Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Conexion on January 08, 2009, 07:59:02 am

Title: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Conexion on January 08, 2009, 07:59:02 am
(http://www.davidbradbury.us/permalink/pengo9c2.gif)

9 Colors - A sprite for a possible 2D (penguin) platform game I'd like to work on. Will add a mock-up of the world soon. Any suggestions much appreciate as my experience in the past here has been nothing but top notch! :D

EDIT: Updates thus far :)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/permalink/pengo64px.gif)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/pengotest.gif)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/64pxpengobright.gif)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/pengoani1.gif)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/pengoanifull.gif)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/pengoanifull2.gif)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/permalink/pengofull.gif)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/permalink/pengospritelist.gif)
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Souly on January 08, 2009, 08:04:01 am
Perhaps try something smaller?
His feet really ruin it, they're too ovalish.
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Conexion on January 08, 2009, 08:27:18 am
Perhaps try something smaller?
His feet really ruin it, they're too ovalish.

I heard that before as well. Hmm, I'll see if I can make them more penguin-ish :P . I had based it off the 3D model I did of the character (http://conexion.deviantart.com/art/Pengo-The-Penguin-360-Model-36432099) . . . Also, you mean smaller feet, right? :P (Not resolution)

Thanks for your input!
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Souly on January 08, 2009, 01:18:25 pm
No it's just that your sprite is quite large.
If you want to animate it it'd be tedious, and there's no real detail so why need to go so big?
The dithering on the feet isn't doing anything and the size isn't helping it.

Hope you get what I mean.
Scale down.
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Conexion on January 08, 2009, 08:40:20 pm
No it's just that your sprite is quite large.
If you want to animate it it'd be tedious, and there's no real detail so why need to go so big?
The dithering on the feet isn't doing anything and the size isn't helping it.

Hope you get what I mean.
Scale down.

It is larger as I wish to have higher resolution graphics, in particular the tiles. It is based on a 50x50 tileset with the main character sprite being 2x2 tiles. It may take a bit longer to animate the 3 frame walking animating (among other things), but there is no reason I should have to reduce myself to 32x32 tiles or the like when we do not have the hardware restrictions we used to have. I'm not entirely sure why you're concerned about the time it will take versus a smaller tile, as I am quite aware of that.

From what I've gathered, you have 3 main points against the larger graphic.

1- Tedious animation.
 - I'm willing to work with the larger sprite size, that isn't my concern.

2- No real detail.
 - While many take advantage of larger resolutions to show more detail, I wish to keep it in a more simplistic style. You cannot tell me that if you took a 32x32 graphic and enlarged it to 128x128, you would achieve the same effect as using a straight 128px tile. I don't want my graphics to look like a low-scale graphic enlarged. I like the simple colors and style of the retro games, but much prefer the crispness of higher resolution grpahics.

3 - Dithering.
 - I'm using Dithering there as a tool for showing texture as well as limiting my color usage. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by it "isn't doing anything". Of course it is doing something. It is transitioning the colors while giving it a bit of texture. Sure I could add a color and do the transition that way, but artistically, that doesn't feel the same.

I really do appreciate your help, but I think you're assuming I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to graphics inside of a game. I can explain specifically why I made a certain choice if you would like to discuss it, but don't try and correct something that isn't broken.

Thanks :)
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Souly on January 08, 2009, 10:14:49 pm
1. With inexperience such a large sprite is not going to help you learn anything.

2. The feet at just the oval tool.
It's so large that these errors stick out like a sore thumb.

3. The dithering does do NOTHING, you have 1 row of 2x dither, wooo so much color transition.
You really don't even want ditrhering if you're going to animate this.

(http://i39.tinypic.com/14wr9ch.png)
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: TomF on January 08, 2009, 11:12:17 pm
I'm with Souly on this, there's really no reason to use pixel art on this scale because the single pixel isn't really being utilized, you could achieve a better looking result with chunky cell shaded style graphics a la Wario Land: The Shake Dimension (http://www.gamershell.com/wii/wario_land_the_shake_dimension/screenshots.html?id=324384).

The dithering will add unwanted texture and will just be a pain to animate. Design wise I feel the eyes and feet are far too large but that's my personal taste.

If I were you I'd either switch to a different medium OR shrink the sprite and tiles down and work on a lower resolution. Preferably the latter. I'm looking forward to seeing some tiles etc.   :)
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Conexion on January 09, 2009, 03:14:28 am
I'm with Souly on this, there's really no reason to use pixel art on this scale because the single pixel isn't really being utilized, you could achieve a better looking result with chunky cell shaded style graphics a la Wario Land: The Shake Dimension (http://www.gamershell.com/wii/wario_land_the_shake_dimension/screenshots.html?id=324384).

