My try on portraits

[Cetanosaurus]

Hi guys, I'm still fairly new on the forums... or any to be honest.   

I've been working on some portraits for awhile now,started 6 months ago(?), put that on the side because : life ,only got back to it 2 weeks ago. And the 2nd set is the one I touched the least, as of now, not sure where to go with them.  

Some of them contain splicing, some of them are recolors ( mostly because they we're exactly what I was looking for but with a little difference as to not JUST be recolors.), but I can't say I'm done with any of them yet. I also have one battle sprite started, but the animation is a bit clunky since I'm missing some frames between the normal stance and the attacks and of course recolors of already existing ones. For now, I just want to concentrate on the portraits. 

What do you guys think? 

[Capibarainspace]

I like the designs on some of these, nº 9 is cool, the best of the bunch imo.

Some suggestions:

1) Stick to fe6-7 or fe8 colors. When used together the effect can be quite jarring. If you want to recolor remember fe8 tends to have more contrast and saturation.

2) Use only one outline color to have consistency between your sprites. I like fe8´s outline because it gives more contrast.

3) Remember only 16 colors can be used on GBA mugs (including background color). Use a program to check on the colour count (I personally use Usenti, very easy to use).

4) Study the shading on the original portraits. The pattern is usually from darker to brighter shades and mostly use 3 shades. Some of yours use 2, it´s very noticeable on nº17 for example.

5) I would suggest to just splice and recolor until you are comfortable. Try not to do custom edits (I still don´t do these myself).

I you need more suggestions or if I wasn´t clear on some, just ask! Good luck!

[Cetanosaurus]

Capibarainspace, you are swell man. Really appreciate taking the time to answer, you even edited a picture just to show me what you meant, damn.    

I'm glad someone liked at least one of them .  The 9th one was the last one I did before posting this, I thought it turned out great too. 2nd-3rd are the eyes, I can't seem to give him some eyes that fit, they look somewhat creepy.    

I changed a few of them last night, try to keep the custom editing to a minimum.  I think I did a better job on 12's face now, changed his scar, looks less like a smudge, and changed his eyes. His shoulder too, just to see something different.                                                                                

Does it look like he's stuck in his new shoulder?  

I use usenti and usually reduce the colors to 16 or less, I might've done some  edits before posting them on the ''compilation''. I'll go check those again so I don't bust it.

I'm not sure what you mean by contrast and saturation on the fe8 portraits. Darker outlines and more shading with the different tones of the same color?

What did you think of the helmet designs though? Did you think I was heading in a good direction or did they look like goats regurgitating whales carcasses?  

Too many questions? ( this one included, haha )

Either way, thank you for the pointers!

[Macko]

Hey, that's pretty good!

I'm not the best doing sprites, but one really looks like a Pent's recolor and that's not alright tough.

With nothing more to say, I hope that you can show us more of your work, because it's beautiful.

[Cetanosaurus]

It is a Pent's recolor, with just a minor difference, his eyes are of Saleh? Salem?w/e.. That's a no go? I'll fix it then. Thanks Macko.

 In the meantime, while I was fixing portraits and making new ones, I made this one. 

 While I was listening to music on youtube, FF7's one winged angel started playing. This one's mostly for fun though. Probably been done a thousand times already.

[Cetanosaurus]

Just a small update. Retouched a little bit some of the old ones and I got some new faces too. 

 

Added a collar and a bandana to the one on the left. And retouched a little bit of the hair on the right side. Also changed the outline thanks to Capibarainspace.   

New faces. 

I'm going to change the garments soon, but for now I just wanted their faces done. 

Also : update on Cloud...cus I get bored sometimes. 

Don't be shy to tell me what I do wrong either, can't improve what you don't know.

Thanks!  

 

Edited May 11, 2017 by Cetanosaurus
 Made a quick fix on the green haired one. 

