[WIP][C&C] Basic Player Sprite

[Lighterthief]

Hello guys,

I'm hoping to get some help/critique on a basic player sprite I've been working on for a game in dev. First time I'm posting here, but I've lurked for a while. My main profession is being a painter, but I love pixelart. It's been trial and error and I'm always looking to learn so hopefully me posting here will help me further.











The game will be very "outfit" orientated, so the outfits here are just the first I made. But the basic sprite should be suitable for lot's of different outfits/armors etc. At least that's what I'm aiming for.
I'm having a few issues with the front view, though I'm sure there are more. I'd love some feedback in general and tips to improve the sprite.

Last thing I was working on is the front view idle position of the male sprite. It looks rather odd and too buffed. I have a few attempts but I can't seem to get it right. The last one down here looks good with clothes imo, but odd nude, as if he pushes his belly outside.



Anyway, thank you for your time and help in advance.

~LT

[Seiseki]

These are awesome! I love how smooth and shiny they are, the female hair looks great!

The animations are quite choppy though, he snaps left/right when running which looks odd and the head looks jittery..

[Decroded]

Great sprites.
Can't see too well viewing on phone but 2 things seem apparent...

Down facing running sprite head seems to have a weird jiggle to it. Could be something to do with phone not sure.

Up facing standing sprite I feel like the feet are a bit weird like there's a step or uneven ground there. It's like the further away foot is 1 or 2 pixels too high maybe

[Cyangmou]

Art is mostly fine, except what Decroded said.
The pixel placement and cleanness could be improved significantly.

The point where you have to be careful is that the sprites look stylewise, proportion wise and animation frame wise exactly like Seiken Densetsu 3 Sprites.
The outfits are in details different, some style choices look uncanny similar.
I am not saying that you ripped it off, but people who don't have a deeper insight could easily confuse them with SD3 sprites and accuse you to have ripped of that game.

To be completely sure I would go either with your own proportions, your own pixel artstyle or your completely own animation style, so that it looks clearly different and is easy to tell apart as something unique.

[Lighterthief]

Thanks for replying all

@Seiseki & @Decroded Of the 6 frames 3 are mirrored, so that explains the snapiness. In the sideviews the head twists left to right while running, so I wanted to do the same effect in the front view. I think it causes the shakiness in the frontview because it conflicts with the mirror movement. I could try to center the sprite more so it doesn't snap when it's mirrored.

I can see what you mean with the up facing standing sprite, he doesn't look grounded indeed, thanks!

@Cyangmou I can see what you mean, proportions are quite different actually from seiken though. I'm not too worried about it being too similar. While I did look at seiken sprites for inspiration(among many other sprites from other games) I build these from scratch. But no doubt they look more like seiken then zelda e.g. I feel this mainly comes from using the 6 frames + mirroring half and using a similar bright color palette though, which isn't a crime.

Any tips for pixel placement and cleanness of sprites?

[Probo]

for me the weird jiggle in the downward walk is a couple of things;

the little glance to the side is on a strange frame. it would be less jittery if it was on the frame before he shifts to the left or right. also maybe have him move less from left to right and back again.

just a copy/paste edit -  

with the redheaded female in particular, theres a square of the image around the face is shifting from left to right on the glance frames, but the head isnt. cant move the face without moving the head!

[Lighterthief]

Good points, that does look better. I based the eye/movement on real life where your head is probably most turned left or right when the arms are swung furthers forward/backward. But it happens to be the frame where he shifts left or right. I'll mess around a bit with that. Thanks a bunch for all the feedback so far, much appreciated.

[Lighterthief]

Yikes, been a while since I posted. Finally had some time to re-work the (male)sprite. I tried to clean up the 'messy' places, jigged lines, jiggely front view, etc,  the best that I could and changed the body here and there. I removed the lateral shift in the backview as well, but it looked rather static and odd, so I kept the shift. It was mainly the front view that looked odd I suppose.
 


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[hawken]

these still seem to suffer from the "jiggle" in the face. Would probably be best to either move the entire head from side to side or just leave the face from moving from side to side.

[Ichigo Jam]

I you want the side-to-side head movement, I think it would look better with 2 frames to the left, 1 frame centered, 2 frames to the right, 1 centered.

Like this: