[C+C] [WIP] Baddie for game critique thread. Thoughts?

[RedSuinit]

I am having a terribly hard time grasping the concept of proper AA and dithering. I am very new to pixel art (this is only my second piece) and would love a critique/advice. I am trying to make characters for a video game I am working on, and the artwork is the largest hurdle by far. I am a broke 1 man studio, so I can't afford an artist and am attempting to do it on my own. Let me know what you think of the piece. It's supposed to have an ape-like form. If anyone has advice for the color palette I would love to hear that as well.



Thanks everyone!

[Pusty]

I don't think AA is the problem here lol
I would recommend you study (does this word make sense here?) anatomy

[RedSuinit]

It's supposed to have an apelike appearance. Similar to that of a gorilla, and yes, the head is supposed to be exaggerated in size.

[dpixel]

AA is supposed to smooth out curved lines basically.  Are you going further with this?  Adding a face, etc?  Would like to see more.
Over all it looks correct.  Maybe the head would cast a shadow on its chest though. 

[RedSuinit]

AA is supposed to smooth out curved lines basically.  Are you going further with this?  Adding a face, etc?  Would like to see more.
Over all it looks correct.  Maybe the head would cast a shadow on its chest though.

I guess I should be more specific, the outside edge of the face. I know that inherently, pixel art will look blocky, but I feel like the outside curve of the head just looks a little too jagged, and I am at a complete loss on how to improve that for a piece that is going to be used in a game, with numerous backgrounds behind it. Yes, it will be getting a face, I just haven't started on it yet. I wanted to get the basic form down before continuing onto facial structure, and other smaller details.

[dpixel]

If it's on the outside of the sprite and on different backgrounds there's not much you can do unless you build an AA algorithm into your game(not worth it imo).   A lot of sprites are outlined in black or a dark color so it will pop on different backgrounds. 
AA is done with an intermediate color to soften jaggies.  Say your sprite outline was black and your background was white, you would use a gray(sparingly) to AA.  Too much and it'll look blurry.
I would just focus on a nice looking sprite.   

[RedSuinit]

EDIT:


So I guess I will just turn this into a critique thread. I am contemplating not giving him a face, but instead having his head split open and some form of attack comes from the open head. Not sure yet. Thoughts on the latest revision?

[Decroded]

what software packages do u have?
u can AA to transparent but it doesn't seem stylistically suitable here.

Some things u can do in terms of outlining:
- fill ur canvas with 50% grey when developing sprites. display them like this too when u post.
- increase contrast inside the sprite so the outline isn't so harsh.
- avoid pure black outlines.
- I often lean towards a dark redish hue for outlines as this warmer colour tends to separate the sprite from coolor backgrounds. Typically somewhere around 50% saturation is strikes a good balance between a range of backgrounds.
- use the outline colour selectively in the most shadowy areas or where u really need a dark line to separate forms inside the sprite because u can't use colour/value separation.
where the light is hitting eg top of head, switch up to the darkest shade up from the outline.  this is where the ramp ur using is important as mentioned above re contrast.

u can even go a shade lighter in the brightest areas.
the concept here is that bright parts of the sprite already pop against dark to mid-bright backgrounds, so u only need a mid-bright outline to separate it from bright backgrounds.
finding the balance helps make the lines less harsh while still serving their purpose.

[RedSuinit]

what software packages do u have?
u can AA to transparent but it doesn't seem stylistically suitable here.

Some things u can do in terms of outlining:
- fill ur canvas with 50% grey when developing sprites. display them like this too when u post.
- increase contrast inside the sprite so the outline isn't so harsh.
- avoid pure black outlines.
- I often lean towards a dark redish hue for outlines as this warmer colour tends to separate the sprite from coolor backgrounds. Typically somewhere around 50% saturation is strikes a good balance between a range of backgrounds.
- use the outline colour selectively in the most shadowy areas or where u really need a dark line to separate forms inside the sprite because u can't use colour/value separation.
where the light is hitting eg top of head, switch up to the darkest shade up from the outline.  this is where the ramp ur using is important as mentioned above re contrast.

u can even go a shade lighter in the brightest areas.
the concept here is that bright parts of the sprite already pop against dark to mid-bright backgrounds, so u only need a mid-bright outline to separate it from bright backgrounds.
finding the balance helps make the lines less harsh while still serving their purpose.

