New concept art

[JillandJack]

I would like someone to critique



Hello,
I was quite hesitant on giving away to much of my game design document but if it will help me get a better critique i guess its worth the risk. I will leave out most of the details but hopefully you will get the general idea/story of the game.
I am trying to make a platform game, the story involves all the jack tales into one. It starts with jack and jill they go to a wishing well. Jill makes a wish. Shit goes down Giant picks her up goes to castle. He makes minons candles which he sends after Jack. Jack then jumps over the candles in the game. Forest lvl.beanstalk lvl. castle lvl.
My game is directed towards a younger audience, I am trying to make my characters as cute as possible. I was trying to make my characters 16x16, just for a simple starter game. I am having trouble making sprite characters as you can see. I am quite a beginner at this. I am hoping for some examples anyone can give me to get on the right track. I was thinking on giving the main character jack a bucket for a helment to make him stand out more. But i am having a very hard time making the bucket, it just seems like a brown block on his head. I also was thinking on making jack more of a joker, or a clown with bells on his hands and feet. But the orginal story i have worked out involves the bucket.
Thank you so much for the people that have helped me get adjusted to the forums so far. I really appreciate it.

chris,

here is some concept art:
here the artist link if you like his work:
http://graphicdesign.rrc.mb.ca/08-09_GD2/dalleyn/index.html

[newGuy]

Try the forum's Image Hosting and Posting guide. 

[Phlakes]

Step 1: Open up your nearest image editing program.

Step 2: Draw the sprite in there, then upload that file here.

Then we can help.

Also at the right edge of your posts is a button that says "Modify". Use that instead of posting ten times in a row.

Also also, like XLR8ED says, put the image URL (the one you posted up there) in the middle of [ img ] [ /img ], without the spaces.

[TheMonsterAtlas]

??

Code: [Select]

[img]http://i1323.photobucket.com/albums/u587/JillandJackForever/imlqowncy0nht34uebsfmzgr24225515521_zps39a34839.jpg[/img]
That's what you use, Jack.

[Facet]

Jack, if you continue to post numerous times in a row or spam useless stuff you're going to get banned pretty quickly. I've given a strike. Please read the rules and the FAQ before posting, thanks.

Edit - That was quite blunt, sorry .

I don't see the connection between the two images you have already; are they the same character? what type of view are you aiming at? what are they for?

There's a nice introductory tutorial here which should help with technique and I'd recommend lurking the forum for a little while in order to acclimatise too.

[ptoing]

Please stop to just edit your original post. It does not help the thread being readable and making sense.

[PixelPiledriver]

You could greatly reduce your color count.
Many of these colors aren't helping or changing the way that he reads visually.


If this were my character I might do something like this:




Less total colors.
More color re use.
Broader surfaces.
Thicker plane changes.
etc.

You need to play around with the design more and find something that you like.

[JillandJack]

wow that looks good 
i wish i could do it half as good as you..
I kinda gave up on trying to make him 16x16 with a bucket it does not seem possible at this point
i tried again making him with bells can any1 let me know if im improving? i tried using not as many colors does any1 see improvements?
I am also having a hard time making characters in the side view, and trying to give my sprites personality and showing there emotions. the only thing i think i can really do is change my characters skin tone. Like make his face red when angry, or is there a way to give characters 16x16 eyebrows of sorts?



any ideas or examples would be appreciated

update first sprite! 

[JillandJack]

Hello,
this character ties into my previous post:
(merged and shown above)~PPd

I am making the second main character to my game. I am still quite new to this, so all advice is appreciated. So the character i am trying to create here, is Jill like from the nursery ryhme Jack and jill. This sprite was heavily influenced by PixelPiledriver's Jack sprite he made for me. I really suck at colors and don't know what to do. I tried by best for trying to incorporated different shades of color, but i as you can tell i could still use help. The character is set in like older times like mediveal. She is wearing a bonnet. her clothes are red and white, but im thinking of changing since this sprite gives me too much of a "little red ridding hood" vibe. Which i havn't decided if that is a good thing or not. I am trying to make this character cute. I don't really know what kind of colors i should use to convey this. I also don't know how to make a moving sprite of this character. I wasted alot of time on the Jack sprite to move and was hoping for someone to demonstate how this is accomplished 
Here is some reference work i used:



These are the two things i want:

1. How do i make a moving sprite of this character

2. A critique of this character

This is the sprite:




k well ppd here is my graceful run cycle:








  ...i hate run cycles...
-edit-here is the one with arms moving:


-edit- My "attempt" at this the body does not have motion, but that is next on my list. Anymore critiques on the jack run cycle or jill character would be appreciated.
I am trying to get the whole sprite moving in my run cycle like arms, legs, head bobbing, will post all updates of my run cycle

-edit- oh i almost forgot the character in this run cycle is in no way my character i did not create this character at all this was all my very poor adaptation of the Pixelpiledrivers character in a run cycle..

[Final Ninja]

In terms of how you made the positioning of Jill, you did a pretty good job.     I felt that you could benefit from adding a couple more colors to make it seem less stiff (If that's the right word... describing colors is tough). The colors didn't seem to be combining well, it seems better when they flow into each other. Anyway, I did an edit for the sprite and the start of a walking animation. As to how, are you asking how to make them in an image editor or what is the best way? I made both of these in Gimp. It was a bit hard to make the animation because the legs were so linear, but I felt I did an okay job.