PLANET AMS

[ams]

Thanks again ‘machiners!

Here is ALPHA’s right hand woman, LADY DRAGON. I see her as a supreme martial arts fighter with the ability to spit fire. Deadly and beautiful.

Cheers!

[JR19759]

Great on so many levels and in so many ways.

[The Atomic Punk]

Lady Dragon is amazing. Love the accent on the hip. Those shoes!!!

[Lightningsword]

Wow. Love those shoes and ya totally nailed the hair! The costume is badass. Cheers!

[livewyre1014]

Tattoos are great, pose is great, and I love the dress. But I think her hair is my favorite aspect of this design. Everything is the perfect balance of simplicity and complexity. Nicely done sir.

[Calvary_Red]

And AMS continues to be awesome. Beautiful design.

[ams]

Thanks to all for the great feedback!

So, I’m always looking to perfect the “Zypping” on my characters. Today, I took the male human body and just focused on highlighting and shading. What do you think? I found a small trick for the legs and I think they are the best shading I have done. I would like you “machiners to really critique all the sections of the body (legs,hands, torso…etc) and let me know what works the best.

Cheers!

[Lightningsword]

I am absolutley blown away.

[RobM]

@ams said:

Thanks to all for the great feedback!

So, I’m always looking to perfect the “Zypping” on my characters. Today, I took the male human body and just focused on highlighting and shading. What do you think? I found a small trick for the legs and I think they are the best shading I have done. I would like you “machiners to really critique all the sections of the body (legs,hands, torso…etc) and let me know what works the best.

Cheers!

Okay, here goes. The seams where the hands meet the forearms and where the feet meet the lower legs are visible. Also, the gradients on the backs of the hands and the tops of the feet may be a tad too large. The effect is not as subtle or organic as the rest of the lighting effects. They read more obviously as gradient circles, unlike the rest of the zypping (which is great BTW). The face, in particular, is very well done. A question, I often struggle with feeling like I can’t get the gradients small enough to work in certain areas that can be pivotal to the overall effect. Do you have this issue, and how do you approach it? Thanks. Love you work as always.

[ams]

Thanks for the constructive critique. I find after staring at the same image for a long period of time, you become blind to certain aspects of the pic. I’m always looking to improve and value everyone’s input. You are correct with the hands and feet being a little off. They were the last things to be done and I did rush them. My main focus for the pic were the legs and torso. I could also improve on the neck region. It doesn’t seem to work for me. Needs more shadows.

With getting gradients small enough is a tricky task. The smaller the gradient, the more concentrated the color is which makes it seem brighter. When I am adding the highlights to my pics, I go ahead and all the gradients where I think there needs to be highlighting. After that, it’s a matter of blending the colors. Fading the gradients to match where the highlight area is so it looks more believable. Take for example the inner thigh. It still is highlighted with the same gradient as the outer thigh, but I did dim it because it would be darker in the shadow between the legs. There is a lot of trial and error. Sometimes when I think I’ve hit the wall, I will take a break and revisit it with fresh eyes. It is amazing how you see things that you missed when you come back to the image. Hope this helps.

Cheers!

[prswirve]

This is really awesome! The shading and the highlight on the body and thighs are perfect, not to mention the face, which always are for all your images. I don’t think i even have the patience enough to do something as realistic as your work.

[FRM]

great job on lady dragon!

[DiCicatriz]

A little late again, but Lady Dragon is spectacular! She has the perfect DILLIGAF expression, befitting a woman badass enough to be Alpha’s right hand lady.

As for the shading study, great job! The visible seams mentioned before are fairly faint, and could easily be covered with a different color palette, glove items, etc.

If I may give one or two notes, very minor things. His nipples seem a bit central/close together to me. I think proportionately each one might move a few pixels to the left and right, respectively. In terms of proportion his torso seems a bit narrow where the trunk meets the chest, under the arms. I think that’s by virtue of using the adolescent body-type from Body>Male Alternate with the chest/neck from Body>Male Military, but a guy that buff would probably have bigger lats! I’ve actually used the curve of the forearm item (the complete item with elbow bone and closed wrist) from Body>Male Standard, layered behind everything and blended in with gradients to counteract that problem.

Other than my nitpicking, the shading is exceptional, especially on the legs and the face. Great job!

[ams]

Thanks ‘machiners!

@ DiCicatriz – Thanks for the honest crtique. Here is the update with your suggestions….

Also went brighter on some of the outer grads which I’ve picked up from prswivre creations. Thanks!

[ams]

Here is another villain who is part of ALPHA’s menagerie. An energy absorbing vampire, STYX is always looking for the slight oppurtunity to seize power from ALPHA….

[Author]

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