Tentacle Perspective Conundrum

[Zizka]

Hello guys!

I'm trying to sprite a walking tentacle (inspiration: Day of the Tentacle) for a game. I'm having a really hard time with the ''RPG'' perspective. I've done 4 different attempts:









I always end up spriting them from a full front perspective when it should be ''3/4'' if that makes any sense.

I would really appreciate your help with this!!! 

[astraldata]

I would suggest emphasizing the 'S' shape a bit more, with the tip of the 'S' top pointing out a bit. The 3/4 view really would work best here in order to convey the 'tendril-ly-ness' of the creature.

[Zizka]

Hello!
While I like your edit, this isn’t what I’m looking for exactly. I misspoke, let me reformulate; I meant 3/4 from a bird's eye perspective, which is what I meant by rpg perspective  .

What I’m looking for is for my sprite to be in the same perspective as Link in this screenshot:



The problem I'm having is applying this perspective to the tentacle.

[PixelPiledriver]

Build a simple low poly 3d model and pixel over it.
I recommend 3dsMax, but there's many other alternatives.
Or take a photo of a paper cube or a dude made of playdo from above with your phone.

[astraldata]

Build a simple low poly 3d model and pixel over it.
I recommend 3dsMax, but there's many other alternatives.
Or take a photo of a paper cube or a dude made of playdo from above with your phone.

And if you're not *that* hands-on with your stuff, you can still use the 'S' idea (which I still highly suggest doing) but emphasize the bottom-half of the 'S' a bit less than I did in my edit. A straight line spine just makes your character look boring and completely unlike a 'tentacle' since people generally identify tentacles as wavy-wobbly tendrils, which emphasizes the 'organic' aspect of them I'm assuming you want. Emphasizing at least a slight curve, even from the front, helps a lot with this.

The biggest issue I had with making the form for my edit was your palette. Tweak that first. I had to tweak it a bit so that I could express the forms better.

Also there's no hueshifting in your sprite. I added some in my edit to make it a bit more interesting to look at. The difference is almost not noticeable -- but it really is.