Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: ElementZero on March 19, 2008, 03:12:33 pm
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Hi there,
my name is Thomas, I'm from germany and this is my first post on pixelation.
I want to present a project to you which I'm working on as a pixel artist. It goes by the name of "Odem Forest" and is supposed to be a jump'n'run rpg, released chapter by chapter, in order to prevent us (my friend the programmer :P and me) from cancelling the project due to motivation problems - hopefully a good plan ;D Therefore the subtitle "The Chronicles".
Well, here are some examples to show you what I have done so far.
The characters so far: Jonas' grandfather, Jonas' grandmother, Jonas' mother, Jonas himself, the hero of our game, some enemies including: bow and arrow goblin, normal goblin, knife throwing goblin, the first midboss, and some friends of Jonas': Lyn and three guys who don't have names yet. And don't mind that sign standing around between the goblins :crazy:
(http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/4459/ofcharakterebx8.gif)
running animation
(http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/6924/jonasrunningiw1.gif)
This is a mockup showing the forest, the first episode mainly takes place in. You can also see some parts of the interface.
(http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/373/ofscreenyj3.gif)
This screen shows the beach in front of Jonas' house, where he is living with his mum and his grandparents.
(http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/2938/ofscreen21nl8.gif)
I hope my english is understandable. Any advice on improving is much appreciated. If you want to, you may think about names for the three guys on the right side. ;D
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Ow man, awesome! Especially forest level ;) But i have one restriction... the blue bar under hearts, i think he should be more dark and maybe more detailed.
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This looks wonderful ! The idea of making the goblins punk is very good too ;p
My only tiny crit is that the lighting seems to be inverted on the big ogre's club. The upper face should be lit and the bottom one shaded I think. But really, this is just nitpicking.
As far as names are concerned, let's suggest Luke, Ivo, and Phileas
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I think it looks great... the beach scene is a little too saturated for my tastes though.
Also, the sprites have a hard time standing out from the background in the forest, and there is what looks to be selout on the head of the goblins that show up really bad on the white mohawks.
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it looks like you already have a lot done, probably more than you're willing to change, but your younger characters look like they're about to fall backwards.
the stance you've got them in looks kind of odd. also, the guy with the red hair looks like he has one short arm. the left one.
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Wow, thanks for all the comments!
@KAT: Since I don't know how we will realize that bar ingame, I didn't concentrate on details yet. But thanks for the color suggestion.
@fil_razorback: Well, actually I have no idea why and when I did this ??? Thanks for the advice :) I'll work on it.
@Dusty: Yeah, I've been struggling with the readability of the sprites against the backgrounds a lot and wasn't really able to figure out what is wrong. Just like you mentioned, I think it has something to do with the saturation instead of the values. The background is often more saturated than the sprites. Thanks for confirming my thoughts ;D
@infinity+1: Well, the stance... That young guys are supposed to be in a teenager gang, so I decided to give them a kind of cool looking stance. I personally do like them very much, especially the legs, which is why I would rather keep them. But thanks for the hint about the missing arm. :D
I'm currently working on Jonas' house, which has some kind of perspectivic... let's call it mistiness. I'll show it to you, when I sorted that out properly.
Oh yeah, fil_razorback: Those names are pretty good! Luke reminds me too much of Starwars, but the other ones are quite exotic and good-sounding!
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wow! nice work! I'm also working on a platformer involving a kid running around in the forest :)
I don't have much to add. I agree with the comments about the stance of the boys. Along with the goblins, they all look like they are arching their backs and thrusting their stomachs out.
In the forrest level you have a ground tile with a more rocky look. On it's right side it cuts off rather abruptly, and it doesn't extend backwards into the ground shaded by the plants. That makes it look like part of the trail has fallen away.
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really really nice, just a small note, in the seaside landscape, clouds are "coming out" from the sea, i think it will look better if you separate them just a few pixels.
anyway please go on, rpg-platformers are never enough.
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These are absolutely incredible. The beach scene is rather oversaturated, though, and it took me a moment to find the goblin in the forest scene. I was reading it as a plant.
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@ninjascience: Thanks for the advice about the tileset. I will work on that later.
@politopo: Hm, I don't know if that would make such a big difference. Actually I'm quite happy with the clouds.
@Rave: Thank you. Yeah, as I already said, there are some troubles about the readability of the sprites. Any suggestions for improvement on that would be great.
In the meantime I was working on the arm of the red haired boy, Jonas' house on the beach and a sword slash animation, which is still a WIP.
(http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/4199/ofcharakterejr9.gif)
(http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1319/ofscreen3yw0.gif)
As I said, there is some perspectivic oddness, which concerns the beach background more than the house itself. After a long discussion with my programmer, we are about to leave it as it is. The house and the greenish stripe of grass and trees in the background are not yet finished, as you would have guessed :P
(http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9162/swordslashgt8.gif)
The standard attack. Unfinished. And the sword is missing ;D
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Those doors are fucking huge. Who's going to help him open them?
And I guess I expected to see less of the roof and patio, you're right, the perspective is strange.
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(http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/89/beacheditbd4.png)
I think this may be a little more easy on the eyes, and help separates him from his background. It's messy, but you get the idea.
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I think it also might be better if you project the house back a tile, something like:
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/tocky/elementzero_beachhous_orthag.jpg)
(quick and dirty, i used dusty's edit, i think photobucket jpegized it)
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both of those edits look drained of life, but take what i say with a grain of salt as my monitor desaturates everything quite a bit.
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(http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/2672/22655198co1.png)
???
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:y: :y:
still, wicked scale argument
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(http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5854/ofscreen3bi8.gif)
Thanks for the advice! I have desaturated the house a bit. Furthermore I gave the sidewalls some perspective. I'm quite happy with it now. And only for Cure I placed two adult sprites in front of the doors to show that big doors are necessary ;)
@Ace: sorry, but your screen seems really too saturated and too bright to me.
Now on to the sword slash animation :blind:
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@Ace: sorry, but your screen seems really too saturated and too bright to me.
Don't you mean un-saturated?
I gotta say though, I did like those edits. I think the water could use a bit of desaturation.
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It's just me, I like things a bit bright and cutesy. >:
I do like the house's colour now. It's a happy medium. I still have a problem with the background-rocks' AA, though, but if it doesn't seem to bother you, then... XD
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That beach scene looks so fucking sweet at 2X resolution.
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I placed two adult sprites in front of the doors to show that big doors are necessary ;)
Ah!! thaaaaat's the rub. your doors aren't too big necessarily, but your people are having some wicked proportional issues. the old woman i'd say is the only one with reasonable setup, although the old man can pass. the adult woman has much too long a torso - the bottom of the bottom should be halfway between head and heel, you've got it maybe 3/5ths. the kids are stylized in a completely different way (super skinny) which suggests to me that they are much taller than you're showing.
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I'd like to point out that there seems to be some inconsistency in stylization between the beach and forest scenes. The beach has all these really smooth and flowy lines, very stylized clouds and sun, while the forest is grainy and almost realistically rendered. As nice as they are when viewed separately, to me they don't seem to belong in the same game. Very nice stuff overall though. :y:
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You should really run with this. You got a site?