[c+c] simple rpg scene // houses + characters

[faun]

http://imgur.com/EynOkHU
^ here is the full scene i've created in rpg maker mv (( its super big sorry )) and below are the individual characters!! what i'd like help on on are the houses - mainly the wood exterior and maybe the perspective of the roof - and the simplicity of the characters. i can't seem to fit arms on them in a way that looks good and idk if they're like..too simple? although my style is v simple in general!! anyway yeah any kind of advice would be great!! (( the characters are all from the same basic model so if you help me with one of them all should fit accordingly ;; that way you don't have to look critically @ all of them tbh ))



anyway yeah any help would be awesome!! this game is kind of a weird exploratory project based on cutesy graphics with an express lack of a specific plotline... it's basically a mix between animal crossing//magicians quest and something more experimental, mostly focused on building relationships and experience in order to grow as a person. a lot of my work right now is surrounding the idea of gentle coexistence, so thats kinda what I'm going for here. just a general feeling of blanket forts and soft lighting and airy coolness idk haha.

[kilenc]

first off, i'm absolutely in love with your style; the flatness and shapes convey a very sweet tone. only a few suggestions:

you tried shading the deer, but I don't think you need to. if you want, shade all of them, but with much greater contrast between shades, and conveying the shape of the head more (the deer's shading is just a circle, doesn't show its shape). however, i really like the flat style, because I think it adds volumes to the design of the game.

some frames of your sprites have sloppy borders, especially the first frame of walking right cycle; some other borders, like the first cat's tail in the sideways frames, have sharp right angles, which contract from the otherwise smooth elegance of your characters.

animation wise, only two things stick out. first, your walking animations are very stylistic, and I think they'd work well. however, there's no head bob, so in practice they probably seem wierd (real people go up and down when walking) try adding a head bob on the frame you think the character is lowering her(?)self toward the ground. second, the deer's head doesn't ever turn right when walking right, while all the others do.

as for your screenshot, the house really sticks out because, unlike the rest of your sprites, it lacks a border, has shading, and used saturated colors. all these things detract from the cartoony, sincere style of your characters. the house is also out of perspective (so is the bush): we see part of the roof (like a birds-eye view), but we don't see part of the top of the head of the characters (it's a flat view). choosing a perspective to stick with would give a huge visual unity boost to the game.

all the critiques aside, I love the expressiveness of your characters. the fox, especially, conveyed a wonderful sense of the character through its eyes. I hope to see more!

[faun]

first off, i'm absolutely in love with your style; the flatness and shapes convey a very sweet tone. only a few suggestions:

you tried shading the deer, but I don't think you need to. if you want, shade all of them, but with much greater contrast between shades, and conveying the shape of the head more (the deer's shading is just a circle, doesn't show its shape). however, i really like the flat style, because I think it adds volumes to the design of the game.

thank u so much omg I'm blushing //// i super appreciate it and yeah i kinda didn't even realize that i had handed the deer a bit ;; I'm gonna move that asap as it doesn't rly match the other characters haha

some frames of your sprites have sloppy borders, especially the first frame of walking right cycle; some other borders, like the first cat's tail in the sideways frames, have sharp right angles, which contract from the otherwise smooth elegance of your characters.

yeah i felt like they might be too edge-y if that makes sense? i'll try and smooth things out and retract the uh harsh edges !!

animation wise, only two things stick out. first, your walking animations are very stylistic, and I think they'd work well. however, there's no head bob, so in practice they probably seem wierd (real people go up and down when walking) try adding a head bob on the frame you think the character is lowering her(?)self toward the ground. second, the deer's head doesn't ever turn right when walking right, while all the others do.

the head bob omg i actually forgot to add that?? I've been messing around so much i forgot to do that thank you for reminding me aaa !!! and yeah the deer did seem awkward, i'll redraw its eyes that way you can tell their entire body is turned haha.

as for your screenshot, the house really sticks out because, unlike the rest of your sprites, it lacks a border, has shading, and used saturated colors. all these things detract from the cartoony, sincere style of your characters. the house is also out of perspective (so is the bush): we see part of the roof (like a birds-eye view), but we don't see part of the top of the head of the characters (it's a flat view). choosing a perspective to stick with would give a huge visual unity boost to the game.

yesyesyes i felt so weird with the houses like i kinda tried to emulate a slightly more realistic style but the shading made it look so strange, i guess thats bc i didn't have shading anywhere else. thank you so so much the advice!!

all the critiques aside, I love the expressiveness of your characters. the fox, especially, conveyed a wonderful sense of the character through its eyes. I hope to see more!

<3 <3 <3 thank u angel !!!!

[kilenc]

Thanks, I appreciate your enthusiasm and your gratitude 

since you were talking about removing the edge from your work, I made a quick image to show a good way to do this:



(click on the image to zoom in, and you'll see the technique)

I don't know your familiarity with pixel art, but this technique is called anti-aliasing: it's when you add "midway" pixels between two different colors in an image to smooth the sharp edges. for example, a black outline on a white background would stick out, but with some carefully placed gray pixels, you can trick the eye in to seeing something blurry and smooth (too many gray pixels, and it'll be too blurry).

there are a ton of tutorials out there--I encourage you to look em up

[faun]

Thanks, I appreciate your enthusiasm and your gratitude 

since you were talking about removing the edge from your work, I made a quick image to show a good way to do this:



(click on the image to zoom in, and you'll see the technique)

I don't know your familiarity with pixel art, but this technique is called anti-aliasing: it's when you add "midway" pixels between two different colors in an image to smooth the sharp edges. for example, a black outline on a white background would stick out, but with some carefully placed gray pixels, you can trick the eye in to seeing something blurry and smooth (too many gray pixels, and it'll be too blurry).

there are a ton of tutorials out there--I encourage you to look em up

ahh you're an angel!! I'm kind of very new to "serious" (( useable )) pixel art so thats a huge help <3