Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Luzeke on July 04, 2007, 04:50:45 am
-
Well, I'm moving my previous game project to 3D so I thought I'd make a small(-ish) 2D game over the summer, to keep the brain going :)
So I'm reviving one of my older projects. I call it Hero's Sword.
It's a simple (don't know if it stays simple for long though) 2D platformer with a silly story. Resolution 320x240.
Thought I'd begin this thread with the main character:
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/hero_chibi.gif)
The right one is a slightly older version, I show it as well because in the newer version I exchanged some of the outline on the head/face with a brighter shade.
I wanted to do the characters chibi anime-style (haven't done much anime in a while so thought it'd be fun) and I'm pleased with the head, even the hair. But I'm still not sure about the body. I'd really appreciate your thoughts on that.
I've been looking at Kennethfejer's latest little project to get some inspiration, since his style is the closest thing to what I want to accomplish (without emulating his style too much of course).
I have my quick sketch of the character:
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/hero.jpg)
I also drew his sword there, and how he looks while holding it since in the game he hasn't held a sword ever until the game begins. He's gonna look very silly using the sword, and also using it in silly ways.
Here's two ideas for the sword:
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/sword_yeah.gif)
I went for the left one though.
Well, that's all for now. :D
-
Both of your swords in pixels don't look like the concept drawing whereas I like the design in the concept drawing.
Perhaps you could try something like this a bit more (just a shape edit):
(http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/5961/bladesr4.png)
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/5961/bladesr4.png
-
Yeah the sword turned out different when I started to pixel it. When I pixeled it I didn't get it the way I wanted it.
So I started going for more conventional shapes. Well it's not near done so I may change it some more.
I worked a little on the body, and I think I improved it a little. Tell me what you think :P
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/hero2chibi.gif)
And I played around doing some facial expressions as well. These were actually a lot of fun to do ^^
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/express_u.gif)
-
I assume this game is gonna be displayed on 2x?
Some funny expressions out there.
-
I think conceptually the hair is very weak. Anime cliches galore: green hue, random spikes... the form looks better in the sketch than in the pixels, maybe you should add the shapes on the top of the head to your sprite and eliminate those smaller, messier ones. Actually, everything looks better in the concept. If the eyes are going to be so elongated, I would add some highlights to them. Your face highlights don't contrast with the main tone enough to even matter at under 8x viewing.
Your newest edit is an improvement indeed, it looks like a nice setup for an idle animation. Keep going.
-
I really like your newest sprite. However, I feel it has way too many colors.
Here's an edit where he only has 12 colors:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v93/digijohn90/game_color_reduction.png)
-
At first I was going for the anime cliché feel. However, experimenting with his hair I think he's better off with not-so-much-spiky-hair.
The highlights were unnecessary and some other stuff too, so I got to fixing it. Now it's 20 colors, (seems it's actually 22)
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/heroe2.gif)
Before that I did a little test for an idle animation:
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/idle_chibero-1.gif)
Only 3 frames and a little crude. But I'm gonna work on it. I'd like to ad some subtle 'swaying' of the sword (dunno if swaying is the word I'm looking for though :P )
And, yeah it's gonna be displayed at or more than 2x
-
the beginning of a mockup for the game.
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/mockup_chibero.gif)
I added dark blue to the left side of the sprite, to accentuate it. Hopefully making it pop a little better.
And I've also changed the swords design so it's more like the concept. Here it is:
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/swrod_of_chibi.gif)
-
The grass is much too noticable; blend it with the green background. I like the dirt tiles so far though.
-
The green bg is just for me to know where the mockup picture begins. When I work on it I have a larger canvas so I can put things away and stuff. The green will be replaced by a background of sorts.
I was thinking more of wheat fields than grass. I changed it around a little. Added slimes as well. I'm gonna work on the tree next. I hate trees, they're always a pain :-\
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/mockup_chibero2.gif)
-
I would suggest stronger light on the red blob
And the highlight line of the blue-ish blob 1 px more away from the edge
It's all getting quite nice :D
-
Thanks! ;D
I did a new idle stance animation yesterday. I tried out making the sword move. I'm not sure if it worked out well, it might be to much motion for such a small sprite.
