AuthorTopic: [WIP][C+C] Help with NES sprite!  (Read 1987 times)

Offline Tbone_Ty

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 3
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

[WIP][C+C] Help with NES sprite!

on: May 04, 2017, 07:12:46 pm
Oh boy, first C+C! Exciting and scary!

I have been messing with pixel art for about a week now, and this is the first big thing I have made. It's the sprite sheet for the main character of a game idea of mine. I made it in Pyxel Edit using the NES preset palette. The main character is a skeleton-miner with a pickaxe and mining helmet. I used a Megaman sprite sheet as reference, but did not copy anything. Frames 1 and 2 are an idle animation, frames 2 thru 7 are the running animation, and frame 8 is the jumping animation.





Overall, I thought it was a decent first attempt at an NES-style sprite, but my main concerns are with the arm-and-leg-swinging in the running animation. Does it look "natural?"

Any general tips or improvements would be appreciated.  :)
« Last Edit: May 04, 2017, 07:22:32 pm by Tbone_Ty »

Offline JellyStarCat

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 23
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP][C+C] Help with NES sprite!

Reply #1 on: May 05, 2017, 06:36:20 am
Hi Tbone,
For a begineer, I think your sprite looks nice. To move on, here are my critiques for your work - I'm not much experienced in pixel art though :-[
(Click on image to zoom-in, hold Ctrl while clicking to zoom-out)
On your sprites, there doesn't seem to be enough shadow to define the shape. I can also see some banding, mostly on the body. It seems you tried to make the rib more detailed but that increases the noise, which made the sprite hard-to-read and flat. On the other hand, the highlight of the helmet isn't much visible because of its low contrast.
Overall, your sprite look fine if you are heading for simplicity, exempting the minor mistake (banding, low contrast).
With that, I recommend you to read this tutorial to know more about pixel art in general: http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299

To digress for a moment, as far as I know, you can only have 4 colors per sprite on NES. Though I'm not sure if that is correct or there are any restrictions else, here's what I would do if there were such limitation.

First thing you'd notice is the different palette, I used 4 colors.
Well, you can see that I redesigned the skeleton completely so it would resemble a skeleton more, I hope. To expand further, I also gave it a more active pose, mainly the legs and its right arm, to make it look less relaxed. For the lighting, I made certain areas to be darker so it'd be easier to read which part is which. Lastly, it's my poor attempt at subpixelling, most obvious on the body :P.

Note, this forum has a built-in zoom function, you don't have to resize your sprites.

Offline Tbone_Ty

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 3
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP][C+C] Help with NES sprite!

Reply #2 on: May 07, 2017, 07:51:28 pm
Thanks for the reply Jelly! I really like your rendition of the sprite, especially the pallet.
I'm going to read up on that link you sent and keep practicing so that I can maybe try uploading a new version of the sprite in a few weeks.

(Also, I realized I mentioned an "8th" frame when there are only 7  :-X )