AuthorTopic: First Post/Introduction/Sprite animation  (Read 2830 times)

Offline Senevri

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First Post/Introduction/Sprite animation

on: November 08, 2010, 07:50:23 pm
Hi.

I very rarely do any pixel stuff, but I do get the urge occasionally, esp. seeing as how I cut my teeth on computer graphics with Deluxe Paint sometime last millennium.

*sigh* If I only knew then what I know now.

Regardless, I thought I'd introduce myself. I'm currently intrigued by sprite animation, so I thought I'd ask for any tips, specifically in the side scrolling / platformer sense.
Like so many, I do have the odd plan for a game or ten, and some of them would use pixel graphics.

Oh, I usually scale up smaller stuff for better readability, but I guess that's a bit inconvenient... Regardless, you should be able to scale it back down without difficulty, as it's a straight per-pixel conversion.

Offline Senevri

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Re: First Post/Introduction/Sprite animation

Reply #1 on: November 11, 2010, 01:21:47 am
stuffs, slightly tweaked...

Not even nearly as good as chesu's tweaks (check the comments in the blog post).  There's still a big black mess in the center, and the her-left arm isn't very clearly separated from the rest of the mass.

Also, a little warrior I drew for testing some javascript game / anim code.


Any comments?
« Last Edit: November 11, 2010, 02:37:26 pm by Senevri »

Offline Tourist

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Re: First Post/Introduction/Sprite animation

Reply #2 on: November 14, 2010, 03:31:08 am
Welcome to Pixelation.

When I look at your ninja, here is what I see:

I like the shape of the face and hair.  Simple, but a good head shape.
I like the shoulder tilt.  This makes posing tricky, but it looks more dynamic.

Colors.
A white (or black) background can throw off your sense of values.  A lot of folks like using a mid-tone instead.  Some use gray 128, some use a slightly greenish hue.

You are using pure black and 3-4 colors very near black.  These can probably be consolidated to a single near black color, and then you can use this to connect your color ramps.

Pixels
The lines could be cleaner throughout.  chesu covered this in the blog post.

Pose
The character is standing in a neck-breaker pose.  Center line of the body and knees face one way, the head is cranked all the way around in the other direction.  The shoulder tilt helps, but ouch.  This sort of thing does show up in fighter sprites, but usually not to this degree.  I think the common thing to do is extend the forward leg (our right) and point it forward.  This will also mean adjusting the hips. 

Adjusting the pose may mean losing the tilted shoulders, but I think it is more important for the character to read clearly.

Costume
The boobs are too large, even for a busty character.  The feet could be a little larger, but not too much.

You may want to change the costume at the hands so that they show up when in front of other parts of the costume.


Hope this helps,
Tourist

 

Offline Senevri

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Re: First Post/Introduction/Sprite animation

Reply #3 on: November 14, 2010, 11:05:57 am
Thanks for the criticism. I agree, colors need work - it's partially an issue from having initially worked at true color, I think.
Agreed, white background is problematic.

The head lines with shoulder line, which is a very common defensive posture, but it does seem a bit extreme, likely due to the way lower body is angled.

I'll take a look at the chest region, The character is supposed to be curvy, but not over-the-top.
I'll rework her once I get the time.

*edit*
Thought this was cute:
« Last Edit: November 21, 2010, 01:26:45 pm by Senevri »