So here's two versions, one with sword movement and one without. Which do you think works best?
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/_two_idle_stance_.gif)
(Couldn't update at all yesterday since my connection was down the whole day :mean: )
-
I think it's better with the sword moving. If he's gonna do some mad swinging it's good if it feels like he's just about to swing all the time. The movement itself is a bit too harsh, but it might actually contribute to the game if the game itself is hasty and fast. As for the sprite itself, i hink it could use a bit polishing still. I'm not feeling those black outlines and the few black pixels here and there, they bring noise.
The tiles and enemies are a bit dull as well and could read better as well. Grass needs work too, but it's a good idea to have it high like that. Overall there's some pixels that don't really contribute to relying any kind of information.
Other than that looks like a good start and i'm really looking forward to seeing more!
-
The sword moves too much in my opinion, so I prefer the one without sword movement.
-
The sword moves too much in my opinion, so I prefer the one without sword movement.
On the one with the sword movement, the sword goes up the frame before the hand comes down (I think - didn't extract the frames), and it looks like the handle is wobbly.
-
the sword is moving too much, other than that, the animation with the sword moving is better.
-
Another update. I've been working on my main sprite a little, and again have two versions which differ slightly. :crazy:
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/hero_idle2nd.gif) (http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/hero_idle3rd.gif)
In the left one I only used two frames for the sword and three in the right.
I took away the brightest shade on the pants and replaced the dark blue 'outline' with the color I used to
outline his face. I did it different on the two versions. On the left one I did pretty much as before but didn't outline as much as before.
The right one is the same except that I didn't outline the sword.
I also made an idle animation for when he's low on health. I did the one on the left the same way I made the one to the left before and vice versa on the right.
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/hero_idlewounded2nd.gif) (http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/hero_idlewounded3rd.gif)
-
Oh these are soooo adorable! Okay but seriously, you gonna add alot of gore anytime soon? :D Also, when he's low on health and has that pose, make it so his eyes are half-open or something
-
Oh these are soooo adorable! Okay but seriously, you gonna add alot of gore anytime soon? :D Also, when he's low on health and has that pose, make it so his eyes are half-open or something
Either that or make him a bloody mess. Like in Doom :D, you'd know you're almost dead because you were bleeding from the eyes and nose. I never knew you could bleed from the eyes until that games.
-
Either that or make him a bloody mess. Like in Doom :D, you'd know you're almost dead because you were bleeding from the eyes and nose. I never knew you could bleed from the eyes until that games.
Like so? (Edit: I don't know why but ImageReady messed my colors. The blood was supposed to be red :-\ )
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/hero_idlewounded3rdblood.gif)
I like the idea. But I don't think it reads very well. I think that just having him looked fatiqued makes more sense. Although deaths can be gory. Hadn't thougth much about if I was gonna add gore, and how much. We'll see. :P
I just now started on another enemy. It was such a weird idea that I just had to at least start it now.
(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j135/mr_norris/rabbitrider.gif)
:crazy:
-
Personally I think the bloodied version works better. You may not want to go with blood, but if you're going to take the effort to make different animations for different health states, it would probably be worth your while to differentiate noticeably between them (the previous low-health animation, to be honest, barely looked any different from the healthy one; in fact, if I hadn't read your post, I would have thought you accidentally posted the same images twice).
Some ideas to try in lieu of (or even to complement) the bloodied version:
tattered clothes, tired eyes, mussed up hair, a more horizontal, or even downward-pointing, orientation for the sword (to show he's tired).
-
although I really like the bloodied animation, you might want to bare in mind that if you're going with that then you're gunna have to make alternate version of every single animation for when he'd low on health, running, jumping, attacking etc, where as if you just go for looking tired then you can have alternate idle animation and keep the rest the same.
-
I'd definately stick with the wobbly sword for the tired animatio and the more properly held for the normal idle.
You could opt for some sewat or keep tehe blood and tone it down to just dripping when tired if you don't want to have to replace the head in every animation when he's low on health.