My edit goes back to the drawing board, but it really just illustrates the point. Even just recoloring with a different palette would have helped, I just tried to show the impact all of the factors can have when combined properly (and I honestly am still pretty new to this, if you've seen ANY of my past stuff, that is painfully obvious).
EDIT: I did a simpler edit to highlight the only things that really needed changing, as opposed to making it the way I would have...
Pay attention to the highlights and the shadow. Shadow does not just give an edge to things, it tends to make up a large portion of an object, and what it does is give volume.
highlights don't have to be white, and except for really shiny metal, they often aren't. As a rule, try to avoid pure gray, as it does not really occur in nature, and feels lifeless and bland. In fact, most shadows you see have a bluish tint anyway from diffuse lighting from the blue sky, so the blue in my palette was easily reused. Try to only use the black color for outlines that really need that contrast, like separating parts from each other.
When I pick my colors, I use gimp's scales tab of the color picker, rather than other options, such as the color wheel. I can see what the effects of changing hsv and rgb are right there, and can see all of the options lying before me. This also makes hue/saturation shifting a lot easier.
![[Image: blueknight3.png]](/image.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fimg803.imageshack.us%2Fimg803%2F2%2Fblueknight3.png&hash=9eb2b726c41f98d8beecde50ab0fb70d)
also, I will admit that this is actually one of my best sprites I have worked on, and found myself having way too much fun with it...
![[Image: blueknight4.png]](/image.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fimg714.imageshack.us%2Fimg714%2F5129%2Fblueknight4.png&hash=831b5f02bc0a9ccfe3bb569dff6f8e87)
EDIT: I did a simpler edit to highlight the only things that really needed changing, as opposed to making it the way I would have...
Pay attention to the highlights and the shadow. Shadow does not just give an edge to things, it tends to make up a large portion of an object, and what it does is give volume.
highlights don't have to be white, and except for really shiny metal, they often aren't. As a rule, try to avoid pure gray, as it does not really occur in nature, and feels lifeless and bland. In fact, most shadows you see have a bluish tint anyway from diffuse lighting from the blue sky, so the blue in my palette was easily reused. Try to only use the black color for outlines that really need that contrast, like separating parts from each other.
When I pick my colors, I use gimp's scales tab of the color picker, rather than other options, such as the color wheel. I can see what the effects of changing hsv and rgb are right there, and can see all of the options lying before me. This also makes hue/saturation shifting a lot easier.
also, I will admit that this is actually one of my best sprites I have worked on, and found myself having way too much fun with it...