AuthorTopic: 16bit Character Sprites  (Read 6054 times)

Offline PiskelDot

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16bit Character Sprites

on: May 15, 2019, 08:36:00 pm
Hi folks!, I am working currently on a project with a friend of mine on a 16bit game, I have stopped making pixel art for a while and I have returned to it so I'am a'bit rusty, I could definitely use your experience in critiquing my work. Currently I am not so happy with the arms, but I could use a fresh eye to see what else might be wrong. Thanks in advance! (Note: The graphics will be zoomed in x2 to maintain the 16bit feeling, but offer a better game playing experience)

« Last Edit: May 15, 2019, 08:40:34 pm by PiskelDot »

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #1 on: May 15, 2019, 10:30:50 pm
Worked out the arms for both left and right sprites and the down and up sprites temple.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2019, 12:31:16 am by PiskelDot »

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #2 on: May 16, 2019, 11:37:33 am
I think I'am happy with the shape of the character in the side and down views, my current concerns are how the arms are shaded and the back view I think isn't there yet. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have to start working on animation shortly. Thank you

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #3 on: May 16, 2019, 09:55:26 pm
Bump

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #4 on: May 17, 2019, 07:40:16 pm
If I'am not getting feedback does that mean the piece looks good or usually the response takes abit longer?

Offline Kiana

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #5 on: May 17, 2019, 11:31:43 pm
This forum can sometimes be a bit slow-moving, but to be honest, I don’t see any major glaring errors here. It looks good. Something minor that could be fixed is making the arms on the front and side view the same length. Right now, the side view has longer arms than the front view does. You can check if they line up by drawing a horizontal line from the bottom of the hand.

It may be easier to give additional feedback if we have more context about the game or even a mockup with the character in it. What kind of mood or tone are you going for (beyond “16-bit”)? What is the setting?
To achieve mastery is not to be able to work without thinking; rather it is to have total control of one's choices.

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #6 on: May 18, 2019, 03:14:44 pm
Thank you for your feedback, Ok so this a shooters game lots of PvP going on, modern time. We haven't picked which year exactly, but there will be alot of 90s vibe from the looks of the tileset that I'll be working. I cant make a mock up right now since I am not finished with the basis of the tileset. Our characters will be zoomed in twice so its really important for me to have the character looking sharp as all of the details will show up. I tried stretching the arms with the down view abit, but I still have the side views having their arms one pixel longer. Some how the perspective is still maintained? Like I can some how imagine the arms being abit longer when the character rotates as a bigger part of the shoulder shows up and so the view on the arm kinda changes? Thank you so much for your help, pleas keep it coming!
« Last Edit: May 18, 2019, 03:25:04 pm by PiskelDot »

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #7 on: May 18, 2019, 10:17:33 pm
Ive tried to give it a couple more edits and adjust the arm size.

My only problem here is that I have this feeling that the side views look abit smaller compared to the top and bottom views

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #8 on: May 18, 2019, 11:14:38 pm
Even though the top one suffices Kianas critique regarding the hands, it some how doesn't make me content about the proportions and some how the hands being one pixel longer makes it abit more coherent? I have no clue why.

This one has the new back sprite Ive made and a couple more tweaks with the arm shades along with the side view arms being shortened just one pixel down from the original, but still being longer than the up and down sprite views.



I could realllly use one last critique before I start working on the animation sprites as it'll be too late for me to touch it up again or edit it.

Thank you so much in advanced, always loved this community so thank you for all the help.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2019, 03:09:57 pm by PiskelDot »

Offline Kiana

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #9 on: May 20, 2019, 10:04:40 am
Nice changes. I appreciate that you simplified some of the shading. The forms are still being defined but it’s easier to look at.

I think it may be that having the arms be one pixel longer in the side view matches up better in terms of relative proportions. The average human’s fingers reach to around halfway down the thigh when their arms are straight. You may want to lengthen the body and upper arms on the front view, as well as lower back and arms on the back view by one pixel height to remedy this. It will have the additional benefit of helping the positioning of the feet be consistent with the side view. If you look at where the toes of the front view are currently, compared to where they are in the side view, they’re higher up. It might be a bit more obvious if you put them in the same spot on different frames (as in an animation) and flip between them. Watch closely for any “shifting” of features.

