Project artwork

[Pyrovisionary]

I am the artist in a two man team creating a videogame, and I feel that my art needs improvement, and seeing as it's pixel art, I thought that I'd put it up here.

I liked the idea of a white outline but may remove it if nobody else likes it.
That is the main sprite and a small scene at a small size. Yeah. Sorry about the size. Nonetheless, C&C on the design would be much appreciated. As we are still deciding on the artstyle, etc. I will be posting a number of different styles.

[Manupix]

Looks good already.

The white outline would be useful because of the high-contrast bg. You might want to lower that instead.
Outlines are tricky and may lead to banding.

The sprite looks like he's going to fall forward.

My main issue would be with the palette, even though it looks good on the piece. Most colors have either 0 or 100% saturation: this will lead to problems in less urban settings. Also there's too many colors in the window reflections, they almost look like soft gradients.

[Pyrovisionary]

Looks good already.

The white outline would be useful because of the high-contrast bg. You might want to lower that instead.
Outlines are tricky and may lead to banding.

The sprite looks like he's going to fall forward.

My main issue would be with the palette, even though it looks good on the piece. Most colors have either 0 or 100% saturation: this will lead to problems in less urban settings. Also there's too many colors in the window reflections, they almost look like soft gradients.

I am going to change to a more simplistic but, hopefully, better artstyle on the sprite so that it is easier to animate for me at the moment.
With regard to contrast and saturation, I'm not sure that I can do much about that, I am currently using a pixel art program called aseprite http://www.aseprite.org/ Does anyone have any recommendations for art programs? Seeing as Aseprite now seems pretty limited to me.

[Manupix]

People use almost anything to pixel, from MSPaint to Photoshop. Some programs seem more specifically geared toward pixels, can't say which as I'm a PS user. Anyway I doubt very much aseprite wouldn't allow you to use whatever color you wanted. See 'change color' here. Maybe post a screen cap if you're not sure?

[Pyrovisionary]

I have found the saturation slider. Contrast I'm not so sure about though.
I also did that simpler sprite, though I have no animation to show for it.



So I got some gifs done! Here they are, I am afraid they're rather small though. Nonetheless, Criticism and Comments would be much appreciated:



Edited the Animations very slightly, corrected the head bob and added some extra frames to be edited at a later date for a fuller step back to the original sprite position.
Once again, criticism would be greatly appreciated.

[rosagi]

Hi Pyro, I'd think that a stark white outline might be a bit much , in order to bring out the sprite, perhaps tone down the use of full white and shoot for a little less contrast in the tonal/value range of background elements. I'd recommend pro motion for palette tweaking, though I'm not sure it's PAL format can be used in aesprite.

[Manupix]

I can't say much about the anims except a few nitpicks because I'm no spriter. They look good already but I'm sure they could be improved in fluidity and readability.
What is he doing exactly?
They have no shading whatsoever. Is this deliberate? I'm sure they could gain a lot in readability and presence with simple shading, unless there is a reason for not having any.
The main thing that bugs me is that the head is the same in all positions, it doesn't seem to be turning. If the guy isn't bald, give him some hair!

[HarveyDentMustDie]

It would be easier to comment if you could explain what we are watching. Is he trying to bludgeon someone or he is crazy bell ringer. Why you rotate his body for 180 deg, what you are trying to achieve? Also did you maybe used this as a reference ?

[Pyrovisionary]

Replies, yay! The of shading (Or lack thereof) is inspired by Rosier's sprites, yes. The movement is bludgeoning someone over the head with a cosh/baton. But the actual animation wasn't copied in any way at all. I sort of acted it out myself infront of a mirror and animated that. The advantage of not having shading is that I can add it in once the actual animation is right, and not have to worry about it until then. I find that it makes animation simpler with a low amount of frames. So I'll add some in when the movement, etc is perfect. I will also tone down the contrast If I can find out how.

And the guy is indeed bald, so shading will help make that clear.

Thank you very much or the criticism and I'll get working on it right away! 

EDIT: I fiddled about with the contrast, and to be honest I just don't like it with different contrast. It's just personal preference but.... Also, I had to transfer it to gimp to change the contrast so it's a bit much of an effort.

EDIT:EDIT:
I think that I am done with the animation, I'd just like your thoughts on this sprite of a guy bludgeoning something, before I move on to shading. I also have a background on the way for you guys! 

[HarveyDentMustDie]

Maybe you didn't copy his animation on purpose but you definitely took some elements subconsciously (the worst of them is rotating him for 180deg, it maybe work for his character but not for yours).

I sort of acted it out myself in front of a mirror and animated that.

Maybe you are not very good actor. I agree that he should shift his torso in order to show force of impact but rotating his hips and legs is unnecessary.

PS I've find this by searching Bludgeoning http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x162069_trailers-a-d-bludgeoning-angel-dokuro-chan_shortfilms WTF?