Rpg Character Sprite Experiment

[HTD]

Hi,
Im just trying to get a little more professional with my sprites.
As you can see right now they probably could need alot of work but I just am not able to see beyond what I have.
Any advice, comments negative or positive welcomed.

Old:


New:


Thanks

[BG]

They seem a bit too stiff. Though I think thay look pretty charming, reminding me of Phantasy star 2 and 4. One thing you should do is deciding whether to use black oulines or not. The blonde girl's hair is the only thing without black outlines. Either change her hair, or remove all black outlines and replace them with darker shades.(which is defenently the better choice imo)

[HTD]

I went for the second option.
I hope I have achieved a better look unfortunately I am not skilled yet at seeing which one is more suitable.
I think getting rid of the black borders was the right thing to do.
Id like to know of ways I could make them look less stiff but still keep that PS 4 type feel about them.

Thanks for the advice BG

(Update above)

[BG]

I did an edit to show how you can make them look less stiff. You should study the sprites in PS4, if that's a style you're aiming for.

I reduced the colors, since you used alot of unnecessary colors. Notice how I've used the skin color for the belt buckle and highlight of the hair. I also used more satured colors, but that's just for my personal liking. If you don't like it, keep it you way.

By the way, are you working on these within some kind of size limitation? I recomend using it, since games usually have them. In this case, I'd say 16x32 pixels is a good size to work with. Then again it's totally up to you.

[bengo]

(Stylistic changes made to make it more readable)
My attempt at it, BG your edit didn't help too much aside from color count reduction, she just looks fatter.

So this is an RPG eh? Let's trying adding a little perspective so it's not completely upfront side-view platformer style, I made the same mistake earlier, so yeah. The smaller the sprite, the harder it is to get detail in, so try to keep detail to a minimum(A good way to show how your character would look close-up is by doing one of those portrait things like they do final fantasy, couldn't hurt).

[ndchristie]

(Stylistic changes made to make it more readable)

Hmm, i pretty much disagree completely.  The edit has all the soft-edged weaknesses of Quark's style without the pixel-perfect strengths.  The originals, which granted are not superfaulous, were at least clear.

Simplification and reduction of business is a must, but don't take it to foolish extremes.

[AlienQuark]

Hmm, i pretty much disagree completely.  The edit has all the soft-edged weaknesses of Quark's style without the pixel-perfect strengths.  The originals, which granted are not superfaulous, were at least clear.
Simplification and reduction of business is a must, but don't take it to foolish extremes.

Hey now. What's that supposed to mean?

[bengo]

Hmm, i pretty much disagree completely.  The edit has all the soft-edged weaknesses of Quark's style without the pixel-perfect strengths.  The originals, which granted are not superfaulous, were at least clear.

Simplification and reduction of business is a must, but don't take it to foolish extremes.

Ptoing and Ben said it was readable.... I felt like it was a little hard to read so I asked them and they said they could see it fine. Also, didn't even know I was doing it 'quark-style', heh.

[ptoing]

No I didn't. I said it had readability issues and it still has.

[Terley]

I think you need to aim inbetween bengoshia's and BG's edits, It does have some readability issues, which isn't that hard to solve if you just try think in terms of contrast and which colours work well together. you shouldn't overcomplicate it by putting too much detailing in to only a small area, this is what BG's edit suffers, though he has been brave upping the contrast here and there and simplifying parts trying to cram in more has made it harder to read. Imo the character just looks shes had a new hairstyle and put on a bit of weight, because not much has changed with it's readability.



bengoshia looks like he's taken his own take on this, which possibly strays too far from what HTD was trying to accomplish. I disagree you have to put the detail to a minimum, I'd think of what details are essential because otherwise these characters would just be made up of various simplified shapes.

I've possibly strayed away from the style slightly but I agree your characters look a bit stiff HTD, loosen up a bit.  Also I tried altering the angle to make more sense to an RPG. Not sure about the hair though, oh well its only a suggestion. Hope this helps atall mate.

[bengo]

Apologies to Ptoing, forgot you said it looked fuzzy. I didn't say you shouldn't add detail, just the smaller it gets, the less detail you can add and for example you shouldn't waste that space on a few buttons on the shirt if you just don't have the space.

[BG]

Now that I'm full awake, I realise the readability problems of my edit. Both Terleys edits reads much better, though they stray alot from the original style. I did another edit to fix some of the problems I did before. (Feel abit ashamed about the first one)


PS4 - HTD - Mine

I managed to get it done with less than 16 colors, but stays more true to the original (and the phantasy star style). I replaced the mouth with bigger eyes for readabilitys sake.

[Jad]

Edits that stray a lot from the originals are always the most handy since they don't have an impact on your intended result (directly visually, I mean. In the long run, they're supposed to have an impact on the end result ;>) but can still deliver a point about shading style, detail management, etc.

So I like that kind of edits (:

[HTD]

To be honest you are all helping me by showing these different style.
I am going to bring some update within the week and hope to achieve something that can bridge the gaps.
Wish me luck guys.
BTW thank you for responding to my little thread.

HTD