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Geek Culture / Neopets style photoshop shading

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The crazy
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Posted: 13th Sep 2010 23:49 Edited at: 13th Sep 2010 23:50
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Does anyone know what kind of techniques neopets and similar sites use to shade their characters? I was trying to replicate this type of style in photoshop but it keep soming out looking like cheap flash stuff.

I bought and just finished setting up a virtual pet script on my website. Nothing I expect to be too big it's just, when I was little I always wanted to run a vp site and now I can. Would anyone be willing to help me? I have a bunch of monsters drawn up but I can't do this style to save my life. Plus it'd be nice to focus of the php troubleshooting side of things.

My email is [email protected] if anyone's interested. I could probably pay a small amount but definitely not what the work would deserve. I think I have about $20 left in my paypal...

Some pics to go with what I'm talking about:
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DJ Almix
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Posted: 13th Sep 2010 23:53
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Id do it, but the pics don't show up

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Phaelax
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 00:01
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Just use the Pen tool to draw shapes, there's really nothing to that. When shading, keep it simple and broad, only 1 shade of a semi-transparent black is needed.


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" ~ Arthur C. Clarke
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DJ Almix
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 00:05
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Quote: "Just use the Pen tool to draw shapes, there's really nothing to that. When shading, keep it simple and broad, only 1 shade of a semi-transparent black is needed."


Yeah now the pics are showing, and yeah that's really easy to do that style of shading

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The crazy
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 00:08 Edited at: 14th Sep 2010 00:10
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Here's some better examples:




If you are interrested perhaps you could take a whack at this?

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Phaelax
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 00:12
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I'll take a whack at it tonight at home, I'm not gonna try it with only a laptop track pad.


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" ~ Arthur C. Clarke
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The crazy
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 02:13 Edited at: 14th Sep 2010 02:17
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Here's my attempt.



I just don't think it has the same type of feel to it. It's flat, amateurish.

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JLMoondog
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 02:17 Edited at: 14th Sep 2010 02:18
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I can take a whack at it. Let me see what I can come up with.

Edit: Is this a paid job?


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The crazy
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 02:19
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I'd just like to say I really appreciate all of your taking of whacks at this. I'm pretty interested to see now all the different versions.
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BiggAdd
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 04:10 Edited at: 14th Sep 2010 04:18
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I had a go, but I'm not sure I've done the shadowing right. The line art took the longest to do.





I made this ages ago, which sort of shows how its all built up (The drawing wasn't mine, I traced some random cartoon off google).


Line work comes first, then colour then shadow and highlight.




Cheers,
BiggAdd

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The crazy
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 04:50 Edited at: 14th Sep 2010 04:51
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That's awesome BiggAdd! Always love the style of your work. For your line work, is that the pen tool? If so, do you have any tips on keeping the lines steady? I assume it must just be an experience thing. I always have trouble keeping the lines consistent.

[edit] To be specific, I'm talking about the consistency of thickness of the line work.
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BiggAdd
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 04:52 Edited at: 14th Sep 2010 05:04
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I used Illustrator. So all the lines are actually lines, with brush strokes applied to them.

You can brush strokes in Photoshop, but that only applies to a raster rather than a vector.
However if you do have Adobe Illustrator, I would recommend you use that instead as Photoshop isn't really designed for this sort of stuff.

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The crazy
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 05:08
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Oh I'm absolutely open to learn illustrator. I do have it on my laptop. How would I apply a brush stroke to a line?
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BiggAdd
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 05:10 Edited at: 14th Sep 2010 05:14
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Open up the Brushes panel (Window>Brushes), then just drag a brush onto a vector line (or highlight the vector line and just click on the brush):




Or you can use the Paint Brush Tool (B), to paint the line. You can also make your own brushes, which is quite cool.

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The crazy
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 07:32 Edited at: 14th Sep 2010 07:33
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Played around with illustrator a bit, it's pretty cool. I've only used it for bringing custom logos into maya. Haven't explored these types of features. It's going to take some getting used to but I like it a lot. Thanks for the tip.

Here's the version my gf made:

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DJ Almix
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 07:48
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You should round the ears and add a tail

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The crazy
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 12:58
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Does anyone have ideas on what could be a good name for a virtual pet site?
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lazerus
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 13:25
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Ahh flat shading, an old love of mine Great work Biggadd

The name would have to be cute-ish, soo ive got nothing


http://lazerus-reborn.deviantart.com/
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BiggAdd
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 13:25
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Here is the line art by the way if you want to give the colouring/shadowing a go:



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Fatal Berserker
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Posted: 14th Sep 2010 15:56
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i love that pic biggadd, its really good

Smoke me a kipper, ill be back for breakfast.
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BiggAdd
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Posted: 16th Sep 2010 03:45
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Thanks, but the original drawing was done by The Crazy, all I did was trace and neaten up the picture.



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Quik
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Posted: 17th Sep 2010 00:45
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Quote: "Thanks, but the original drawing was done by The Crazy, all I did was trace and neaten up the picture."


thats the kind of honesty i want to see more of today, even if it is quiet obvious he made it, it still should be told if someone comments "your drawing" that made me happy =)

very cute design The Crazy, and very beutiful coloring and shading biddadd =)


[Q]uik, Quiker than most
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Phaelax
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Posted: 17th Sep 2010 23:56
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I made one the same night you posted this, but I just got around to getting online.




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Indicium
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Posted: 17th Sep 2010 23:59
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Woah, that one is pretty cool, man!

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The crazy
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Posted: 19th Sep 2010 03:05 Edited at: 19th Sep 2010 07:00
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Nice one Phaelax. It's so cool to see all of these different styles being done.

[edit] My first attempt at illustrator. It's definitely a cool workflow. Still hard to make it look nice and professional. Gotta really give props to the artist with this type of art.



Another guy I made. Not sure if I like this brush style/size on this one.

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The crazy
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Posted: 19th Sep 2010 06:59
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file upload

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Phaelax
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Posted: 21st Sep 2010 23:23
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Those eyes on whatever that thing is reminds me of ren & stimpy cartoons.


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Fatal Berserker
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Posted: 21st Sep 2010 23:50 Edited at: 21st Sep 2010 23:50
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I dont think you should have his arms like that, the rest is perfect but his arms dont look right, with the muscles.

Smoke me a kipper, ill be back for breakfast.
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