[WIP] Adventure character poop

[blumunkee]

v1


v2


I'm working well outside my comfort zone here.

I used Arne's palette, which was educational. I would like this to turn into a scene but I think I'll need a custom palette. Several background attempts where stalled by the limited color selection.

Comments and anal-retentive nitpickery welcome.

[Gil]

I love this! Really nice style.

Nitpickery: I'd elongate the male character's forearms by a pixel or maybe 2. His arms look slightly too short.

The girl's darker hip juts out a lot, but it might not be possible to fix this. It fits the silhouette, so it's not a big problem, but it looks just that slight bit off, you know?

[jbeave]

Pretty cool. I'm thinking the guy is a bit "stiff" looking though. The upper body seems too broad, you know what I mean? I like the girl more for the most part, just her hip is a bit weird looking. Maybe it would help to move a part of the hip to the right a pixel or 2.

You should do a stance animation for the girl though, it'd be badass. 

[Helm]

nitpickery to the max: jaw outline on the guy bands, just take TWO PIXELS away.

The dude's upper arms are too heavy that make his forearms look small. Their length is right, I'd just shorten and slim the upper arms a bit.

You could aa the sideneck (white area) under the flowing hair but I guess you know that. There's some banding on the right shoulder where the AA lines up, generally, be warey where your shading lines up to a contour shift!!!!!!

On girl, the shading on the right shoulder is too strong, segments the arm, looks like a toy figurine arm instead of a real one. I realize and appreciate muscles are cool, but I'd take away THREE PIXELS there too.

Love the jutting hip don't mess with it.


I like the designs of both hugely, I want to see the background they're on, don't be afraid to use a fuller palette.

[Gil]

This, maybe? Small edits.
Guy's face and right shoulder, longer arms.
Girl's hip area + crotch. Shoulder band fix.


VS old:

[blumunkee]

CUSTOM PALETTE GET!!!



COMPARE GET!!!



I have gotten conflicting remarks on the guy's proportions, but I am quite happy with his build. He must read as stoic, even at the cost of turning him into a caricature. I did however address some nagging balance issues. He also gets CLENCHED FISTS and a boots upgrade.

The girl needed a lot more work. I incorporated jbeave's suggestion and most of Gil's edit, thanks guys! I was worried that moving the hips would screw with her balance but it works just fine. Her hair is changed, for the better I hope. I can see the arm tattoo and selout caused a lot of confusion. Hopefully it's less ambiguous now. I debated whether or not to add lips. She's supposed to have a badditude so I think they help.

Helm, I'm fear I'm not nearly as sensitive to banding as I should be. Hopefully I addressed the offending areas without adding new ones.

I like rendering the top/light areas completely free of outlining. It's clean and it gives objects a meatier appearance. This is most noticeable in the new version of the girl's arm, I think. I prefer to avoid AA around these areas to keep that effect, like around the guy's shoulder pads.

Background work can begin in ernest now!

[Conzeit]

hmm...Is see the point in tweaking the girl's hip, but I really dislike the new arm; it gets lost and takes volume out of the piece. Also, the new white bangs are a very bad idea because there's no contrast with the face and it looks like she has weird elephant fangs or some random trash like that which doesnt let you read her emotion. if you're gonna add those white bangs make her skintone darker....you have to be VERY careful about each single pixel around the face in this resolution

guy....is looking bleaker with the new edit and his pose is also blander, if you have to re-balance him move his feet, dont make his torso so simetrical...and saturate the purple highlight on those pants it almost looks like everything but the black might be the same goddamn shade. The guy is a caricature already dont make him a stiff boring one.

Beyond all appereances I might've just given off...I actually enjoy both sprites quite a lot =O just not the edits :p

[blumunkee]

perspective



iso



Thinking about background construction. Tile reuse would be useful in iso, but staring at the ground kinda sucks. 240x160, which is iPhone double pixels I believe.

Oh Camus, you and your purples. The guy's color scheme is intentionally muted. I want his costume to feel more Star Wars than Gatchaman.

I think at native resolution the girl will have plenty separation between the hair and face. AAAND I think her arm will look fine once she's stuck on a real background...



See? I crush your critique! HA HA HA HAAA!!!!
P.S. Post some pixels you bastard!



Also, I think the placement of the white over the front biceps was making the arms look too short. I moved them up a pixel.

[Tuna Unleashed]

i would definitely say go with perspective but obviously that would be way harder.

[Jad]

Differing opinion get!

I really enjoy the ISO perspective, for it speaks to my imagination - feign perspective and you have to make my brain believe a truckload of things - put an abstract, orthographic perspective in there and my brain will be ready to accept more abstraction and it'll be a richer experience for me.

This MAY be a reason, at least, to why I want him to be in the iso space. Mainly it's just that my brain wants him to exist in that space O:! It feels good!

I also think it's because in iso space there are no impossible positions for the guy, which feels more coherent, he could exist anywhere in that space without being out of perspective, which will up the general plausibility of his existance.

I'm pooping words here! But my brain has ideas so I'm trying to convey them! <3

[EvilEye]

Don't understand what's up with the girls face. What's with the white box? Is she wearing a helmet or something? The right hip might be a bit over-exaggerated. I like the pose though.

[Jad]

It's hair, with white bangs. It's crazy, I think it reads well, but apparently that's not the case for everyone. Hm.

[EyeCraft]

I love this!

I am conflicted about the projection... perspective fits better with the idea of an adventure game, but the iso just looks more consistent to me. Maybe if you lowered the horizon (sort of like this) it would work a lot better. This would mean adjusting the perspective of the sprites to match, though.

I also think the woman's pose has lost a lot of energy it had in the original version. The change to the hip and the adjustment of the head to be more towards the viewer leads to this, for me.

[blumunkee]

I think you're right, the angle is a bit steep. Seems I've been subconsciously leveling out the guy's upper body while his legs remain in a separate plane. I was thinking I might be able to have my cake and eat it too, use perspective or iso depending on the scene, but now I'm not so sure.

[Conzeit]

XD gahahahah well that response cracked me up!...you're right I should make some pixels  I'll make sure I post SOMETHING anyhow.

speaking of, here's an edit :p


if you dont wanna saturate the guy's purple then light it...I still think that tone gets lost....
The girl I'm posting mostly to suggest a way to have white pixels without taking away from the face's readability, you really shouldnt put that white there specially if it's something you'll see all the time like the stance pose...

[EvilEye]

It's hair, with white bangs. It's crazy, I think it reads well, but apparently that's not the case for everyone. Hm.

It doesn't read at all for me. Conceit's edit is better but I think the res is too low to pull it off well.

Here is an edit: