[CC] Starting Class Animations

[Kellawgs]

Updated with the Huntsman, all four classes are shown here: Knight, Huntsman, Sorcerer, Vampire

Is the D2 influence too strong?

[Rosier]

Reminds me of Super Time Force in style and colors.

I feel like a druidic/hunter character typically wears robes and skins.  Maybe try green instead of brown if you're having trouble with colors?

Otherwise, I once saw a druidic type character that had a tree arm or something and thought it looked really cool.  Might help differentiate the arm from the body if they were different colors altogether.

[Kellawgs]

Bump.

New stuff here.

[Glak]

The chain should go straight down from the end of the handle.

[Kellawgs]

The chain should go straight down from the end of the handle.

Fixed, thanks!

No clue why it wasn't already like that haha.

[Skaz]

Really nice! Speaking of the chain, it looks like a rope, at least not like a chain. Maybe alternate tow different coloured pixels? light grey/dark grey for example.

[Kellawgs]

Unfortunately I cannot get the chain to look quite like a real chain right now, but keep in mind the weapons have not yet been detailed.

Bump, added a Vampire.

E- updated vampire with better colors

[Glak]

Nice improvement; these look really good.  Are you going to be able to animate them?  The level of detail in these is going to make the animation hard I think.

[Kellawgs]

Thanks for the reply, and yeah animation will go smoothly I think. I have a lot more experience with animation, and I only recently am doing this kind of art. I'll definitely keep you updated.

[Decroded]

cool sprites the skull is cute.

have u tested these against a variety of backgrounds?
I recommend getting a bunch of game screenshots (search "<GAMENAME> png" for good results) and seeing how they hold up against bright and dark backgrounds.
Vampire's sword for example totally lost against any dark background.

[Kellawgs]

cool sprites the skull is cute.

have u tested these against a variety of backgrounds?
I recommend getting a bunch of game screenshots (search "<GAMENAME> png" for good results) and seeing how they hold up against bright and dark backgrounds.
Vampire's sword for example totally lost against any dark background.

Yeah I've since adjusted the blade.

There are a few issues though, for example I think I need to recolor the knight completely because he can't even slightly hold up against a bright background. The planned game environments will be a little darker, closer to the mid-gray featured here, but I still think the knight is too shiny.

I would be really grateful if anyone helped me out in that regard.

[Decroded]

some ppl literally don't use backgrounds that don't suit their sprites.
some ppl saturate sprites heavily and desaturate backgrounds.
some ppl use outlines or sel-out where needed.
some ppl use non-pixel art post-effects such as lighting and glows to make poorly designed  sprites stand out against horribly bland dark grey backgrounds.
some ppl combine some or all of the above.

might be some other tricks ive not mentioned

[Kellawgs]

Hahah, alright, well I've considered throwing outlines on these, but I much prefer to look without them. I think I'll just keep the backgrounds darker.

[Decroded]

Hahah, alright, well I've considered throwing outlines on these, but I much prefer to look without them. I think I'll just keep the backgrounds darker.

well its a trend that is happening alot these days but something i know very little about so probably some other ppl here are better at working like that.
i suppose i have a more dated looking style and tend to stick to at least partial outlining and such.

some more basics i forgot to mention:
- colour temperature: warm pops out over cool
- detail: more smaller details attract attention so having a background that isn't flooded with small details helps sprites pop out
- contrast: sprites should have both strong contrast between light and dark but also strongly contrasting hues, where as a backgrounds should reduce contrast within itself through a smaller brightness range and often (but certainly not always) analogous palettes.

perhaps u know all this already but hopefully u got at least something out of that

[Kellawgs]

I'll keep these things in mind, I really appreciate the feedback and all.

In the mean time, I've recolored the knight and changed his stance a little (he looked a bit small before)


I've been spending a lot of time on these sprites as they're arguably going to be the most important in-game, and I still have one last class to make that I'm somewhat struggling with right now. It's probably best if I keep trying to be a perfectionist though.

[Kellawgs]

I've continued to mess with the knight colors, I still feel like he doesn't quite match.

I'm going to try to start working on the last class design here, which is the Huntsman... what do you guys think about his idle pose?

[Kellawgs]

I made a better skellington, not sure if it's final or not yet.

E- changed it up a bit more

E2- final version

[Decroded]

personally preferred the old skeleton i thought the skull looked great.
here's some suggestions u may or may not like.

