AuthorTopic: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite  (Read 3155 times)

Offline thesydneylad

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Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite

on: September 06, 2018, 12:04:47 pm
As the title says, and I based the character structure off the Mighty Final Fight design. Sorry for the long read.

See, I say 'structure' because I still wanted the freedom to not make the character into a full-blown anime art style.
I wanted to keep the western art style origins, but still incorporate the exaggerated amount of muscles.

The way I went about this is that, using the Hagaar sprite for example, instead of making patterns with two pixels, I used three in some areas. Because of Johnny's design, I refused to use any kind of 'optical illusions' and made sure to make it clear that his legs are stick thin.

The character doesn't 'fit' in a violent video game. He'd definitely be a comedic choice, being a great contrast to the genre and the other characters, thus the pose.

I always envisioned Johnny as a tall person IRL, so I made sure to make it clear that his legs have more pixels in them. If you could make it out, his legs would be 8 pixels tall if his arms weren't in the way.

I based his pose on an Arnold Schwarzenegger pose. I chose it because, to me, it speaks to his character - Johnny's more interested in his muscles than he is beating up other people that are going to hurt him, which is within his character, I feel.

I used my own sketch and Arnold's pic for reference, a Johnny Bravo picture, and I mainly used the Hagaar sprite for general guidance in terms of the height of the character.

This sprite proved more difficult than I thought, but problem-solving the shapes was easier than expected.

Please give me any critiques you can find/think of.

I'm taking a break for a little while now. Gonna be playin' Spider-Man PS4! (Please, no spoilers for ANYTHING!)

Johnny Bravo sprite:


Johnny Bravo pic:
http://hindimecartoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/johnny-bravo.jpg

Arnold's pic:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81T-pmhNYFL._SY679_.jpg

Hagaar sprite used:
« Last Edit: September 06, 2018, 12:31:41 pm by thesydneylad »

Offline MysteryMeat

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Re: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite

Reply #1 on: September 07, 2018, 01:41:59 am
while it's clear you put a lot of thought in, it just doesn't look like johnny bravo.

I reccomend you spend some time inspecting the source character, johnny is always wearing a black shirt and blue-jeans. The visual flow of the lines are far more important than the things you focused on here.




take this, for example. as you can see here:

-Johnny's head is a square with a triangle on top, alternatively a lopsided pentagon! Regardless, his chin should always be almost a right angle
-his arms ALWAYS emphasize his elbows, rather than his biceps
-his pecs manifest as one clear square shape even when the shirt's off!
-while his legs are stick-thin, yes, it's always more striking how -short- they are! The focus always pulls his skinny waist down to the ground, and makes it easier to create a strong line of action from the legs up his torso and into his arms for his wacky poses!


However, a lot of Bravo's appeal comes from the designer's clear understanding of real-life anatomy. As with most, I strongly suggest you spend some time each week copy-drawing photos of skeletons and reference material for muscle structure. You'll see a lot of improvement real quick doing those rote mechanical exercises than overthinking every part of a piece!

PSA: use imgur
http://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=19838.0 also go suggest on my quest, cmon
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Offline thesydneylad

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Re: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite

Reply #2 on: September 07, 2018, 06:38:31 am
I am curious, because I was trying to create a visual flow, did I succeed even a little bit with a visual flow? I tried to direct the veins in the arms in the direction the arms were going and I made sure to show that the left arm is overlaying over his pectoral, so I just added a pseudo right angle, while using two pixels for the nipples to help visually show the degree the character is facing.

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite

Reply #3 on: September 07, 2018, 07:44:47 am
Yo! It's cool to see you sticking with these 8 bit sprites, keep it up! You did well to put such thought into Johny's character and thinking about his personality and how it would reflect his pose.
As for the sprite, you shouldn't be doing much interior detail like the nipples and muscle separations; Johny never has the latter anyway, and it's too much at this scale and with this style. Go for bigger, simpler shapes that get to the heart of what you're trying to represent.
Also, while Arnie's bicep pose is certainly a cool one, it also happens to be extremely difficult to do at this scale. I did an alternate showing something closer to Johny's classic pose to show how it's a bit easier to make things read when there is less overlap.
Keep pixeling, I can already see improvement from your first sprite. Some anatomy study would definitely help, especially for pieces like this.



Offline thesydneylad

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Re: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite

Reply #4 on: September 07, 2018, 12:02:43 pm
Thanks Ryu. I always look forward to your views and advice.

Offline thesydneylad

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Re: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite

Reply #5 on: September 07, 2018, 12:38:05 pm
Going off on what Ryu said, I have to ask everyone. Would you all say that I forced the 'super deformed' style on the character when I should've just done what Ryu did. I feel like I'm just constantly over-designing everything that I make.

Offline YDVitamins

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Re: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite

Reply #6 on: September 07, 2018, 01:20:46 pm
Not sure what you mean by "super deformed". What I understand is your attempt at showing off too much in a very limited space without the fundamental knowledge of anatomy, proportion and elements of design to alter it stylistically.

If you want to draw Johnny Bravo—an established character and easily identifiable silhouette—then draw Johnny Bravo. The proportions, colors, and shapes that comprise a form are signature of character design. When you understand that and practice this deconstruction and reconstruction, you'll have less trouble discerning what details are and aren't unimportant information to convey to the audience.

Offline thesydneylad

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Re: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite

Reply #7 on: September 07, 2018, 02:12:20 pm
I'm glad someone brought up the art style that I chose. Super deformed is also known as 'chibi', which is a Japanese anime art syle.

Here's a link or two:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chibi_(slang)

https://www.giantbomb.com/super-deformation/3015-1196/

Offline YDVitamins

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Re: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite

Reply #8 on: September 07, 2018, 04:19:46 pm
Mm, well, if you were going for specifically an anime shtick, that didn't even come across for me. I wouldn't even call that "chibi" because there's a certain convention in how that's portrayed. Older games designed the sprites they did as a decision concerning not just style and gameplay, but money and time budgets on console restrictions, not necessarily because they're Japanese with a pop convention in art if that's where your head's at.

Anyway, you've been given some strong advice from three of us now, so try applying them and practicing. When or as you practice your fundamentals and get a decent grasp of them, take a look at some tutorials that analyze game sprites since you used one as your reference and tried to stick to those limitations. This one personally helped me when I made my own 16x32 overworld char sprites for the first time this past month, and it talks about some of the things that have already been mentioned here. Good luck!

Offline thesydneylad

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Re: Johnny Bravo Super Deformed NES Sprite

Reply #9 on: September 07, 2018, 04:58:51 pm
Mm-hm. Yeah, I'll do some research on human anatomy and revise what I've learned about pixel art so far before I make something new.

Thanks everyone.