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Messages - Yuri
Pages: 1 [2]

11
Pixel Art / Re: [C+C] WWII sprites for flash game
« on: June 26, 2011, 05:24:36 pm »
Yeah a whole bunch, I've just started.

I'm also making backgrounds using this free tileset :
http://www.tekepon.net/fsm/

Here's a still from ingame, it's a work in progress :


12
Pixel Art / Re: [C+C] WWII sprites for flash game
« on: June 25, 2011, 05:46:07 pm »
quick followup :


Pretty happy with it now  ;D

13
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP]Starry Tiles
« on: June 25, 2011, 12:38:28 pm »
The tree shading looks pretty good. As a general rule I'd say just keep the shading consistent through the whole scene. Here shading goes from top left to bottom right. I would shade the 2 bottom right leaves a littlle bit darker and the top right lighter. Although it doesn't strike me as unrealist as it is. The trunk has better shading than the leaves so I would focus on this to make the piece consistent. I prefer the leaves with 2 tones and the middle separation, maybe try that with the other 1 color leaves too. hth

14
Pixel Art / Re: [C+C] WWII sprites for flash game
« on: June 23, 2011, 03:13:41 pm »
> Don't you fear that your game will be just one of a bazillion similar looking games in a highly competitive market?
Not really, actually I'd be very happy if it is as good looking because graphics is my main weakness. I'm confident I can do better programming than most flash games out there and ok uninspired music/sfx. What I fear most is being too ambitious and putting more work than necessary to bring it to market, ending up abandoning the project because it takes too long to finish.

Since they are not directly copied from original copyrighted material and do not feature licensed characters, the sprites are at least legitimate for use in a game. I don't want to be OT though so I'll wait until I have the skill to create 100% original design to submit if necessary (this will take time).

So far I've focused on applying correct techniques : work only pixel by pixel, smooth animation, outlines, shading, proper palette, contrast, anti-aliasing, try to avoid excessive pillow shading and banding. I'd be thankful if someone can point errors regarding these points. Maybe I'm overlooking glaring stuff that needs improvement : anatomy is wrong, vehicule is too boxy, tracks doesn't look right...

It's a bit too much to recreate all from scratch and have it look even remotely as good at the moment but I don't mind recreating a specific part of the sprite like the roof, the trunk, the face, the feet...

15
Pixel Art / Re: [C+C] WWII sprites for flash game
« on: June 23, 2011, 01:15:25 pm »
First of all, thanks for the heads up 8bitbeard.

> Where is the point in almost 1 to 1 recreating those sprites?
The point is pretty much getting graphics for a game that is not stolen and is reasonably good. The sprites from PillboxPhill would have been perfect for my project and cover everything I need. At first I planned on using them directly but was very disapointed when I realized a lot of his public domain work is actually recolour of copyrighted material.

Working from scratch is what I would like to do and will certainly give work from memory a go when I get time to do a more creative project. Although I really lack talent to achieve anything this way at the moment. While I personally love the 2bit style you used in your mockups and it's something I might be able to tackle, I fear it's not something the 12-14 years old market I'm targetting would find appealing (no offense).

From a business perspective, recreating sprites 1to1 seems a viable process when you look at the Batallion flash game series. They are very popular and almost identical to advance wars: same name, same gameplay, same units, same super deformed style, etc... People love them and seem to look beyond the obvious rip-off. Surprisingly they cite good graphics as the main reason for high ratings.  Also unlike most flash games you can tell they were made by a guy coming from a strong programming background (stable, fast, no glitch and no bugs).

Anyway, this is not justification for ditching your advice, just a process that enables me to get the job done right now.

16
Pixel Art / [C+C] WWII sprites for flash game
« on: June 23, 2011, 08:32:21 am »
I've done these using Pillbox Phil public domain edits of advance wars sprites as reference and using Manning Leonard Krull walk cycle tutorial.
I posted original Nintendo/IntelligentSystem copyrighted image as reference, if it's not covered by fair use please tell me and I'll remove them.

It's for a free Command and Conquer clone in oblique perspective 2d sidescrolling view I'm developping.

Soldier template :



Soldier with rifle :



Original reference :



_______

Bulldozer (on white background to see smoke):



Original reference :



_______

I'm not stuck on these design so if anybody has suggestions/comments, they're welcome and I'll try to apply them the best I can.

A few things I tried to improve and failed:
The soldier palette could do with better contrast. I tried saturated green which helped a bit but then the sprite looks more like toy soldier green army vs blue/red than the WWII feeling I'm trying to elicit. Here is the higher contrast experiment :


The dozer design is rather simple, it could have benefited from more details but I feel it would still work as is. Also the white star anti-aliasing was difficult to do by hand, the bottom part looks a bit off.

17
General Discussion / Re: Read the Rules, then introduce yourself here.
« on: June 21, 2011, 06:38:58 pm »
Hi folks,

    I go by the handle Yuri on forums because it's somewhat close to my real name and I'm probably the biggest western fan of cheesy Russian dance music. Over the years I've been the programmer other aesthetically challenged programmers turn to when they need icons and UI. The funny thing is I completely suck at drawing on paper, can't even draw a straight line and my handwriting looks like a 8 years old at best.

    I kind of get away with digital art using various methods of obfuscating/improving reference materials and a lot of hardwork. I like doing detailed art at small resolution and I'd like to sharpen my skill to hopefully be able to create original artwork someday. Currently I'm doing sprites, tiles and backgrounds for a flash game as a hobby. Apart from graphics and programming I'm also a hardware synthesizer nerd.

Will be posting sprite animations in comment/critique soon. Do anyone read this thread?

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