Thank you for all of those tips! I appreciate the feedback. I will try and play around with all of that. I just wish I could dedicate more time to this. I have a 50-60 hour a week job, wife and kids. So I only get maybe an hour a day to develop and create. I would love to do this full time, but I have a family to support, so I can't just focus on this, no matter how badly I want to. Oh well, maybe after 2-3 years of development the game will do well enough I can support my family this way. Doubt it, but who knows.

[RedSuinit]

EDIT:



One last edit for the night. The mouth will spread open until the top half of the head will be nearly gone, and then some sort of attack will come out.

[Pusty]

Great improvements!
I like the shading you did there!
Although the left legs stills looks out of place to me.
I can't really see how it connects. maybe that's just me tho

wish you luck with your game developing! ^^

[RedSuinit]

Great improvements!
I like the shading you did there!
Although the left legs stills looks out of place to me.
I can't really see how it connects. maybe that's just me tho

wish you luck with your game developing! ^^

Are you saying you feel like the hips are too wide? Or that the whole hip needs to be shifted to the right?

[Pusty]

I don't really know that's the problem.
I'm not good enough to tell O:

[RedSuinit]

I don't really know that's the problem.
I'm not good enough to tell O:

Haha



Just imagine this gorilla rotated to match my sprite. I made the shoulders broader, but I wanted it that way. Looking at it again though, I may try and move the left shoulder forward with my next edit.

[Johasu]

Don't be afraid to play around with the anatomy.
A few tweaks and some rounding can really make a difference.
I made a quick edit playing around with it myself.
Rotated that back hip more forward facing, pulled the shoulders out and made some changes to make the arms feel stronger.
Gave the back a bit more length so it wouldn't feel so elbowed in the midsection.

[RedSuinit]

Don't be afraid to play around with the anatomy.
A few tweaks and some rounding can really make a difference.
I made a quick edit playing around with it myself.
Rotated that back hip more forward facing, pulled the shoulders out and made some changes to make the arms feel stronger.
Gave the back a bit more length so it wouldn't feel so elbowed in the midsection.

Wow, what a great edit. That makes the whole character just feel more powerful.

[RedSuinit]

I think due to my very limited time, I may switch to smaller pixels. Instead of a 64 x 64 workspace,  I'm going to switch to a 32 x 32 workspace.

[Decroded]

I think due to my very limited time, I may switch to smaller pixels. Instead of a 64 x 64 workspace,  I'm going to switch to a 32 x 32 workspace.

actually you'll probably find that more challenging imo.
Id recommend to stick with this canvas size its quite a good balance.
one thing to keep in mind is don't  think inside the box for sprites.
Most nice sprites well overhang their primary collision box in a game.
I often start out by enabling the grid in my software, paint in the bounding box then sketch the sprite on a layer above.
quite often I'll have another sprite or 2 nearby in the same canvas to keep the scale consistent.

[RedSuinit]

I think due to my very limited time, I may switch to smaller pixels. Instead of a 64 x 64 workspace,  I'm going to switch to a 32 x 32 workspace.

actually you'll probably find that more challenging imo.
Id recommend to stick with this canvas size its quite a good balance.
one thing to keep in mind is don't  think inside the box for sprites.
Most nice sprites well overhang their primary collision box in a game.
I often start out by enabling the grid in my software, paint in the bounding box then sketch the sprite on a layer above.
quite often I'll have another sprite or 2 nearby in the same canvas to keep the scale consistent.

More challenging, but possibly less time consuming? Animating a sprite this big is going to take a long time, but maybe I'm wrong in thinking that one will take longer than the other? I feel like animating a smaller sprite would take less time, but maybe not. Honestly I wish I knew a good pixel artist to team up with and just split the profits from the game with, but alas. I'm too OCD to release something that looks bad. I have nearly all of the framework and coding done, now all I need is artwork.

[RedSuinit]

Thoughts? I reduced the pixel size to a 32X32 canvas instead of 64x64.

[Joe]

I would focus on visual priority, the back half should be the darker shade so we can get a sense of depth, right now it's got a mostly flat papery feel. Push your values a little more. I'll try for an edit tomorrow.

[Joe]

   

In addition to what I said, try to make strong poses, make your characters more individual or dynamic.

[RedSuinit]

   

In addition to what I said, try to make strong poses, make your characters more individual or dynamic.

Wow. I love what you did with the sprite, though I think the wrist may be bent a tad too much on the right. It looks broken.