[WIP] 16-color palette sprites and tiles

[StarRaven]

Working on some animations for my lady demon sprite. (The bit I'm working on here is the bottom middle walk animation there. The rest is just scraps. Concept art, unfinished frames, human sprites for size reference, etc.) I feel like I'm making progress, little by little. The legs look okay to me individually, but I think the animation as a whole looks kind of choppy. I'd like to keep it to four frames, if possible, to match my other sprites. Here's what I've got so far, old to new:




<<most recent

Sorry for the background on the more recent sprites; I don't like them on the light-colored forum bg. They're meant for a significantly darker bg. Also sorry for that weird bobbing-head action going on in the more one of the gifs -- I was editing the standing frame to stand up straighter and I didn't fix two of the frames. No arms yet. I'll add them when I've got the rest of the sprite figured out, heh.

I'm thinking I really need to vary the colors on the legs to differentiate them but I'm not quite sure how to do it.

Almost forgot to mention: I'm working with a 16-color palette, not including that dark grey bg.

Always looking to improve it.

[Tapsu]

The tall black thing seems stiff, and could show a bit more impact when the foot hits the ground.
I doubt the latter can be done with so few frames.

The thing I would try first to reduce the general stiffness would be to a-sync the upper body movement slightly.

[StarRaven]

Still working on it. Starting to add arms but I'm not sure.


Testing out some outdoor tiles with the same palette.

[Tijjer]

Animation at this stage reminds me of the animation done in From the Abyss somewhat. 

[cels]

I'm getting a very feline vibe from the stills, but the animation looks very human to me. Have you considered a more feline walking animation? Like the hind legs of a cat, which barely lifts its feet above the ground, taking very long, smooth steps?

 I really like the sprites - every version of them - but the outdoor tiles don't do it for me. It's mostly the palette though, so it's easily fixed. The mud (?) with brown and grey/purple  is particularly disturbing. Maybe this is too generic and unoriginal, but I'd move closer to this, if you're just doing a plain grass and muddy outdoor scene.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't notice you were determined to use the same palette.

[Fizzick]

Still working on it. Starting to add arms but I'm not sure.


Testing out some outdoor tiles with the same palette.

Really pretty animation for how simple it is, could be a little faster. But there is no way that sickly looking grey brown earth works at all. I can barely make out details and it suits terribly with the rest of the really quite nice palette you're using.

[StarRaven]

Been fiddling with the animation some more but I don't have anything worthwhile to show for it yet.

I'm getting a very feline vibe from the stills, but the animation looks very human to me. Have you considered a more feline walking animation? Like the hind legs of a cat, which barely lifts its feet above the ground, taking very long, smooth steps?

My first instinct was to exaggerate it. I'll try out something more subtle to see what it looks like! Thanks for the suggestion!


Here's a test with the dark brown, but I think it's waaaay too high-contrast! I wasn't sure on that grey either but I just can't think of anything else.

I've noticed that I'm barely using that light pink in my palette, and I don't think I'm using it anywhere it can't be replaced with that orange/salmon color. I've been thinking that I needed a color between the light brown and the dark, but I don't know if another brown is very versatile....

[thebombsauce]

Just from a quick look I think the very dark brown holes are unnecessary and ruin what I think is otherwise a very good dirt tile.

[Johasu]

The dirt reads kinda rocky to me.  Very broken rough surface.
If you are going for more of a smooth surface maybe you can widen the highlight color out more to diminish the contrast some.
I agree that the holes feel a bit out of place as well.
Would it look this way under the grass?  Is this a road?  Why is the grass broken up in such a way?  Is it a riverbed?

A thought:  With the grass as relatively noisy as it is, perhaps you should contrast that texture with a much simpler soil.  Smooth it out and use the darker color to define heavy shadows. Then use a few elements such as pebbles scattered about to give it some depth and feeling.

The gray color muted the contrast in your soil and gave it this sort of look already.  Even though I didn't particularly enjoy the gray it made your grass elements pop out and stand apart.  Now I feel like the soil is competing.

[StarRaven]

The dirt tiles with the dark brown was just for comparison. I don't intend to actually use it. I just wanted to show that my alternative really wasn't ideal either. To be honest, I wasn't really looking for a lot of contrast in the dirt tile. Just enough to give it some texture. That grey was really the only color I thought worked at all.

But with comments like "disturbing" and "sickly looking" and "suits terribly" then I think I have to change it, haha.

I don't want to add another brown that I can't do anything else with. What about a greener grey...?

Hm. I dunno. Might be too green. Competes with the grass a bit.