[WIP] New Set of Iso Sprites (Update 1/15)

[Akzidenz]

My friend and I have been working on these for awhile now, and we're at the point now where some outside opinions & advice would be a huge help. These are the naked base sprites for four races, and are based on the sketches below (linked instead of img'ed because they're large):

Human race: http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/656/humanuf0.jpg
Fish race: http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/4651/fishnp1.jpg
Rock race: http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/4504/rockleqz8.jpg
Furry race: http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/285/furryou8.jpg

And, the sprites:






Finally, some exploration done recently on the shading and shaping of the human sprite (original marked with an X):



We're looking for comments & critiques on any or all of them. I think we're at the point where we might be focusing on the wrong things, I feel like there are still some glaring errors in them but I can't put my finger on exactly what's wrong. We've just been staring at them for too long.. a fresh pair of eyes would really help. Edits are definitely welcome.

[wedgeismyhero]

Yes please! Any and all criticism is incredibly welcome. We've pretty much started with no experience, but a lot of enthusiasm for the artform. We look forward to hearing from the community. ^_^

[snader]

all the monsters could use some more contrast
and all the sketches look happier, more playful, i think you should try to get that in the sprites. thinks like the short legs and beady eyes on the human

i prefer the top right style of shading and outlining, gives the most pop in the depth, plus not everything is outlined
i think you should shade the human a bit more though, like under the arm, and the arm itself, maybe the crotch too

the rock doesnt appeal to me at all. seems like a blob with some parts sticking out, i suggest you restart on that one and make it a bit bigger as well
the fish has the best shading of them all i think. clear shapes, not too much or too little of each colour, nice balance
maybe add a bit of shade on the middle of the assfin, where there now is a highlight
put a bit of a line on the lower part of the eyes and work on the lips a bit maybe
allso add some more decal like the stuff on his head.
lastly he lacks toes

the furry is nice too, but he needs some eyesockets and better fur. have you tried using a bit larger spikes of hair? more trianglish and dont just mirror the shading, lazy bum =P

[Scotteh]

heh i feel picky today

the non human sprites have different light sources each time.

when you have them facing SW the light source is from top left.but when you have them facing NW the lights source comes from the top right

[Akzidenz]

heh i feel picky today

the non human sprites have different light sources each time.

when you have them facing SW the light source is from top left.but when you have them facing NW the lights source comes from the top right

Well, yeah.. but when you're doing iso sprites, they have to flip (unless you feel like doubling your workload). Any suggestions on how to get past that? I'm pretty sure iso stuff from other games is lit in the same way, but it's not as noticable because the sprites are considerably smaller.

Should our lightsource be coming from a different spot? Should it be casting fewer shadows?

[Joseph]

the green one look very kenneth fejer like, I love it the most.
your human design is very unique, looks fantastic.

[Helm]

pixel art is about pixel by pixel attention. The judo kredo applies here too: MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY. Play around with colors. Where can you reuse stuff. Check out aa... where could you do it more? Check forms and shapes, can something be made cleaner, neater and simpler?

[Delgneith]

I was JUST about to post this edit and I see Helm already did an edit with some ideas. I'll post it anyway and hope you get something out of it.



I ditched one of your grays and figured why not use some of the greens for the eyes instead? It doesn't hurt and in fact it might help make the transition between eyes and skin smoother. Added some spectral lighting, which might not be what you're going for but it's an idea.

Seems like it's not true iso, and I feel the pieces aren't all of the same quality or even style. Try to work on that a bit more. My biggest pet peeve is probably clashing styles. Looks good so far though.

[wedgeismyhero]

Very good! Thanks guys for all the tips and criticism. It definitely helps to have folks with more experience give us some of the tasty cheese-like secrets. On crackers of illustrated examples.

[Akzidenz]

Thanks so much for the comments, critiques, and especially edits - Helm & Delgneith, those will help tremendously.

Regarding the very simple shading of the sprites, I think that it was done for two reasons - firstly, because we're both fairly inexperienced, but also because they're all going to be heavily animated (on paper). We want to make sure that the draw > scan > trace > refine process is as simple and effective as possible. That's the main reason that, say, the fish don't have scales. But I think there's a shitton more work that we can do on refining these without making them overly complex.

One comment I was curious about was this:

I feel the pieces aren't all of the same quality or even style. Try to work on that a bit more. My biggest pet peeve is probably clashing styles.

Could you be more specific about what looks out of place, and what looks to have lesser quality? That'd help a lot when we go through and refine them.