the smile, make the chin wider, and make the smaller or have a less dark black outline. Not that you must do any of these things but any of them could help make the character look more masculine depending on how much more masculine you want him to look. But since he's young you probably don't want him to be too manly looking.
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