[Zelkami]

How much customing are you doing? I can tell where most of your splice pieces are coming from, but parts of your faces and eyes look misshapen in places. (see second guy and Pegasus Knight)

[Capibarainspace]

22 hours ago, Cetanosaurus said:

Capibarainspace, you are swell man. Really appreciate taking the time to answer, you even edited a picture just to show me what you meant, damn.    

I'm glad someone liked at least one of them .  The 9th one was the last one I did before posting this, I thought it turned out great too. 2nd-3rd are the eyes, I can't seem to give him some eyes that fit, they look somewhat creepy.    

I changed a few of them last night, try to keep the custom editing to a minimum.  I think I did a better job on 12's face now, changed his scar, looks less like a smudge, and changed his eyes. His shoulder too, just to see something different.                                                                                

Does it look like he's stuck in his new shoulder?  

I use usenti and usually reduce the colors to 16 or less, I might've done some  edits before posting them on the ''compilation''. I'll go check those again so I don't bust it.

I'm not sure what you mean by contrast and saturation on the fe8 portraits. Darker outlines and more shading with the different tones of the same color?

What did you think of the helmet designs though? Did you think I was heading in a good direction or did they look like goats regurgitating whales carcasses?  

Too many questions? ( this one included, haha )

Either way, thank you for the pointers!

1) The scar looks better and his overall expression is more interesting but his pupil gets lost and it looks weird. The custom work shows on the ponytail too. Remember to change the left shoulder too, and remove (or add) the other side of the collar. (some armours look good with missmatching shoulders but not these ones in particular).

2) Regarding contrast; what I mean is that the difference between brightness and saturation levels in fe8 is (usually) higher than in fe6-7 mugs resulting in more contrast. Using fe6-7 with fe8 colors usually shows, for example the peg knight uses fe6-7 colours but the outline is too harsh since it´s meant for fe8.

3) The design on the helmets are cool but the custom(ness?) shows. They don´t look like goat vomit at all (not that I would know how that would look like).

4) Not too many questions at all. I often post on my own thread for feedback so I know how much replies help.

Overall, I second Zelkami, try do splicing first until you master it, custom is difficult. There´s enough original mugs to get creative. Try not to mix and match fe6-7 and fe8 colours (and their outlines) and take a look at how the shading is applied on the original mugs.

 

[Cetanosaurus]

10 hours ago, Zelkami said:

How much customing are you doing? I can tell where most of your splice pieces are coming from, but parts of your faces and eyes look misshapen in places. (see second guy and Pegasus Knight)

Hi Zelkami, 

About every faces has something custom in them. I think I'll just stop doing that from now on. Sometimes I just use bigger eyes and try to make them smaller, hair and noses are also a victim of that.  May god have mercy on them. 

YES! The eyes on those are really annoying me aswell. I just don't know how to fix em right now, either when I put a set of new eyes the whole face gets weird, or they just don't fit at all.

But is it with just those 2 that you get a weird vibe? Or are there more? 

No2 and 3, they are the same face with a small difference (custom again...) On no3, I tried to straighten the face a bit ( One pixel to the left, from about half of his face downward, I did that for a few faces .) I can barely see it, but it's there, maybe that's why the eyes gets weird?  

I also use half a face, then put another half, and work with it. Like bottom and top. 

The eyes are haunting me...  

Thanks for the feedback Zelkami! 

2 hours ago, Capibarainspace said:

1) The scar looks better and his overall expression is more interesting but his pupil gets lost and it looks weird. The custom work shows on the ponytail too. Remember to change the left shoulder too, and remove (or add) the other side of the collar. (some armours look good with missmatching shoulders but not these ones in particular).

2) Regarding contrast; what I mean is that the difference between brightness and saturation levels in fe8 is (usually) higher than in fe6-7 mugs resulting in more contrast. Using fe6-7 with fe8 colors usually shows, for example the peg knight uses fe6-7 colours but the outline is too harsh since it´s meant for fe8.

