Color Experiment 2: Shantae

Please, Full Download! PNG Rendering here sucks... X(

With the end of Experiment 1, I still wasn't solid on Digital coloring. All i really knew was bending lines in illustrator. The black lines were all even and something bugged me about the whole thing.

Thus enter Experiment 2! I recently picked up Shantae for the GBC (a title i missed out on due to my childhood ignorance, thinking it was a girly game due to the cover... Stupid NY Gamer! You should know better than that!) Well, i was wrong and i do deserve a real ass kicking for such a travesty!

Anyway, Picked up the game and started playing. Ok, easy beginning, nothing out of the blue. Well this game kicked my teeth in on numerous occasions!

One: The Enemies rarely drop hearts so if Shantae took some damage, she was staying like that most likely til you hit the next town or use a potion.

Two: 1-Ups are really only found in dungeons so if you lose a life, you are pretty much screwed until you actually went into the Danger Zones!

Three: Night and Day really take a toll on you! Daytime, it's easy to run from town to town. Scarecrow monster, pfft, get out! Naga, Yeah, Owned! But at night, those same dudes get boosted with Double Health and i believe extra power so you have to be careful of when to step boundaries!

Mix in some Belly Dancing, Great Level Design, some magnetism, a bit of comedy, a monkey, an elephant, a Spider, and a Harpy and you're in business! One of the greatest games I played in this time! Too Bad that Mr. Bozon's game was hurt due to the GBC's death! Damn it to hell, i mean to get a copy of the game now... be prepared to shell out some dough!

Ok, well for the experiment. Insted of using Illustrator's feature to fill in the shapes and stroke the lines, i went with a different approach. Using a Black Shape for the bottom, then cloning the same shape and placing it above with color, I was able to move the color shape's lines to vary the thickness of the black lines, giving it something in my eyes. I left the image flat and used Illustrator's Export Option (just found out about it) and exported the layers to Photoshop. Using Photoshop, i was able to shade and shine using layers and tools I was comfortable already with. A Layer above the needed section, a pass with either a brighter or darker color, a shange in blending option, and an eraser to touch upon the needed sectors!

I like this method more than the first, even though, i'd have to reshade the image if i needed to enlarge the flat image.

From what I know now:

Method 1: Gives the ability to strech the image to any size w/o worry. Downside, No use of Photoshop!
Method 2: Gives more pull for shading and more room to mess around. Downside, Need to Reshade if Image needs to be bigger.

Shantae is Property of Wayforward and this dude right here, Mr. Matt Bozon () . Shantae 2 cannot come soon enough and if needed, I'll raise some hell for it!