Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Cheetah on November 05, 2012, 11:46:59 pm

Title: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: Cheetah on November 05, 2012, 11:46:59 pm
I'm trying to improve my basic spriting skills with smallish 32x32 characters. Right now I'm just trying different characters to see how flexible the style is. I'm concerned with body shape from this angle and shading (top right) at the moment. Any advice would be welcomed as I have limit art and spriting experience.

(http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3689/nintendocharacters.png)

Borrowing heavily from NewGuy at pixeljoint (and here) in style and colors. Some colors are also taken from the original sprites.
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: Cheetah on November 08, 2012, 01:24:33 am
Small update to Mario and Luigi, new hats and mustaches, and a poor attempt at Luke. Still struggling with shading, particularly on the bodies.

(http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/3689/nintendocharacters.png)
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: PypeBros on November 09, 2012, 03:00:14 pm
shoulders fit well for Mario & Layton, but you could use less prominent shoulders for Luigi and Luke.
Don't hesitate to strengthen the Bros.' noses, too: it's a key feature of their faces.
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: Cheetah on November 09, 2012, 04:48:33 pm
(http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/3689/nintendocharacters.png)

Thanks for the helpful critic PypeBros (ohhh I get it)! I shrunk Luke in general, including his shoulders, and changed up the colors a bit. For Luigi I only changed 2 pixels on his shoulders, do you think it did the trick? Their noses are very important, but I just can't think of how to pixel them with this style, any advice would be welcomed.

I also added Link, first attempt at hair and a slightly different face. I think Zero Suit Samus is next.
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: Cheetah on November 11, 2012, 06:30:03 am
Two more. I'm having a lot of trouble making Samus look female but also consistently proportioned compared to the other characters. I'm doing Zelda next, so any advice would be great. Samus in armor was hard, I'm still not satisfied with her stomach.

(http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/3689/nintendocharacters.png)
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: PypeBros on November 12, 2012, 12:03:28 pm
(http://i.imgur.com/ZK8dS.png)
You did it nice on the Link character to avoid eye and outline to glue together. Imho, you should try to do that with every character.
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: NaCl on November 12, 2012, 10:40:49 pm
I don't care for the poses, they look a bit stilted. Plus, having a straight line in such a small image just tears through it. Otherwise I like them quite a bit. Nice work.

(http://www.freeimagehosting.net/newuploads/ikoqo.png)
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: Cheetah on November 13, 2012, 04:26:22 am
Thanks for the great feedback NaCl. I'm amazed out how such small changes make the character look so much more dynamic. In 2 I basically just finished your edit, my concern with this was that it looks a bit chibi. In 3 I tried to keep proportions in mind and made him 2 pixels taller to maintain a 3 head ratio for total height. His right (larger) arm still looks a little funny, I'm just hesitant to make it 1 pixel wide.

(http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3689/nintendocharacters.png)

@PypeBros: It worked well for Link because of his hair, but for everyone else it would mean a pretty substantial change to their head size. I think I will try a version of a couple characters without outlines to see how that looks and that will address this issue as well.
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: Cheetah on November 16, 2012, 06:23:21 am
Continuing to try and make the poses more dynamic. I believe I'm going in the correct direction, but I continue to be concerned about shading. I also tried having some of the heads face more directly towards the viewer to help with the eye running into the head border.

(http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/3689/nintendocharacters.png)
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: Cheetah on November 22, 2012, 06:50:11 pm
Just really minor changes at this point and I'm all out of ideas on how to improve them.

(http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/3689/nintendocharacters.png)
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: Crow on November 22, 2012, 07:18:11 pm
Layton looks very off balance, like he's going to fall over to the left (our left) side :-X
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: Cheetah on November 22, 2012, 10:03:39 pm
@Crow: I agree. I was hoping to do a different kind of stand from the others, but I have really struggled with making it look good. #2 is an earlier attempt with a similar stance to the other characters. Is this better or is there another way to make #3 more balanced?

(http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3904/nintendocharactersl.png)
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: BlueArctica on November 23, 2012, 05:51:09 am
The third stance is really akward, like he would fall over backwards. If you move his legs a column or two to the left, that should hopefully make him look like his legs can keep him standing... Sorry if I can't be much more help... :-[
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: NaCl on November 23, 2012, 06:01:22 am
Sometimes picking at something offers diminishing returns, and you just move on. Outside of major changes I think these are as good as they will be, and they're pretty good. As long as you recognize why Layton looks off balance, then I think you should move on.
Title: Re: Random Nintendo Characters
Post by: Cheetah on November 23, 2012, 06:48:47 am
Great advice from you both. Moved one of the legs one pixel to the left and further attempts to improve it were only making it worse. I think I need to just consider this set done and move on to others.

(http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/3689/nintendocharacters.png)