3) The design on the helmets are cool but the custom(ness?) shows. They don´t look like goat vomit at all (not that I would know how that would look like).

4) Not too many questions at all. I often post on my own thread for feedback so I know how much replies help.

Overall, I second Zelkami, try do splicing first until you master it, custom is difficult. There´s enough original mugs to get creative. Try not to mix and match fe6-7 and fe8 colours (and their outlines) and take a look at how the shading is applied on the original mugs.

 

Okai, here goes I'll try to use the way you structured you're reply, so clean and easy to read!

1) I saw what you meant by the pupil, I went back to check on Gilliam's eyes and immediately fixed it, it looks much better now. I removed the collar, just to see what it would look like. Here's the updated version. ( you guys can slap me on the wrist for doing just a little customization with the shoulder, I promise I'll stop after this one! )

Yeah, the shoulders really don't go that well with each other. Portraits are harder than I anticipated, I love it.  Fixed the ponytail too! 

 

2) I understand now! ( I think..future will tell ) I'll just stick to either using fe6-7 and 8 separately. I mean 6-7 together or 8 on it's own, I'll get a better idea the more I do it, I figured.   

3) Yeah, those guys are just going to go on hiatus for now. I liked the starting designs too, but the shading was always annoying me. I'll wait till I do some more homework. 

4) Well, cool then! I appreciate all the replies and the help you guys can shove at me! Kinda wish I could be inputting my thoughts, but I'm just starting to go deeper.

-- So, no more custom, watch out for the eyes, the shadings and being careful on mixing hair from Fe6-7 and 8. This will be my homework for the week-end if I get the time.   

I saw both of your threads ( before making my own ) and I loved the portraits you guys did.  I read it all, the feedback you receive can also be useful for me. 

Okai, well that's enough for now. Thank you very much guys! 

I'll try to hold on updates until I get more concrete stuff, instead of just clogging this up with one picture a post.  

 

[Kratos Aurion]

I feel like this one is your best

Color choice is a bit odd, but that a personnal opinion, it looks the cleanest and you used characters with similar shapes/frame. Biggest  issue is since you switch the orientation of the head, the head and the outfit don't have the same source of light (head from right side and clothes from left side)...

 

On this mug, the main issue is that both armure you used aren't the same size and style. That's what make it odd. I would suggest to either enlarge left paldron (our point of view) or shrink a bit the big one. Also, armor in FE usually have a golden outline on the edge (if i can express myself that way - you can see the outline i mention on Seth armor as an indicator). I think that just adding this golden outline would help the character to appear more ''realistic''. 

Also, that more a technical point you can use on all your futur mugs, but we usually use the skin color for the gold outline. Not always, but in general, and it helps reducing the number of color to 15 (the 16th is the background)

 

Your sprite of Cloud isnt bad, The shading of the hair is a bit too soft in my opinion. You could look seth, Ephraim, Cormag as exemple (basically any short hair men). More precisely, the part on the top of the head. Last point, the left shoulder (our left) is to small, almost looks like he doesn't have a shoulder to support the paldron.

[Cetanosaurus]

Kratos Aurion, hey man! 

1 hour ago, Kratos Aurion said:

Color choice is a bit odd, but that a personnal opinion, it looks the cleanest and you used characters with similar shapes/frame. Biggest  issue is since you switch the orientation of the head, the head and the outfit don't have the same source of light (head from right side and clothes from left side)...

      I totally agree with you on the color choice and I think the tones on his head are also a bit..out of place. Thanks to feedback, I can make changes and you guys see where I make mistakes alot more than I do. Shadows are still pretty darn hard for me, you're right though, they  just don't work. I'll fix it as best I can this week-end! Or maybe I could just flip the body horizontally? I'll see. Does his chin look too big too? I tried making it a bit wider. 

