AuthorTopic: BboyKrillins fighting game art dump  (Read 4956 times)

Offline bboykrillin

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BboyKrillins fighting game art dump

on: January 27, 2016, 12:22:59 am
Hey everyone. I'm BboyKrillin and I'm pretty nervous about my first post here. Please excuse me if I start to babble.

So this is my first attempt at pixel art animation. My background prior to this is digital illustration so adding movement into the mix is a whole new world for me! I'm working on a fighting game concept and this is going to be one of the characters in the game. I'm inspired by the classic Capcom games from the late 80s, early 90s

I've been slowly chipping away on this particular animation for quite some time trying to figure out things like an art style I was happy with, or the levels of detail I want to put into this and subsequent characters. It's been a labour of love!


For anyone interested my tools are Wacom, ToonBoom Studio, Photoshop, The Animators Survival Kit by Richard Williams and far too much coffee.

Cheers

Offline DracoDragon42

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Re: BboyKrillins fighting game art dump

Reply #1 on: January 27, 2016, 02:11:02 am
Wow, this animation is really smooth and really good! The only thing I would change is to make the bounce on the bottom of the pants a little bit lower. Just wondering, how many frames is this, because it looks amazing!

Offline Gil

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Re: BboyKrillins fighting game art dump

Reply #2 on: January 27, 2016, 08:24:50 am
I'm going to do more of an art direction critique here, to get the full picture. It's obviously a lovely piece of pixels and animation.

- Concept is pretty utilitarian, but I can get behind that, not every design needs to have a cape and a prominent scar. The watch element and the little tool, combined with those lovely boots convey the character plenty.
- Gesture and pose look good to me, it's pretty dynamic, but for things other than idles, you'll have to push it of course
- Colors could use some work, I'm not feeling the interaction between the brown and the yellow and on this background at least, the browns feel a bit dark. I'll try to do an edit when I get home.

Now on to the main thing that I am worried about. I don't think I know of any fighting style that would produce an idle like that. He seems to be putting more energy into going down, than going up, so I'm expecting a fighting style based on swift movements, after which you reground yourself. I've seen wrestlers do something similar. So sure, it's possible to work with this, but the question is: what's your background in martial arts, movement studies or any other relevant experience? You'll be coordinating a lot of fighting styles for a game like this and you need a way to make sense of that. You could look up the basics of each fighting technique, look up manuals for a few standard moves (Youtube makes all of this so much easier these days) and then animate rough drafts and post those on message boards for the relevant martial art for critique. You need a game plan though for realistic combat styles though, do you have one yet?

Offline bboykrillin

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Re: BboyKrillins fighting game art dump

Reply #3 on: January 27, 2016, 11:28:44 am
Cheers guys for the feedback.

Draco: Thanks mate, I must admit to have struggled with the pants for quite some time. While I'm pretty happy with them at the minute you've got me thinking that adding an extra pixel or two at the bottom of the bounce might make them look a little more dynamic and give the illusion of a snap that I've been trying to get. I'll have a go when I get a chance either tonight or tomorrow.

The whole idle is eleven frames. Three more than I originally wanted but it was the only way I could keep it smooth and give him as much character as possible. It was a learning experience.

Gil: Thanks for the writeup mate. I'll mention a couple of things so you can see where I'm coming from with the design and get an idea of what this guy is all about. The character is a working class guy from Victorian-era England so his colour palette is a little drab to reflect the style of the day. It's functional clothing, nothing fancy as he wouldn't have the budget for that. There's more to him than the period where he's from but I'll let the animations I produce later reveal more about his background and abilities ;D His actual fighting art is based off of Bartitsu, an early turn of the century fighting system developed by Edward William Barton-Wright from a variety of sources.

My own background in martial arts is Judo, Boxing, Capoeira and Muay Thai (Although these days I'm more into my breakdancing than anything else  :lol: ).

I have to say I'm not too fussed about trying to recreate authentic stances for any specific martial art. There's enough characters out there from various franchises with downright funky looking, or just impractical idles. All of which have never taken anything away from the character to me. I've always seen them as a means to give the character life on screen. Not to tell a story or limit them to a specific style. That's just my opinion mind. I'm not trying to step on anyones toes here or disregard what you're saying.

