[OPP] Cave set

[Jim16]

I think that this new style adds a lot of appeal to the game and that it is probably worth trying to pursue it.

Agreed, plus as I mentioned to Noburo, we're still at a relatively early stage of development, this change won't hurt us that badly, in fact if anything it will become a strength knowing that we're working to a good standard.

It is just a pity that we aren't using the traveler, maybe we could have some co-op between those characters and the player would switch during diferent situations to use another kind of skillset.

Or we could introduce the characters separately, play a few scenarios as each character, until there lives intertwine and they have to work together. I have a few ideas down on paper story wise, that I might put forward as an idea. I'm actually interested in what ideas you guys are coming up with too. We'll have to make a thread over at PixelJoint at some point. I'm relaxed about it, but having a rough premise rather than a full on story, might help with the art process.

They look amazing and I'd immediately wish for everything to look great like this. But I am not sure if it would be a good idea to change...

Daniel, relax. You worry to much 

[Jim16]

Guima, I changed the proportions of his face, I have no idea why I designed him without a chin. Oh and gave him a spear.

And below is Noburo's last character edit over at pixeljoint.

[pistachio]

Thanks for the props guys!

They look amazing and I'd immediately wish for everything to look great like this. But I am not sure if it would be a good idea to change...
I find it both important that the quality of the project stays reasonably high and that many people will be able to opt in and create tiles and sprites without decreasing the quality.

I'd call what I did reasonably high. The new attempts to follow this made by Jim and guima (and Noburo over at PJ) are pretty good and have character which sprites made in the original style might have lacked, and good cluster work.

I think if you set higher examples with a clear aesthetic, competent artists will reach higher. If that aesthetic is simple, they'll more probably succeed if even superficially. Maybe they'll start picking up on stuff they didn't (or did) notice automatically improves the work: here, addition of eye speculars, variance in stance, more controlled shading and more form among other things. It does go deeper than that, depending largely on competence and a grasp of fundamental stuff though. Easier to render stuff like Kenneth Fejer than Fool, examples close at hand, but not easy to get either just right. So like Jim said (at PJ) it's a good challenge.

But the next, more important step is to edit that post and make it clear what I did and why to the sprites. Expect short delay...

[guima1901]

I will probably wait to see the edit that pistachio is going to do on his previous post before I try creating a sprite from the scratch.
And I think we should probably create a topic or just bring the characters that we had done before this change in style here since the wiki is out at the moment.

[Charlieton]

I thought some kind of stone idol could be cool to have, and so spent the evening making this:



It's not complete, but I'm done with it for this evening. Thought I'd share in case someone else might feel like picking up on improving it anyway.

Ideas for possible improvements:
Better ears! Using som reference/experience to make them look more like ears actually look.
Trade the stone eyeballs for active torches or similar. It would look really cool with some smooth fire animation and active lighting effects.
Add decorative details to forehead, and/or elsewhere.
Stack it with other idols, or add a "body".
General refinement, use more vivid/interesting colours, etc.

I'll try and make these improvements myself eventually, but if anyone wants to take a crack at it right away, please go ahead!

[DDR]

I'd like to get the traveller into the next version.

[hapiel]

I made a quick edit on the guys. I am myself not fond of the grey on the natives and I tried to simplify a few shades, change lines, minor edits to get more into a single style... What do you guys think about the skin color?



I must say, I found it super hard to edit! I was planning to do some animations or something but did not really know where to start, and I would also be scared of making any new characters myself now as I can not deliver this kind of amazingness (yet)

I think I will give animation a go again, perhaps a walk for the sceptre guy. See if it is possible for me.

Oh and I tried to give this guy a throne, I thought he looked like he could be the head of the clan but I don't know what to do with his sceptre....
Just ideas

[Jim16]

 

Break from the tiles, but this helps:


Did character edits of the player guy and tribesman, the latter a bit rushed. Added more depth to both, via major stance and shading tweaks, but hopefully it still conforms to the style if I get it right. Messed with/normalized some proportions and the shading was redone around that. Gotta edit this post tomorrow to talk about either one in any significant detail.

Traveler: emphasis on big cranium, small jaw construction. Features and shading based around that. Outfit didn't make sense, gave him more explorer-y aviator goggles and gloves which should be easier to animate. Less awkward stance. Reduced the color scheme and colors.

Tribesman: head structure was influenced by moai but that was mostly destroyed in the end. Looked to this thread for pointers on shading skin, hence the gray. Again unifying colors, dark brown, grays and dark yellow, pink ears and nose on head draw attention.

Both have more specular control. That is, see the top of the traveler guy's hat? Mostly a flat color. Start with 2 shades and keep the highlights small. You want the colors to read as much as than the lighting. But you also want the materials to read, so in non-mattes, metals and the like this rule can be broken. Look up reference and think about how to simplify it is the big rule of thumb here, and in general with these new sprites.

Outlines are not a 1px line all around, usually darker line in shadow, lighter line around the light, then no line/minimal selout where the light hits. Compare the wildcat to the donkey sprite.

In the meantime here's a weapons cargo donkey. With tweaking, could be a horse.


Does not conform as well to the style, bit complex/odd in shadows and handling of perspective, but it looks solid and has direction construction-wise. Other test sprites are in the works, foremost NPC trader and villagers.

What I've done is evidently a bit harder to reach. I'll be happy to edit other contributions though, or edit mine so we can break even. Will be making a few more assets too, hopefully cave related, definitely background tiles.

[RileyFiery]

Apparently I'm not allowed to state my opinion on an edit of a sprite (the original human-player character) I made. I'll rephrase it then even though I didn't go against the forum rules.

Man I suck,  your edit blew my original design out of the water.

[yaomon17]

Apparently I'm not allowed to state my opinion on an edit of a sprite (the original human-player character) I made. I'll rephrase it then even though I didn't go against the forum rules.

Man I suck,  your edit blew my original design out of the water.

I learned that one liners that are off topic are not welcome as well. What matters is that we learn from our mistakes :]
Don't worry about it, we are all about improving our art. Both the tiles I drew have already been replaced as well 
Just observe what was changed and apply the same concepts to your own art