Mastering Fighter Sprite

[transilience]

Hi WotP!

I have this thread running on PJ but thought maybe I'd reach more eyes with a duplicate here!


Here's my current character - I tried to make her face much softer and also tried to stick to the structure in the image and work with the pixel area I have:



A gif showing the changes:



Also, here's a new stance I've been working on to give her a bit more personality and power:



And a transitional frame I'm working on to turn the above stance into an energy blast stance:

[lachrymose]

Hmm given how you have her legs and chest in such a position I'd modify the perspective on the shoulders a bit. Moving them in a lot would be a good start.

Something like this:



Also her neck is very thick and head quite small as well as her arms.

EDIT:
I did a quick edit for you just to show you the forms/silhouette.

[Decroded]

Great start but definitely things to fix before polishing.
for the idle stance:
first thing is balance - there needs to be more weight on that rear foot for her front foot to be raised like that. I think this could be done by moving the rear knee to the right and dropping it down a touch to bend it more. This should shift the weight. also front foot try raising the heel and put more pressure on the ball or toes?

next is proportions. load ur sprite next to some anatomy proportian references and you'll see the arms r too short amd she needs a bit more of a neck even if she is tucking in her chin. also head is a bit small so stretch that face and forehead up a few pixels imo.

consider turning the face a bit towards the camera instead of hard-on 90°.

also I cant tell if the shirt is tucked in or over the top. perhaps decide one and either draw the belt or overhang the shirt a bit more.

[jahasaja]

I must say that I disagree with critiques of the neck and body parts. I think you have been able defy conventions and actually draw  strong woman. Not a body builder but a proper strong woman. So I really think you should stick with that approach.

However, the face on the 2 lower pictures are not so good not sure what kind of expression you are trying to show.

Made a small edit:

[lachrymose]

It is possible to convey a strong woman and still be anatomically correct.
You should note that the arms in my edit are larger and thicker than in the original, while still maintaining a feminine form.
Take a look at female MMA fighters for inspiration on creating a proper female fighter body.

[cels]

Lachrymose's edit looks spot on in regards to the arms. In regards to the thickness of the neck, shoulders and hips, those things do vary a bit, so it just depends on who this character is. You can say that a female professional MMA fighter or an Olympic swimmer or basketball player may look very different from the average woman, but then you have to consider who this particular women is. Does she train 15-20 hours per week? I applaud anyone who tries to depict female fighters as strong and healthy instead of skinny models with huge boobs, but it can also go too far in the Marvel-direction sometimes.

The main concern for me is the head. It looks slightly too small, and the chibi-style eye which looks ok on a tiny sprite looks a bit too naive for suh a large one. Maybe this is some game art style I'm not familiar, but for me the eye looks better when it's either exaggerated in size (as with Chun Li in Street Fighter 2) or when you draw it more photorealistic so it just becomes a dark pixel cluster with no white at all (you normally have to be pretty close to see "the white in their eye").
Spoiler

Then again, I don't know squat about anatomy. I'm just padding my post count.

[jahasaja]

I am not disagreeing with arm length. But I think it is quite clear in Lachrymose edit that she looks less like a robust woman and more like a smaller woman.

All I am saying is that I liked the originality of the the thickness of her thighs, the wide shoulders, and wide torso, 2 of which disappeared in Lachrymose edit. All 3 are anatomical correct but perhaps less conventional.

 

[transilience]

Thanks for the input all!

I really appreciate your thoughts and analysis.

I do see a problem with the arm length thanks for pointing that out, I'll work on that and slightly adjust the shoulder structure too.

She's actually received a couple shrinks to her shoulders already but perhaps another pixel can be shaved.

She's definitely supposed to be athletic and not a traditionally figured woman, but more of a fighters build, if you look at this lineup of MMA women, you can see they have pretty broad shoulders:

They idea for the face is also to keep it clean (no makeup) and natural, while trying to preserve that feminine smoothness but also not go too far into "cartoon lamb" face territory. I definitely thought about the perspective of her face, but just like in the photo lachrymose posted, you can see that a fighting stance when viewed from the side typically has a 90 degree turn. That's why I put her face more in a 3/4 view for the charge up stance.

BTW jahasaja, she's supposed to be gritting her teeth in that facial expression, it's been hard for me to nail this down with just a pixel or two, I'll see if I can refine it some more to be more clear.

This is the reference I'm using for the 3rd stance (transitional stance) -

[jahasaja]

Perhaps something like this would make her look a little bit more aggressive like Ryu:

[transilience]

Thanks again all for the input, tips and advise.

I feel like she's really come together thanks to the varying ideas you lot have!

Here're my updates:




I suppose next I'll work on a blast stance, and some in-between frames, combine them and make this a full fledged animation!