GR#120 - Princess Piledriver - Sideview Characters & Animation

[Mike]

Do you really duplicate for every revision?  Or is there some way you can keep track of this stuff so you can post animated progress gifs.  I'd love the countless revisions I make to characters as gifs!  Is there some software you are using that takes a screenshot every "x" seconds?

Btw loving the new PPD, her head might be a bit large but other than that she's pretty spunky looking.  Although I did prefer her cool flippy do hair more.  It's cuter and I think more in line with an aggressive type character.  Aaaand you should keep her a robot...like Marina from Mischief Makers.  Pile DRIVE DRIVE!

Also quick question.

Your characters are quite large.  Aren't you worried that at this size it's going to be very difficult to maintain quality and consistency?

Can't wait for the next update!

[Daimoth]

I love your style. Only thing I can find is readability issues on the serpent lady's outstretched hand.

[PypeBros]

the new princess is very princess-ish, well rendered and all.
but from a player standpoint, the previous one looks more engaged into the action while the new one is more kawaii-schoolgirl style. I'm not sure I'd take her for the part of a fighter that piles down opponents.

I love the idea of the hi-tech girl that uses her plasma controls to get a sword and a shield, btw. Just brilliant

[PixelPiledriver]

Do you really duplicate for every revision?  Or is there some way you can keep track of this stuff so you can post animated progress gifs.

All I'm doing here is copy pasting the current frame.
This lets me revert and create the process animation easily.
When I'm ready I duplicate the window and reverse the frames.


Also I pause the preview window to use as a %100 size guide:


When I move onto something else I save a new version of the file and remove the older frames.

Your characters are quite large.  Aren't you worried that at this size it's going to be very difficult to maintain quality and consistency?

While I'm not actually worried about it I'll admit it could burn me later in terms of time.
I'm intentionally pushing the scale here to see if I like it or not.
The new scale is rather large, and I would need to scale up the other characters to match.
It might be easier just to scale down Princess Piledriver and Bootie Bandit.
I've done a few larger scale animations before and was happy with the process and result, so I know that it's at least possible.

Whether this will be an actual game or not is still to be determined.
For right now they are just drawings to have fun with.

the new princess is very princess-ish

the new one is more kawaii-schoolgirl style

As cheesy as it seems that's exactly what I want.
I still want to play around with her design to see if there is an interesting compromise between the two, but I'm fine with this sort of extremely girly look.

Only thing I can find is readability issues on the serpent lady's outstretched hand.

Good point thanks.
Will get around to it.
I bounce between characters a lot so some things go untouched for a while.

Thanks for compliments guys!

[tehwexxl0rz]

Love the update on Princess! The pose is so much more dynamic and expressive. The changes made to the outfit and accessories help tie the whole thing together. I'm impressed you've managed to make such attractive sprites with almost no anti-aliasing. Considering you plan to animate these characters, I think that was a wise choice.

Can't wait to see them in motion - especially PPD!

[Ryumaru]

For whatever reason I prefer the earlier sprites. Princess piledriver had that cute stocky appearance and her expression was more ready to kick some ass. This might sound odd but your newest renditions seem to be more traditional character design ex: giving bootie bandit a prop to go with her name, which on a fundamental level is good, but your earlier designs seemed to break some rules and I liked them for it. Also I'm sure it's a matter of finish level but I enjoy your pixel clusters more in the smaller size.

Bah either way it's all great! I'm just rambling.

On BB I'd steer away from the frontal face, I think you can have more movement to the pose ( and have it be more practical) if she's more 3/4ths or closer to profile.

[API-Beast]

The new version of PP is great!

Well, about the new version of BB... she might be a bit over stylized, I liked the previous version more, it was simpler, but still carried some character. (Unlike PP who was basically character-less.)

[Arne]

The design reminds me of something from Cosmic Soldier, Psychic War.
http://hardcoregaming101.net/psychicwar/psychicwar.htm

Also relevant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuS1ngU9jlc#t=2m16s

[blumunkee]

Okay, I'm jumping on the edit train too. Choo choo!



I'm going with Bootie Bandit 2.0 because she's got a solid sprite but she needs some love and refinement. (Realizing of course PPD is posting WIP sprites.)

• Revert to version 1.0. Subjectively, the earlier design was simpler and had better cohesion. The Sohei horns must stay.
• Nixed the reflected light effects (?). They weren't doing anything for the sprite. Also, in practical terms, directional lights other than top to bottom will give trouble when the sprite flips in-game.
• More form rendering. This involves adding outlines to push in parts and removing outlines to pop out parts. A nice cheap trick I abuse all the time is to add outlines to stuff facing South, and remove outlines from stuff facing North.
• More contrast. Most of this comes from the outlining above, the rest comes from redistributing darker shades.
• Overhaul of the face. Lots and lots of individual pixel placement and tweaking here. Painfully time consuming and grueling, but worth it.
• Final anti-aliasing pass. Also anally retentive and time consuming.

Having done this, I agree the sprites are too large to animate. Something more Capcom proportioned seems feasable.

P. S. This was hugely fun to edit. Great sprite, great proportions, great character...

[numlock]

Wow great edit blumunkee, her face looks just right and overall that iconic style PPD going for looks much more classy, I definitely agree with sprites being too large tough idk if these are for just animation or for game oriented, either way scales just seems getting bigger with each step but I'm not a pixel pro so I might be wrong since I don't know the purpose of these characters.