11-22-2010, 11:44 PM
metal is fine, as long as you avoid a chrome-ish look wich is nothing but a complete nightmare, specially on such a small sprite.
my bit of advice would be to actually simplifly the shading. and simplyfy the desing(specially on the arms) and fix the linework. you're just trying to cram too much info and details on such a small space to a point it totally kills its readbility. if you can get people to deduce that the arms are segmented by just giving a subtle highlight on the first part of it, then you dont really need to add a highligth and define the rest of it.
![[Image: rOIQT.gif]](/image.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2FrOIQT.gif&hash=5150bffdfda7d60ee47120ad13373768)
also, dont AA on the outside. its pointless. and the reason why its pointless its because a clean outline is actually a smooth outline. if you actually want to outer AA, give your character a proper background where he would need to fit into an enviroment. otherwise dont do it. as i said, proper linework and a proper choice of colors can provide a much more refined look that blindly throwing bits of pixels randomly expecting them to fit and make sense.
[protip: you dont have to AA anything in most cases. AA isnt part of the shading process nor its mandatory that your stuff has to be AA'ed. in fact AA'ing something its purely an aesthetical choice that ultimately comes from your own taste and/or experience knowing what fits best for a piece. in other words, don't AA everything, just AA what really needs to be AA'ed.]
my bit of advice would be to actually simplifly the shading. and simplyfy the desing(specially on the arms) and fix the linework. you're just trying to cram too much info and details on such a small space to a point it totally kills its readbility. if you can get people to deduce that the arms are segmented by just giving a subtle highlight on the first part of it, then you dont really need to add a highligth and define the rest of it.
also, dont AA on the outside. its pointless. and the reason why its pointless its because a clean outline is actually a smooth outline. if you actually want to outer AA, give your character a proper background where he would need to fit into an enviroment. otherwise dont do it. as i said, proper linework and a proper choice of colors can provide a much more refined look that blindly throwing bits of pixels randomly expecting them to fit and make sense.
[protip: you dont have to AA anything in most cases. AA isnt part of the shading process nor its mandatory that your stuff has to be AA'ed. in fact AA'ing something its purely an aesthetical choice that ultimately comes from your own taste and/or experience knowing what fits best for a piece. in other words, don't AA everything, just AA what really needs to be AA'ed.]