Platform Character - Updated -

[Derek_Reaves]

Well. Hi everyone. I've been pixelling on and off for about 10 years. Some of you may or may not have seen me before. I am not the worst pixel artist ever, and I'm definitely far from the best.

What really irks me is the fact that I am absolutely terrible at creating characters, be it for an RPG, platformer, etc. so I would really love some help with improving and evolving my art.

First, here is a quick sample of what my platform graphics tend to look like.



Now for what my characters tend to look like



As you can see my ability to draw characters is HIGHLY inconsistent with my abilities to draw platform graphics.   < - pretty much sums up how I feel every time I feebly attempt to draw a character.

I figured starting small and working my way up would be the way to go so hit me with your best shot, Pixelation. It will be much appreciated.  

[Derek_Reaves]

Practice makes perfect.

Heres another attempt. 



I need to draw some smaller tiles to go with him rather than using an old piece. Seeking C&C if possible

[Mathias]

Hey there, Derek! Here's a little direct crit, since nobody else is chiming in.

Your rocks are nondescript blobs. Could be coagulated cancerous tissue, could be melted cheese. No textural clues as to what they are.

Player char's pose is very boring. No character. Not motivating. Think of good platformers or brawlers. The player character is usually driven looking, energetic. Your lil' dude looks hesitant and indifferent. That hair!

[Derek_Reaves]

Hey! Thanks a ton for the crits.

I will keep that in mind about the platforms, but I am going to focus more on the character for now, as that has been my weakness for 10 years now, and I am ready to adjust that.

Heres a little edit.


http://i.imgur.com/t1a3u.png

More interesting and intimidating now?  

[PypeBros]

Your rocks are nondescript blobs. Could be coagulated cancerous tissue, could be melted cheese. No textural clues as to what they are.

Honnestly, at first sight, they immedately reminded me of commodore/amiga games. They do not look like rocks, for sure, they somehow could be cancerous blobs, and I'd dare to say "since they nicely look as such, why not exploit that". I mean, they would perfectly fit an odd planet where ground is made of piles of corrals...

I do agree with the stance comment, and imho, your initial, flat character was better than the current one, which most likely suggests that shading is off. contrast on the clothes is insufficient, and you killed the shape of the head with the way you did the hair.

As for the stance, I'm unsure you made him more interesting that way ... I'd suggest a set of quick paper-sketches where you draw the whole hero with different game-related moods : comfident, exhausted, anxious, determined, this-is-all-too-easy, etc. Then pick up the one that fits the best with your story and gameplay -- I mean not every game character needs to be "I'm kicking all of you, mean bastards" type, but they all need to provide something the player can feel sympathy for.

[Derek_Reaves]

Me? Draw on paper? Joke of the millenium! I've tried many times, but I can't even draw a 4mm straight line on a piece of paper using a ruler so . . .yeah  .

I've seen characters with similar looks to this one (in terms of expression and stance) get nothing but praise here so I'm a little confused as to why that aspect of the guy is getting critiqued. I'll try to make another edit to address what you said, but I don't quite understand what should be changed.

Is his back too straight in the original? Are his eyes too innocent? How did I "kill the shape of the head ?_?" Is there any possible way you could give me a good reference as to what you are talking about?

I'll try raising the contrast on the shirt, but it may be tomorrow because my hard drive that I was working on JUST went out about 5 minutes ago so . . .

Oh yeah what do you mean by the shading is off? It is the same in both versions.


Thanks!

[PypeBros]

Me? Draw on paper? Joke of the millenium! I've tried many times, but I can't even draw a 4mm straight line on a piece of paper using a ruler so . .

Then on any medium that lets you come with sufficient level of detail so that you can experiment and find out *what* features of your character helps defining his mood. Because your pixel art will be at much lower resolution, you'll have to put emphasis on only a few stuff. Maybe the cheeks, maybe the nose, maybe the eyes. It may turn to a few pixels changed at the end, but those few pixels may do a lot.

I've seen characters with similar looks to this one (in terms of expression and stance) get nothing but praise here

I guess it's mostly a matter of preference. If anything, I'd just recommend to put your character into action (jump/run/shoot) when doing a mockup, instead of having him stand idle. That just makes the mockup more appealing. But we may have misunderstood the purpose of your posting (e.g. you might be trying to give your game a character more than building up a mockup), and therefore misguide you.

"kill the shape of the head ?_?"

has flat shading, so only the 'U' of the chin says "you see a round head".

(and the non-slanted version of that guy) have shading. Consequently, brain expect that shading will help to see the rough shape of the head, presumably something slightly spherical. Hair here are still using a flat, single colour, with other colours serving merely as a texture.  I'm terrible at hair, so I can't offer you an edit to illustrate, but I could compare what you have to this tree and what you could aim for to that tree.

HTH.

[Jad]

Me? Draw on paper? Joke of the millenium!

You? Making sprites that look like you wish they would, without being able to draw on paper? That's not a joke but it's highly improbable!

I'm sorry for borrowing your harsh sarcastical tone, cause I don't want to insult you in any way.

On the contrary, I'd like you to be a bit nicer to yourself, to not deny your own potential (although you obviously have a big chance of knowing best in this case)

ANYHOW, DRAW ON PAPER! I don't care about whether you have got squiggly horrible lines or not, you have an ideal that you want to reach, and I know that being able to create art that achieves SOME level in other more free/detailed media, and understanding that basics of 2D art is the way there.

So don't disregard that advice!

[Olothontor]

I agree. My specialties in terms of art came from repeatedly sketching until I got the final result I wanted, and then spriting it up the way it came out on paper, with final tweaks. It can seriously help you get a better grasp of the basics. Because eventually (something else worth pointing out here), I was able to just jump into spriting without having to sketch it out on paper first, and although it still helps from time to time if I'm really stuck, that ability can be a great boon (and certainly reduce the amount of time you sink into this hobby).

[Derek_Reaves]

@Pype - well I'm really not doing it for a game, but if the character turned up in a game it would be well. I'm really just trying to get the character down, not create a mockup at the moment, sorry!

Hey, Jad I know its crazy . I didn't take it as an insult, and wouldn't really care if you were insulting me - no grudges.

When I say I can't draw a 4mm line, I mean I'm not even 1/100th as talented on paper as I am with pixel art, so its actually kind of harder for me to get things to look proper =x. I'll still give it a shot as thats the advice i'm receiving from you and several others now .

@Olothontor
I'll give it another shot =s. When you sketch on paper how large do you go?

Thanks for the replies guys!