AuthorTopic: [C+C] [WIP] Developing basic spriting skills  (Read 2123 times)

Offline Anapsys

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[C+C] [WIP] Developing basic spriting skills

on: December 05, 2014, 03:47:21 am
Hi. This'll be my first post here. I only recently started spriting (other than awful test graphics for Gamemaker), and I've been lurking here a while now.
I do know I'm probably outside the bounds of traditional color counts. I like my colors :p There was a tool I had bookmarked for analyzing color usage in a sprite, I can't find it now, if someone could link me to it I'd really appreciate it. Anyway here are a couple of my worksheets, feel free to critique anything:


Done without a grid. Here is a generic hero, some 3pic bl4dez, and an adorable marshmallow dragon resting on a pedestal.
Generic hero probably has some major anatomical problems, I can't really identify them.
Ignore the shadows if you can, I drew those to help myself understand the shape.


Here I used the hero as reference to make something more aesthetically simple, to use in this game concept of mine.
His pose really aggravated me on that first attempt, and I think the second version is at least getting there, as its lankier and more hunched. I also brought down the color count.
He's also strange in that I tried to make him out of a material that's wispy and smoke-like at the bottom but solidifies into muscle on top. I don't know how well that comes across or if it's even a good idea.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2014, 05:05:17 am by Anapsys »

Offline Decroded

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Developing basic spriting skills

Reply #1 on: December 05, 2014, 06:49:02 am
Good start  :y:
Its good that your background colour is low saturation and 50% brightness.
Some advice...

Poses:
The way the guy is standing is a bit stiff as well as boring.
Its mainly his arms are too straight down and his legs need some work.
The dragon pose doesn't seem balanced properly and his tail is just kind of hovering which makes him look like a statue (even a statue would do something more interesting).

Character design:
His face is so generic and the concerned look on his face just doesn't shout "badass warrior" to me.
His skin is too white for a guy who walks around with no shirt all day.
The pants and shoes just look like every day jeans, not very interesting.
So many large blades on his back and their angles just looks weird.

Colours:
There are several reasons not to use so many similar colours but ultimately your not doing anyone any favours.
So reduce your count to 2 or 3 shades per block.
Just flood fill the middle shades with existing colours you'll keep, then increase the contrast of whatever is left over (even just use your software's contrast tool).
Then you will want to look up "hue shift" and apply that to your palette.


Here's a similar kind of sprite I made recently lower res in case it helps.
Sorry its 2x scale its the only copy I can access from here...

Offline Anapsys

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Developing basic spriting skills

Reply #2 on: December 06, 2014, 12:13:37 am
Thank you for the feedback! Also the sprite reference helped. Not sure what "style" my work is most similar to ATM.
I found it funny that you pointed out how concerned the hero looked. He probably knows what kind of game he's being dragged into. :lol:

Here are some new characters (the guys from Knife Party/Pendulum) I made as practice, with the same scale as my previous characters.
I worked in a more limited palette (I didn't even use all of the colors) and tried a little hue shifting, mostly adding blue to the grays to make them "cool"er. Is this used for skin tones as well?
Coloring them may have been a little too easy, as they pretty much wear nothing but black.
I think these poses are much less "stiff", although Gareth's (the guy on the right) arms don't really work too well. Doing this made me realize how broken generic hero's arms look as well.
I'm not sure how much I can do about "generic faces" with the space I have. Any specific ideas?