AuthorTopic: [C+C] [WIP] Platformer Game Sprite  (Read 1685 times)

Offline DylanTheDev

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[C+C] [WIP] Platformer Game Sprite

on: January 16, 2019, 06:16:03 am
I am currently starting to make a platformer shooter game. This is going to be the main character and I would like some feedback on how I can improve on the colors. I would like to slim down on colors and make it pop more but cannot figure out what to do with it. Also any other general tips or improvements would be appreciated. Thanks.  ;D

Offline eishiya

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Platformer Game Sprite

Reply #1 on: January 16, 2019, 02:11:31 pm
Do you have any images of the environment the character will be in? That will help you see what needs to be changed to make them read.

For example, if your environments are mostly dark, then you'll likely want to bump up the brightness of all the colours or even change the character's design, to keep both the character visible overall, and to keep their shadows from blending into the background. If the environments are mostly light, then you'll want to brighten the lit areas but keep the shadows as-is, since the character won't blend into anything.

Developing your player character without an environment will likely take you down some weird paths xP

As for colours: a good rule of thumb is to merge any colours that aren't distinct at 1x. In your case, your character would probably end up being 3-4 colours if you applied this, due to the low contrast. Start by brightening up the highlights (based on your environments), then worry about reducing the palette once you have some values you're happy with.

The different parts of the character are hard to read, so value/hue differentiation there would help a lot. Some particular problem areas: the shadow(?) under the front leg's knee looks like a pouch or blob because of how it sticks out, the far arm tangents with the torso, the features of the head/helmet feel noisy.

Other potential issues:
No consistent light source. You have light coming from the left and right, from the front and from behind. All this makes the character look flat and makes them harder to read. For a game where a character can be in many lighting situations, I think lighting from front-above is a safe bet, since you get some nice form-defining shadows, but avoid obvious directionality.
As mentioned before, front leg appears to have a lump of it. The back arm has a 1px... thing as well.
The helmet reads like a flat shape because the highlight hugs the edge of the shape.
The legs are very short. Generally, the crotch should be halfway up between the top of the head and the heels. The belt should be somewhere above that, depending on where it sits. If this is a stylistic choice, then you should consider stylising other things similarly as well; isolated stylistic distortions usually look like mistakes.

Offline DylanTheDev

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Platformer Game Sprite

Reply #2 on: January 16, 2019, 11:59:55 pm
Thank You eishiya that helped. I brightened the colors and reused some in different areas as some of the colors were dark and it made it hard to differentiate things. Also i kinda fixed the leg and arm and the 1 px thing haha.