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[Pentagonbuddy]

Part two: Here~!

I know there are a couple tutorials out there already, but here I want to try and give a more comprehensive look at making RTP-styled faces. It also shows how I generally draw mine, in case anyone was wondering.

If all this is too long, here:

Good luck! /tutorial

Now with that out of the way...

A few quick notes:

Spoiler:

Saturation means how intense a color is. Better to show with a picture.

We would call the color on the left less saturated than the color on the right. It’s dull and has more grey in it. The RTP style usually has a lot of saturation, especially in the shadows, but there are exceptions.

I use Photoshop CS3 for all my pictures. It’s not the software that matters, but the person using it. If you have a brush that can make hard-edged lines, an airbrush, and some kind of gradient tool, (this is technically optional if you have an airbrush and really good blending skills.) then you’re set.

I also use a tablet. It's possible to do everything with a mouse, but it's very, very hard. Mine is really just a cheapo one I've had for quite a few years. XD Drawing with one is usually awkward at first, but the more you practice, the easier it gets.

As my art teacher would say…NO SMUDGING! Look at the RTP faces and you’ll notice that almost everything is hard-edged. The style is pretty much cell-shading, so you want things looking sharp.

The RTP Coloring Style

Spoiler:

It’s a small detail, but if you look at many of the RTP faces, you’ll notice they’re lighter at the top and darker at the bottom. When picking the second color for the gradient, I usually make it a little darker and a little more saturated, but you don’t want there to be too big of a contrast for most hair.

The VX style doesn’t usually show individual hair strands, and when they do, they aren’t drawn in black.

Look at Actor 1-6’s hair. See how undefined it is? Instead of showing every clump of hair, we have suggestion strands in the shadows.

But compare that with People 1-6’s hair, which shows a lot more individual clumps.

You can see a lot of clumps in Actor 3-3’s hair, too, People 2-7’s hair even has a braid drawn in it. Even so, keep in mind that most of the hair isn’t drawn strand for strand, but rather in clumps. Compare the two:

See which one looks better? (XD I actually have a bad habit of over detailing hair, but shhh.)

Once you have your shadows laid out, it’s time to add the secondary shadow. I sometimes call it the blue shadow, but it’s not always blue. Look at all these different colors used:

Really, it’s a colorful shadow that goes a long way towards making your face look RTP. If you look close enough (and abuse the zoom button)…

…You’ll see a thin line that’s slightly darker outlining this second shadow. It’s another small detail, but adding it in – and not making it too thick – can add a lot.

Next to think about is the highlights! They’re not that noticeable, but leaving them out makes the entire face feel like it’s missing something most of the time. There’s usually a high contrast between the highlight color and the base color. It isn’t used in too many areas, and mostly on the right side.

When you’re outlining strands INSIDE the outline, instead of the almost black red you usually see on the edges, you’ll want to use a darker shade of your shadow color. Without these colored outlines, everything would stand out too much.

See?

Alright, with that in mind, here are some progress shots of making a face.

The first thing you'll want to do is find a picture to use as a base for your face. If you can draw a perfectly styled RTP face from scratch, what're you doing reading this anyways? This is what I'll be starting with:

Let’s do the hair first~! I consider it one of the most important parts! I really love hair, probably more than I should so I always spend extra time on this.

I start by tossing on some basic shapes. This is a general idea of what I want the hair to look like. It doesn’t matter what color I use (white, brown, lime green…It’s all fine) because I’m going to fill over it with a gradient. Once I have the shape down, I make lines on a separate layer to help get a better idea of what I want the hair to look like. (But I forgot to save a picture of this step, silly me! The outlines will change anyways, I gurantee.)

Now I fill in the gradient.

Time for shadows! I do these on a separate layer, too, because once I have the gradient in I don’t want to mess it up. Knowing where to put shadows takes a lot of practice, and a lot of looking at reference pictures.

Then I go ahead and add in the blue shadow.

That shows what the hair looks like without and then with highlights. See how much it adds?

Here, I want him to look a certain way, so I made his eyes look smaller. Bigger eyes tend to make a character seem more innocent or cute, while smaller ones are often connected with age, maturity, or meanness. (At least in anime.) I also added shadows to the skin -- you can see the different colors I used in that line of colors to the right.

This time I drew in a new mouth. I also added in the pinkish color to his cheeks. It's very subtle (and actually an orange color for most faces, despite looking pink.) When doing this, you can use an airbrush. You don't want there to be hard-edges circles on his cheeks. It also has a teeensy highlight near the middle of his cheeks.

I started tossing down the colors for the rest of him. The scarf and the darker lines around it are both on separate layers. It's the same techniques I used for the hair, except now I'm coloring clothes.

Phew! Again, the same ideas as before. Get your shapes laid out, outline for clarity, put on a gradient (for clothes or hair), shade, highlight. Remember that, as you work, you'll want to tidy up the outlines and clean things up in general. If you're a messy artist like me, at least.


...And now he looks completely different. All I did, aside from finishing the clothes and generally cleaning up, was nab Actor 2-3's nose and chin and edit it onto the face. This is because the character in question is not a prepubescent boy. XD Because of this, I also made his mouth bigger and edited it a bit, and shifted his ear up to match his new jawline.

