[C+C]Base Character Template For Game

[Ovicior]

Hey guys,
So I'm currently working on a hunting/wilderness-survival side-scroller similar to Risk of Rain. I've made a character that I intend to use as a template for all human sprites. I have made pixel art before but have not progressed much due to the fact that I spend most of my time programming. I'd really appreciate it if you guys could take the time to critique my character! I specifically need help with the t-shirt/pants as I am not sure how to shade them.

[Rosier]

Hey guys,
So I'm currently working on a hunting/wilderness-survival side-scroller similar to Risk of Rain. I've made a character that I intend to use as a template for all human sprites. I have made pixel art before but have not progressed much due to the fact that I spend most of my time programming. I'd really appreciate it if you guys could take the time to critique my character! I specifically need help with the t-shirt/pants as I am not sure how to shade them.

As someone who's style constantly compared to Risk of Rain, there isn't an inherent need to shade.  It's a pretty small scale, and it's more important to make things as readable as possible.  Personally, I would recommend making the body thinner and make the  legs, arms, and head thicker.  That way, you can get more detail to be readable, and help differentiate characters.

If you really want shading, you'd want to turn the guy so that one side is clearly more in the foreground, and then the part in the back should be darker.

[Ovicior]

Hey guys,
So I'm currently working on a hunting/wilderness-survival side-scroller similar to Risk of Rain. I've made a character that I intend to use as a template for all human sprites. I have made pixel art before but have not progressed much due to the fact that I spend most of my time programming. I'd really appreciate it if you guys could take the time to critique my character! I specifically need help with the t-shirt/pants as I am not sure how to shade them.

As someone who's style constantly compared to Risk of Rain, there isn't an inherent need to shade.  It's a pretty small scale, and it's more important to make things as readable as possible.  Personally, I would recommend making the body thinner and make the  legs, arms, and head thicker.  That way, you can get more detail to be readable, and help differentiate characters.

If you really want shading, you'd want to turn the guy so that one side is clearly more in the foreground, and then the part in the back should be darker.

How about this?

[Rosier]

A few different ideas.  One thing I tend to do is make the arms a noticeably different color to the body so that it's easily readable when it moves around.   

Shading probably isn't super necessary on the left most one, but hopefully this helps.

[Rydin]

I'm not familiar with Risk of Rain, but you should still at least have one cohesive pair of pants. Unless the shirt he is wearing is so long it is covering the crotch, we should see most of the pants in the crotch region. 

You really think the one-pixel wide arms will do the trick? It's hard to convey enough information with just one pixel. Then again, if you can tell a story with just one pixel that wouldn't be told if that same pixel wasn't there, that is pixel artist mastery as far as I'm concerned.

Cheers!

[Ovicior]

I'm not familiar with Risk of Rain, but you should still at least have one cohesive pair of pants. Unless the shirt he is wearing is so long it is covering the crotch, we should see most of the pants in the crotch region. 

You really think the one-pixel wide arms will do the trick? It's hard to convey enough information with just one pixel. Then again, if you can tell a story with just one pixel that wouldn't be told if that same pixel wasn't there, that is pixel artist mastery as far as I'm concerned.

Cheers!

I'll fix the pants, but I feel that the arms would look too thick if they were more than one pixel wide.