Platformer Sprite

[EyeCraft]

Well I've been writing up the design for a platformer for a couple of weeks now, slowly churning over in my head what the main character could look like. I've been developing the idea with difficulty, but after enough ideas I've decided to give him a pixelling;



The game is somewhat comical/non-serious in its tone, I dunno if this guy looks too serious for the job. Any C&C would be good, on what you think of the design as well as the pixelling 

EDIT: wow...really blends in with the forum colours 
EDIT: fiddled with colours a bit, see above
EDIT: update; added another shade to help define the background arm and leg

[rydath]

Looks pretty cool to me, but then again, Im a severe noob, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Perhaps even more contrast could be a good idea, though (I worry he might get eaten by a similarly colored background. But again, me= noob). He doesn't look serious with such cartoony proportions, at least to me, but he does look undead or somethin', so he could easily fit into a morbid or gothic scenario, too. Good luck with this guy, I like him.

[EyeCraft]

Cheers rydath  . I fiddled with the palette a bit more, I think I like it better;



EDIT: upped contrast yet again, lol.

[Adrian]

AHA! I knew that guy reminded me of something...Now I see. That sprite kind of looks like Golem! 

[zeid]

Yer i think as far as cartooniness goes he reminds me of Abe's Odicey, in that he can pass for cartoony but still brings a sort of seriousness (almost morbidness) to the setting, which is cool in my opinion. As far as the new palette change goes i prefer the green skin tone IMO if you could find a mid point between those two it might look very good i think. not much to critique as far as actual pixel techniques and such go, except it almost looks as though there is a stray pixel with that big toe on HIS right foot. The pose is good it makes a nice idle stance and his details look good, such as his hair I don't think that the pants and eyes colour fit to well with that palette change though.

[EyeCraft]

@Adrian: Lol, Gollum, I know, it's annoying.

@zeid: Thanks  . I've actually been playing quite alot of Abe's Exoddus today, it's a somewhat good model for the platformer I want to make. Hmm midpoint between the palettes could be tricky...I reversed the direction of the hue shift for the blue one, lol. But there's no such thing as too much fiddling (though I've heard rumours it will send you blind ), so I'll play around a bit more and see what I can come up with.

EDIT: Perhaps something like this;

OLD      NEW
   

[zeid]

The newest one looks great, as have all of them so far. I think that the greener hue for the most prominent highlight on the skin looks great with the slightly bluer shade. The whole piece looks cleaner then all the previous ones IMO, and the fact its a slight green tinge makes it look more organic then the slightly bright hue (again IMO). My main quarrel with the blue skin was that it might distract from the game, as you can tell the piece looks best on a dark background, I'm assuming your going to give the environment a slight darkness, am i right? I attempted to edit your piece for improvement but only managed to find 1 if any, his left shoulder looks as though its to prominent/shiny, I also made the pants look slightly more separate from the body, but I think I overdid it a bit and that could probably be left. also made a number of ridiculously small changes that are barely noticeable. The piece is so good it's very hard to critique it well.

[EyeCraft]

Ahh, I very much appreciate the edit, zeid! All the things you've changed are things that have been irking me.

[Darien]

I think this is really great, I like it a lot.  One thing that bothers me is that his left arm and leg aren't highlighted, and I don't see where the lightsource would be blocked, especially since his chest and stomach are still highlighted.  It makes it look odd to me.

[EyeCraft]

Ah yes. Well I was trying to do the depth thing I've seen done where one makes the further limbs darker. Maybe I'll only do it during the run/walk cycles. Originally is was highlighted on them and I took it out as an experiment, I'll highlight them again and give everyone a look...

EDIT:

[zeid]

When I create a walking cycle I find it is sometimes best to apply the depth on the further legs and arms also in the idle frames. This is because it can make the change from stationary to moving more smooth at times. However this isn't always the case I would say test out both and chose the one you prefer if it doesn't affect the smoothness of the transition between animations.

[baccaman21]

I'm likin' the look of this... I'm looking forward to see him/she/it moving...

As far as I'm concerned I'd go with the toned down leg/furthest arm... it knocks it into the background more (for one) and two, when it comes to animation it makes it easier to read... plus animate it in a 3/4 rotation... that will help too... (essentially the same angle you have it)

and don't forget - keyframe the extremes, then the cross-overs, then the tweens... get the movement right first and then fill in the pixels...

<zeid> I'm not sure what you mean about the smoothness of change from idle to stationary... can you explain - I'm intrigued...?