[WIP] Need a little bit of help over here-

[CopynPaste]

Hey, I'm new to this site, but I've been recently working on a game with another group -that I wish to keep secret as of now- and the spriting works, so far, haven't really taken any large steps, so I'm going to show you what I have done over the months in order to explain my beginning errors and how I fixed them. Oh, by the way, if this is any help, the game is a sidescrolling adventure-sci-fi-RPG mix, and I would like the sprites to emanate the impression of stylized realism, as well as some fantasy to it... Think of TWEWY sprites, and maybe you'll get my drift.

1st: Basically the first sprite of said game. Many errors- lack of contrast in colors, crappy colors overall, anatomy failure, and complete lack of any emotion whatsoever.

2nd: Second sprite, already slightly better. Some anatomical issues solved, some color issues solved, although still complete lack of emotion in face (which is, by the way, if you haven't guessed, one of our prime factors as of now).

3rd: Third sprite, a few more fixes, but doesn't really change from the 2nd.

4th, 5th, 6th, 7th: These sprites are all in the same style. There are some color issues, some anatomical issues. We kept this style longer than the three previous ones.

8th, 9th, 10th: These are a complete style rehaul. No color changes, so there are still color issues, and maybe even some banding. This is the style we kept longest.

11th, 12th: New style, that we have decided to keep, although I'm searching for maybe some things I could fix. Others of the group say it's perfect, but they don't have very advanced spriting knowledge -and I don't blame them-. So now I'm here, asking you what errors I could repair with the sprite? Contrast? Anatomical issues? The left arm needs some thickening, all right, but there's something with the right robotic arm... Length?

Anyways, C+C please.


[EDIT]- By the way, this was also made in the before-last style.

C+C, or no C+C, I don't really mind...

[Organ_House]

Your sprites are a little rough and tumble, but still really creative, dynamic and cool. The smaller stuff is a little better imo.

I especially like the last one, though watch the animation on the birds. It's a little off (you're having them move their wings up and down in a very basic and simple way, when simply hovering about would require a different kind of wing movement.)

[CopynPaste]

Your sprites are a little rough and tumble, but still really creative, dynamic and cool. The smaller stuff is a little better imo.

I especially like the last one, though watch the animation on the birds. It's a little off (you're having them move their wings up and down in a very basic and simple way, when simply hovering about would require a different kind of wing movement.)

Well, you see, since the beginning of my career in spriting, I've never really looked at tutorials or how to do things. I just saw and tried to do the same, before I tried doing my own style, which, after a few days, managed to do. But most of the terms of spriting, I don't really know what they're about, although I most probably know why they're bad (such as banding - learned it yesterday, although I know that grouped-up pixels lowers resolution since long).
Why do you think the smaller stuff is better? My friend said that the newer style is more likely to go...
As for the birds, I guess I wanted to keep it simple... It isn't really a big animation, so I didn't put that much work into it except for the sprites of the robot and the kid.

[Demon11777]

The last guy has a kinda team ico feel to it 

[CopynPaste]

The last guy has a kinda team ico feel to it 

"team ico".
Er, what.

[Demon11777]

The last guy has a kinda team ico feel to it 

"team ico".
Er, what.

The guys who made Ico, Shadow of the colossus and are working on the last guardian.

[CopynPaste]

The last guy has a kinda team ico feel to it 

"team ico".
Er, what.

The guys who made Ico, Shadow of the colossus and are working on the last guardian.

I see... Hm, he didn't give me that impression, nor does he give it to me now...

[Jad]

Guys, that's a lot of one-liners that don't really give the original poster anything to work with. Try to focus on giving critique.

(and I apologize for not giving any myself, I'm in moderator mode right now! I'll get into crit mode some other time, and we'll see then)

[CopynPaste]

Guys, that's a lot of one-liners that don't really give the original poster anything to work with. Try to focus on giving critique.

