GR#064 - RPG Sprites

[st0ven]

Yeah its been too long sice ive had to pixel anything. just starting a thread to post some things that ill be working on to try to warm up the ol' pixel skills. After trying out some weird girl in a dress sprite i feel like theres a lot of practice that needs to be done to get back into the habit.



Update:


will post more as i get around to drawing them.

[Seiseki]

That's amazing.
I love the style.

I played around with it just to learn the palette and the style.
Only thing I have to comment on is that the sleeves look a bit short. And you missed the right white of the eye 

[heyy13]

Good to see you back to pixeling.

The most obvious thing to me is a lack of consistant light source. You have a pretty strong bottom rightish light onto the skirt, but the skin feels like it has a very mild ambient light and the top and it's sleaves are mirrored with a central topish source. I say pick one and stick to it, and give everything the same sort of intensity treatment.

I hope that made sense i start work in 10mins and have to run. I'll come edit it later for brainfart.

[EyeCraft]

st0ven? Not pixelling? Nooooooooooooooooo...

Bit of an edit:



- Skin feels really bright, especially against the dark clothes, feels like its punching through a bit.
- Rim highlighting is suggesting too much of an below-subject lightsource, reworked it to be speculars on the folds.
- Tried to get more of a conical form going with the dress
- Dimmed the dress a bit to push priority up the figure.
- Lengthened sleeves.
- Adjusted speculars on the hair to point to a higher lightsource
- Bit of play with the hands

Nice choice of subject... the dress is amazingly hard to manage banding, I found.  

[Mathias]

Smart man, not going big. But rather keeping it small and focused. I think doing this allows one to focus more on just pixel art itself, and prevent too many clouding design principle issues to creep in and steal the spotlight.

Beautiful RPG-ish maiden sprite. Ty, Great edit there. My only complaint is the "tense" negative space between arms and body. Bugs me a little.

Is this meant as 3/4 down?

If you're going to conduct a thread filled with pixel practice, may I suggest you choose a theme? Just an idea. Not important. But if this thread is to be populated with a significant number of objects/sprites then wouldn't it be cool if in the end they all looked related instead of random?

[st0ven]

Eyecraft:

I like it, i like it a lot in fact im enjoying the strandy-ness of the hair right off the bat. the palette is more to a place i think i was originally trying to get (sort of that strong 'poisonous' magenta found throughout). The sleeves, simple and effective. just needed a splash more light. Also i like the pleats in the skirt, takes it from looking boring and flat and gives it a bit more interest. I dont mind my shorter sleeves, but i dont mind your longer ones either. the width on yours is probably more 'right', but i was trying to give it some volume there, but it just winds up looking a bit stubby. The longer, thinner sleeve is more elegant and fits with the character better. Also the slight shadow under the head, when i was playing with it it looked wrong but your interpretation looks very natural. PS helm would probably slay me over my choice of AA style and lack of good cluster usage.

Heyy:

Its sort of interesting to note how pixelling a sprite can lead to different priorities of mindset when im working. on a larger piece ill be very aware of light sources and volumes and getting something fundamentally correct before building ontop of it. Not that this cant or shouldnt be the way one would also pixels, but when it comes to these smaller sprites, i do find myself actually approaching it a bit differently. I definitely wont mind if you feel compelled to make an edit.

Mathias: id not be able to do a large piece justice atm i dont think. If i did, it would just take too long anyway. to be quite honest im not all that proud of her, but she does have an important purpose. One has to start a warm up from somewhere afterall. She is certainly in consideration for a 3/4 perspective, and looking at it here the bottom of the dress can probably be shaped differently to better reflect that. I hope you do see a theme as i continue.

[tehwexxl0rz]

Hmm, 'poisonous' magenta... Pokemon trainer?

Looks great, my only critique would be that there's very little contrast in the skin which I think would help create a better sense of depth. I would darken her shoulders and the sides of her abdomen, for instance.

[st0ven]

a work in progress here. blocked out the general details at this point. havent done a thorough pixel scouring or palette tweaking of it yet. Ill be going back to address some points on the woman sprite as well to address the useful help. feels like it looks a little dark as it stands.




OK now heres hoping i dont have blackouts here for the third day in a row.

UPDATE:
more work on this sprite, posting the newer one for comparison. Ill have to come back and look at it later with fresh eyes for more editing.

[NickZA]

Hey just a n00b's opinion here but...

At a glance (which is all that should be required), I'm having difficult seeing exactly what's going on in the torso. At a closer look, its great, but when pulling my head away from your pixels I feel that your shadowing on his right breast is the problem; it makes the chest appear generally poorly defined and thus not immediately visible as a chest. I would strengthen that side a bit and not worry too much about the implied shadow being cast on it by the hood and/or the sternum of the breastplate.

[Helm]

Tiny edits, mostly for banding removal and some shadow work.

It's a very nice sprite. Computer displays aren't going to get any blurrier in the future, if anything they'll get sharper. Banding becomes more of an issue for the modern pixel artist. Something to consider.

[st0ven]

It's a very nice sprite. Computer displays aren't going to get any blurrier in the future, if anything they'll get sharper. Banding becomes more of an issue for the modern pixel artist. Something to consider.

Ah, the precision and consciousness of your values into groups are masterful as one would expect. Im happy that you have shown me some of its execution on this piece. Im afraid my second sprite suffers from 'blurriness' much moreso than the first. ill have to attempt a pass on it to see if i cant mitigate that.

edit: So i took a pass on the second one to see if i could help simplify it a bit and perhaps make it a bit more readable in the process. Its definitely an artform in itself . i need to practice this a good bit im thinking before i can feel comfortable doing it more effectively.

[Helm]

That sort of finish is all that's left for me in pixel art, really. The only thing that still excites me about what pixels do. Your second pass is stronger in terms of readability and sharpness for sure. I can parse the sprite at lesser zooms, some of the embroidery and flash is gone but it's not a huge detriment. Have you thought about pushing some of the values apart through tints and contrast? The darkest color you're using for separations, especially.

[NickZA]

Yep as helm says, more readable, and yet now I miss the elaboration of form on the armour which you originally had. Hope you don't mind, I took the liberty of making some small edits:

(Less gold under chin, taller visible area of breastplate, changed his right shoulder highlight and touched a pixel in his left mail skirting.)