AGI-Style Character [WIP]

[Uhfgood]

Hello, I'm new here, and new to pixel art in general.  I don't want to bore you with a lot of stuff, so I'll try to make this as short as possible.  I'm into old-school adventure games, and I really enjoy some of the art produced for AGI-based games from Sierra Online.  Games like the Space Quest and King's Quest series.  So I decided I would make an adventure game engine in flash and kind of go through the same challenges the original developers did.  Well now I've got a friend doing the programming so I can focus on art, and story and what not.  So I'm creating my character.  The res of the game will be 160x200 (with double wide pixels) and only 16 colors.  Admittedly I grab one of the 16 color palettes from the thread on here (that someone else pointed me to) and then tweaked it for my own.  So a fixed 16 color palette, and double wide pixels.  Doesn't seem like a lot to work with.  It's been pretty fun so far, and this is what I've come up with :



I looked at the old space quest and king's quest sprites and they're pretty poor (look what they had to work with, they only could use the ega 16 color palette, or as in the case of the original king's quest, the "cga plus" 16 color palette -- at least I get to tweak my colors).  So I tried to come up with something that gives some detail while still holding within the restrictions.  He's supposed to be sort of fit, with a somewhat "barrel" chest... i guess you'd say.  I tried to keep him about 7-8 heads high. and add some detail by giving him that badge.  So I would love for any C+C -- even negative I can see if there's anything more I can do with this guy.

Hopefully I've stayed within the rules here with this post.  If for some reason I have not, would you mind letting me know what I did wrong before removing my post.  Thank you.

Keith aka Uhfgood.

[Helm]

Hi Keith/Uhfgood!

First of all, not only did you not break any rules of the forum, yours is a model post. Thorough explanation of what you're trying to do. You don't need however, to resize the art yourself. Click on any image on pixelation to make it bigger and ctrl+click to make it smaller again. We have a nice zoom script

Also, if possible, post all of your 16 color palette in the case something can be used for the sprite besides the 12 colors already on it.



This is pretty experimental, but it shows a few things I wanted to suggest.

1. I think the doublewide makes the barrel chest too much, I'd go without, but it's a matter of taste.
2. More contrast with the colors you have, I added black shadow below the neck for example. Right now your version is too high-value. It would work against certain dark backgrounds, but if you put it on top of a light one (think Space Quest in an 'Ice World' scenario) he'd be lost. You have to take these things into account for an AGI-type situation.
3. I have him a more dynamic pose in his front view. Since you're using big-ass sprites, much bigger than AGI, I figured, why not go a bit newschool on the pose and the emoting? It's slight, but it makes a difference.
4. The dithering is just an idea, I'm not sure on it myself. If used sparingly it might be an interesting effect.
5, if you move the nose widepixel one row down in the front view, it becomes a mouth widepixel. Useful if you want the character to have a mouth to flash open and closed while the character talks.

I come from an indie adventure game background myself and I am sympathetic to your cause. Hope I helped, and enjoy your stay on the forum

[Uhfgood]

That's a pretty excellent paint over.  I don't really know that I could improve on it.  Above I modified the image so that it has the palette on it and is transparent (and original size) -- However I did not modify the original.  I will however probably modify it and post a new one (maybe, since most of the points are well taken).

1) I like your idea better (in most cases most people said they looked like large breasts... well in the earlier versions).  This is more of what I was going for anyway... kind of average and fit if you can actually show it in the resolution.  (Look at roger in any screenshot of space quest 1 or 2 and you'll see it's not nearly as defined as I want to go with here).

2) I'm not really sure what to do about the colors -- I can't really add any colors, I can change them all how I like though, so if I have to dial down some of the colors I probably will, but it will be the palette used throughout the whole game.

3) originally (in the one you didn't see) I tried to make the feet stick out for a bit of perspective, but that only proceeded in making them look like clown shoes.  I definitely like the dynamic poses the best.  Maybe I will do several for when I prep for animation.

