Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: tehwexxl0rz on September 01, 2011, 11:53:22 am
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Hey guys, just started working on some sprites for a project that's supposed to look like an authentic 8-bit arcade game circa 1984.
The text is just for trying out style variations. ("High score" font probably isn't original, but I drew it from scratch.)
From left to right: player, zombie, random blood splatter
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2032434/zombieblasters.gif)
c&c please! :)
Latest:
(http://i.imgur.com/U6eCK.gif) (http://i.imgur.com/lzkYC.gif) (http://i.imgur.com/VJHGW.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/gV3S3.gif)
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My first thought when I saw the sprites was this: gorilla, zombie, blood. So I think you should definitely rework the readability of the player sprite. Are you working with any color restrictions? The poses also look a little wonky, are these idle sprites or frames of walking animations? Take advantage of the fact that the heads are the most important feature, and it is where the viewers' eye falls first. You could give the zombie some more character by adding an extra skintone or giving him more zombie-ish eyes rather than 2 plain dark dots.
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LOL I thought gorilla too : D Ceddo makes a point, I'm interested in knowing if you're using restricionts too : ) If not, use a different color for the player's gun and some of his body (it's all brown!) looks nice otherwise ; )
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Better?
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2032434/zombieblasters1.gif)
The player is an idle frame. The zombie is a walk frame because they're always walking.
There are no actual color restrictions, but it should look authentically 8-bit.
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A thousand times better, in my opinion!!
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Upped the resolution:
(http://i.imgur.com/AiNGP.gif)
...and the biceps.
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I still think the biceps are too small. And he looks even more like a Gorilla now than before :yell:
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Are you kidding?! The biceps are comically huge. How does he look anything like a Gorilla? I don't find this feedback constructive at all.
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His midsection is a little blurry (the 2px line defining his abs is causing banding).
Small edit:
(http://i.imgur.com/2SDic.gif)
I still think the biceps are too small. And he looks even more like a Gorilla now than before
I disagree.
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Thanks for the edit, Mush. Ideally I'd like to get rid of the banding without losing that detail.
Hopefully I've done that in this update (plus new side view):
(http://i.imgur.com/HdPJJ.gif)
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Updates:
(http://i.imgur.com/U6eCK.gif) (http://i.imgur.com/lzkYC.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/PKDrz.gif)
If you've been following my Ninja game, the explosion may look familiar. Buildings don't have shadows yet...
The boring dither on the street is only temporary, just had to throw something together to show my employer.
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the explosion works globally well, except for the "full black" frame at the end. Maybe you should try full white or full orange instead ...
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Cool explosion and fonts!
About the turning: when he switches between front and left views, it looks like he is only turning his torso (though it seems to be an illusion.) Maybe emphasize his left foot turn?
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Thanks, guys!
PypeBros, if I understand correctly, the frame you are talking about is supposed to be thick black smoke... I think it's effective the way it is, but if you disagree, an edit would help me to better understand your suggestion.
Mush, that totally makes sense. The reason it looks that way is that I've mirrored the left and right sprites to emulate the memory limitations of the era. However, I'm planning on making a 2-frame walk animation for each direction, so I think I can fix it by starting the left/right animations on opposite frames.
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Thanks, guys!
PypeBros, if I understand correctly, the frame you are talking about is supposed to be thick black smoke... I think it's effective the way it is, but if you disagree, an edit would help me to better understand your suggestion.
(http://i.imgur.com/Tm03Y.gif)
I think this "blend" better ... now, maybe it only does on the white BG of the forum, and maybe plain black is the way to go on your game BG. I'll let the artistic director decide.
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I don't think it blends better: it goes from yellow > red > black > red. Physically, it doesn't really make much sense either.
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The boring dither on the street is only temporary, just had to throw something together to show my employer.
Pfew. what a relief ;)
Something in the "chaos engine" style could work easily here, imho.
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Crappy first pass at a zombie, and scrolling background:
(http://i.imgur.com/fmMtr.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/gV3S3.gif)
Thanks for mentioning Chaos Engine, Pype! It's a great reference for the style i'm going for. :)
I'll try to get more detail in the level soon....
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The scrolling isn't working very well with this 2 pixel-per-frame speed, imho. You'd better double the frame and have a one-pixel-per-frame speed. (that would be über-annoying to do for a .gif preview, but just make sure your game engine can give you that).
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Thanks for the note. The final animation will be 1 pixel per frame, this is just for preview purposes. :)
New 3-frame zombie (hopefully more legible/less noisy):
(http://i.imgur.com/VJHGW.gif)
EDIT:
Trash can, (pick-up-and-thow-able by zombies):
(http://i.imgur.com/qPBIL.gif)
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the trashcan lacks contrast, for a pickable item, imho. It would also be visually more interesting if shown slightly damaged. May I suggest titus the fox (http://www.ellosnuncaloharian.com/imagenes/pantallas/big/fox_1.png) as a reference for colours and style (trashcan in bottom-left corner).
As for the zombie sprite, I'd drop the blod spray in the regular animation. you haven't got enough frames for that. Imho, you might want to work on a 45° pose (zombie converging towards the player), as it will help depicting arms position and feet movement ... and then turn back to the front view. The most creepy pixel zombies I've fougth in my childhood were moving only one leg forward. Lost vickings mummies (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cShtck1Dv0&feature=related) did walk that way too (check the video at 04:42).
HTH.