The game I'm developing is both a tribute to the games I grew up with (I had the first Street Fighter on cassette for my ZX Sinclair to give you an idea how damn old I am) and an excuse to put my friends and I into a game where we can beat the hell out of each other with fireballs and such. The characters will either have a martial art background or be some sort of brawler depending on what backstory I create for them (based on their personality and/or actual physical traits). I currently have five planned but will roll out more once I'm a little deeper into the project.

Again thanks for the feedback guys!

Offline Gil

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Re: BboyKrillins fighting game art dump

Reply #4 on: January 27, 2016, 02:14:34 pm
Sounds like you're right on top of everything then :)

Your description of the character is exactly what I got when I first saw him too.

When I get home I'll try to do a few color edits for you. I think you can get some more vibrancy out of both the watch and the browns.

Offline bboykrillin

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Re: BboyKrillins fighting game art dump

Reply #5 on: January 27, 2016, 02:33:28 pm
Cool. I look forward to seeing what you come up with  :)

Offline Gil

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Re: BboyKrillins fighting game art dump

Reply #6 on: January 27, 2016, 02:50:50 pm
Tried to slightly get the yellow to work better with the brown, I think more can be done if I had more time.

Offline Ambivorous

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Re: BboyKrillins fighting game art dump

Reply #7 on: January 27, 2016, 06:09:18 pm
Welcome to the boards!
Loving this.

Using Gil's colours as a base, I just wanted to look at a few things (bare in mind you can click images to make them larger).



So we'll start from the top.

His hair was hard to read. I didn't really get the shape of it and the shading seemed to be all over the place. Same with his beard.
I did some small stuff like changing lighting and making his eyeball bigger, so do have a look and see if you can get ideas.

His skin in general has lots of speculars, even on bits not facing the light source, so I removed those.
I also did some colour reduction. Removing quite a few unnecessary colours over the whole piece that I felt weren't essential. Fewer colours means a much easier time animating.

His watch and chain. Way too much light reaching it. Even his pants are in shadow and yet the chain and watchface were receiving full light. I could have removed even mroe light and it would still look realistic, so keep that in mind. Your watch face looked a little weird, so I changed that as well.

Finally his right foot. The knee indicates to me that his foot is outwards facing, and honestly if your knee is sticking out that that it's gonna be hell to twist your foot back in.
Either make his knee point more forward, or twist his foot as I've done.


I have some things to say about the animation as well, but I'll wait for some of your updates in case you address them (and before I spent hours of my life on an edit that isn't needed/wanted).  :y:
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Offline bboykrillin

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Re: BboyKrillins fighting game art dump

Reply #8 on: January 28, 2016, 01:09:00 am
Thanks for taking the time to look at this guys. You've given me lots to think about.

Gil: It's a subtle difference but I do see what you're getting at. I'll take a shot at adjusting the colours in his pants to complement the chain more. Cheers.

Ambivorous: Thanks for the feedback. With regards to the hair. It's partly shaved round the sides and long on top (He's a Victorian hipster :D). It's pretty much like my own hair after a couple of days post shaving. I might have to recolour it a bit to get a better sense of the scalp peaking through. Good shout on moving the shadow on the bottom part of his scalp to the back. Don't know what I was thinking with it in the middle

I appreciate the comments on his skin but after you took away the additional tones I put onto him I've found he looks rather flat and lifeless in my opinion. I have no problem putting the time in to get the shades as I want. It's one of the few parts of the process that I really enjoy  :)

The knee is a solid crit. It's bothering me now that I can see it. I want to keep the boot as it is as I like how it's come out so I'll rework the knee itself. I think a subtle adjustment to the inner leg and a bit of work on the highlight will sort that out.

Cheers again

Offline bboykrillin

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Re: BboyKrillins fighting game art dump

Reply #9 on: February 02, 2016, 10:37:33 pm
Hey guys, well I reworked that knee and spent some time making some adjustments here and there. I think it's helped a lot and I'm pretty happy with the result.



Cheers