Example Sprite

here is a quick sprite I mocked up, hopefully this will be helpful to you guys, if you have any questions or problems post your stuff up here and I'll try and help you.

just some things worth pointing out, and I'll put it in the style guide, but for the form shadows, I tried to do a bit of dithering (the checkerboard parts) and for the cast shadows I try and keep it solid, I have a colored outline around the major parts, it helps it read, and when it animates it will be easier to see, ideally. there is 10 colors in this sprite, for the most part i try and keep it shadow, base color, and highlight color, use the highlight color sparingly, and only the white specular to accentuate certain parts, its mostly just, add it in, see how it looks, and if it looks ok then its all good, no real mathematical process to it.