(and I apologize for not giving any myself, I'm in moderator mode right now! I'll get into crit mode some other time, and we'll see then)

Thank you -_- I'll need that critique to try and improve my work...

[buddy90]

well, alot of the characters have little or no shading. Which makes them look kind of flat. Also, all the colors are pretty desaturated and don't work together.

I would spend more time on the colors. I think that's where most improvement is needed. And some more shading would help.

[CopynPaste]

well, alot of the characters have little or no shading. Which makes them look kind of flat. Also, all the colors are pretty desaturated and don't work together.

I would spend more time on the colors. I think that's where most improvement is needed. And some more shading would help.

Yes, but every time I try to add more shading, the sprite ends up too dark and just... Really, really weird. As for the colors, in the last pair of sprites, I really tried working on them and thy seem fine to me...
And what do you mean, 'don't work together'?

Thanks in advance.

[theorb77]

well, alot of the characters have little or no shading. Which makes them look kind of flat. Also, all the colors are pretty desaturated and don't work together.

I would spend more time on the colors. I think that's where most improvement is needed. And some more shading would help.

Yes, but every time I try to add more shading, the sprite ends up too dark and just... Really, really weird. As for the colors, in the last pair of sprites, I really tried working on them and thy seem fine to me...
And what do you mean, 'don't work together'?

Thanks in advance.

I'm going to give this one a go, despite being relatively unqualified to respond.

Your sprites' colors seem to tend toward beige and gray, which, while those two colors do indeed work together, are kind of unappetizing.  For grins, go look at junkboy's brilliant demake thread.  Now, I'm not saying your sprites should look like this but...

Look at the color in that thread.  Pixelling, in its own way, is painting.  Painting is all about color choice (well, not all, but bear with me).  Coming up with color combinations that really draw the eye and make for interesting, beautiful art is a skill that comes with practice (or you could just borrow someone's palette, like Arne's 16 color one here, but that's just for practice until you get good at selecting your own colors).

How to select dynamic colors?  I dunno'.  Maybe someone smarter than me will happen along and explain a good process.

PS: Don't get me wrong, despite my comments about your color choices, I think you have some really visually appealing sprites.  Keep up the good work.

[CopynPaste]

well, alot of the characters have little or no shading. Which makes them look kind of flat. Also, all the colors are pretty desaturated and don't work together.

I would spend more time on the colors. I think that's where most improvement is needed. And some more shading would help.

Yes, but every time I try to add more shading, the sprite ends up too dark and just... Really, really weird. As for the colors, in the last pair of sprites, I really tried working on them and thy seem fine to me...
And what do you mean, 'don't work together'?

Thanks in advance.

I'm going to give this one a go, despite being relatively unqualified to respond.

Your sprites' colors seem to tend toward beige and gray, which, while those two colors do indeed work together, are kind of unappetizing.  For grins, go look at junkboy's brilliant demake thread.  Now, I'm not saying your sprites should look like this but...

Look at the color in that thread.  Pixelling, in its own way, is painting.  Painting is all about color choice (well, not all, but bear with me).  Coming up with color combinations that really draw the eye and make for interesting, beautiful art is a skill that comes with practice (or you could just borrow someone's palette, like Arne's 16 color one here, but that's just for practice until you get good at selecting your own colors).

How to select dynamic colors?  I dunno'.  Maybe someone smarter than me will happen along and explain a good process.

PS: Don't get me wrong, despite my comments about your color choices, I think you have some really visually appealing sprites.  Keep up the good work.

I see what you mean, now that I compare the two side-by-side. I'll look into the colors and see what I can do, but I've never really been good with the coloring... But I have to experiment with that anyways <.<
Thank you, Orb.

[EDIT]: Here, I have the fixed version. It seems a bit better, but is it really what you were seeking?

(Up, old - Bottom, new)
'appetizing' colors really don't mark my mind, it seems. For me, it's just a matter of contrast/saturation...

[CopynPaste]

Bump - I really need some critique on here... Some good, well-informative help would be very nice of you.
Thanks in advance.

