# (｀_´)ゞ "SALUTE!" - Mighty No. 9 / Beck



## [M]artin (Sep 9, 2013)

Have you backed *MIGHTY NO. 9* yet?

I have! Thought I'd throw a quick piece on the main character, Beck, out there. I love the character designs & concepts that have been shown so far, they're really great. Simplistic, bold, and inspiring!

The creators are also doing a really cool weekly "Communi-Tuesday" art highlight thing... maybe I'll land a mention? Who knows?? 







For anyone interested in the B/W -> Flat Color -> Final progression, here it is:






Whaddya think?

*(｀_´)ゞ*


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## pasc (Sep 9, 2013)

(｀_´)ゞ


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## Ubuntuの刀 (Sep 10, 2013)

wait whats this?


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## pasc (Sep 10, 2013)

maxlwin536 said:


> wait whats this?


 No cut cut cut....

You should be saying:

"THIS IS AWESOME !!! MIGHTY NR. 9 ROCKORZ !!!!1111"

Thats the only thing this thread is for !


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## Issac (Sep 10, 2013)

This looks amazing! Just one thing, the shadow on the helmet has a smooth edge while the jacket hasn't  Really good work!


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## [M]artin (Sep 10, 2013)

Issac said:


> This looks amazing! Just one thing, the shadow on the helmet has a smooth edge while the jacket hasn't  Really good work!


 
Good eye! Really, REALLY good eye!

That helmet shadow was one of the last strokes I made and, just my luck, my tablet + PS decided to start conking out on me for some reason. I wanted it to look like a solid stroke, just like the jacket, but instead, my lines started coming out *jittery, very similar to this.*

My settings were untouched, however. It was very odd. In the end, I had to throw a very light blur to help conceal the jitter (it looked like a caterpillar or something!), resulting in the smooth, soft line you see.

My tablet may just be on its way to tablet heaven or maybe I need to re-install PS or something...?_ _


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## Issac (Sep 10, 2013)

[M]artin said:


> Good eye! Really, REALLY good eye!
> 
> That helmet shadow was one of the last strokes I made and, just my luck, my tablet + PS decided to start conking out on me for some reason. I wanted it to look like a solid stroke, just like the jacket, but instead, my lines started coming out *jittery, very similar to this.*
> 
> ...


 

Hmmm, if it happened suddenly maybe you just have to reboot your computer? Or perhaps re-install the drivers. My Wacom tablet often do crazy stuff like that, but I never had to re-install PS. 
Worst case, try to reset brush settings or reset all settings (might be smoother / quicker than re-installing PS).


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## Ethevion (Sep 10, 2013)

[M]artin said:


> Good eye! Really, REALLY good eye!
> 
> That helmet shadow was one of the last strokes I made and, just my luck, my tablet + PS decided to start conking out on me for some reason. *I wanted it to look like a solid stroke*, just like the jacket, but instead, my lines started coming out *jittery, very similar to this.*
> 
> ...


 
If you want that, wouldn't it be easier to just use the lasso tool with your tablet? Select all the areas you want to shade and fill it in with black on a clipping mask layer and lower the opacity. It's what I've been doing for a while now. I've always had problems with brush settings in PS, thank goodness for Manga Studio


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## BrightNeko (Sep 10, 2013)

You have any tips for getting the helmet down? :/ I've been trying to do some fan art as well but I keep getting stuck with his gear.


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## [M]artin (Sep 11, 2013)

I think I've got it working again, just reset all of my brush settings from the default F5 menu, as suggested by Issac (thanks!)



Ethevion said:


> If you want that, wouldn't it be easier to just use the lasso tool with your tablet? Select all the areas you want to shade and fill it in with black on a clipping mask layer and lower the opacity. It's what I've been doing for a while now. I've always had problems with brush settings in PS, thank goodness for Manga Studio


 
I do something very similar to that now, essentially the same thing except with the brush tool instead of the lasso tool and quick mask combo. Near the end, I make new layers after all of the flat colors are laid out. I take the brush tool and use quick strokes of straight black in a layer on top of the colors, then, I tweak the opacity on those black layers down to simulate a shadow. In terms of blur, I hardly ever use blurring tools or filters, but I was just trying to smooth over the jitter in this case. It really hurt to have to use blur. 



BrightNeko said:


> You have any tips for getting the helmet down? :/ I've been trying to do some fan art as well but I keep getting stuck with his gear.


 
Yeah, the gear turned out to be a lot more complex than I thought it was. I mainly used *THESE TWO* images for heavy reference. The face space takes up about 60% while the visor up top takes up 40%. I just thought of the headgear in terms of layers:

TOP
--> Visor. Shaped wide and curvy, like a cucumber, with a noticeable, deep U-shaped dip at the top, longer drawn out curve along the bottom rim

_(Head shape goes next, underneath)_

---> Dark V-shape that dips right below Beck's browline (I assume this is some sort of form fitting headwear, like the astronauts wear)

---> Facial features

---> Headphones along edge of headspace, cupped earphones should popout/stand out
BOTTOM

In my case, I just started first with the shape of the head, without worrying about the gear. Then I moved onto the next biggest feature, the visor and began drawing it on top of the headframe, allocating space for the face, v-shape, headphones, etc. Wasn't much left of the headframe after all the gear was thrown on top!

Hope this helps!


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## BrightNeko (Sep 11, 2013)

thanks for the advice, here is how it turned out


Spoiler










 
I was taking it from the gear first :/ head was ending up fricken weird because of that.


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## [M]artin (Sep 11, 2013)

BrightNeko said:


> thanks for the advice, here is how it turned out
> 
> ---
> 
> I was taking it from the gear first :/ head was ending up fricken weird because of that.


 
I like it! Looks perfect here, proportions all look in order!

Nice work!


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## BrightNeko (Sep 11, 2013)

[M]artin said:


> I like it! Looks perfect here, proportions all look in order!
> 
> Nice work!


Thanks hon, your advise was really what kicked it off. I had been trying for awhile after mighty no 9 got announced and just couldn't ><


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