1 hour ago, Kratos Aurion said:

On this mug, the main issue is that both armure you used aren't the same size and style. That's what make it odd. I would suggest to either enlarge left paldron (our point of view) or shrink a bit the big one. Also, armor in FE usually have a golden outline on the edge (if i can express myself that way - you can see the outline i mention on Seth armor as an indicator). I think that just adding this golden outline would help the character to appear more ''realistic''. 

Also, that more a technical point you can use on all your futur mugs, but we usually use the skin color for the gold outline. Not always, but in general, and it helps reducing the number of color to 15 (the 16th is the background)

      Yeah, I kinda wanted to go for a none symmetrical look, I over did it. One of the shoulders needs to change!  I wanted to add that golden outline, I did it on one of his portraits, which I didn't keep, looked more like random dots of color dancing to Satan's anthem. I'll give it another go. 

I usually use the skin color for the golden outline too, but he seemed like he'd be a bit..dull without that golden yellow, especially since he's basically grey and white. Maybe I should add different colors to him and change his outline to skin color.

1 hour ago, Kratos Aurion said:

Your sprite of Cloud isnt bad, The shading of the hair is a bit too soft in my opinion. You could look seth, Ephraim, Cormag as exemple (basically any short hair men). More precisely, the part on the top of the head. Last point, the left shoulder (our left) is to small, almost looks like he doesn't have a shoulder to support the paldron.

      Thanks! Cloud was mostly for fun though, I've already made some changes to him, post it when I get more portraits updated. Though that tip on his hair is greatly appreciated! Even if he's for fun, It's still practice. I did Squall too, but it's mostly Raven's head with a scar, having a hard type doing that split in the middle of his hair. I used Ross's body with the details removed on his armor and added the feathers on the collar.  anyways, not important.

Those shoulders are really getting me nervous though, I thought eyes we're hard ( that was because I tried to ''customize'' a bit of it, I quit, no more!...for now ) and then the shading on hair, which I think is REALLY obvious on the Selena's ponytails. But as it's been mentioned above, I should stick with the same portrait style for now, and mix them when I get a bit more at ease with this.   

Thanks Kratos! You're swell too!

You guys are great.  I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with all the mistakes I seem to make, but that's the fun part.      

[Cetanosaurus]

It's late, I'm saturated like a sweet pickle.

Here's an update.

Changed eyes on the green yellow swordsman. ( removed all the "customness" ) 

Blueish Marissa clone had a car accident, had to replace her. The Archer got a recolor. 

Peg Knight still dosen't know what he's doing. The green knight got some spikes on his shoulders..oooh. 

White Seth went back to old armor till I get a level up and put some skill points in "shouldering". ( When is the double exp week-end?? )

Oh yeah, and the blue bandana guy had a small change on his shadow and a different "pose". Still don't like the colors. Also the Pent clone got changed, not finished with him though. ( there you go Macko! ).  

 2 New faces, changes to old.  

Cloud and a cheap Squall.

 

 

Yay, gnight...  

Edited May 13, 2017 by Cetanosaurus
Put numbers next to faces

[Zelkami]

Your splices are good for the most part, but I think you have two common issues: Eyes and coloring. The best example I can make for coloring is the final guy on the bottom row. (Is that Squall?) To me, it looks like you've used fe6/7 colors for the hair and face, SS colors for the collar, and custom colors for the armor. Generally you want to hold off on custom colors until you have a better idea of what colors look good together, but the main issue is the mixing of palettes. If you want to use palettes from both games in a set of portraits, that's up to you, but you generally don't want to mix them on a single character. The difference in tones is really distracting. I also notice that some of the units in your collection have outlines that are just pure jet black. Don't do this either, because it makes the entire portrait look really off. Stick to the dark purple the other games use.

As for the eyes, I appreciate that you're being ambitious, but eyes are some of the hardest things to custom. For now, you should stick to using preexisting eyes, and only make edits where you have to.

