[WIP] Fighting game sprites

[grue]

I'm working on some Street Fighter/Guilty Gear style sprites for practice and would appreciate critique. I have fixed the mistakes I could see, however, I'm sure there are many more I have overlooked, since I'm still relatively new to pixel art.

Also, I have a lot of trouble making hands look natural. Is there some kind of trick to it or do I just have to draw them slightly larger?

[st0ven]

i think they look pretty neat, the pixel feel they convey is pretty solid. They have a very Tsugumo-esque quality to them in feel and palette choices (that looks like his trademark blue/grey values at a glance). Did you read up on his tutorials (the first around in english that anyone i know can cite) - "so you want to be a pixel artist" before making these?

Palette suggests its all being done at night time. if you have any 'brighter' environments your character palettes could get you in trouble (unless youre somehow dynamically changing them to suit their enviro). Some of the areas of detail, most notably for me in the face seems rather good, but in other areas your form and line detail seem a bit scant, making them look flat in those areas. Dont be afraid of contrast in your values. Because they are smaller sprites than GGX you might lose some of the information in the details with such subtle shade differences.

one last note, i think your hands read just fine for the most part. you dont have to pixel in every finger, just infer groups of fingers if they are close together and make separate digits 1 pixel width if they separate from the group, the eye should read these as hands just fine. Wouldnt worry about super sharp hand rendering until the last phases of animation.

speaking of which, would love to see some attempts at animating these as the anime pixel style can look quite nice with smooth animation.

[circuscommando]

very nice, my concern would be that the palette's are so similar that the characters could lose some individuality brought on by what st0ven said about the "nighttime" palette.

[grue]

They have a very Tsugumo-esque quality to them in feel and palette choices (that looks like his trademark blue/grey values at a glance). Did you read up on his tutorials (the first around in english that anyone i know can cite) - "so you want to be a pixel artist" before making these?

I have read his tutorials, but that was quite some time ago. I didn't reference anything in particular either.
Can't comment on the resemblance, since I haven't seen any of his art other than what was included with the tutorial.

Some of the areas of detail, most notably for me in the face seems rather good, but in other areas your form and line detail seem a bit scant, making them look flat in those areas. Dont be afraid of contrast in your values. Because they are smaller sprites than GGX you might lose some of the information in the details with such subtle shade differences.

I'm not sure which values you are referring to - can you elaborate?
Regarding the lack of detail - I'm afraid of making the sprites too detailed, since I intend to animate them later and it takes long enough as it is.

I agree about the palette and will probably modify it eventually, but I want to concentrate on making the poses/animation look good at the moment. Most of the backgrounds are dark anyway, so that's not much of a problem.

I made some things darker/more contrasted, but other than that there aren't many changes here. Not sure if it looks better or worse.



Started working on some animations and different stances for the guy in the middle. Redrew his legs several times since they looked somewhat odd and saved over the original. Now they look hideously deformed as well and I'm not sure how to fix it.



Idle/breathing animation. Still very choppy, but hopefully I'm doing at least something right.

[Greger]

She's breathing extremely heavy it seems. What puzzles me is that her legs are moving when breating, or at least her pants do. I think that should be removed completely, because it doesn't really look natural to me.

[ErekT]

Hello.

IMO you got the right idea with the chest and stomach in/de-flating. The shoulders get squashed in a very anatomy-defying manner tho'. If you take some deep, exaggerated breaths in front of a mirror you'll see your shoulders moving up and down. No squash.

Here's a quick edit for ya:



It's pretty rough, just to illustrate the general breathing movement. Ignore whatever it is I did with the chest/stomach shading there 

[grue]

Decided to finally fix that animation, taking the critique into account (three years later, ouch). Not sure if I've improved at all during this time, but I did do my best. It looks like the movement might be a bit too subtle now, but I can't quite decide. Thoughts?

Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to make an entire animation set in this style, it's likely to take me several years of non-stop animating at the speed I work. If I ever make this thing, I'll have to use regular drawn sprites instead. Pity, but what can you do.



And, uh. Hello again.

[Rosier]

I left for like a month or two and felt weird...


I feel the hair should have a bit more motion on the body strand, along with maybe a little bobbing on the hand.