More Potential Game Idea Characters

[FuryFox]

I was trying some different stuff with painting (in photoshop), and my instructor wanted to see why I was neglecting his particular assignments, so I threw together this quick page. Quick Character Page
The characters aren't anything too great (in retrospect, some seem pretty derivative), but I sort-of like what's going on in the first four. Of course, the designs I like best I don't bother to color (i.e. the inked only figures)...go figure. Here's some I like best for those who aren't inclined to click a link:

[Hero]

o_O

guh...do you have a website with more artwork up?

wowowowowow...I like your style, and I like the Pyron-esque guy a lot. And your PhotoShop job is awesome. How do you get such soft changes and harsh changes in shade all so flawlessly?

[Jester]

The Lizard guy is the coolest. The backwards knee guy rocks in fairly large amounts as well. So are you in school for game design? If so, based on the stuff I've seen you do I'm eagerly awaiting your official game debute.

[Drewbacca]

Can you help me ink some of my stuff and colour it? How do you go about colouring your artwork? It's really professional.

As for some feedback, I really like the character design of the body suite, horny guy and the primative lizard. The woman is more typical but nicely rendered.

You like to draw unique feet, which is a cool style but I don't think it fits with the slender look of the first drawing. He is so sleek and smooth then the bottom is marred a bit with the larger feet.

In the end, they are all very good and please help me ink some of mine.

EDIT: I don't know why I keep saying inked, I mean colour. It's getting late here and I am a bit 'fuzzy'... if you get my drift. Why do they call it a drift, anyway?

EDIT AGAIN: Where's think 'link' you speak so readily of, also?

[FuryFox]

Um, the link is in the opening paragraph, marked as links normally are, but here it is again:

Quick Character Page

I'm redesigning my website, and have 50 or so pieces, but, just that one right now, since I needed something quick to show the instructor.

Andrew: I'd be happy to help, but, it's late, so I'll give a detailed run-down on the process tomorrow. Thanks for the feedback, and check out the link...

Some other random stuff

Mostly just the intro and splash page images.

[dAMON]

Holy..!

I like those!

The Pyron-like character is cool!And nice style of coloring!

(You reference falcoon too,huh.)

Hmm..If i ask nicely,really nicely..you think you can help me color some stuff?

[ChaoofNee]

Seriously, how the fuck do you do that?
Very VERY nice work.

[Captain Vegetable]

Dude...you art is hot.

[FuryFox]

Okay, since there was some requests, I'll try to give a run-down of how these were colored. -and for the record, when I was new to digital painting, I found www.polykarbon.com and it's tutorials very useful.

1. Draw your figure or character or object or whatever. For this, it's best to stick to the contour lines of the figure (not too much cross-hatching and that sort of stuff).

2. Ink the drawing. Now, this step isn't very necessary, since Photoshop can has a lot of tools for working with the pencils alone, but I work messy sometimes and for these drawings you need the outline anyway, so, ink it.

3. Scan the image. You can use your discretion here, but, I usually scan my inked drawings at 300 dpi greyscale for convenience's sake. I scan right into Photoshop using the Twain driver with my Epson scanner.

4. Adjust the "Levels" of your image. Move the sliders so there's as litte distortion to your original lines as possible (eliminate the greytones from the texture of the paper, or any eraser "ghosts"), and to make them darker. Save this temporary file.

5. Open the file in Adobe Streamline. This program will convert the bitmap to vector, giving you a nice, scalable outline. Adjust the conversion settings to your desire, and then export that file.

6. Open the new file in Adobe Illustrator, and make whatever changes you need to the vector outline. You could just open the file with Photoshop, but the main reason I open it Illustrator is just so I can paste into Photoshop. For some reason, this works the best for me. Copy the your figure outline, then Open Photoshop, say "New" (it will automatically be sized to your clipboard contents), set the resolution (at least 300 dpi) and hit Ok.

7. Okay, now, create some layers for the outline to be on (as in, leave the background layer alone). Paste the outline; PS will want to anti-alias the vector graphics, but turn that off, as it will make them much harder to color. This is why it's good to set the document resolution really high, so the lack AA won't be a problem (like I said, at least 300 dpi, 600 dpi is probably optimal if your computer can handle all that data).

8. Now, you have a nice crisp black outline to work with. Leave that on the top layer, and then paste the outlines on another layer underneath. For simplicity's sake, this is will be your coloring layer.

9. On the top layer, use Select > Color Range after selecting black. It will select all of your black outline. Then save the Selection, and just call it "outline" or something. You'll need this later. The Selections > Save Selection is actually really useful, if you remember to use it.

10. Deselect that, and start filling in blocks of color with the Paint Bucket tool on your color layer. If your contour drawing has closed outlines for every feature (like clothes, eyes, etc.) this wil go really quickly, otherwise you'll have to draw in some natural barriers with the same color or just color it manually. Once you have things blocked off or colored in the foundation color, you can save those as Selections, or put them on their own layer or whatever.

11. Basic coloring I do is just with the airbrush tool and inking options. I set the airbrush to about 15% Opacity and 40% flow (I'm still playing with the options in PSv7, PSv5.5 was SO much easier). Set the inking to Multiply, and it will darken anything you paint within the same tonal value as the foreground color. Conversely, use Screen to lighten areas. This is how I quickly illustrate the form of the figures, or give them volume (or "shade" them, if you will).

12. Once that's done, load the "outline" selection, and paint over your black outline. I usually make the outlines as dark as the darkest color within what what they're outlining (for example, I don't want a red ball to have a black outline, I want it to have a dark red outline). I just use the pencil tool set to "normal", and since you have the "outline" selected, you'll only draw over the outline and leave your colors untouched. Hit Ctrl-H (Command-H) to hide the "marching ants" for more precision.

13. Now that your outline is colored and your character "shaded", I tend to add hard shadows (like, underneath someone's jawline, or under their arms or something...depending on the light source). Draw a selection with the Lasso tool, or the Pen tool if you want to be precise, and then shade it in with the Dodge (maybe Burn, I always get them mixed up) tool (which darkens whatever you paint on).

14. When your satisfied with all that, I tend to do my color adjustments and brightness adjustments and all that other PS goodness. Also, I like to apply the Artistic > Paint Daub filter, with 0 sharpeness and a fairly small brush size. After the filter has done it's thing, it will sort have obliterated all your contour lines. I then go to Edit > Fade Effect and fade the Paint Daub effect to about 25-30% opacity, which will give your contour lines a bit more translucency, and blend them in better with the shapes. Obviously, if you just want black outlines (comic-book style), some of these steps can be ommitted.

15. Do any final effects, like glowing eyes or shiny metal, that sort of stuff. Flatten everything, and you're set.



-so, I'm not sure how helpful that was, but www.polykarbon.com talks about some of the same techniques, and it has pictures and stuff too.

[Lordmrw]

Very, very informative. Your level of skill is where I feel I should have been a long time ago. You and Hero inspire me to keep drawing. Thanks.