Well, it's been a stone's age since I've visited this site, and I figure I might as well make myself useful. After some discussion with Chaoxys, I'll be taking a swing at the main character renders for the Community Fangame Project: Super Mario Bros. & The Midas Machine. The style itself is currently still in development, and I'll be happy to keep folks up to date with how things come along. I won't actually start working on the illustrations proper until I've gotten a style hammered out. That's where you guys come in. I'd like feedback on the style so far, and on any illustrations I come up with. Started with a draft of Mario, came out derpy, so I moved on to Luigi, and it turned out much better. [spoiler][img]http://i.imgur.com/cGcnkkP.png[/img][/spoiler] Now, the mindset behind this style is to frankly be a somewhat more simplified version of the Mario and Luigi RPG art style, and perhaps use the line, shading, and color techniques of the more classic Mario art styles (Such as Mario 3 and Mario World). I want to capture the emotion and personality of the characters, which the Mario and Luigi style is amazing at, while still keeping it simplistic and clean. Anyhow, let me know what you all think. This was kind of just a quick test sample, and I may throw together a slightly more in-depth image later on in the week.

i think it might be worth playing around with some more distinct shapes- [img]http://i.imgur.com/y5HwJPY.png[/img] the shading and colors are spot-on, though.

I like where that could go, but it might be a couple notches past where I'm wanting it. I'll try and shoot for something in the middle of where ours are at, though probably more towards your end if that makes sense. [img]http://i.imgur.com/tsDqUPt.png[/img] Pretty sure I didn't accomplish what I was hoping to accomplish, but Mario honestly does not leave a lot of room for being expressive without looking strange or over-stylized. I'm definitely hitting a bit closer to that cartoony expressionism, though.

I already showed this to you on skype, but i'll post it here as well just in case I guess. I think something like this could work: [img]http://i.imgur.com/qdsYSjs.png[/img]

I'm also at the point of thinking that we need more than heads to determine this style. I'll see what I can cook up tomorrow.

Luigi's head looks like a sausage if you don't give him a chin. x)

isn't the first drawing just luigi's m&l design? right down to the black letter cap. nice drawing but even though i dont know much about what midas machine is i feel like it would benefit from looking a little more original.

i think if you're aiming for a more M&L kinda style, you'd be better off making luigi's head thinner near the neck area, and making it a bit longer overall. having his mouth visible (something rarely done in M&L artwork, not so much sprites) would maybe call for a more visible chin just so it doesn't look as awkward.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/cGcnkkP.png[/img] You see this image? It would help if you played around with the contrast a bit more. Also, where exactly is the light source? I feel like there hasn't been a whole lot thought put into the placement of the hightlights and shading.

[quote="Mit"]i think if you're aiming for a more M&L kinda style, you'd be better off making luigi's head thinner near the neck area, and making it a bit longer overall. having his mouth visible (something rarely done in M&L artwork, not so much sprites) would maybe call for a more visible chin just so it doesn't look as awkward.[/quote] Y'know, the funny thing is, I actually originally did give him a chin, but at the urging of Chaoxys, I removed it, as it kind of fell into the "uncanny valley" when it came to the design aspect. I also realize the flaw with the head's width, and I'm frankly just going to leave that drawing where it lies, and make another later on. [quote="mysteriousclown"]isn't the first drawing just luigi's m&l design? right down to the black letter cap. nice drawing but even though i dont know much about what midas machine is i feel like it would benefit from looking a little more original.[/quote] Yes, it is. That's actually the point. For some reason, the black letter caps and black eyes are just a lot more charming to me. The Midas Machine also has a somewhat similar graphical style to the Mario and Luigi games--at least, those before Dream Team--so I figure that those designs and the art style are a good place to start. [quote="SuperArthurBros"]Luigi's head looks like a sausage if you don't give him a chin. x)[/quote] Yes. Yes it does. [quote="E-Man"][spoiler][img]http://i.imgur.com/cGcnkkP.png[/img][/spoiler] You see this image? It would help if you played around with the contrast a bit more. Also, where exactly is the light source? I feel like there hasn't been a whole lot thought put into the placement of the hightlights and shading.[/quote] We're beyond shading and into shape now, I think. The goal of the style is soft shadows with soft highlights, perhaps with hard highlights on metallic objects, and hard rimlights. The soft shadow to hard rimlight concept comes from the Mario 3 and Mario World artwork, I've simply raised the contrast a bit to give the image more depth. The light source is towards the front, slightly up, and a bit to the left. Now then, once I've finished my coffee, I believe I'll work on the proper Luigi character render's sketch since he seems to be the best place to start.

[quote="Black Boo"] We're beyond shading and into shape now, I think. The goal of the style is soft shadows with soft highlights, perhaps with hard highlights on metallic objects, and hard rimlights. The soft shadow to hard rimlight concept comes from the Mario 3 and Mario World artwork, I've simply raised the contrast a bit to give the image more depth. The light source is towards the front, slightly up, and a bit to the left. [/quote] I didn't want to say anything about the shape of the head because I felt like it was redundant. Anyway, if you think that the shading is good enough as it is, it's not really my place to stop you. All I will tell you is that you should at least consider the ideas people give you, even when you're finished with a certain part. I often expect this when working on my own project. Also, regardless of whether some people say that all my parts are good or not, I don't hesitate to work on some additional experimenting if something looks off to me. Besides, it might even make the parts look better than they originally did. So, go ahead and enjoy your Brewster juice/Starbeans Bean Juice. You don't have to follow my advice, but it is something to chew over.

[quote="Black Boo"][quote="Mit"]i think if you're aiming for a more M&L kinda style, you'd be better off making luigi's head thinner near the neck area, and making it a bit longer overall. having his mouth visible (something rarely done in M&L artwork, not so much sprites) would maybe call for a more visible chin just so it doesn't look as awkward.[/quote] Y'know, the funny thing is, I actually originally did give him a chin, but at the urging of Chaoxys, I removed it, as it kind of fell into the "uncanny valley" when it came to the design aspect. I also realize the flaw with the head's width, and I'm frankly just going to leave that drawing where it lies, and make another later on.[/quote] Funny thing, after you logged off of Skype last night, I opened the chin version in paint and tried making the neck a bit more narrow as others have said, and once I did that, the chin looked more fitting.

[spoiler][img]http://i.imgur.com/nP7Pc7D.png[/img][/spoiler] Chin it is then. This is a rough concept of Luigi's render pose, and I tried to apply the suggestions everyone made that can be applied so far. Lengthened the head, gave him the chin, even gave him the turtleneck since I think that's fitting. Feedback as always is welcomed and appreciated.

that looks a lot better! i would have his lifted leg be posed more outward from his body so it helps the silhouette, and his right (our left) arm looks a bit short, since the elbow area is obscured.

[quote="Mit"]that looks a lot better! i would have his lifted leg be posed more outward from his body so it helps the silhouette, and his right (our left) arm looks a bit short, since the elbow area is obscured.[/quote] [spoiler][img]http://i.imgur.com/mVsKJu4.png[/img][/spoiler] Well, I think that helped considerably.

It could be just me, but it looks like Luigi has too much of a forehead and his head is a tad bit tall/narrow.

I really like the design you're going for here, but I think Luigi's body might be a bit too tall or skinny. He looks more like Waluigi, which could make things get kinda weird if you draw Waluigi and try to make him look more slim than Luigi.

Honestly, Neweegee, I was thinking that Luigi did look like Waluigi. I was going to mention that, but I forgot...

its literally M&L art proportions [img]http://i.imgur.com/W2EFrz5.png[/img]

There are some minor differences if you look closely enough, though.