Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: heyguy on September 14, 2015, 08:17:56 am
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Hey all! So I'm working on some Mega Man type game and I've drawn a bunch of anime-style robot enemies. This guy is sort of like a Sumo wrestler or regular wrassler, slightly inspired by E. Honda.
I'd appreciate any and all critiques regarding the character. Right now, I've got a little white skirt thing going on around his waist and I'm not sure if I like or dislike it. Not sure it reads properly. It looks better in my drawing. Also, the face...not very Mega Man or anime inspired. Guess I need some googly eyes maybe? I will animate this guy too. Idle, belly flop, shoulder charge/dash, thousand hand slap E. Honda style, grab move, turn. That seems enough animations for a boss I think.
Anyway, would love some thoughts and comments on how this can be improved. Thanks!
(http://i.imgur.com/SGwF2HL.png)
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The shading doesn't make a lot of sense. You need to pick a light source and shade accordingly. When you just fill in the parts with gradients, we call that "pillow shading" and it's a Very Bad Thing (tm). The pillow shading also causes "banding", another Very Bad Thing (tm).
I'm digging the overall design though, so I'd certainly stick with it and try to get that shading just right. Maybe you can go for a more luchadores style mask and then try to do that in Mega Man style? Might work.
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Hey Gil, thanks for the great feedback! I totally forgot I was doing some hardcore pillow shading. I kept banding in mind but I know I have banding, especially around the neck. I'm going to take another crack at shading later tonight!
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I like the shading on the left arm (his right). You can probably match the rest of the sprite with that.
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Here's an update. The light source is coming from the upper left. What does everyone think? I tried to match the lighting of the right arm. Changed the face too to a more mask-like look.
(http://i.imgur.com/pexUGDn.png)
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The levelness of the shoulders kind of imparts a sense of flatness. I agree he should be stiff but also a little movement in there.
The hands could use work. I think some fingers are a little too thick, the shading on the right hand is confusing, and the banding is obfuscating.
You could easily make it more metal with reflected light.
I am not a fan of that midpiece. It's busy and I don't know what's going on.
On the whole, I quite like the character of it.
(http://i.imgur.com/pexUGDn.png)(http://i.imgur.com/SqFE5An.png)
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Aww hell yeah man! Thank you for the edits! I love what you've done! Especially the face and the little reflection of the left arm. The reflection is a tiny touch but really sells the metallic robot look!
I still feel sort of nervous about using colors other than black when it comes to outlining or creating detail on inside the character, such as the mask and the left chest area, as you can tell.
Yeah, the mid piece is definitely weird looking. I'm probably going to change it to a simple belt or maybe some sort of robot cooling tube thingy or something. I'll experiment with the hands more too. The hands were one of the hardest thing to get right in my eyes. The perspective, anatomy and such. I've checked out a lot of Mega Man bosses and a lot of them seem to have big ol' powerful hands. Not all though. Again, thanks for the help! Gonna work on this guy more tomorrow.
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This is starting to come together. Joe pretty much nailed the luchadores mask I was suggesting. I wish I had time for an edit, but you guys seem on top of it.
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Some updates. Made a few different mid-pieces. I'm leaning toward maybe one of the first three, the belt looking ones. They're also pretty much pixel completed. I'm experimenting with the skirts and one piece. I'm not happy with any of them to be honest. Maybe the very first one and possibly the last one, the one piece wrestling singlet.
I really want to start animating this. Can I just go with the first one and call it a day?
(http://i.imgur.com/DzwLQq6.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/EEZaGUX.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/5W98TaJ.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/xKpe7nt.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/EX5oZFQ.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/CFeXxqb.png)
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I agree that the first one's best.
I still feel sort of nervous about using colors other than black when it comes to outlining or creating detail on inside the character.
With the exception of stylistic choices, like imitating megaman for example, try to change the way you look at it. Since pure black is such a powerful color there should be a very good reason to use it on the inside of a sprite.
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Starting the animation. Here's the idle in wireframes. I hope it's clear and readable for everyone. I'd appreciate any critiques on the weight, movements, overall look of the animation, forms, speed, etc, etc, etc. Obviously the hands aren't detailed yet, this is more of a preliminary animation sketch exploring/experimenting/finalizing his basic wrestling stance idle animation. I kinda like it so far! The 3rd frame (where is left hand reaches its lowest point) I'm sort of "iffy about. Something about the left arm doesn't look right.
What does every one think of this animation for his idle animation? Wanted a simple 4 frames of animation but decided on 5 frames to put more bounce and expression in his movement.
(http://i.imgur.com/4ENBwPA.gif)
edit:dont think this idle looks like something megaman x-ish. Too many frames? :ouch: did megaman x bosses even have an idle animation? Maybe I should try animating straight into an attack animation like when the mmx boss jumps and collides with you? i feel like if i don't simplify the animation somehow, this project is going to take a very long time to complete. Here's a different version of the animation.
(http://i.imgur.com/SKm93WW.gif)
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Starting of simply. Here's the animation/pose for when the bot takes damage. WIP.
(http://i.imgur.com/zIYNC27.gif)
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I couldn't see much in way of idle animtions in Megaman X; The bosses don't spend much time idling between attacks.
Anyway,
The first idle has too much movement to display in 4/5 frames. If you're going to use the simple one, you can at least move the arms around a bit:
(http://imgur.com/CB3c5bv.gif)
As for the flinch, you probably can't reuse much of the torso if it's meant to be tilting backwards. The bot looks a lot fatter in the flinching state than in the standing pose.
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That looks great! Haha, here's what I just finished working on. Wasn't sure on how to resuse the forearms and hands. I like yours a lot better! More bouncy!
