Sci-fi Portraits

[Seiseki]

Been a while since I've dabbled with pixel art, I made these just for fun, it's for some kind of tactical space ship game. (Which may or may not turn into an actual game.)
I've been studying up on manga style faces, mostly for the mouths which I always have a hard time with.
At first I tried doing the faces at an angle, but it would be too much work for multiple animated portraits with different expression.

I'd like to make more parts of the face to change when they talk, but I'm not entirely sure how.
I'm also not sure if the helmets look different enough to easily tell them apart, I'm thinking of having different colors but that might look messy.



Another idea I have is having a 'near death' state, in addition to the 'wounded' state, where the head is angled down and the eye sockets are just dark.
Here is an animation displaying how it looks when they talk and take damage.

[CombustibleNate]

Wow, that's pretty cool. We actually are using a similar concept in a game I am working on with a friend.  What I did with my ani (not as nice as yours) was add cracks to the actual readout for the ships modules. So as the damage worsened you could visibly see it affecting the hull.













So maybe you can show particle effects (sparks, metal bits, etc.) flying around the character or their helmets showing damage as well. A kill frame would be awesome as well.

EDIT: Ah, looking more closely, I do see the final frame does actually have helmet damage... Sorry about that. You still might want to consider showing progression since it's so immediate.

[JustinGameDesign]

I don't think you need to change the colors. The portraits seem distinct enough. If it were a situation where I only had time to briefly glance at them before moving on I might prefer color differences, but if it's for dialogue, the player should have time to appreciate each portraits distinguishing features.

[Seiseki]

I never saw the replies to this thread sorry!

I really need to keep the amount of frames short though, so I'm not overwhelmed with the amount I'm gonna have to do.. That's why there is only one damage state.
Maybe I could add particles in the background and more light flashes or interference to disguise the transition.

I've been working on these a bit on and off..
Biggest improvement have been increasing the size of them, because their chins were too close to the edges and felt very cramped.

Here is some progress I've achieved today.







That robot looks like he's laughing because I move the shoulders up and down, I just wanted some extra movement to make it look more interesting.
The things on the sides of his head moves too which might be a bit goofy. It looks like ears wiggling.

[Decroded]

These r great dude u keep getting better all the time 
I personally think some kind of colour on helmets would be good.
perhaps someone has red and white decals, some has black with orange decals etc.
up to u though they look cool like this too

[Seiseki]

@Decroded, yeah by splitting these into layers I can definitely do some helmet variations. I feel like they really need some color because they are mostly just blue..

This is a really late reply, but I started working on this again to improve it further..
Been studying scanlines and image distortion and thought I'd have another go a it..

I replaced the blue with green, since that's the palette for the GUI right now. I thought the blue look a bit too gentle and calm, not really a sci-fi blue.



It looks a bit cramped with the GUI frame I added. I'll probably change the color since it's so strong that it takes focus from the characters face.
 But I really like the offset distortion. It looks more real now.
The animation probably needs more impact in the camera shake, it's very gentle.

Edit: Testing out a paperdoll approach to space suits. Works pretty well so far.

[Seiseki]

Still working on these now and then..
Decided to go in a different direction by painting a cockpit in the background. The colored backgrounds were too bright and the scanlines make them look quite messy..
The HUD elements also distracted too much so I removed them.





And the chicken suit looks much less like a chicken.





edit:

Shoulders looked a bit ridiculous, I fixed that a long time ago, but this animation was using the old portraits.
That stuff happens when you confine yourself to a small frame, I should just draw the entire upper body in a bigger frame that I can crop later.



edit2:

Added some flashing lights..

[jams0988]

These are pretty great, but I'm not sure about the shoulders on the yellow suit. I know what you're trying to go for (we've all played Metroid, hahah!), but it kind of feels like her shoulders have been dislocated and pulled up four inches. :x

I love these in general, though. New animation is looking good. =)

[Seiseki]

The shoulders inside the suit aren't supposed to be centered in the "ball". But considering the size of the suit, they should probably be increased in size.

The amount of times I've changed this design, I end up changing some details every time I as much as glance at it..
I wanted it to be yellow since it's a mining suit and not a combat suit. But I'm such a coward when it comes to colors, I think the steel one looks so much better.. Yet I can't have everything in gray scale.. 

I added more back structure to balance out the suit, since I imagine it's gonna need to be stable due to it's weight.





Here are some old ones for comparison. I really like the one in the middle, so I'm planning on using that.



Edit: It's addictive, I can't stop designing these suits
They're so gritty and detailed, I really should try to keep them simple, but I get this urge to just add more detail..