[Tourist]

Here's what I see:

You're using black as your background color, which can throw off your eyes.  Try using mid-tones for the background.

You're using the background color (black) in several spots on the figure.  This may cause you problems with transparency later. 

I see two choices that I don't understand.  They show up in other people's work too.  I find their persistence rather strange.
1) Long torso, short legs.  I could see having a long torso if the character is fat or pregnant, but this character is neither.  Legs generally take up half of the body length.  Since his pants are not skin-tight you could drop the crotch a pixel or two lower than half-way, but the legs here are just too short, and the torso too long.  Or maybe my sense of proportion is off because I see this a lot.

2) Tiger-stripe wrinkles.  This one I just don't understand at all.  I get that the shirt should wrinkle, but the horizontal dark stripes don't work for me.  They're not rips, but they don't follow the drape of cloth either.  Here's a tutorial on draping cloth and clothing:
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14739  I haven't done any of this with pixels yet, but it should work.

Other crits:
The face isn't very clear.  This is a profile facing to our right, correct?  I think the neck should be entirely shadowed to help show where the jawline is.  Maybe darken one pixel by the eye to suggest a bridge of the nose.  Maybe one more pixel width to the back of the skull.  These would help suggest the shape of the head better I think.

The artificial arm is cool.  No crits on that.

The tan leg is forward, the blue leg is back, but the shoulders are opposite of this (the artificial arm is forward), and the head is turned hard to the side.  When I try to stand like this I find that most of my weight would rest on the blue leg.  This figure looks like more weight is on the tan leg.  Try it yourself, maybe I've just got poor balance.

No comments on the colors, other people around here are much better at colors than I am.

Hope this helps,
Tourist

[CopynPaste]

Here's what I see:

You're using black as your background color, which can throw off your eyes.  Try using mid-tones for the background.

You're using the background color (black) in several spots on the figure.  This may cause you problems with transparency later. 

I see two choices that I don't understand.  They show up in other people's work too.  I find their persistence rather strange.
1) Long torso, short legs.  I could see having a long torso if the character is fat or pregnant, but this character is neither.  Legs generally take up half of the body length.  Since his pants are not skin-tight you could drop the crotch a pixel or two lower than half-way, but the legs here are just too short, and the torso too long.  Or maybe my sense of proportion is off because I see this a lot.

2) Tiger-stripe wrinkles.  This one I just don't understand at all.  I get that the shirt should wrinkle, but the horizontal dark stripes don't work for me.  They're not rips, but they don't follow the drape of cloth either.  Here's a tutorial on draping cloth and clothing:
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14739  I haven't done any of this with pixels yet, but it should work.

Other crits:
The face isn't very clear.  This is a profile facing to our right, correct?  I think the neck should be entirely shadowed to help show where the jawline is.  Maybe darken one pixel by the eye to suggest a bridge of the nose.  Maybe one more pixel width to the back of the skull.  These would help suggest the shape of the head better I think.

The artificial arm is cool.  No crits on that.

The tan leg is forward, the blue leg is back, but the shoulders are opposite of this (the artificial arm is forward), and the head is turned hard to the side.  When I try to stand like this I find that most of my weight would rest on the blue leg.  This figure looks like more weight is on the tan leg.  Try it yourself, maybe I've just got poor balance.

No comments on the colors, other people around here are much better at colors than I am.

Hope this helps,
Tourist

Erm, for the black... Your computer must be reading it wrong. It is transparent, made under GIMP.
I'll try to rectify the legs, thank you.
Er, yeah... I was trying to imitate the 'flaps' on shiny leather-like clothing, but always manage to confuse myself in the shading... If I had a good tutorial, that'd be good for that... Otherwise, I guess I'll just have to use reference.
I'll work on the head rightaway.
I've tried the position several times with my own body, and yet nothing seems to be the problem in his position, for I can make myself completely (or nearly completely) the same as he is.

Anyways, thank you for your time, Tourist.