AuthorTopic: A little help, por favor...  (Read 4262 times)

Offline The B.O.B.

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A little help, por favor...

on: May 06, 2006, 07:10:11 am
   To be honest, I don't even know why I'm doing this...well, actually I do. It's just that I promised myself, that I wouldn't let anyone see one of my designed characters, so I could always have a full proof plan to protect it. Well now I'm in a rut, and I need some valid info. And that is, color/hue selection. I've had this story in my mind since I was a wee lad, and now I think it's nearing completion. I've designed a couple of fighters that belong to this story. Here is one:

(by the way, pay no attention to the older version's pallete, it doesn't really match it)

   The top row is the older version, and bottom row is the newer revamped style that I would like to create all my fighters in now. You'll notice that the newer version seems to be more "drab" in color, but it was all intentional, as each character I created should have a monochromatic color assigned to them. Any ways, while doing this guy I noticed he was a little lighter than the rest. So I was wondering, if any of the pro's here could be of any help in my selecting better, darker colors to fit him?( bear in mind, he is a Korean mixed fighter, and his body is supposed to look like that. But if you feel something is truly wrong with it, than damn it, just tell me...I want to make sure that all my characters (including this guy) become as good as they can be...)
« Last Edit: May 06, 2006, 08:21:36 am by The B.O.B. »
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Offline Tinygiant

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Re: A little help, por favor...

Reply #1 on: May 06, 2006, 07:57:12 am
I am the opposite I want everyone to see my characters, no point in keeping em secret, get em out there show the world.

To be honest if your asking about colour schemes I think both are fine I really like the red glow on the first fighter, the 2nd is a little too much like Sagat for my liking. You say the bottom character is a redesign of the top one, but they are both very different, a very radical redesign, I'd say you've got 2 totally different characters here.

I'm no anatomy expert, I'm sure some will pop up in this topic at some point but I can see there are some issues with both characters, the darker patch on the 1st guys back looks wrong to me and some of the muscle tones on the arms are over complicated, I'd hate to animate these. The 2nd guys stomach worries me, is he supposed to have a beer gut? He looks fat but he still has a lot of muscles in his tummy, looks wrong to me.

Apart from that they are both great, very streetfighter looking sprites.

Offline The B.O.B.

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Re: A little help, por favor...

Reply #2 on: May 06, 2006, 08:20:04 am
   Once again, yes, he is supposed to have a beer belly, and it is supposed to look sorta rough, along with the chicken legs, which was once again intentional for the characters look( he's a veteran mixed fighter or "cage" fighter, much like those in the UFC). I knew that the glow of the older character was wrong, that's why I just scrapped it, and created a whole new one.
   To me, I personally like the new one better, as the older version's legs were very bulbous(or however the hell you spell it). I'd just like to clarify once more, that the character is supposed to look top heavy, with a beer gut. I'm just hopin' someone could help me out with the colors to pop up the contrast a lil more. I've tried, but I just wanna see how some of the pro's out here churn him up...would be a real interesting way to see another artist's perspective of color on skin and clothes if you ask me...thanks for the crit though Tinygiant..
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Offline big brother

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Re: A little help, por favor...

Reply #3 on: May 06, 2006, 02:29:21 pm
Looks like you were impatient to start on the coloring and AA. Their poses are very stiff and rigid and lack the natural curve of stance that a good fighting sprite has. Weight doesn't appear to be on either leg, plus there are some anatomical issues..(ratio of upper leg to lower leg, etc.) The depth needs improvement, too, as they appear very flat. You could work towards a solution by darkening the arm farthest from us (which would also make the piece a less visually confusing).

Good sprite design is based around silhouettes. Try taking your favorite fighting game characters and study the shape. Chances are, even without any detail, the character will still be recognizable.

Offline ndchristie

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Re: A little help, por favor...

Reply #4 on: May 06, 2006, 03:14:46 pm
first i think that palette is not your issue here, i like the look of it, but then again i tend toward narrow palettes

the big issue here is that he looks a bit too stiff i think, like a cardboard cutout fighter you could just push over.  i recommend shifting the rear leg back and thinking more in  terms of the flow of things than trying to make him look sturdy, because the fact is that flow will make him look sturdy if used right, but trying to make him look sturdy wont (unless you get lucky)

hes a quick edit i did to try and show the positioning id suggest:


i so felt that he was showing the opponent too much of his fingers for a man of his size, so i pulled the arms back into a more defensive posture since he looks like someone who would shrug off hits between well-timed smash punches.  a fighter that big doesnt need to be ready to swat away blows or try quick hits, he just needs to keep his guard up until dishing out the KO, and so keeping his hands in where he can defend is a better position i tihnk.  leave the swatting to the scrawny guys, this guy looks all about power

if you really want help with the palette, i think but upping the contrast and saturation a little you can get a sprite that reads better:

but beyond that i wouldnt know what to alter
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Offline Matriax

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Re: A little help, por favor...

Reply #5 on: May 06, 2006, 06:54:46 pm
I like the fighter but the second ilumination not very much...

The fighter need more rounded seems a litle rigid, the edit of Adarias is very good, i think you have edit the fighter viewing the edit of Adarias.

Offline The B.O.B.

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Re: A little help, por favor...

Reply #6 on: May 07, 2006, 12:16:21 am
 
Good sprite design is based around silhouettes. Try taking your favorite fighting game characters and study the shape. Chances are, even without any detail, the character will still be recognizable.
   Actually big brother, all my fighter sprites are drawn starting witha gray blob, and than a silhouettes, including this one. It's the only way I've always drawn them, since using line art seems to confuse where certain shades belong. It seems I over shade some areas of the figure, and call it my "style" which I guess, is the wrong thing to do. Anyways, to understand what exactly I'm talking about, here's an animation of the steps I ussually take to draw a fighter, with the previous character as the example:


   Taking Adarias's crits to heart, I changed the stance of the fighter, and showed the difference between oldest and newest:


Vers. 1: the older sprite
Vers. 2: newer sprite, with more weight on the legs, with original upper body, and pallete
Vers. 3A: newest sprite, with more weight on the legs, and arms closer to the face for a better, guarded stance as Adaria's had asked
Vers. 3B: Same as version 3A except the contrast is popped a wee bit..

Thanks for the help err' body!
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Offline Ryumaru

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Re: A little help, por favor...

Reply #7 on: May 07, 2006, 02:38:22 am
about hues, the only thing i can tell you is to try and incorporate some complementary combinations.
but on one of the back poses the anatomy looks very... awkward.
you have like a space that seems to form between his deltoids and his(god, dont know it this is right) his trapezius muscles(the neck ones that for a diamond like shape)

btw, the progress animations is just amazing.