AuthorTopic: [WIP] Idle Stance for Platformer NPC  (Read 5099 times)

Offline Free Camera

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[WIP] Idle Stance for Platformer NPC

on: September 26, 2012, 12:45:38 am
Hi there! I'm fiddling around with an idle stance for an npc game, which is essentially going to be the template for most of the chars in the game. Stylistically I had originally wanted the characters to have stickman joints, but it was a challenge to communicate the limbs, so I only today gave regular limbs a shot. What works here? Are there any adjustments anyone would make/ recommend to the full figure and/or the stick figure? Thanks!



Say for example, do you like the bigger shoes? etc.
« Last Edit: September 26, 2012, 03:43:58 am by Free Camera »

Offline MegaLeon

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Re: [WIP] Idle Stance for Platformer NPC

Reply #1 on: September 26, 2012, 10:09:28 am
It's not about us liking it, I think that things like bigger shoes are purely a matter of style / what would you want to convey through your sprite. I think that works for now, maybe we'll see better when he is in a scenario and / or animated.
Maybe the only things I would change is slightly moving the head to the right, as it appears slightly off-balance (imho)

Offline Lachie Dazdarian

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Re: [WIP] Idle Stance for Platformer NPC

Reply #2 on: September 26, 2012, 09:21:44 pm
At least for the main character, I prefer when the arms are not touching the torso, as it gives a more dynamic pose, communicating readiness to continue the movement. Depends on the game you are making, I guess.

I would also suggest experimenting with the shading on his hair. Add maybe a lighter shade there on one section, and try not to pillow shade it like that (dark border on the entire contour).

Offline PypeBros

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Re: [WIP] Idle Stance for Platformer NPC

Reply #3 on: October 01, 2012, 09:43:19 am
and try not to pillow shade it like that (dark border on the entire contour).

uh ?
I hardly see any shading here: just a coloured outline on a flat character, which is (imho) usually preferrable to black outlines.

Offline Terley

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Re: [WIP] Idle Stance for Platformer NPC

Reply #4 on: October 03, 2012, 01:16:26 pm
I think you can afford to lower your colour count, I've been able to get this down from 17 to 10. Some of your colours were so close to each-other they may as well be rounded off to one.



I've thrown in a couple of hue shifts for interest and had a go at working on how I would possibly go about altering shading and AA to minimise any look of 'pillow shading'. I think I get what Lachie means, I just reckon when AAing fails to soften it can appear as if everything from an outline in is shade, negating whatever light source you had. Hopefully you can take something from my edit, I'm a little bit rusty.
« Last Edit: October 04, 2012, 10:00:28 am by Terley »
I've not got anything interesting to type here..

Offline Free Camera

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Re: [WIP] Idle Stance for Platformer NPC

Reply #5 on: October 04, 2012, 08:32:11 pm
Terley, I appreciate the edit, though that color reduction seems to have removed a lot of the softness of the original sprite. Stylistically, every character in the game I'm making has one innate color and the use of grays in their palette, as well, I'm going for a flat cartoony look, almost like if the characters were drawn in adobe flash.

I've added a screen-shot so you can see what kind of environment these characters will be in. Obviously it's NPA, and the the background panorama is a placeholder.


Also, here's a larger npc. Like i said, every character has a main 'color', and this one's is gray.



C+C? My focus here is the characters, but even though the tileset isn't pixel art all comments are welcome.

Offline Helm

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Re: [WIP] Idle Stance for Platformer NPC

Reply #6 on: October 04, 2012, 11:37:27 pm
My initial reaction to the tileset is 'if it isn't pixel art, it really ought to be'. You're not using non-pixelly means to achieve something that pixel art can't do in this mockup, so why not reign it in and get it to be completely pixelly? Trust, it will be to its benefit.

I adore the character. The tileset needs more love in my opinion than the character. I'd like to see that repeated tile pattern in the empty inner space removed and replaced by hand-made locational detail at 1 tile, 4 tile and perhaps 6 or 8 tile chunks, a few variations, and the rest can be clean and clear tiles with nothing in it. I want you to keep what you like from the photo panorama in the background in terms of color palette and remake it in pixel art so we can deal with the whole palette holistically. The player sprite is fine, give love to the rest.

Offline Free Camera

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Re: [WIP] Idle Stance for Platformer NPC

Reply #7 on: October 07, 2012, 06:27:14 am
Well, I started to replace the tiles I had with sprited versions, and the results are as follows.




I think both this take and the NPA version are starting to digress from the original style I was going for, so I'm going to take another shot shortly. I'll post the results soon.