[WIP] Battler and Characterset

[Holder]

My first post here at Pixelation and well first I'll explain a bit about where I am in the ways of spriting. Basically I've got to the point where I'm not happy with the final look of whatever I do, I know I'm doing things wrong but I can't work out what. I avoid the common errors of Pillow Shading as much as I can and after that well there's cutting the number of colours down which I find apart from one or two I can do alright. There's no really tutorials that can take me any further.

I'm starting to create some battlers and character sets for use in the RPG Maker series, I've created my own template for the charactersets and I'm also attempting to create the battlers to go with these. Since costume design and common character design isn't my speciality I'm basing the first batch I'm making off the job classes from Final Fantasy Tactics.

One is a battler set of a Squire and the character set part is a white Mage:



Squire: Armour and possibly face with the hair I'm not to keen on, but I can't seem to make any alterations which improves what's there. This is to be animated (4 frame per pose)
Mage: More like a grey Mage at the moment, though if I brighten it up any more it losses the shadows and makes the whole thing like a light bearing ghost.

Both of these are based on the Final Fantasy Tactics designs, links provided:
Squire: http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/5/51/Squires.jpg
White Mage: http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/thumb/b/b6/Priest.jpg/250px-Priest.jpg

[Gil]

The first thing you have to do is stop working on a white background. There's multiple reasons, but a lengthy discussion can be found here:

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=9568.0

[Holder]

Wow you know that's something I've never honestly thought about. Thanks very much for that, I'm sure it'll help with getting the colours on the mage right.
I'm going to probably set the image to 8bpp so I can quickly see the effects of background colour alterations instead of filling with a new colour.

I'm not sure about the grey, but I'm going to take the suggestions of Magenta and also the old Games Factory Dark Teal as that's what I first started with.

EDIT: Here's what I've been tinkering with regarding the squire battler, I've sampled the pallet and started to make the armour look more like armour I hope Also added a shield.
Not much detail has yet been added:

Hope Gifs are alright here by the way. I've slowed the frame down on the one that's most recent, though you can tell by the difference in colours.

[Tourist]

Thoughts on the squire:
The source material has distorted proportions.  Long legs, small torso (in all directions), oversized arms, and a stretched head.  This is not good or bad, but something to be aware of as you make your sprite.

I'm glad that you changed the dangling arm in your latest edit, it needed work, and the shield is an improvement.  The new shoulders are much better.

I'm not sure shifting the colors to neutral gray (tunic) is an improvement.  Gray is just so bland.  The new stance does not look balanced.

I think both the original and the new version need a stronger curve at the waist/hips on our left.  The figure is symmetric, but the stance is not.  The source material has tiny hips, but the tiny torso covers that up somewhat. 

Your original post asked for suggestions on the face.  You've got a decent generic anime doll head now, and it's probably good enough. 

I tried an edit (based on your original) and went a different direction on the face, and adjusted the hip a bit.  Also reduced the shoulders, although your latest edit works great there.





Thoughts on the white mage:
The white-gray color scheme and perfect symmetry make this figure very bland.  The point of view seems to be slightly from above, which is different from the squire.

Tourist