[WIP] RPG perspective assistance

[Olothontor]

Hello, all. Haven't posted here in quite some time, mostly because none of my spriting endeavors of the past year or so have been either relevant or terribly serious.

This time, however, I come to you with a serious enough project that it warrants help. I'm having trouble getting my dummy (hereafter dubbed "Mr. Poofysleeves") to be in proper perspective with the ground. I am aware that he was sprited in a conflicting perspective to begin with, and I know that what I'm going for here is the classic 3/4 RPG perspective. I'm simply not sure at this point how to get from what I have to the aforementioned perspective of preference. I was hoping you guys, in all of your glory, could help me out.

Thanks so much in advance!



P.S. Feel perfectly free to nitpick other aspects of my spriting as well, I'm nowhere near as good at this as I'd like to be and I need the critique!

:: Updated - 7/18/2011 ::

:: Updated - 7/22/2011 ::

[Seiseki]

I'd like some feedback about the perspective myself, I've pretty much been just toying around and seeing what works..
You basically need the top of the head to be showing, that's usually why characters have such short legs and body, and the neck is never visible.
Your perspective is more suited for a sidescroller.

It's looking really good though, nice job on the tiles and the style.

[Olothontor]

I'd like some feedback about the perspective myself, I've pretty much been just toying around and seeing what works..
You basically need the top of the head to be showing, that's usually why characters have such short legs and body, and the neck is never visible.
Your perspective is more suited for a sidescroller.

It's looking really good though, nice job on the tiles and the style.

Thanks for the props, it's always nice to hear that (I used to get bad remarks when I made posts a while ago... makes me feel like I've improved, which is a great feeling).

You're right about the perspective thing, but again, I'm honestly not quite sure where to go or how to start. I've tried messing with making his head a little larger and overall trying to angle him more appropriately, but it just doesn't seem to work.

[Cyangmou]

I think the tileset is in comparison with the char to saturated /or the char is less saturated) and the char gets lost because he is really small.

I think you used fire emblem as reference. The problem is that it's a frontview perspective. The easiest thing you can do is to rearrange the hat, the rest don't really needs work iif it comes to perspective. The bigger problems are the colors, you used much and some of them quite ugly. I don 't know exactly what you are going for, but if it's the main hero and no tactical rpc the char should definitely be bigger, get a more interesting color sheme and he should pop out more.

I edited the perspective (as easy as possible) and the position of the shield. I also rearranged the colors a little bit, not much because I don't know your goal.

[Olothontor]

I think the tileset is in comparison with the char to saturated /or the char is less saturated) and the char gets lost because he is really small.

I think you used fire emblem as reference. The problem is that it's a frontview perspective. THe most easiest thing you can do is to rearrange the hat, the rest don't really needs work iif it comes to perspective. The bigger problems are the colors, you used a little bit much and some of them quite ugly. I don 't know exactly what you are going for, but if it's the main hero and no tactical rpc the char should definitely be bigger, get a more interesting color sheme and he should pop out more.

I edited the perspective and the position of the shield and I also rearranged the colors a little bit, not much because I don't need your goal.

Ah! Very nice, alright. I'm glad you recognized that hat, I was afraid for a long while that it looked more like a bright blue Stetson than anything else.

Yes indeed, Fire Emblem was my reference for this.

I do like how you made my deep blue more of a purple, and then simply carried that over onto the whole outfit while still retaining the darker blue look of the kneepads and helmet. The tabard still looks baby blue/white, which is what it was before. The shield reposition is appreciate, thank you (it did look a bit dangling before).

Kudos on such a quick edit, too! I'll get to work and incorporate some of your advice.

[Cyangmou]

The arms use more light than the boots, so there is no reason why not. You won't remind it if you aren't exactly looking how the color is distributed. The arm could even be a little brighter too, more like the face.

If it comes to correct perspective, the view angle should also be  alittle bit higher than it is at the moment, but this would affect the whole sprite but if you aren't really experienced with doing things at your own from scratch it's easier just to edit the head.

[Olothontor]

The arms use more light than the boots, so there is no reason why not. You won't remind it if you aren't exactly looking how the color is distributed. The arm could even be a little brighter too, more like the face.

If it comes to correct perspective, the view angle should also be  alittle bit higher than it is at the moment, but this would affect the whole sprite but if you aren't really experienced with doing things at your own from scratch it's easier just to edit the head.

Fair enough. Thanks a ton, I've done some edits to Mr. Poofysleeves and he's begun to shape up a bit, although I'm finding it difficult not to match your edit.

EDIT: Without accidentally quoting myself this time, too!

I redid both of his "stances" to the new style. I apologize for the extent to which your edit looks like my current version, Cyangmou. I promise they're not nearly as similar as they appear from a distance.

I also redid his vestments, it was beginning to look like he was wearing a ball dress several sizes too small.



EDIT #2: Redid the shading on the shield to make it a little less... visually cluttered, and added a new guy, trying to keep the perspective.

Also stopped playing around with fun little splash poses and started working on the bases for the movement animation, since there will be movement in all 8 directions (the 4 cardinal directions and their 4 midpoints). I know it's one of the tropes of RPG standing animations to be very stiff (I plan on dissolving this a little bit by having "idle" stances the the characters will shift to when they haven't moved for a few seconds, a la Mr. Poofysleeves standing with his shield at his feet and his sword over his shoulder), but is there any way I can lessen this in the sprites themselves? The stiffness bothers me, but anything else and it no longer looks like they're standing and/or ready to walk.

Also I'm not sure about their perspective again, it seems off but I'm not sure what the problem is.

[EyeCraft]

Couple of things I thought might be helpful to you:



T-Lines and measuring the proportions of midpoints within the silhouette. For 3/4 perspective you want your midpoints 3/4 the way up the form.

Aside from that, I feel like the shading could be a bit more obvious. Where's the lightsource? Where's the shadow?

Also, forgive my scrappy line work 

[Olothontor]

That's helpful, Eyecraft, thank you.

I adjusted the sleeves on the vest with the help of T-lines, and fixed the shading so it appears more to be coming from one definite direction (in this case, top left).

I understand the concept of the 3/4 angle, but so far the hat has been the only doable thing I've seen (no cajoling meant). As I said (and I do apologize for repeating myself), I'm not sure how to get from what I have to something that looks acceptable in 3/4.

EDIT: Just a general update, nothing much to see except my complete failure to create some more characters (which I probably shouldn't be doing at the moment, but hey. Whatever keeps me sane). The only one I'm happy with is the halberd-bearing guy near the top... I managed to achieve a nice level of detail on his armor without making it too cluttered (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong there).



EDIT 2: I just realized what these guys remind me of: Battle for Wesnoth.