AuthorTopic: How Could I Improve These Sprites?  (Read 4364 times)

Offline AmuroC

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How Could I Improve These Sprites?

on: March 02, 2011, 05:51:25 am


These were all made from my own base. I am relatively new to spriting and was wondering about anything I could do to make my sprites better.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2011, 05:56:44 am by AmuroC »
You say Justin Bieber I say Flobots / You say Drake I say They Might Be Giants / You say T-pain I say Gorillaz / You say Hannah Montana I punch you in the face! /  DON'T LET THE SPIRIT OF ROCK DIE!

Offline Nmb910

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Re: How Could I Improve These Sprites?

Reply #1 on: March 02, 2011, 06:32:52 am
Some have shading, others don't, so they don't fit together.

Fix.
EDIT: This was posted while I was pretty rude and stupid, please note I'm not like this now.
« Last Edit: May 28, 2013, 06:06:22 pm by Nmb910 »

Offline AmuroC

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Re: How Could I Improve These Sprites?

Reply #2 on: March 02, 2011, 06:36:49 am
I'm not as concerned with shading, but more about the character design. Lack of shading is just laziness. ^-^
Still, thanks for the input.
You say Justin Bieber I say Flobots / You say Drake I say They Might Be Giants / You say T-pain I say Gorillaz / You say Hannah Montana I punch you in the face! /  DON'T LET THE SPIRIT OF ROCK DIE!

Offline pistachio

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Re: How Could I Improve These Sprites?

Reply #3 on: March 02, 2011, 06:55:36 am
Let's see...

The poses are very stiff, using a lot of straight angles.

The proportion is extremely off, and I don't mean their heads are too big or anything: that's clearly intentional and has been pulled off well many times before. Examples: I mean the torso is rather short in comparison to the legs, the right arm seems longer than the left, the left leg seems longer than the right, the knees are bent awkwardly, the head is shaped awkwardly, and what's up with those hands? I recommend a basic understanding of anatomy, and not down to every muscle unless one of them is going to be particularly muscular, just an overall idea of what the human body looks like, so you don't end up with noodle-limbs like these.

Why only one eye on some sprites?

The sprites that are "shaded" are mostly just "pillow-shaded", meaning there's no actual light source--instead you just pick increasingly lighter colors from the outline in. That's a definite no-no.

I'll whip up a quick edit pretty soon.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2011, 07:02:05 am by pistachio »

Offline StaticSails

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Re: How Could I Improve These Sprites?

Reply #4 on: March 02, 2011, 07:21:57 am
I'm not as concerned with shading, but more about the character design. Lack of shading is just laziness. ^-^
Still, thanks for the input.
Proper shading can help sell even bad character designs.

There's really no refinement in any of your line work either. It looks really sloppy.


Are you using windows xp? You know you can make different colors in MSpaint right? You don't need to use just the default colors they provide. Double-click.

Offline pistachio

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Re: How Could I Improve These Sprites?

Reply #5 on: March 02, 2011, 08:00:23 am
I promised an edit, but I ended up doing this instead. Not so much an edit as it is a guide to help you, not sure if that's allowed here. :-[ But I suppose that as long as it helps somehow, it's useful, so here ya go.

Since there didn't seem to be a template around I made one up myself by cutting the pants off of that girlish sprite towards the lower left (I suppose it's from an anime or manga, but I don't know about very many) and the bald head from the one up top. I thought it looked decent enough. Then I tried to interpret what it might have looked like with a little more character and proper(ish) anatomy (rather basic, though) and this is the result. However I gave up turning it into a sprite because by the time I was done with this thing I was too lazy to go on :P



Left to right, template, interpretation, sketch I started the interpretation from.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2011, 08:08:09 am by pistachio »

Offline 9_6

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Re: How Could I Improve These Sprites?

Reply #6 on: March 02, 2011, 08:56:20 am
I'm not as concerned with shading, but more about the character design.
Well, for starters, don't keep using the same base over and over then. Give each character some actual... character.
There's more to them than clothing and gadgets.
For instance, each of their weapons would probably require a different pose to hold them properly.

You probably won't be holding a spear with just one hand at an angle like that.
But that's just a technical thing.


From what I remember from the show, this character won't ever go into a "fighting stance", just stand upright with the coat floating in the wind because through the power of jump cuts and editing, he's so superior that he doesn't need to position himself in any way.

Basically, make your poses a bit more meaningful. Don't use templates.
That should naturally lead to more variation which makes them more interesting to look at.
Hope that helps.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2011, 09:01:39 am by 9_6 »
Does scaling an image blur it?
Opera fix Firefox fix

Offline AmuroC

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Re: How Could I Improve These Sprites?

Reply #7 on: March 03, 2011, 06:03:56 am


After looking at some posts, I came up with different proportions and shape.
Better?



And an attempt at making a new stance for this one. Thanks to 9_6 for the pose idea.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2011, 08:06:46 am by AmuroC »
You say Justin Bieber I say Flobots / You say Drake I say They Might Be Giants / You say T-pain I say Gorillaz / You say Hannah Montana I punch you in the face! /  DON'T LET THE SPIRIT OF ROCK DIE!

Offline Greger

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Re: How Could I Improve These Sprites?

Reply #8 on: March 03, 2011, 11:52:18 am


After looking at some posts, I came up with different proportions and shape.
Better?



And an attempt at making a new stance for this one. Thanks to 9_6 for the pose idea.

Have his left leg stand at an angle, as if he's bracing for impact. Right how his right leg is longer than his left leg. The same goes for the spear-wielding man, make the poses more dynamic and filled with life. They both have really stiff poses which makes the characters seem slightly boring. Stand up and try to mimic their poses ; You'll notice that in order to have your right leg as spread out like that you have to bend your left leg a bit.

Offline AmuroC

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Re: How Could I Improve These Sprites?

Reply #9 on: March 04, 2011, 02:42:35 am


New pose(Sort of) and I changed the leg. Also, on the right the arm is lower, I think that one's better.
You say Justin Bieber I say Flobots / You say Drake I say They Might Be Giants / You say T-pain I say Gorillaz / You say Hannah Montana I punch you in the face! /  DON'T LET THE SPIRIT OF ROCK DIE!