This is a vector drawing of a fish, I plan to animate it to make it swim, like in a fishtank. It's supposed to be the boring base fish, there will be other fancier mutations. It's not fully colored yet, adding scales and fin lines will be the next step. But first I need to know: does anything look wrong? Out of place, misproportioned, or just un-fishlike? Does it lack personality? Would a more cartoony or human eye be better? Any overall comments or suggestions on the design? Edit: attempt with a more human eye: [Edited by - sunandshadow on April 3, 2009 5:50:55 PM]

I like the first eye better. I also think that the fin on the side should be a little longer, but that is just comparing it to the fish in my tank. I am not sure what kind you are trying to make.

I think in your drawing, the gill is too prominent.
The irregular shape around the eye is weird.



[ Cartoony Fish (jpg) ]

It seems that adding eyelashes is more potent than
changing the shape of the eye. The gill is not drawn
for most of them.

In_Yack_Mode - it is not a particular real kind of fish. I looked at images of these types of fish: betta, goldfish, guppy, bass, trout, salmon, sunfish, and flying fish. This particular sprite is supposed to be the most basic boring one of several varieties of fish. It should also come in several colors: gray, brown, blue, green, maybe white.

Wai - thanks for the sketches. I think the gill will seem less obvious when I have added the more complex scale and fin texturing, but I will check it again after I have done that. Good thoughts about the eye.

When I draw cartoons, I usually start by doing "studies" of the thing I am about to cartoonize. In your case, I would search google images for pictures of fish, narrow down on the exact kinds of fish you want to reproduce, find at least 5 pictures of each from different angles and copy by hand as realistically as possible. The goal here is to learn the outline shapes, and the main features.

After you draw enough study pictures, you will start to get a feel for what makes fish look like a fish, then you can focus on specific features, exaggerate some of them, etc. That will take you from realistic drawing all the way down to a cartoon. Oh, and one more thing to mention: it's usually better to use Illustrator as a construction tool rather than a drawing tool. When you sketch on paper first, then scan in the sketch and trace it in illustrator, most things will end up looking more "alive" because human hand movements are usually more expressive (and somewhat easier to experiment with) than plotting points on the screen and dragging conversion handles.

I would personally recommend working with pen and paper to get something that looks cute and expressive (which is the feel I usually go for):

I rearranged the fins, which I think improved the perspective, and I changed the proportions of the eye a bit (decided I definitely prefer the more human eye). I did not do anything to the gill, I will tweak it more later. Then I tried adding scales to the fish, and it looked terrible (like a corn on the cob), and I spent like 2 hours messing with the scales and it still looked terrible:


So I decided to go a different direction more like a pseudo-wireframe/polygon look: (Everything but the contour of the body is the same in these two.)



Thoughts? Do you all prefer the upper or lower contour? Or do you think I should go back to scales, and if so what should I do different?

You could try tessellated diamonds or slightly curved diamonds instead of hexagons for your fish scales:



Then, try shading it like you did on your last two fish so it won't look so flat. I like the first contour (somehow seems more fluid/aerodynamic).

Quote: Original post by sunandshadow

I think it needs to look "dumber" or helplessler (sp?)...



See how the eyes look like out of their orbits...

It's like they have never seen their own ass in their whole life!

oh! And spines! spines spines spines everywhere.

Aye, these guys too:



, which I think have probably some of the best humanized fish eyes (in a cartoony style) I've seen around.

Quote: Original post by owl
I think it needs to look "dumber" or helplessler (sp?)...
[snip]
See how the eyes look like out of their orbits...

It's like they have never seen their own ass in their whole life!

oh! And spines! spines spines spines everywhere.

Erm, but, I don't want them to look dumb and helpless? In the game these fish are for, fish are supposed to be cool, beautiful, capable of great dignity or ethereality, and cleverly escaping from you unless you outmanuver them. Like Pokemon or pretty, dramatic monsters in an RPG like Final Fantasy or WoW.

Spines are cool though. This is the basic most common fish (I probably colored it too dramatically), but some of the rarer ones will definitely have spines, double fins, and interesting body shape variations.