You're also making a lot of smaller errors in your splices, but these are things that you'll learn to spot and avoid with practice. If you'd like me or someone else to go over the ones you have now, you could label them individually to avoid confusion.

[Cetanosaurus]

 Zelkami, thanks for the reply. You = awesome.

Let's do this!

I thought I had fixed the eyes...man. I guess I made more changes then I remembered. I've also been extra careful, on the newest ones, not to customize anything else. 

I've labeled them and edited the above picture. Now it should be easier to tell me what's wrong on each of em. ( if you ever feel like it ). Would it be easier if I put them all separately?

no-19 is terrible compared to the others,he really sticks out. I decided to keep him still,  I don't know if I want to change him completely, or just the things that annoy me. Outlines/shading/eyes/hair, all bad. He needs a plastic surgeon.

Yes, that is a Squall, cheaply made though, took me 10 min to make him. I make small changes here and there whenever I don't feel like working on the ''main'' cast. I can't even say I'm happy with him.  

Trying to keep the colors together, F6-7 and 8 separately, I thought I was doing a good job :,( . No 9-10 are the only ones with custom colors ( hair )...I think.. might be wrong.      

Cloud and Squall aren't really all that important, they are there if you really wanna comment on them, but other than that, you can skip them. ( still trying to fix Cloud's shoulder/hair ( had another Cloud but the ''tint'' changed ) and Squall...well he's just a model right now.)

Also, I've lost alot of sprites and portraits due to them changing colors whenever I save them...it's really maddening. No matter how I fix them, they revert back to a different ''tint'' or they get full of differently colored dots. Why is that happening?

Here's an example of what I mean.

  

     I don't care for that portrait, but my whole sheet of sprite turned like that.  They are not the only ones. I don't know if this is the cause, but most the portraits changed when I copied them ( maybe it's a symptom of the cause? ), so I stopped doing that.    

    Thanks again, appreciate all your help!

[Zelkami]

I'll make some more detailed comments later, but I might have a solution to your color changing problem. If you're using GIMP, sometimes it puts a random color limit on the image. You can get rid of it by going to Image>Mode and changing Indexed to RGB.

[Cetanosaurus]

I was using mspaint and usenti.

I just now, got GIMP, tried what you suggested, but it didn't work. I'm thinking the culprit is MsPaint. I must've done something wrong.

It's fine though, I'll just do them again some other time.    

Thanks ! 

 

  

[Zelkami]

Yeah, you always want to be using either GIMP or Photoshop, or anything else that has layer functionality.

Anyway, sorry if my notes are a bit sparse, I'm a little stretched for time right now.

1. Nothing much wrong with this one. Eyes look a bit off center, and she could use some more shading under her chin.

2/3. Again, nothing really glaring with these two, other than this weird anomalous jag on the outline to the left of the eye.

4/5. #4 is the better of the two. The colors work better. The pose gives his headband's motion a bit more realism, and the chin is less boxy. Skin color also seems a bit off on both of them. #5 has some really weird shading on his neck also.

6. The issue here I think is mostly with the outline. It's kind of hard for me to tell with it offsetting everything else.

7/8. Good idea here, but it could benefit from using a different face. The angles of the head and neck don't sync up, so it looks like her head isn't quite on straight.

9/10. Again, more coloring issues. It looks like you used 6/7 colors for the skin and eyes, and SS colors for the hair and clothes. For #9, the place where the ponytail ends connects with the back of the head needs shading.

11. This one is pretty good. It'd be improved greatly by getting rid of that hair nub that inching over her cheek.

12. Very good, but I can't help but feel that the coloring is off somehow. I can't tell what though, so disregard this if you choose.

13. Nicely done, except for the blemish in the middle of his face. I can't tell if it's supposed to be a wrinkle or a scar. If it's supposed to be a wrinkle, it needs to be less harsh. It's easy to look at examples of other characters to help distinguish the two.