(http://i.imgur.com/D08wFU0.gif)
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Just a small update on the flinching pose. Drew a new frame instead of trying to modifying the previous body. I think it looks more like it's flinching backwards now. Will try to finalize and complete it tonight. The perspective of the feet are giving me some trouble but I'm close to completion I think.
(http://i.imgur.com/y1OK5Kq.gif)
edit: hands are hard
(http://i.imgur.com/qkK67RV.png)
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New updates. I think I'm pretty much done with the flinching pose/animation. His left hand looks a little iffy though. Probably going to start work on other poses, starting with a dash/tackle pose.
(http://i.imgur.com/eP1DYaR.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/oxzhCNY.png)
edit: small taste of the dash pose
(http://i.imgur.com/QslicD3.png)
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Update on dash/tackle. I like two and three but I can't decide which. Either way, it might even be cool to add some sort of jet booster blast animation under the robots feet. Still working on the flinch pose too.
(http://i.imgur.com/11Vw6xI.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/Jmbcsq1.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/pV9YlUn.png)
edit: simple animation
(http://i.imgur.com/pIMqvxU.gif)
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Update. Think I'm finished with this pose. I'll probably experiment with a booster animation under his feet. I'd appreciate any thoughts and critiques on the work. I'm going to start creating the jump or throw animation next.
(http://i.imgur.com/ofc4sIX.png)(http://i.imgur.com/G3JFSHK.gif)
edit: here's a sketch of the mid-air jump pose.
(http://i.imgur.com/ylYDrjx.png)(http://i.imgur.com/aTxITkP.gif)(http://i.imgur.com/pLeLU8X.gif)
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I think that your tackle pose looks very stiff. Even tho you've draw it from sketch it looks like you've just rotate stand drawing around the center. Also legs have different length in your tackle position.
Here's the sloppy edit to suggest how you can get more movement into it.
(http://i.imgur.com/UuVanC2.gif)
You should check some references of how to render and highlight metal surfaces. One of the interesting treads I recently saw here -> http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=18793.0 (http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=18793.0)
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Thanks for the edit HarveyDentMustDie. I've used the pose and redrawn it. I've also tried to give the robot a more metallic sheen. What does everyone think? I think the boots and the hands looks a little odd. I've also been creating a wip jump animation. Imagine him jumping in an arc forward Megaman X style. Decided to reuse the torso instead of creating an entirely new frame of animation. Not sure which direction would have been best. I'd appreciate any and all critique.
(http://i.imgur.com/dCJdfmn.png)(http://i.imgur.com/s2VaxpM.gif)(http://i.imgur.com/dY4nYCg.gif)(http://i.imgur.com/13PwtN3.gif)
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Update on the jump animation. Not sure if I need that addition frame where the robot is extending his legs for the jump. I'd appreciate any critiques. What does everyone think of this jump pose and animation. The foreshortening on the boots? As I look at them now, they seem a little big. Starting to work on the grab and throw attack now.
(http://i.imgur.com/CeHBxMK.png)(http://i.imgur.com/J0iAyTC.gif)(http://i.imgur.com/suotcdH.png)
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I don't think the pose itself follows, assuming that's a vertical jump. If you jump up you'll see your tibia actually goes behind, slightly, as your femur goes forward. As for the arms, the elbows should stay raised but the forearms shouldn't be angled so steep, and the hands should still face the player. That would result in a more competent jump.
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Does this look any better? Still a WIP. The robot is jumping in an arc. Sort of like a ball bounce, like how some bosses from Megaman X jump.
(http://i.imgur.com/6F44Qrb.gif)(http://i.imgur.com/GF0JxiY.png)(http://i.imgur.com/Ut2njIq.png)
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Another jump pose. A little more dynamic but I'll need a couple more unique frames of animation to make it all flow correctly from idle to jump to belly flop pose to land (to standing back up to idle???). More frames than I'd prefer to draw probably. Should I go with this one instead though. I think I might be able to reuse torso to create the actual frame where he's jumping off the ground.
Fleshing out the grab and throw attack animation too. Reusing the grab and throw pose, just changing the hands on each frame and adding some "whoosh" to the throw. I like the general motion of the animation overall. The winding up pose behind his back looks a bit weird maybe.
(http://i.imgur.com/2502Ut9.png)(http://i.imgur.com/nhU8hMX.gif)
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Well what I'm saying is if you throw your arms back and forelegs forward, that would have the result of turning your entire weight backward, you can't jump like that and land straight. So if he's jumping more or less straight up and down, that pose would result in a sloppy landing.
But if he's jumping backward that pose is good, though the hands should still be bent down, always at the ready. It looks to me like you have backwards and forward/up jumps, and should use them accordingly.
Grab animation looks good.
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Thanks for elaborating Joe! I'm going to create the forward jump pose after I finish this grab move. So here's a quick update on the grab and throw animation. Still working on individual sets of hands for grab and the throw frame. Does this new pose seem to match proportionally to the original models idling proportions?
(http://i.imgur.com/SD5kNuC.png)(http://i.imgur.com/jgEgeoW.png)(http://i.imgur.com/PlbIfGg.gif)
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Here's a wip update for the jump. I feel I'm 95% done with the poses and shading. I'm still experimenting with the animation. What's better, jump 1 or jump 2?
I'll might add some more bouncy-ness and variation to the arms during the fall and the landing. Any comments or critiques anything? Does the anatomy, proportions of limbs, foreshortening, etc all match and flow smoothly? Try and imagine him jump forward from right to left in an arc. I guess I should probably even animate the arc motion too. I'm also still having some trouble giving him a metallic sheen.
(http://i.imgur.com/Nk8ovgA.png)(http://i.imgur.com/ZCDvs65.png)(http://i.imgur.com/vqm4d31.gif)(http://i.imgur.com/Ppa0Xew.gif)