Warhammer and wooden sword.
 

These are uploaded to WolfCry and I'd like some opinions on them. The war-hammer is missing something and I can't quite put my finger on it. =[ The sword's the first melee weapons I've made and the war-hammer is the second.

Where'd the shading go?

It's there, just not very visible. =[

If there is shading you need a better pallet.
Go look at some pieces of wood for you can see what wood looks like.

The war hammer is missing a texture just like the wooden sword is. You need to make it look like you could touch it and it would feel like metal, same thing for the wooden sword but like wood.

Those red dots on the warhammer look like somthing thats suppose to stick out more except they just look like well...red dots.

Im not a artist so I cant tell you how to do things but you really got just look at your stuff more and see if you can figure out how to make it look more like you originally pictured it in your head and how it would look if it was real.

red part of the handle does not look round when I believe it was suppose to be...ok let me stop and see if someone else can help you.

Well I'll be pretty quick with this reply. First off, even though it may seem easier, don't just rotate your images to get the diagonal sprites. It never works, and looks sloppy. You're better off redrawing them, as painful as it sounds, but it'll pay off when you're done. Anyways, sprites just look terrible when they're actually used with that blurry outline. At least go over it and clean if up if you rotate.
Second, Infernix is right. You need to apply some texture to this. The wooden sword looks like rubber, or a piece of bread. You didn't define the pieces themselves, and wooden swords aren't just made of one solid piece of wood. Separate your wood and then give it a wooden detail, probably like a finish on a table would suffice. And this applies to both pieces, don't be so soft on your detailing, with such small pieces, contrast is defining, especially with these textures.
And for the warhammer. Metal is very defined by it's contrast, dark next to light, and so on, to show its shininess. It could probably do with some cloth grips added, for logic as well as to break up the over-all gray on the sprite. If you'd like an edit just shout for one. I used to know a great tutorial for pixeling metals, but I don't remember the link... not that I'd be able to post it.

An edit would be nice. :)

Did a quick edit. I didn't change the lines or black outlines, except for the sword. I just didn't think a simple wooden sword deserved any fancy handle. I don't exactly like the metal texture I did, but ah well. Hopefully it still helps.

The handle needs better detail it looks so dull compared to the top part =D.
i like what you did dusty though

Ya, I forgot to add the cloth grip.

The only problem with Dusty's edit is that the centerpiece looks flat now..

Well I assumed the center piece actually was flat.

http://home.graffiti.net/chrischi4u/hammer1.png

muh :D

holy **** thats awesome

Like the colors on that, though I think the rivets on the side of the hammer could use more contrast to shine a bit, and the metal texture connecting the hammer to the center should follow the inwards direction of the shape.

i think you guys must stop thinking about rules of shading aa and bla only make it look better :O

Huh?

if you think you can make the hammer even more better with your shiny things and follow the shapes than do it and dont talk about it XD

Wow you're pretty defensive just because I gave some critiques. AA, shading, and all that can be together in a piece.
And for me, it's not about doing something better than the next person.

that was not defensive i know that my hammer isnt perfect but before you say me how i can do it better do it on your own :O we do it for this guy over there who want a good looking hammer ^^

I didn't say I could do it better? I offered critiques, you know, helpful ADVICE. You jumped on me telling to do it better, it doesn't work that way.

I just like making the outlines. S: Shading's still a problem area, though the metal and wood visuals helped. I'm gonna make a sword outline now, sort of like a cutlass. =[ Then I wanna see how you guys would shade it in.

He does not want to make it better, he just wants the help that other guy make it better. Making it better yourself does not really help the artist out much. All these versions still could be improved and look pretty flat IMO.