[WIP][C+C]Sprites for an RPG

[Jappio]

A friend and I are working on an RPG. He's in charge of things like coding and the game itself. It's being made on RPG maker. I'm in charge of the sprites.

The perspective of the game is similar to Final Fantasy, with a side view of characters in battle. Each character will have 2 or so animations for basic battle actions: Attack and Magic/item. In the future, perhaps some extra animations for special attacks and the such.

Here is a very crude mock up of what things are going to kind of look like? (Not made in game engine, so this is very conceptual and janky. Here for basic idea, not actual game appearance)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5psTATW6zY

Newest Stuff:



This is Vargas, a mimic who likes to be flashy. This is his basic attack animation. I plan to add a frame at least between the first two, but not sure where else I might need inbetweens yet.

The rest of the cast is below. So far I'm just creating a single animation for each just to get them done. I'll go back and add the type of animation they don't have yet later. So if you want an idea of what things are looking like, that's where to go.

The other characters so far:
Spoiler: Other Sprites

We have Ryu, the games main character. A young fox man set out on adventure!

Raizou, the team's power hitter. An Asgardian beefy guy with the power of electricity, sent to worlds by Thor to recruit new warriors.

Shun-Yu, a Chinese hopping vampire. A real goofy guy.

Shroomette, our white mage. She's very clearly not a fully original character.

Ray our White/Black mage.

[Jappio]

Well, I've gotten the gist of Vargas done now. A few detailing work needs to be done, but that can be for another time I'm thinking. However the frames and such should be good. I also have a flamey sword variant due to the request of the characters creator. Chances are, the flaming version will be for certain skills and not basic attacks, but who knows.

[Jappio]

Well, I'm not dead, which is good.

My usual spriting time was taken from me, and so many things have kept me busy (Oh Smash Bros, you're so wonderful). However with school, I actually have a few new oppurtunities to sprite thanks to a class being in a computer lab. So, here's a new member of the team, Professor Anouto!



A scientist who will act as a black mage, though instead of spells, he'll use his inventions. Flamethrowers, freeze rays, and typhoon missiles will be his way of attacking.

[melbow]

I don't have much to say, but I like your new character more than the previous. The previous looks very rigid to me, probably because of his front arm being outstretched awkwardly. Also be careful with your light source. Be sure to keep it consistent. And it looks to me like the light source is up and left a bit, which if your characters are ever to face the other way, would cause you to have to draw a second set of everything to keep your light source correct.

[Jappio]

Thanks Melbow, glad that you like Anouto.

As for the rigid arm, I'm hoping that is sort of undone when I do an idle animation, and it starts moving around a bit. I do admit having some issue with arms that aren't doing anything, never sure where to put them =P

I will also be sure to be careful with light sources. Luckily, these are just battle sprites, and the characters will always appear on the right side of the screen, and will typically always be looking left (unless I do an animation that makes them about face).

Thanks for the comments =)

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Well, I've gotten an animation going for this one already. An animation for his basic attack, and probably some of his 'magic' actions as well.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

Since you have anticipation before ray going out of the gun, what do you think about this? It looks more cool.

[Jappio]

Thanks Harvey, that does look really cool, but perhaps a bit too cool. I'd feel sort of guilty if I went and used your idea like that too. I instead just shortened the anticipation, as there was a bit much of it for a basic attack like this.

I also did a few other small changes that were suggested to me.

[Jappio]

This is Myobu, another fox person for the party. Her colors are undecided so far, but this is what we're thinking about for the time being.

[Jappio]

The frames are unfinished and lack proper detail, but this is the general motion and frame count I think I'm going to go for.

[Jappio]

So I got the face, added the tail (that took far too long to get it to the point its at) and worked with some of the timing and leg positions. Still plenty of things to add, her flappy bits and shield primarily.

[AlcopopStar]

The colours in the shading on this latest image are very close together, to the point that they are almost redundant. More contrast may be helpful.

The characters are also suffering from mitten hands and feet a little, this is a tough issue as pixeling hands is difficult at this resolution, but maybe look at some of 1ups characters?
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/87136.htm

If you ignore the head size his bodies there are almost the same size as yours, and i've always found his method for tackling hands to be pretty elegant.

[Jappio]

Well I got to some of the bits of critique. Faster, some work on hands, adding in the extra details, and some upped contrast. If this is good, then I have a form of battle animation for all the characters (alternate animations, like idles, or other kind of attacks, would be next then). Of course also tinkering with previous ones too.

[Jappio]

Got idles going for half the cast.

[CelioHogane]

Toadette, is that you?