14. Outline is the wrong color, and the cheek is too angular. Not much else to say.

15. All the problems with this one are in between the eyebrows and mouth. The eyes look like you used Lute as a base, and then edited them. If that's what you did, that's fine, it could probably use more cleaning however. The hair on the side of her head closest to the camera doesn't look like it fits there. Her ear is also oddly lumpy looking.

16. Head band seems like the wrong color, and the face looks a bit uncanny valley-ish. Good design other than that.

17/19. I think you'll have to change the outlines on these two. It makes them look all buggy.

18. This one is really nice. Not too much that needs to be changed. Maybe add some more shades of color to the pauldron?

20. Another good one, nice and clean. The only weird thing about it, is the shoulder armor makes it look like one of his shoulders is bigger than the other.

Cloud. Face looks very pinched, and the custom spikes don't look like what they're supposed to represent. Good job on the body though. Feels like it could be a bit wider however.

Squall. I already told you all the problems with him in my previous note.

[Cetanosaurus]

This is great,

      Yeah, I see the color and outline mistakes I do now . After being told..3 times?...     I need to organize myself better, that would be a huge help.   

12 hours ago, Zelkami said:

Anyway, sorry if my notes are a bit sparse, I'm a little stretched for time right now.

      Well, thanks for taking time on your schedule to help a stranger out!

I don't know if answering people's feedback like this is accepted or seen as pushing it, but it at least serves me as a sort of ''memo'', and I like to comment with as much effort you guys put into yours.

That being said! I'll get into it!

 1- Shouldn't be too hard to fix. Did the ribbons look a bit exagerated? I used Lalum's(?) ribbon for that.   

2/3 - Yeah, I noticed it when you mentioned it too. Fixed it, also noticed the eyes were placed differently. Thanks! 

4/5 - I'll get rid of #5, he's just a lazy fix. It's crazy how a body can change the whole face though. Can I assume I did "okai" on the shading of his armor? I know I didn't change much, darkened his right shoulder and..that was it. I'll change the skin color too. Cool, I think I can leave him alone after these  changes.    

6 - Yup, this is one those mistakes you guys kept mentioning that didn't sink in.     This shouldn't be a problem anymore in the future. I'd be very disappointed in myself, I'll frown a little bit too.

7/8 - Glad you liked it! I've used more splices for that one, but you can tell already. Do you mean changing the WHOLE face? Eyes, mouth , etc?. Or just a different shape of face? ( Boils down almost to the same thing..... ). Changing the angle of the face would fix the neck issue, fixing the neck to fit with the head would probably be easier or not..I could be making it more complicated then it is for myself too. 

9/10 - Yup, another recurring mistake I do/did. There  were custom colors too, I'll use legit FE's color. I hadn't even notice the ponytail shading needs. Thanks for pointing it out.  

11 - Cool! I thought the piece of hair gave it motion like you said for #4. I can remove that no problemo.

12 - I feel the same way. I'll try darker tones to see if it gets better. 

13 - Great, Thanks! He gave me trouble before. Yeah, they are supposed to be wrinkles. I'll go do my homework again.

14 - I should've seen that weird angle...mixed Lyn's half bottom face with Eirika's top half. This should be an easy fix!

15 - I can't even remember who's eyes I used. I think that was the last portrait I customized eyes and stuff. Did you mean that piece of hair on the bottom right (our right) of her head in the picture? I thought she turned out good in the beginning, now she looks weird to me too.

16 -   Are you getting the vibe because the eyes are weird? Dunno if shading or different eyes, or even hair out of the head band would help with that. I'll have some fun with this one later. 

17/19 - Yup, those recurring little mishap, super easy to fix too. #19 still oddly looking, eventually I'll get a good angle on him.

18 - I didn't expect that for this one. Great then!! If shading is his only problem, I'm satisfied how he turned out for a first time.

20 - Yeah, I like this one aswell, one of my favorites.  Maybe I can try to push that  Shoulder Armor further in on the belt? That sounded lazy..  We'll see!

