Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Hagane on October 24, 2015, 10:34:09 pm
Title: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: Hagane on October 24, 2015, 10:34:09 pm
I'm planning on doing a Sidescroller game like Strider / Osman / Ninja Spirits, and this is the main character. This is the first time I do something at this low res, so it has a long way to go; I really struggled to squeeze her at that size.
(http://i.imgur.com/pAdodz2.gif?1)
The main thing I'm concerned is the palette, as my monitor doesn't quite show colors very well. I'd also like some tips on antialiasing, as I don't really get the concept. Is there a good tutorial for beginners someone could recommend?
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: Gil on October 27, 2015, 12:43:16 pm
Small edit to the right leg to clean up some banding. Lovely sprite you've got there.
(http://i.imgur.com/OCpezGR.gif)
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: YellowLime on October 27, 2015, 02:31:22 pm
Very nice sprite indeed :) The animations are going to be a lot of work though! :-X
Anti-aliasing is just adding in-between colors to lessen the contrast between two differently colored areas/clusters. This is usually done to remove jaggies, or other cases in which we don't want the raw pixels to be noticed as much :)
You should ideally AA this after you are done with the animations! Only after having finalized the positions and shapes should you go on to clean the image of its jaggies (this 'idle' frame is like a proof-of-concept, so it's an acceptable exception)
Your palette looks nice to me! :) Maybe someone with more expertise on the subject will have something to say.
My nitpicks:
Her right foot seems too round to me. IMO, needs a bit more volume in the heel/ less volume in the arch. A couple pixels, if anything.
Her right thigh has this shade... It's anatomically correct, but displays the muscle when tensed at maximum IMO (e.g. pre-leap). Just standing shouldn't tense it so much. I'd say join the shade with the one below, and create a 'wavy' transition (confusing wording?...).
Right ankle is thicker than her left.
A bit less highlight on her front arm would be better. I'd remove the 2 pixels that touch other clusters, and the leftmost pixel of the lower arm highlight cluster (very confusing wording? :P...)
The sword... is a sausage :crazy:. To make it look more like a katana, I'd reduce the width, increase the length and/or show the line that separates the handle from the sheath.
The separation of her left leg from her abdomen feels deep enough that it merits a darker line color (like the one used in the clavicle). Then again, doing this might make the character sexier than you want to (that's a thing, I hear ::)). If you want it to feel less deep, your should erase some more of the line.
My critique is based off of Gil's edit, which only removed the banding on her left leg afaik :)
Great work overall ;) Keep it up! :y:
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: MikePixel on October 28, 2015, 10:59:53 pm
I don't have much to add but I really like this sprite :)
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: Hagane on November 20, 2015, 09:54:09 pm
Thanks for the input. While I animate that idle with your tips, here are some animations:
Walk and run. The walk is almost finished, the run is still rough. I don't quite like how the hair animates, maybe I should make the animation more subtle? I referenced Chun's 3S walk and Mai's KOF XIII run for these, although of course these are nowhere near as good as them.
(http://i.imgur.com/mbZ1tDV.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/BPimnN6.gif)
A couple of attacks. The standing slash is almost finished, the crouching one is quite rough, with some recycled bits from the standing attack. The timing is completely off for the gif, you need to open them with Graphicsgale for the real speed.
(http://i.imgur.com/pmedMHN.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/Ivd2rcH.gif)
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: Rosier on November 21, 2015, 12:22:39 am
I feel like the walk's too stiff. Chun Li has a bit of arm movement for both arms, so it looks unnatural for the sword arm to not move at all.
Run's torso is also stiff. If her walking has that much jiggle, her running should have more, or at least some. Arm's should also move at least a tiny bit. Her hair should flow, not stutter. Strider from MVC's scarf might help with hair, as it flows well.
Her hair kind of grows. It's really noticeable in the attack animations. From the size change, it looks like her ponytail is leaning heavily to one side, then becomes centered when she turns.
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: Hagane on November 21, 2015, 01:29:51 am
Yeah, the arm in the walk and the torso in the run are unanimated. I'll do those on the next post.
I don't undestand the bit about the hair, though. The crouching slash hair isn't animated, by the way, just trying to get the timing of the slash right for the moment.
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: Seiseki on November 21, 2015, 01:46:40 am
This sprite looks really good, very sharp! The attack animations could use a bit more impact and sense of speed though, right now the frames seem to evenly spaced out.
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: Rosier on November 21, 2015, 03:27:21 am
Yeah, the arm in the walk and the torso in the run are unanimated. I'll do those on the next post.
I don't undestand the bit about the hair, though. The crouching slash hair isn't animated, by the way, just trying to get the timing of the slash right for the moment.
When she's facing the screen like in the idle, her hair has a certain volume to it. When she turns, it looks like there is a lot more of it comparatively. The Strider thing was just an example of a material that flows, like hair would.
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: Hagane on November 25, 2015, 04:23:02 am
I'll try to fix the hair later. As for attacks lacking impact, could that be due to the gif's slow playback speed? For some reason the attacks came out slower that they should when opening them with a standard image viewer, yet they play correctly on graphcisgale.
This attack seems to play fine though. Slightly NSFW I guess since there's a not subtle at all pantyshot.
(http://i.imgur.com/Pw29OmJ.gif)
Still a tad rough on details (particularly the katana, and the rotated frames aren't fully cleaned), but I'd like an opinion on the animation. It's supposed to be a jump kick, by the way.
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: Hagane on November 26, 2015, 02:19:07 am
An emulation of the jump animation. In game the jump physics take care of the timing much better, but it's a decent preview. Open in graphicsgale for the correct timing.
(http://i.imgur.com/9A6Ci7c.gif)
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: Decroded on November 26, 2015, 02:59:38 am
I can't see this on my phone very nicely but have u considered that after the flip, the legs could switch so the other knee is raised instead? I'm thinking it might make it look more dynamic that way.
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: Hagane on November 26, 2015, 10:25:17 am
I did a quick edit to implement what you say. Does it look better?
(http://i.imgur.com/4UuXz4L.gif)
Title: Re: [WIP] [C+C] Ninja girl for a sidescroller
Post by: aamatniekss on November 26, 2015, 10:39:35 am
It does look better. :y:
By the way, really good pixeling, im loving everything im seeing.