[WIP] Kung-Fu Master Sprite

[Jacky-Boy]

Hey guys, this is just an idea I came up with ages ago for a 2d beat em up/platformer. He's basically your generic old master type.





Cheers

[Cure]

Looks good so far, but I'm not really diggin' the monochrome you've got going right now.  Can't give much c+c at this point.

[Jacky-Boy]

Thanks Cure. Do you mean the the skin ramp is too monochrome? He's gonna be wearing green eventually, I've just blocked out his body using the skin shades for now.

[Jacky-Boy]

Here's a little work on the body. The whole figure is still very much a WIP at the mo, so any suggestions would be awesome. The pattern was just an experiment, which I kinda like, but part of me thinks that it'll look rubbish if I try to animate it.

[EDIT]

a little more progress, I really need to sort out his chunky arms and hands

[Helm]

The problem is that pose. Does it work? Who would stand like that? Will he be holding a sword or other thing in the two outstretched arms?

[Jacky-Boy]

Yeah the pose is definetly off at the moment. The look i was going for was a "ready" pose (heightened senses), so he has to look either ready to fight or ready to run.
I was thinking along the lines of a sergio leone stylee gunslinger before a shoot out, possibly with similar hand movements, but
I'm finding it hard to find a natural position for the arms on such a deformed anatomy. Edits are very welcome as always.

Another design issue I'm having is the direction of the character. Is he facing too forward to be a sidescrolling character. I was checking out Salvage's sprite and it seems to work pretty well shifting into profile to run.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Trying to make the idle pose less stiff, so its animated more now. Also redrew the face, and chaged the reflected light on evreything. As always c+c appreciated, please.

Also the sword edit is simply to keep the symmetry, but this could still change.

Thanks

[philjones]

Something more like this, perhaps:


The way you have him holding his arms out would make him tired, not ready for fight-or-flight.
If you used something like my edit, his arms could be animated to clench his fists with his breath, indicating both the sturdiness of fight in the clenched fist and the nimbleness of flight in the unclenched fist.
A looser stance, anyway, than the outstretched arms, would be far more believable and effective.

[edit]
Also, the sword was fine where it was.  Presently it looks like it's coming out of his head.  Symmetry is rarely in your best interest when dealing with organics.

[lostspringtidus]

Another design issue I'm having is the direction of the character. Is he facing too forward to be a sidescrolling character. I was checking out Salvage's sprite and it seems to work pretty well shifting into profile to run.

When I tried making little sprites for little games i was making I found I got locked into thinking everything has to be side on.. as if the character is physyically incapable of facing forward.  I find it is a trap to think that way, theres no rule about which way characters facing.

I really noticed this in particular with Super Mario and I thought wow mario faces the screen sometimes.

[Jacky-Boy]

Thanks for the edit Phil, it's definetly a more natural and relaxed position.
I feel that I'm leaning more towards a fighting stance though now I've been messing around the arms a bit more.
Here's a couple of quick sketchy edits I did on the arms.
I definetly prefer the big arms and hands as apposed to those of my original pencil sketch.



For the 4th one I was going for a kinda praying mantis style, I dunno if it works or not.
Tell me if i'm heading in the right direction with these. They were pretty quick to knock up, and I really wanna nail the idle stance of this guy

[EDIT]
That's cool Lostspringtidus, I always assumed platform characters were completely side-on. I guess you rarely see them stationary anyhoo

[junkboy]

Having been a kung fu junkie since I hit puberty I couldn't resist fiddling around a bit with your sprite. I think that right now
your guy has more in common with Santa Claus than some old badass chinese kung fu master like, oh I don't know, Pai Mei?
So I tried to address some of that, but generally speaking I think you have a nice style going!



As for the stance, I personally would love to see some drunken fist! Aside from that, I think the top right or lower left works best.

[lilwing]

His legs kind of look like chicken drumsticks.

[Jacky-Boy]

Thanks Junkboy I like alot of what you've done with the face, he definetly looks more old master.
Drunken fist would be awesome, if a little tough to animate.
I've started drawing up different poses, and facial expressions for animating

This is the expression he'd use if he was to say something like
"I aint got time to bleed" or
"I'm gonna take you to the bank... the blood bank"

(I changed his eyebrows to fit in more with the old master archetype)

Just some quick consumer advice. I've been pixelling this in Graphics Gale freebie addition.
Is it worth paying for the full version, so I can export animations?
Or should I just download a different program for animating?

Cheers, I hope I aint breaking some forum rule with this kinda thing

[Jacky-Boy]

Sorry for the mundane post, only I just bought the full version of Graphics Gale, and I'm trying to animate for the first time.
I've done a couple of quick facial animations, but I don't know how to save em off with the alpha channel 
Can someone please tell me the format I need to save in

[EDIT]

S'all good, Salvage sorted it out

[Salvage]

Looking cool.
The leg position might be changed like so in order to give a better sense of the weight and orientation of the character:
My edit alternating with your original

[Jacky-Boy]

Thanks Salvage, that last edit really helped sort out his direction.
This is where I'm at with the idle animation:



It's pretty crappy I know, but I really don't have a clue when it comes to animation. He's just bopping
Suggestions are welcome as always

[sharprm]

Looks good. Maybe the hands should be slightly rotated outwards when they are down.