Cloud had a different take, more spikey, less roundey but scraped it due to the tint changing on pictures. He's fun to play with, so I don't mind going back to him all the time, I'll get a good version eventually!!

Squall well...like you said : he needs more work ( in short :P). There's really not much else to say on his matter, he looks rushed.  

Thanks Zelkami, that was a good read!

              It's always fun, informative and appreciated to get people's perspective! Have a g'day!

             

[Capibarainspace]

I won´t give any feedback since Zelkami went over everything in great detail but let me share you some skin colour ramp sheets I made. It can help you with the missmatching skins and outlines.

  

The fe8 sheet is (I think) complete, it has the least variety of the gba games (not a bad thing imo). I didn´t bother with all fe7 skins since there´s little difference between a lot of them and it´s not even noticeable. Fe6 is a mess, even some outlines are different between mugs, not worth the trouble since fe7 is similar or the same in some cases.

Edited May 15, 2017 by Capibarainspace

[Cetanosaurus]

Yo, good stuff Capibarainspace!

I'm going to make good use of that. Very cool! 

I feel like I'm in a hardware store and looking at colors for a wall I want to paint.

It certainly will help with me the shading. Keeping me in check in using the same Fe-skin and outlines for starters, yeah!  

I'll take note on Fe6 being messy also and stear away from it. I don't think I was using much of it to begin with..but memory is all it is.

Thanks man! 

 

[Capibarainspace]

15 minutes ago, Cetanosaurus said:

I'll take note on Fe6 being messy also and stear away from it. I don't think I was using much of it to begin with..but memory is all it is.

Maybe I was too harsh with fe6 lol.

What I meant was that in fe6, skin values vary a lot between mugs so you have to be more careful when mixing skins. You should definitely use them if you like the mugs ( I do...).

[Cetanosaurus]

13 hours ago, Capibarainspace said:

What I meant was that in fe6, skin values vary a lot between mugs so you have to be more careful when mixing skins. You should definitely use them if you like the mugs ( I do...)

It's all good, I got what you meant. I'm using the sheet you posted, so I don't have to worry bout it.   

In the meantime, I've been updating the portraits!

I, hopefully fixed the problems and made #3 better?

I played around with the Sue portrait a bit too.

 

And..do you ever do stupid faces like these? The Red has an ET'ish look. 

She knows when it's time to change your boxers.

Okai, I'm done...

[Capibarainspace]

4 hours ago, Cetanosaurus said:

It's all good, I got what you meant. I'm using the sheet you posted, so I don't have to worry bout it.   

In the meantime, I've been updating the portraits!

I, hopefully fixed the problems and made #3 better?

I played around with the Sue portrait a bit too.

 

And..do you ever do stupid faces like these? The Red has an ET'ish look. 

She knows when it's time to change your boxers.

Okai, I'm done...

 

1) This one is miles better than the original. Eyes, shading and hair look good. I don´t see any further problems. However, check out the color count, it´s 18.

2) Honestly, I think the original looks better, the eyes look too high imo. Besides that what needs more work here is the hair: 

It has two extra shades, one above the ear (looks like a fe8 remnant) and one above her hand. Also, that particular patch of hair (above her hand) looks messy. The patch on the top of her head is not as bad but needs a little rework too. Mainly the outline going too deep into the hair.

3) Good, looks better without the strand of hair on her face. What looks custom is the straight hair that goes down below her head, I would suggest erasing it and look for a mug with straight hair to the shoulders, there´s a few. Other than that, the shading on her face is a bit sparse on some parts. Careful, you cut her tits in half.

4) I really like the left one. The purple headband gets lost between her hair and the headgear. You can make it more noticeable or take it out and put more hair.

The right one is simple but effective, I feel her right eye is too far off her head. Try bringing it down and to the left by a few pixels and see how it looks.

Not gonna comment on the last ones. Miledy will never be the same in my eyes...