[Kellawgs]

personally preferred the old skeleton i thought the skull looked great.
here's some suggestions u may or may not like.

I really like love that detail you got in the body, I don't know if I'd hold up in animating it though. Looks perfectly 'drowned undead' esque.

The old skull feels a little bird-like to me, and I prefer it to be the same size as the player but it wouldn't have actually fit inside the player's head.

[Kellawgs]

Bumped with the Huntsman class. I feel like the ponytail makes the Diablo II influence too obvious, should I mess with the hair?

Also, I'm wondering if the Vampire holds up in quality next to the other three, maybe he needs more contrast in his torso.

[Rosier]

I feel like the vampire needs to be paired down a bit.  He has a lot going on in terms of color and clothing, so it makes it a bit harder to read compared to the rest.


I'd make him a bit simpler or heighten the contrast between clothes.

[Decroded]

very rough but tried to squeeze some personality into a few of them...


i like the vibe of the colours but i feel like u could benefit from a few extra shades here and there and it might make sense to recycle more colours across the sprites.

[Kellawgs]

very rough but tried to squeeze some personality into a few of them...


i like the vibe of the colours but i feel like u could benefit from a few extra shades here and there and it might make sense to recycle more colours across the sprites.

Those look really incredible, there is definitely some more interesting vibes coming from these. I actually intended on each of these being as generic of a version of themselves as possible, very neutral, like a collection of absolute nobodies, plus they will be simpler to animate, but what you have would be more impressive in the end. I really appreciate the edits you do for me, they are certainly insightful.

I feel like the vampire needs to be paired down a bit.  He has a lot going on in terms of color and clothing, so it makes it a bit harder to read compared to the rest.


I'd make him a bit simpler or heighten the contrast between clothes.

I think I'll recycle some colors from his torso into his pants, I know that goes against the idea of contrast, but I feel this will help with readability.

[BatElite]

Messed with the knight a bit:



I wanted to try and make the ball a bit more defined, although it went a bit cubic in the process.
Also I'm not sure how the shield was lit, it looked rather weird.
The rest of the changes are mostly trying things out.

As for the vampire, it looks fine to me. I don't know what is going on with the sorcerers robe though.

[Kellawgs]

Messed with the knight a bit:



I wanted to try and make the ball a bit more defined, although it went a bit cubic in the process.
Also I'm not sure how the shield was lit, it looked rather weird.
The rest of the changes are mostly trying things out.

As for the vampire, it looks fine to me. I don't know what is going on with the sorcerers robe though.

Thanks for the edit, I've been struggling with the shield for sure and yours comes across as much more round. What do you mean about the robe? I probably have really horrible shading, haha.

Yeah I don't know much about pixels.

[Kellawgs]

I started doing some animation, here is a (very) rough draft of one of the basic run animations.

[Rosier]

Flail arm and the flail itself need a lot more movement, while the top of the plume could use a tiny bit.  It's impossible to hold your arm that still while running, plus the mace should be swinging at least a bit.


Other than that, it looks really smooth.

[Kellawgs]

Flail arm and the flail itself need a lot more movement, while the top of the plume could use a tiny bit.  It's impossible to hold your arm that still while running, plus the mace should be swinging at least a bit.


Other than that, it looks really smooth.

Thanks for the comment Rosier!



For now this is final, I cleaned it up a bunch and made it more dynamic.

[Ambivorous]

I just did this because I was practicing. Posting it here in case it helps.



Ask me if you want clarification on anything I did.

[Kellawgs]

I just did this because I was practicing. Posting it here in case it helps.



Ask me if you want clarification on anything I did.

You definitely breathed some new life into those guys, it looks rough of course but there are some great ideas in there. Nice stuff, and I appreciate the reply man.

[IrresponsibleFreelancer]

I know its too late and you already settled on the animation part and said you were done but i just wanted to say that no man no matter how string could hold up a flail like that and have it bounce so easily at that size (unless of course its a game and anything is possible or its stylistic) but i think that  (although it would take way more work in the long run) it would look really cool for it to drag ont the ground.  Also be careful with the facial hair, the one of the swordsman looks a bit like hitler with the short little square stache (sorry i had to say it)  and the archer looks like a goat a bit with the nose being the flat part and the line vertically being the mouth.