Shading advice

[geneticfrog]

Originally Posted by Crow

Haven't done any pixels for quite a while now, but maybe this can give you a general idea.

Attachment 54324

you have a grasp on the concept of shading but no so much with a set light source like graals. Your shading is not wrong but its considered pillow shading. (the devil)


the only problem here is if we look at the hat and try to find its light source. it is what we call "pillow shading" beacause the only way you can get light bright in the front of the hat but dark on the top is if you have a flashlight. or some kind of torche right between you and the hat.

If we use graals general light source its the sun at 45 degrees infront of the player in the sky.

all this to say that the TOP of the top hat needs to be lit up and the rim of the top hat. you have to be able to picture this concept in your mind.

[lavaman]

I recommend playing around with what I was told was called "Dithering".

I'm not sure if that's really what it is called so I made/uploaded a Sword of Dither and a Sword of not so Dither to show what I'm talking about.

[Crow]

Originally Posted by geneticfrog

you have a grasp on the concept of shading but no so much with a set light source like graals. Your shading is not wrong but its considered pillow shading. (the devil)

I'm now aware that you don't seem to know anything about what you're trying to actually talk about. Thanks for the insight, I guess?

Originally Posted by lavaman

I recommend playing around with what I was told was called "Dithering".

Dithering also adds texture and should therefore not be used on materials that are not rough. Also, in the past, it was primarily used because of hardware limitations that did not allow a lot of colors. The artists created the illusion of more colors by dithering.

[DustyPorViva]

Originally Posted by geneticfrog

you have a grasp on the concept of shading but no so much with a set light source like graals. Your shading is not wrong but its considered pillow shading. (the devil)


the only problem here is if we look at the hat and try to find its light source. it is what we call "pillow shading" beacause the only way you can get light bright in the front of the hat but dark on the top is if you have a flashlight. or some kind of torche right between you and the hat.

If we use graals general light source its the sun at 45 degrees infront of the player in the sky.

all this to say that the TOP of the top hat needs to be lit up and the rim of the top hat. you have to be able to picture this concept in your mind.

There's nothing wrong with his shading. Pillow shading is when you let the outline dictate your shading, not that the lightsource is from the front(just that a lightsource from the front rarely looks good anyways, and with certain shapes CAN create pillowshading). However while his lightsouce is somewhat from the front(though off to the side a bit) it doesn't hurt the piece here.

This would be pillowshading:



While I'm here I guess I'll post what I posted on the other forums:

First thing you can probably do to help this a lot is to work on the outline and form. For example since you're working with a small size it's probably best not to use lines to portray volume(such as the hem of the hat) and instead use lighting. A sharp jump from light to dark will imply a corner or edge.

Second, don't use pure greys unless you know what you're doing. A grey with a very light touch of hue looks much more pleasing to the eye. Typically when you're working with darks a hint of purple suits this well. In this instance blue could probably work, too.



After you work on those two things you can start shading. Try to avoid typical gradients. Get a little creative with it. For example typically shiny stuff(like a nice, shiny expensive tophat) could use "streaks" of highlights to make things a little more interesting. Also don't be afraid to play with these things a bit. For example instead of making the highlight go straight down you can make it taper off and disappear. This implies a conic shape to the hat and works with its shape to make it look more interesting than a very stiff hat, even if the lines still imply its edges are straight.

Don't be afraid to break away from the norm or logic to get creative, especially since it's for Graal that implements a cartoony style. You can often break off and do things that wouldn't make sense logically and it still looks nice and fits.