4) I didn't really think of dithering because after all it's such a low resolution, however it did make it look pretty good, so I will try some of it.

5) I'm not sure which "nose" you're talking about.  Are you talking about the one in the side view, or the one you put int he front view, and is that the "mouth" you're referring to, or is that brown area supposed to be shading under the nose in the front view.  The only issue here to me is of course that... not sure why it looks odd to me. 

In any case I plan to take these suggestions to heart.  Since you think the sprites are big I might should start on a background image to see if this size will fit into a 200 pixel - high background.

Thanks for the suggestions!  Will post new versions (as I feel not like copying directly, but rather redoing my originals with your version in mind) soon.

[Uhfgood]

After much studying of the original and the paintover, I have come up with something that will have to do.  Basically I tried to implement the suggestions from Helm's post, but was trying so hard not to deliberately copy it.  What comes out is something that I'm not exactly happy with, but I'm not exactly unhappy.



1) I removed the "barrel chest" as I felt Helm was correct in that it was a bit much, especially with a limited resolution, maybe I could subtly imply the barrel chest if I had a higher resolution, but since these are so wide, anything that's big will tend to be a lot bigger and that's definitely what we don't want.

2) I'm not really sure what to do about the contrast (you can see that in my earlier reply).  What I did do was to dial down the flesh tone a bit, provide a separate darker flesh tone, but what I did do was add the contrast around the neck area so you can see it better.

3) The dynamic posing in this image isn't strictly necessary since it's mostly just a kind of starter model sheet.  I might decide to create a proper model sheet with the character doing various things, which means walking, running bending over to pick something up, that sort of thing, however I did try to vary it a little rather than let it be as amateurish as it looked originally.  Unfortunately because I tried not to copy directly, the pose doesn't look all that great... It's an attempt, but one of many I will take with it.

4) I tried dithering, I think I went a little too crazy on it, but again I'm going to be working this stuff out, I will make a full model sheet and see if you guys can help me out.  I agree though that the dithering does help it a bit.  It will look especially good in motion when I get to the actual animation.

5) I actually extended the height of the head by one pixel and adding shading under the chin, also the "nose" on the front view.  I figured instead of confusing the two (nose and mouth) I would have one be the nose.  When the open mouth is needed I will do that when animating speaking.

I did various other tweaks to it as you can see, however even though it's not very good it's really only my second or third real attempt at pixel-art especially difficult with these wide pixels.

Critique, compliment, complain, tear up, give high praise, or whatever comes to mind -- This stuff is pretty fun.

Keith.

[st0ven]

Hello, I'm new here, and new to pixel art in general.

 

anyway, i realize that its not very constructive to take someone elses edit and make it too much of your own, but ive got the feeling that helm's pose just kind of nails it... the edit you have makes that leg look a little too thick and inconsistent in the calves. i personally dont see how much that dithering is really helping the cause for clarity in the arms... i personally dont mind it being a solid color blue lighter than the chest.

in the profile view - because you have his weight completely vertical and balanced entirely on his heels, it looks like he has a strangely large ass, or that hes just sticking it out really far on purpose. because helms' version dips the shins inward by a pixel, it helps balance that illusion out in his version, though it makes his feet look enormous. Perhaps move the legs back and let his crotch stick out instead of his butt? that might just make it look equally strange in the other direction, i dont know.  (seriously though helm, those feet look huge - haha).

anyway nice to see you around 'newbie stranger'

[Uhfgood]

st0ven - I think I remember you from #gamedev on irc.

And yes Helm's work does pretty much nail it.

It is just a model sheet though, where I can take Helm's suggestions (and yours) with me when I make a full model sheet, as well as the animations and basically actual game assets.

It's very challenging working within these constraints.  I have a feeling the original guys at sierra online, however, didn't really obsess over it as much.  They just drew stuff and used it.

I mean look at these -





Although the backgrounds are simply amazing for what they had to work with.