[WIP] [C+C] Sidescrolling Platformer Sprite

[jackjokezz]

Hello Everyone!

I'm new to the forum (first topic whoot [smile]) and I've been seeing that everyone here's been getting some really good critique! Well long story short, I've got this sprite of mine that I've been playing around with and I can't quite get him to look the way I want. I feel like his shoulder's a bit off, the colors are kinda messed up, and my shading is terrible, but I don't really know which direction to head into?

I'm honestly just looking for someone to tell me everything wrong with my sprite so I can learn because I've been dying to improve my skills so I can start animating this guy. Any help at all though would be much appreciated thanks!



Some other stuff too

• The atmosphere is meant to be very dark and gritty
• I started with Castlevania's gothic and realistic kind of sprites as inspiration
• I tried to make it look like he was wearing baggy cargo shorts and sneakers, but I'm not sure how readable that is to someone else?
• He's meant to have short hair, kind of like Dante from DMC:Devil May Cry, but hair is really difficult for me to show in pixel art if it's not long. Tips?
• Does he look insanely stiff, or is it just me?

Oh yeah and just a heads up, I'm new to the whole forum thing so I hope I used the tags right (WIP = WorkinProgress & C+C = Comments and Critique?) thanks again!

[AlcopopStar]

Hey Jack,

Welcome to the forum!

I like your lil dude, good pose and a nice amount of character from such few pixels is a good start.

Your image does have a few problems though, hopefully highlighted in my edit:



Might of taken the design in a "jockier" a direction then your after, but I hope you get where I am coming from.

I tried for a blockier approach, it's good to get your base shapes down with some solid contrasting colours. At this size (and I do recommend you post x2, monitors are a bit higher res then they used to be ;p) readability is the most important thing, you can get a bit fancier with your shading sure, but only after you have readability down. I also eliminated all the outlines for this reason, you don't have enough pixels to work with to really make them super viable.