Took a stab at the dinosaur archer. First of all, try not to work on a very saturated background - it skews your perception of colours and tires your eyes. Second, zooming out and/or mirroring the piece every so often while working helps you notice mistakes easier (you may know this already, but it can't hurt to mention it).

Many of the colours you're using are very similar - try to use the least amount of colours you can get away with. This improves readability and makes it easier to adjust things later and animate. Don't be afraid of contrast - at the size you're working, subtle changes in colour are more or less invisible. Also, try to vary the hue when shading - in general, shadows are less saturated and tend towards the complementary colour of the light. For example, if the light is yellow, the shadows will have a blue/violet tinge (this depends on the colour model you're using). Additionally, if the light is warm, the shadows will be cool and vice-versa.

Your shapes are very blocky - even a single pixel will make a world of difference in a small image. Try to focus on how a particular pixel affects the shape as a whole, not just the pixels near it. When adding small details, it's better to just hint at them using a pixel or two instead of  trying to draw them as they actually look.

Why is the archer sitting so far back? They would fall off the moment the dinosaur started moving! If you did it to keep the bow and the dinosaur's head from overlapping - there's no need to. In a larger image, you'd have to be careful to avoid tangents, but they're not really a problem here.

Regarding animation - if you're interested in learning it, I suggest getting a book called "The Animator's Survival Kit" by Richard Williams and studying it. It's one of the most useful books on the subject I've found and explains it far better than I ever could, especially in a single forum post. Although it deals with traditional drawn animation, the fundamental skills are also applicable to pixel art. Good luck!

Tried to get rid of some of the straight lines, as suggested. I didn't make it too similar to the edit, since she's the main close-range fighter and needs to look a little more 'solid'. The original looked less stiff, I know, but I'm not fond of the 'fighters looking like adorable school-age kids' thing that's so prevalent in the RPG genre, so...



The pose is still boring, but since this is meant to be a base for walking animations, I don't think it matters much. I'm considering making larger, visual novel style sprites for conversations, anyway, since the field sprites are relatively small and the faces can't be changed much. It would be more work and might look a bit odd with two different representations of a character visible at the same time, though, so I haven't decided yet.

Edit: Worked on it a little more. The perspective looks wonky to me now, but I could just be too used to how it looked before. Also started another character, but that one doesn't look like much of anything yet.

Sorry about that, it's been a while since I last used it for linking things. Is this better?

Started work on some art for an RPG and realised I have no idea how to make anything in this perspective and have it look good. (Yes, I know. I could use the practice.)

My last attempt at a field sprite:


Another sprite (not meant to be used for anything) that looks somewhat better, but still far too cute for my liking:


What the character is actually supposed to look like:


The problem is obvious, heh.

Not sure if anti-aliasing the outline is a smart thing to do, but I figured, since I've already decided to use gradients and other non-kosher techniques, I might as well do it to make the sprites blend in better.

I'm also unsure about the art style in general. I'm planning to paint some of the assets due to their size, so I need to ensure nothing stands out as obviously done in a different style, but I'm not certain I can pull it off. The player party and menu here, for example, are probably going to be pixel art and everything else - painted.



Is this even a good idea? Can it be done well, or should I just bite the bullet and prepare to pixel many large, blurry and mostly featureless backgrounds?

They have a very Tsugumo-esque quality to them in feel and palette choices (that looks like his trademark blue/grey values at a glance). Did you read up on his tutorials (the first around in english that anyone i know can cite) - "so you want to be a pixel artist" before making these?

I have read his tutorials, but that was quite some time ago. I didn't reference anything in particular either.
Can't comment on the resemblance, since I haven't seen any of his art other than what was included with the tutorial.

Some of the areas of detail, most notably for me in the face seems rather good, but in other areas your form and line detail seem a bit scant, making them look flat in those areas. Dont be afraid of contrast in your values. Because they are smaller sprites than GGX you might lose some of the information in the details with such subtle shade differences.

I'm not sure which values you are referring to - can you elaborate?
Regarding the lack of detail - I'm afraid of making the sprites too detailed, since I intend to animate them later and it takes long enough as it is.

I agree about the palette and will probably modify it eventually, but I want to concentrate on making the poses/animation look good at the moment. Most of the backgrounds are dark anyway, so that's not much of a problem.

I made some things darker/more contrasted, but other than that there aren't many changes here. Not sure if it looks better or worse.



Started working on some animations and different stances for the guy in the middle. Redrew his legs several times since they looked somewhat odd and saved over the original. Now they look hideously deformed as well and I'm not sure how to fix it.



Idle/breathing animation. Still very choppy, but hopefully I'm doing at least something right.