[Cetanosaurus]

Cool, thanks! 

On 5/16/2017 at 1:30 PM, Capibarainspace said:

1) This one is miles better than the original. Eyes, shading and hair look good. I don´t see any further problems. However, check out the color count, it´s 18.

Fixed the 18 colors.  I can put him as done for now! Thanks!

On 5/16/2017 at 1:30 PM, Capibarainspace said:

2) Honestly, I think the original looks better, the eyes look too high imo. Besides that what needs more work here is the hair: 

 Okai, I'll revert her back to her previous eye position. And fix it another way.  Also after changing the weird sensation going on in her head, I should give her more colors. 

 

On 5/16/2017 at 1:30 PM, Capibarainspace said:

3) Good, looks better without the strand of hair on her face. What looks custom is the straight hair that goes down below her head, I would suggest erasing it and look for a mug with straight hair to the shoulders, there´s a few. Other than that, the shading on her face is a bit sparse on some parts. Careful, you cut her tits in half.

Cool, I've fixed the hair, Thanks! When I get better at splicing I want to change her dress too, or add some more colors. I'll consider her done for the moment.    

On 5/16/2017 at 1:30 PM, Capibarainspace said:

4) I really like the left one. The purple headband gets lost between her hair and the headgear. You can make it more noticeable or take it out and put more hair.

Nice, did the back of the headgear look a bit out of place to you? I'll consider her done after the headband fix. 

 

On 5/16/2017 at 1:30 PM, Capibarainspace said:

The right one is simple but effective, I feel her right eye is too far off her head. Try bringing it down and to the left by a few pixels and see how it looks.

Honestly, I don't know how you saw that, I don't have an eye for that kind of detail yet/or at all. I was impressed. I tried 2 methods.

First is : one pixel to the left, which I thought turned out better. I can be wrong lol  

Second is : one down, one left. I thought it gave her a bigger forehead. What do you think?

    Also, she needs different color! 

 

I had to change some of the older. Still WIP, think they're better than what they started as? 

His hair is meh, and his metal plates are still using fe8 colors, I didn't know what other color to put them as of now, they stand out a bit too much.   I think he's a bit better than he used to be. His collar should be a different color. 

These 2, I mostly tried faces, and stopped at these 2.   

First one has some hair problems on her left shoulder ( our right).  Other than that, not much changed.

Second one, same thing, face change,  and now the more I look at her, the hair going on her left cheek is longer than intended. This face gives her a tomboy'ish look.  Overall, which face do you think works the best?   Maybe both aren't good?

And, 2 new portraits.

 

Not much to say, I still have 3-4 free colors on the woman. I'll most likely change the scarf/cape's color. Maybe the eyes should go too? Could be using too much of Lyn's face.  

And the man. I had him for awhile. I wanted to get someone's opinion on him. I tried to base myself on King Kashue. Once I get better, I'll try mixing armors for him. The mustache looks a bit like it dosen't belong there. What else am I missing?

I won't be making much progress in the next weeks or so. And I also want to attack battle sprites next, as soon as I'm happy with this merry band of heroes faces! 

Thanks for your help!

[Cetanosaurus]

Well, since I was able to salvage one sprite from my tint fiasco. I thought of putting it out so I could get some pointers. He's the first one I did where I tried to mix  different sprites. ( Ephraim and rogue mostly, I love the Rogue's animation ).

( 7 frames in this )

I have other frames with this guy, but they just don't fit in right now. 

What I really want to know is if I'm using too many frames for the slashing. The blur isn't all that great either, but it's as good as I could do at the time.    

I want to finish his animation as soon as I'm done with the portraits. I still want 2-3 more males characters. But anyways, since I won't have much time to work on this, I wanted to get a head start on what is good and bad for animating sprites or just general tips! ( I read that too much movement breaks the ''FE immersion" or something--??.) 

Thanks, I appreciate every little bit of help!