KOF Style

[TheAbyss]

1.  I like those sprites. 2. So from what I'm understanding, the cactus/snail guy has been turned into the guy with the top hat....type thing on? ....I thought you were going to make it more roundish?

[Soup]

1.  I like those sprites. 2. So from what I'm understanding, the cactus/snail guy has been turned into the guy with the top hat....type thing on? ....I thought you were going to make it more roundish?

The style we were going for does not envolve snails. So I thought what would my character look a person.
Sorry for the confusion.

[Soup]

[yosh64]

hey

Looking at your latest update, I must say that it doesn't resemble the KOF style much at all.

I think the KOF style has quite noticable primitives in the way it's shaded. Well this is less noticeable in clothing, but I think you can kinda break the characters down into their primitives. I dunno, I'm no expert. The anatomy on the arm looks very odd, and the shading looks pillowy. Hmm, I think you should go for a distinct light source from above, rather than from the front.

Hah, been looking for a certain SNK/KOF character for the past couple of hours or so. Haven't managed to find it yet, takes ages on my slow 56Kbit dialup connection. Anyhows, I remember that this character shows what I think is the essense of the SNK/KOF style, so yea I wanna find it for ya. This character was like grey, with really big long arms, and bent/arched back, and was bald. Maybe someone knows who I'm talking about? but please, I don't mean to send this thread off topic, so if you know maybe you could PM me so I can confirm.

I think it's a great challenge to mimic the KOF style, as I think it's quite a brilliant style.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

edit
I don't mean to intrude on your workflow, if you have established one for pixel art. But I would advise that you complete your fighters design, pose and stuff before starting on the shading and such . Ohh, and if it's meant to be a fighter sprite, then I think it's a tad too large.

cya

[Kamae]

Hah, been looking for a certain SNK/KOF character for the past couple of hours or so. Haven't managed to find it yet, takes ages on my slow 56Kbit dialup connection. Anyhows, I remember that this character shows what I think is the essense of the SNK/KOF style, so yea I wanna find it for ya. This character was like grey, with really big long arms, and bent/arched back, and was bald. Maybe someone knows who I'm talking about?

Lin, maybe?

[Helm]

Soup, study anatomy and the fundamentals of art generally. Pixel art and 'KOF style' hold nothing for you at this time.

[Jad]

Helm, dangit, stop telling him to get off the board just because he hasn't mastered the basics. People learn stuff in the most wondrous ways. I've learnt a lot about how to make traditional art from pixel practise, mainly because in some aspects it has interested me more.

(ah, noticed that your point was not to stop him doing pixel art but study the necessary, I agree wholeheartedly (what a wonderful word.))


---


Anyways, Helm has a point. The way you construct your image is sure to render the result way different than you intended to.



This is non-anatomical as hell and made in a few seconds (plus I'm a lowdown regarding art right now, nothing seems to work out :\) but still manages to get a point through;

Get them basic shapes down before you do ANYTHING detailwise with your character. If you think you can have his anatomy and shape in your head and then trace it, detail by detail from a blueprint in your head, you're surely going to fail, at least if you're a bit like me.

So I say, get his WHOLE body shape down right now-

-or suit yourself   

[Helm]

Helm, dangit, stop telling him to get off the board just because he hasn't mastered the basics.

He's twelve. If you want to become a good artist, at 12, you don't utter the words 'KOF style'. You just draw, draw, draw, draw. Piece of paper, draw not until you're a master, but until you're okay enough to start bothering with learning a specific medium - in this case, pixel art.

People learn stuff in the most wondrous ways.

Some of these ways lead to artistic stagnation and self-entrapment. Like some people who learn from copying KOF sprites, and all they end up doing is... copying KOF sprites forever. Not understanding why KOF sprites are as they are, but aping how they look. For one, I wish for people to have the proper ways to grow as artists. That's through fully-rounded studies in art. So if someone asks me my opinion on this, I say, fully indulge yourself in drawing for a long time, actively study aesthetics, composition, anatomy, so on. And then look at a KOF sprite for what it really is: professional aplication of those same skills.

[flaber]

not to counter point you helm
but dropping it altogether isnt necessarily the only route.
I agree with you on your points except for

but until you're okay enough to start bothering with learning a specific medium - in this case, pixel art.

I originally joined pixelation when I was 12, 4 years ago.
I found pixelling to help me learn more about colour theory and linework.
Even if you are unable to pixel well, you may still be able to take something away from the medium.

I do strongly agree with you though, about dont just study KOF sprites and mimmick them. Rather, learn true anatomy and real proportions in order to understand why the designed the sprite the way they did. Once you understand what is real and proper can you then exagerate and form a style from. Dont study someone else's style because then your adaptation will be that much further from real, making it look awkward and unproportioned.

I just wanted to say, not to be fully discouraged from pixelart as it can still serve a purpose in the learning curve, but the majority of your time as helm mentioned should be on paper studying realistics, and practicing and drawing over and over.

[Helm]

I'll give you that some people can start pixel art at 12 and benefit from it. I guess pixelation helps in that regard. My art when I was 12 was in such a preliminary state I just cringe at the possibility of pixel art versions of it. But then again I joined pixelation when I was about 16... 7 years ago, gosh, and I it did help me lots then.

But if I were to be brutally honest, had I spent those 7 years persuing real media and proper graphic arts studies and were I to start pixel art now as a 22 year old person, I'd probably reach my technical level in 6 months... plus, I'd be more skilled in said graphic arts and real media.

There's not much to pixel art. The only thing that cannot be attained in 6 months by a talented and studied person (like say, Snake, who had this sort of evolution while he's been here) in pixel art, is the time spent thinking about the aesthetic implications of the medium.