I hope this was helpful! If you have any questions, or anything you'd like me to explain, ask here and I'll do my best to answer. Suggestions for improvement would be great, too. n_n; I'm certainly not perfect.

[SowS]

this is great!
anyways, what i need to know is drawing the outlines. i still haven't grasp the style regarding the outlines.
i need to know when it will be thicker/thinner... thanks!

[Pentagonbuddy]

this is great!
anyways, what i need to know is drawing the outlines. i still haven't grasp the style regarding the outlines.
i need to know when it will be thicker/thinner... thanks!

It's usually very thin, but in places where there'd be a shadow, it thickens up a bit. Try looking at the necks of some RTP actors, since that's where it usually gets thicker.

[SowS]

ok, thanks!

[Andinator]

Man, dude this is gonna create tons of new faceset makers. When you told me you were gonna make a tut, I thought about making one for lineart that coincides with soruves lineart tut, but after more consideration, I'll let people suck in your awesomeness first good luck guys

and as a tip for SowS, I advise a two three pixel brush but then lower the diameter of the brush in brush presets to about I'd say 70 percent

[Xeokk]

it's a great tutorial. i'm starting work right now.
just one question - are you using a graphic tablet?

[mitchi.exe]

I also use a tablet. It's possible to do everything with a mouse, but it's very, very hard. Mine is really just a cheapo one I've had for quite a few years. XD Drawing with one is usually awkward at first, but the more you practice, the easier it gets.

Well, we could also use paths for drawing shapes, but yeah.. It'll be time consuming..

Btw, how will you know where to brush shadows/highlights?
Can you explain that more?

[Pentagonbuddy]

Well, we could also use paths for drawing shapes, but yeah.. It'll be time consuming..

Btw, how will you know where to brush shadows/highlights?
Can you explain that more?

Mm, if you can make the path tool work for you, that's a talent all of its own. I've never been good at it, myself. n_n;

For shadows and highlights...it's easier to see if you look at the portraits.

The witch girl is a good example!

I have a hard time putting it into words, but...It helps to visualize things in 3D in your head. You think about where the light can get to, and where it can't. In this case, the edge of her hat with the blue highlight on it is closest to the light source. The dark shadows are placed where the light can't reach. They also show deeper places, which are always darker because the deeper something is, the darker it gets. Look at the ribbon in her hat -- it folds a bit, and the part where it gets deeper is where the darkest shadow is.

Like I said, I have a hard time putting it in words. Here's a little explanation that's always helped me out. You can find all sorts of tutorials and whatnot, but I think the best way to learn is to look at reference photos, and practice identifying where the light is coming from.

[fauxonym7]

very helpful, but drat i need to get myself a tablet. X__X

[Wizard]

This is great and all but it just shows the steps. Not on how to add them in or what not. Its a great tutorial. It just lacks on how to do certain things. Like how to erase things and add things.

[Pentagonbuddy]

If you have any specific questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them~! If you want to erase something, you'd use the eraser tool, while if you wanted to add something, the easiest way is to use the brush tool. The details like that really only apply to Photoshop, because that's the program I'm familiar with. I can't help too much with technical stuff if it's a different program. The stuff like the eraser/brush tool/adding new layers is all very basic , too, so it's important to learn how to use them a little before you can do stuff like make faces.

[Andinator]

Hey man I added a tut a couple days ago to help out some people using yours with their anatomy problem...

[Xocilicity]

Hey this looks really cool but I have no absolute clue of how to do it could you explain step by step starting with what program to use?? Plzzzzzzzzzzz

[mitchi.exe]

If you read the tutorial more carefully, pent used Photoshop. Also, you might need a graphics tablet.

This is for advanced users, actually.

[Celianna]

If you read the tutorial more carefully, pent used Photoshop. Also, you might need a graphics tablet.

This is for advanced users, actually.

Everything can be done with a mouse as well

[mitchi.exe]

Yeah, but you have to be dexterous... I rarely see people draw from scratch using a mouse. Moreover, it'll take more time, not to mention that you might need the 'paths tool' to execute the line art well.

Personally, I use the paths tool in gimp. Hehe.
It takes more time, but it's definitely a good alternative.

[Celianna]

I draw everything from scratch on the computer with a mouse, it's not that hard for me haha. I tried using a tablet once, but I couldn't seem to get a hang of it so I reverted back to the mouse. I never even touch the pen tool in Photoshop, so yeah I even make my line-art from scratch with my mouse.

Then again, it all depends on how much experience you've got. Newbies won't be able to get by with just this tutorial; they need actual drawing experience before attempting to do something like this.

[miscdude]

I used to use nothing but my mouse when I did pixel art, because the tablet just didn't offer the pixel perfect control that the mouse did. but when I moved to photoshop and blended brush-strokes , I have to say the tablet makes things a whole lot smoother. Thank you so much for this tutorial, I kept trying to make portraits that matched with the game but to no avail until now.

This post has been edited by miscdude: Jun 12 2010, 05:32 AM

[Lemuri]

OMG! This is the best toturial ever! That will be in my fav sites!
If you don't mind i will put your name in my game as a helper...
Thanks a lot!

This post has been edited by Lemuri: Jun 28 2010, 08:05 PM

[Vash the Stamped...]

Excellent tutorial congratulations, very good. It only remains to correct the mistakes of the link ^ ^

You're a great artist. Good luck with them!