Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: revolver on July 28, 2014, 06:09:44 pm

Title: [C+C] RPG sprites [WIP]
Post by: revolver on July 28, 2014, 06:09:44 pm
so im trying to make some simple sprites for a game i want to do and the style i was going for with the characters is the same style in sword and sorcery ios game, however i dont want to copy it exactly i want my own touch on them, however i cant seem to make them look serious they all seem to look childish  :mean: :yell:

C+C most welcome
(http://i62.tinypic.com/16kq739.png)

oh and for fun ive done team 7 from naruto in this style lol
(http://i61.tinypic.com/2m81254.png)
(http://i60.tinypic.com/r8ur1j.gif)
Title: Re: [C+C] RPG sprites [WIP]
Post by: felicitousArtisan on July 31, 2014, 09:01:01 am
These are cute sprites and above my level of pixel art ability, but I can say one thing speaking as a games artist and designer about that first image, and that's that the character's palette is too close to that of his surroundings. The skintone, black hair, red scarf and white sword all look great, but his shirt and pants are vanishing into the scenery and I can't even see his sword hilt on the screencap there!

When you're working with a limited palette like Dawnbringer, you really need to decide when you start, which colours you're going to use for environments and which you'll use for characters. In fact, really this goes for games design in general, even in a modern game like say Final Fantasy XIII, you'll find that Lightning's red cape and white and brown clothes and pink hair are all colours that are (final dungeon being an exception) not prominently featured in most areas of the game (predominantly blue, green and grey palettes). To use an older and more relevant example to pixel art, in Metroid, Samus is orange or pink; very few other things in the game are orange or pink; the backgrounds are generally very dark, things you can stand on are colours like blue, green, brown, red and enemies tend to be green, blue, purple (let's not go into Metroid Fusion which threw all these smart visual design ideas out of the window huuurghhh).
If you're using outlines on your characters, there's a touch more leeway with readability, but they don't work for this kind of delicate Capy-esque style.

If I was art director on your game, I'd probably suggest making the shirt a brighter blue, like the ones under the greens on the palette, and the pants a warm brown or something and the sword hilt either bright blue or red. That way the player would always be able to clearly see and read the character sprite against the less saturated backgrounds. Muted colours like grey are pretty hard to work with on a character sprite when your palette is limited, unless you reversed everything and made the surroundings very bright, very dark or very saturated.

...That said, Sword and Sworcery didn't always do a great job of distinguishing the character from the environment. It was sometimes very easy to lose her. The bright and dark areas on the sprite helped, and the warm brown shield which was different from the cool browns elsewhere, but the rest of her was largely neutral toned, so I can see why you made this decision. I guess adding some dark or light details to the character could potentially help them stand out while keeping your intended sombre tone intact?

I'm sure some of the more pixel-orientated people here can probably give more specific advice!
Title: Re: [C+C] RPG sprites [WIP]
Post by: revolver on August 02, 2014, 09:07:25 am
Hi and very big thanks for the huge effort put into your post! i will take all of that into account, for some reason i have carried on with the sprites just in the
Naruto fashion lol as i go to put them in a game i will edit them but i'm finding it fun lol

I'm trying to do run anim at the moment, and i'm finding it difficult in this style ha here's what i have so far,
8 frames:
(http://i62.tinypic.com/vyw5dy.png)
(http://i59.tinypic.com/vmx46w.gif)
Title: Re: [C+C] RPG sprites [WIP]
Post by: thewizard on August 03, 2014, 10:24:53 am
hey do you need a programmer for this game your trying to make and by the way i love your art it looks great
Title: Re: [C+C] RPG sprites [WIP]
Post by: revolver on August 03, 2014, 04:08:48 pm
hmm interesting offer, what language/s do you program in ?


Little update for fun quickly done, tile set needs a bit more work
(http://i60.tinypic.com/r86knt.png)
this is one idea basically a metroidvania style rpg



update on the tileset

(http://i57.tinypic.com/mvl1g0.png)