Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Dokozai on October 01, 2007, 10:33:06 pm

Title: well I'm out of ideas for my game, and I need animation help........
Post by: Dokozai on October 01, 2007, 10:33:06 pm
well I'm making a platform game and I really can't think of any enemy ideas, could you guys inspire me :)

oh and I'm trying to animate this sprite slashing:
(http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2589/maincharsz4.png)
all I have is a blob, I can barely animate that right :huh: please inspire and help me.
Title: Re: well I'm out of ideas for my game, and I need animation help........
Post by: bengo on October 02, 2007, 06:54:33 am
To be honest, I hesitated to critique because of your little saying "I'm young, deal with it....." basically saying to me "My age is my excuse for being unable to improve at art, so don't complain when I don't improve".

Now, this "blob" of yours seems pretty lazily done, hopefully you do know the basics of art in general, particularly shading(Like for instance, defining the light source, since this is a game to make it easier on yourself you'd do a top-down light source)and animation.

For such a small sprite, you seem to have a lot of colors(A lot of them useless because there's not enough contrast in between), a bit difficult to see in 1x, the hair's light source is from the top and the head/body/sword is from the right. He isn't even in a stance for attacking, let alone a decent one for just being idle.
(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/5277/swordguysp6.gif)
I actually just made a new sprite, so I guess I can't really call this an edit but more of an example. This is an idle stance than it is him getting ready to attack, but yours was basically a half-arsed idle stance. Used less colors(This tends to be better for smaller sprites), defined the light source and gave him better readability.

As for animation, have you even attempted an animation for him? Sorry, we're not here to catch the fish for you, we're here to teach you how to get catch the fish on your own so you can feed yourself. Once you've shown some attempt at animating him, I shall not critique the animation for him. Just so we're clear: No don't "borrow" my sprite and don't "borrow" the colors, this won't get you anywhere.
Title: Re: well I'm out of ideas for my game, and I need animation help........
Post by: EyeCraft on October 02, 2007, 07:22:05 am
I'd hold back on the animating, because it looks like you need to get more of a grip on the basics. Bengo has pointed out a good deal of issues, but I have a few to add.

For one, don't work on a white background, it messes with your eyes' perception of the colours and their contrast. I personally use a black background, but that's probably not a good alternative, as it plays similar tricks with contrast and I often have to correct my palette a number of times when the piece is 'done'. Work with a neutral colour background, like a mid-value grey or a desaturated green. If you see videos of Helm working, he often changes the background colour as he works on a piece to constantly re-gauge how his colours are interacting.

Many things wrong with the stance. It looks like he's sort of tipping backwards, or is it just me? His feet are together and legs are straight, not good for swinging a sword because you have minimal balance. Feet should be spread apart, and knees bent, lowering his centre of gravity. That's how he should look when he's going to do a swiping animation.

You've made many classic pixel-newbie 'boo-boos'. As we all have. You are using gradients in place of shading. Check out some tutorials on shading (there's a tutorials thread (http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=3467.0) on this forum).

I'm a bit of an anti-outline individual. Unless they are used masterfully in the right circumstances. The outlines in your piece are bad for a couple of reasons, 1; on such a small sprite they are using up valuable pixels, 2; they are making things look flat (not that the gradients are really helping to show volume, but anyway). At the least, don't have outlines inside your sprite, for instance where the hair runs across the forehead. Those are outlines inside, or 'inlines'. Inlines = evil (others feel free to argue that point). Better yet, just kill the outlines altogether (for instance, look at Bengo's).

And the face, the face is very plain and without personality. Give it something more.
Title: Re: well I'm out of ideas for my game, and I need animation help........
Post by: Dokozai on October 02, 2007, 11:14:50 am
well I've updated the sprite I hope this is better: (http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/820/maincharbr1.png)
Title: Re: well I'm out of ideas for my game, and I need animation help........
Post by: bengo on October 02, 2007, 11:24:04 am
Don't "borrow" my sprite and don't "borrow" the colors, this won't get you anywhere.
Title: Re: well I'm out of ideas for my game, and I need animation help........
Post by: Dokozai on October 02, 2007, 07:51:54 pm
sorry I've just edited it:(http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/3816/maincharfl9.png)
Title: Re: well I'm out of ideas for my game, and I need animation help........
Post by: bengo on October 02, 2007, 09:59:08 pm
Okay, what you need to do is try to make your own style(Do it from scratch), not take/edit mine.
Title: Re: well I'm out of ideas for my game, and I need animation help........
Post by: Dokozai on October 02, 2007, 10:21:07 pm
I did do it from scratch, I studied you sprite first, but whatever I'll re-redo it in another style :)
Title: Re: well I'm out of ideas for my game, and I need animation help........
Post by: bengo on October 02, 2007, 10:25:09 pm
Apologies about that then, it seemed more like a copy of it, anyway I did this for fun:
(http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6422/swordguymockupkv0.gif)
Lowtekk brought up a good point, due to his size and stuff, he'd be best on a fairly simple BG(Since you're using this for a game and all).

With your sprite, it looks like he's leaning forward, colors could use some work and uh, thats all I got right now. This feels like a Ghosts & Ghoblins game to me for some reason, so maybe adding some skeleton enemies and stuff would be cool(Might just be my mockup thats making me feel this way).
Title: Re: well I'm out of ideas for my game, and I need animation help........
Post by: Dokozai on October 02, 2007, 10:35:08 pm
Apologies about that then, it seemed more like a copy of it, anyway I did this for fun:
(http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6422/swordguymockupkv0.gif)
Lowtekk brought up a good point, due to his size and stuff, he'd be best on a fairly simple BG(Since you're using this for a game and all).

With your sprite, it looks like he's leaning forward, colors could use some work and uh, thats all I got right now.
wow, thats really cool ;D I accept your apology yes it does look kind of like a copy :huh:
I will most like work on coloring the sprite next, and I made an even smaller version if you would like to see here he is:
(http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/7198/maincharsmallervd9.png)
I really like the small one too, I will need to also fix up my crappy tileset.
Title: Re: well I'm out of ideas for my game, and I need animation help........
Post by: Alec on October 07, 2007, 11:33:36 pm
Great,but the stance of the player is not a natural stance.Try looking at ben's edit where bolth of the feet are pointing out wards and not to one side.