just asking

i hope i put this in the right forum. i was wondering if there is a good way in making sprites for heads and faces. i see alots out there where the faces looks like it goes to a point. then image look cartoon like? what is the best way to make a face so it looks more 3d and not pointed nose?

You'll have to be more specific than that, mate.
What kind of head and faces are we talking about ?
Portraits ? Heads on full characters ?

And what style are we talking about ? Do you have exemples ?

And in what position ? Frontal ? Full side ? Slightly turned (like most characters fighting pose)

For now, the best answer I can give you is: shading and nuance.


Let's use Superman as an exemple: on the botchered version I made on the left, the nose is made of 1 color, and not nuance. The result ? It's a potato nose.
On the contrary, the original one (on the right) understand the form and the shading around the nose, and make it look a lot better.

I won't explain it further, as it goes straight into art lessons about light and stuff, and it's not really easy. Plus, with a limited number of pixels, it's not always easy.
What I can recommand is sticking to your sprite base (if you use some) to understand how it works.

And for pointy noses on a full side sprite, just add a pixel or two to make a full nose, and some nuance too to make a border.

From left to right: worst to better: adding nuance limit the pointyness, a pixel make it better. The one on the right is the original one, with a full-on ridge, but it's due to the angle of the face and not necessary.

I think the secret of any drawing is the number of shades or tones and the number of details. For faces I think you should use between four and six skin tones.

Creo que el secreto de todo dibujo es el número de sombras o tonos y el número de detalles. Para caras creo debes utilizar entre cuatro y seis tonos en la piel.

sorry, what i meant was in the sprites for char. not in the big port pic or little. example. domino char. not a fan. char his a funny head and face. goes to a point. few other chars do the same. plz don t get me wrong. i m not bashing no ones work. but what i m trying to say is how to make faces and heads look 3d and full. so it does not look faces point. just so it looks more like the comics

You mean this Domino ?


Yeah, it's an edit from something else, it may explain the quality.
For this specific sprite, the reason of the "pointy head" thing is because of the size of the head, especially the axis of the ear.

There we go on classic drawing techniques, the same used by every graphical artist in the world.
The idea is that a head should be shaped like an inverted egg.

To which you add features, like eyes, ears and nose

But you should still think of the egg.

With this Domino, the head was badly shaped because of that ear that was  (or seemed) aligned with the jaw.

The correct way would have been to put the ear somewhere else.

By just moving the ear to the righ and rounding the back of the head, you get that egg form back

So multiple reasons can cause a head to seem pointy, mostly a misproportion in length or width.
Here, the base was Cammy (I think), which have a small chin to fit the small size of the character (chin size must depend on the form of the character. Superman and Supergirl won't have the same for exemple).
Cammy doesn't have a pointy head despite this because her head is perfectly rounded, which is not the case here.

I hope this is what you want to know, and that it helps.
If not, I'm sorry to say this, but I have a hard time understanding what you are saying. I see you're from Canada, so if you want you can explain everything to me in French if that helps you.

In any case, I suggest you take some drawing lessons (no offense here), because it's the base of any spriting and I can't teach you that.
I recommend this, from Comics Legend Jim Lee, which might help understand the form of a head (it helped me)

But you might find lessons on YT

english is just fine, thank you. i guess what i trying to say is, some chars, have a flat looking face. with a nose to a point. i know faces are hard to make. i know how to draw with pen and paper. but on here is harder. using pixcels. not the same. thank you for the lesson. i will in to it. thx

That Demino Char was poorly Sprited, even adjusting it's ear,
would not have saved the Character's face...

I edited the small face portrait myself, & it looked much better, but I
adjusted the hair, gave it bangs, the face color, details on the clothing,
I adjusted the colors on the clothing, & the black eye as well...

My Domino face portrait looks far better now because of this,
& I didn't even adjust the ear at all, or the shape of the head...

But again? The Domino character is a bad example,
because it was poorly Sprited off another character,
& very little unfinished Editing was done to make it good,
& no one has improved it in like forever now...




As for a more rounded 3D face, I think what your looking for,
is that you don't want a more flat looking face, & the best
way I can figure out what you mean is?

Instead of looking at a character from the side view,
try tilting the head on an angle a bit, in doing so,
a shape starts forming on the head, such as your
nose for instance starts looking rounded, instead of a point,
the eyes start forming, the eyebrows become 2 eyebrows,
& the face just ultimately looks like a face now, & less flat...

Now all you gotta do, is figure out how much you want
to tilt your head, the more you tilt it, the more shape you form,
but tilting it too much, & you break the kneck, & kill the character,
but hey, it's not the end, in some realities a broken kneck is a living character, ^_-

Try looking at some example characters, & see how the faces are drawn,
try to avoid characters like Domino, Lara Croft, Dino Crisis, & Marvel Comics...

1 example, is Street Fighter??

Try comparing Street Fighter 2 with Street Fighter 3,
& see how the faces look different between the two,
then try applying that comparison to your own Characters...

If you want Street Fighter 4 looking faces,
that requires I think multiple layered Sprites,
& it's a bit more tricky, & harder to pull off,
especially when moving the character...