Help with sprite & animation

[caliburcliff]

Hi! This is my first pixel art/animation ever and I would like to ask any tips concerning fluidity and the sprite itself, anything would help because it just doesnt feel right haha, thank you!

[awh13]

There's lots of jagged lines and unnecessary corners, especially on the outlines, fix that and you'll get an instant better sprite. Also the fire on the staying still frames are kinda weird and doesn't look like fire, I think you only need fire on his hair + hands for the still frame. Try focusing on the sprite first and upload it here so we can help you further

[caliburcliff]

There's lots of jagged lines and unnecessary corners, especially on the outlines, fix that and you'll get an instant better sprite. Also the fire on the staying still frames are kinda weird and doesn't look like fire, I think you only need fire on his hair + hands for the still frame. Try focusing on the sprite first and upload it here so we can help you further

can you tell me some ways to soften a pixel art? I don't really know what to do and ended up just thickening the outlines like so, it just feels more solid(?) or smooth idk.. here's after some minor tweaking

[Pixophile]

Does the software you use have alpha channel and oppacity in brushes? If so, try softening the flames with a low opacity eraser tool, and flames usually don't have pure red, more orangey red tones, goes towards yellow into it's origin

[awh13]

For a smoother sprite, you can just soften the outlines to 1 pixels, avoid corners, then use anti-aliasing. Also change the fire colors as the guy above said.

[eishiya]

Rather than "softening", this piece mainly just needs clean-up. Here's a clean-up of one of the frames:

I made the lines smooth by reducing their thickness, got rid of some unneeded colours, and made the curves smoother by getting rid of jaggies. I also made the flames a bit more consistent by making them yellow near their source/core, and red (cooler) away from the source.

I also changed a few of the shadows and highlights to be a bit more consistent with each other. It's better to avoid highlights that look like lines, they rarely help give your work form.


I recommend doing your own clean-up, since you know better than I do what the creature is meant to look like. I had to guess based on the rough lines and shadows, and in many parts, I wasn't sure what you intended.

[yaomon17]

You should read through this to help with the jaggies/clean-up: http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299

To have it feel more 'solid', you want to define the forms using big clusters of pixels to sculpt out shapes on top of shapes of your little fire man.


I took some anatomical liberties in the design since a well molded design helps rendering be easier without the need of any top technical skills.

For the fire, there is really no easy process. Lots of practice, studying and repetition.
Here is an anim I did a few years back that doesn't really seem like fire at all

Compare that to one that is a bit more fire like from more recent times (though still not very great since it is only a first pass that I don't have time to go over again  )

[caliburcliff]

Thanks for all the help guys! Such a huge help! I'll keep all of it in mind when doing fire related objects and pixel art in general for the future. Thank you! Also, that art revamp of the sprite looks awesome! :OO and also educational haha.



I tried to experiment with clothes in the wind and lightning, and also tried to make soft pixel art. Thoughts??