Hi,
I'm a programmer trying to do pixelart. At the moment I'd like to tie down the style for the characters in an rpg I'm making. Which is why I read a bunch of tutorials and made this guy below sort of as a guide and as a placeholder.
I know there are a bunch of rules, and I'm breaking a couple, for instance the jaggies on the lower sleeves or the color count. Those two I do not care about. Also his posture/stance is outright bad and wooden, doll like. These things I know and am ok with.
What I want is a cartoon style, so I thought simple shading, no secret of mana crazyness. But I'm not sure if I'm in the ballpark. The picture evolved from left to right, but at times I think the harsh black outline on the left looks great.
So I'm trying to get a feel for it, I'm sort of satisfied, but not quite.
Is the hue change in the shading a good idea for this style for example? (right most column)
Also the sprite has to look good zoomed in and out, as I will only create art at the target size, and then zoom the game depending on target platform (please no flaming about this). There's such a huge difference between how a sprite looks at different zoom levels. That's also a balancing act I'm trying to figure out, and have not found any tutorials or words of wisdom about.
Last thing, this is less pixelart related I guess, any general tips on making him less doll like, but still basically super deformed, apart from the stance and the big head are much appreciated. But I can totally understand if this is not the place for that. I just need to learn to draw. What I do wonder is: is there a limit to super-deformed/chibi character design in regards to resolution? I assume big heads were initially used to make tiny sprites still express emotion, or be more recognizable. But does it stop working at higher resolutions, sort of similar to the uncanny valley? (Some dreadful gradient ff chibi illustrations come to mind) Or do I just suck? (Way more likely) Do I need to exaggerate more?
Not looking for praise, I have thick skin, please be very critical.
There's a chance I'll modify the image, start over completely, or leave it. It depends on feedback and my own head, sorry for not commiting to one or the other. Thank you nonetheless.