The dithering will add unwanted texture and will just be a pain to animate. Design wise I feel the eyes and feet are far too large but that's my personal taste.

If I were you I'd either switch to a different medium OR shrink the sprite and tiles down and work on a lower resolution. Preferably the latter. I'm looking forward to seeing some tiles etc.   :)

Understandable. I'll play around with it and see how it feels. 100px is a bit to handle. I'll try to get a bit more done in just a bit and post it :)
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Conexion on January 09, 2009, 05:23:53 am
1. With inexperience such a large sprite is not going to help you learn anything.

2. The feet at just the oval tool.
It's so large that these errors stick out like a sore thumb.

3. The dithering does do NOTHING, you have 1 row of 2x dither, wooo so much color transition.
You really don't even want ditrhering if you're going to animate this.

(http://i39.tinypic.com/14wr9ch.png)

I really like that design :) And I appreciate the very good feedback. I'm sorry if I sounded 'defensive' as that wasn't my intention there. I was simply wishing for clarification.

Here is a test sprite for a 64 px version. Any suggestions/ideas? :)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/permalink/pengo64px.gif)

edit: small snow tile added. It's alright... but I feel like it could have more depth to it, yet nothing seems to be workin...

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/pengotest.gif)

Brighter pallet:
(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/64pxpengobright.gif)
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Souly on January 09, 2009, 07:32:14 am
Try and apply some of what I did to that smaller sprite should be easier now.
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Conexion on January 09, 2009, 07:52:49 am
Try and apply some of what I did to that smaller sprite should be easier now.

Indeed it was :)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/pengoagain.gif)

Like that?

edit:

played with the pallet:

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/watwat.gif)
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Souly on January 09, 2009, 01:28:20 pm
Is the sprite going to be standing straight on?
I guess if it's a sidescroller he could like slide on his belly?
Perhaps try making a sliding frame and not just a rotation of 90 degrees.
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: balls01 on January 09, 2009, 08:27:50 pm
those images look broken linked or something to me or is my vista too shabby?
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Conexion on January 10, 2009, 04:06:44 am
Is the sprite going to be standing straight on?
I guess if it's a sidescroller he could like slide on his belly?
Perhaps try making a sliding frame and not just a rotation of 90 degrees.

Naw, he will be waddling, I just wanted to get the main side-shot down. I'll make a small walking animation :)

Quote
those images look broken linked or something to me or is my vista too shabby?

That's odd. I just tried it on a separate laptop and the images are showing up fine for me o_o;

Edit:

Two frames so far... any of the awesome experts here see any mistakes I might have made? :P

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/pengoani1.gif)

Edit 2 : Added another frame one more for the animation :)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/ani3pengo.gif)


Edit 3:

First 'animation'. Someone suggested adding a butt to it to add to the cute animation factor. That is the biggest thing I'm concerned about as I feel I could improve it, but not sure how. Anyways, here it is!:

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/pengoanifull.gif)

edit: Some improvements

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/pengoanifull2.gif)
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Conexion on January 10, 2009, 08:07:12 pm
Alright, and here is the full sprite 'sheet' (Not that it is really a large sheet yet). I'm going to work on some extra tiles next to get a small scene down.

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/pengosprite1.gif)
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: platnium on January 10, 2009, 09:36:55 pm
Looks pretty good, but the stomach looks like it just stays still.
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Conexion on January 11, 2009, 06:14:01 am
Looks pretty good, but the stomach looks like it just stays still.

So something like this? :)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/anotherpengo.gif)

edit: Or maybe:

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/temp/anotherpengo2.gif)
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Pizza Tom on January 11, 2009, 06:28:16 am
The stomach would probably move a bit more than that. What's bothering me even more is that the head seems to be moving left and right, but not the beak.  :0

Oh, and there are a few jaggies in some of your frames, but it seems like just a few quick fixes. :D
Title: Re: Pengo the Penguin Sprite
Post by: Conexion on January 13, 2009, 07:08:25 am
The stomach would probably move a bit more than that. What's bothering me even more is that the head seems to be moving left and right, but not the beak.  :0

Oh, and there are a few jaggies in some of your frames, but it seems like just a few quick fixes. :D

Hopefully this update improved on those things a bit!

Still 10 Colors :)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/permalink/pengofull.gif)

(http://www.davidbradbury.us/permalink/pengospritelist.gif)