Cool concept, by the way. I’d say start animating if you’re confident about the sprites or sit on it for a few days if you feel like something might be bothering you. Smart move to make sure you’re happy with it before making it more work to fix stuff.
To achieve mastery is not to be able to work without thinking; rather it is to have total control of one's choices.

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #10 on: May 20, 2019, 03:23:17 pm
Thank you so much for the feedback Kiana!

Ok so regarding the toes, I saw that everything was lining up except for those little feet, so instead of changing outlines I simply changed the shading of the toes. I've also applied the same concept for the arms where I felt the shoulders were protruding abit? and re-shaded them. Another thing was how the arms in the front view felt like they weren't part of the body, so a friend of mine removed some of the outline and it looked much better. Concerning the back I've also re-shaded it abit and tried to fix the proportions by giving a shadow where the head and the body intersect and shortened the toes so the whole sprite would be shorter by one pixel. Right now the only thing that I feel that could use some fixing are the arms on both side views, they feel abit wonky? maybe smaller than the front and upper view? What do you think?

Offline Kiana

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #11 on: May 20, 2019, 08:11:36 pm
I think what you've done to the arms and shoulders on the front view helped. Be mindful of the banding that's being caused now underneath the head and along the sides of the body where the darkest shadow meets the black lineart. It's causing a bit of blurriness/ambiguity. Easy fix - just reduce the shadow very slightly so the shadow isn't hugging the outline for the entirety of its length. Also consider broadening the single-pixel highlights on the pecs now that there's more room. The shading adjustment helped with the feet. No complaints there.

I'm not particularly concerned about the arm length at this point - it seems fine. If you want to nitpick with the arms you can consider trying to better show the bend of the arms in the front and back view, since arms at your side aren't generally vertically straight, but I worry it might be too drastic since the arms are going subtly between the pixels of the grid (the elbows are in a subpixel location, if you will).

This is subtle, but you may want to consider standardizing the location of the specular highlight on the head. Have you ever held and rotated a reflective ball or other spherical object? It stays in more or less the same place, unless the camera changes location. You can try it out if you own anything spherical or uniformly cylindrical (a soda can comes to mind if you don't have anything spherical). It seems counter-intuitive but the reason for it is that the location of the specular is being caused by the light source itself bouncing off a form toward your eye. So if your eye or the light source don't move, and the shape of the form is roughly the same, you'll get essentially the same specular reflection.
To achieve mastery is not to be able to work without thinking; rather it is to have total control of one's choices.

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #12 on: May 21, 2019, 08:21:33 pm
Tried to go with all of the pointers you gave Kiana, thank you again so much! Ive tried making the arm bend in the side ways at a different angle ish and make them appear larger to fit in. Hows that?

Offline Kiana

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #13 on: May 22, 2019, 12:32:21 am
Looks good - nice job! Happy to help. Hope we'll be seeing more from you soon. :)
To achieve mastery is not to be able to work without thinking; rather it is to have total control of one's choices.

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #14 on: May 26, 2019, 02:12:21 am
Thank you!

I thought Id give it one more go, this is the outcome and I think this is as best as I can make it look with this kind of scale and shape. Come to look at it I'am quite happy with the outcome.



Any thoughts? I am sure others can see it with a fresh eye and spot some mistakes or critiques.

This is it scaled 2x and this is how it should look like in game.

« Last Edit: May 26, 2019, 03:40:05 pm by PiskelDot »

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #15 on: May 28, 2019, 03:23:11 pm
I think I'll start animating the character within two days because I am having my finals. Iam certain if anything needs to be changed itll get noticed in the animation phase aswell. Still if anyone has any tip to shape the little fella in a better way Iam all ears. Ill post an update within two days, cheers!

Offline PiskelDot

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #16 on: June 01, 2019, 11:49:29 pm
Ok so heres the recent animation I have done for the body sprites before minor modifications.

You'll notice that I haven't animated the body yet, just the legs as the first phase.

Animated Sprites:


Post Modification Sprites: (After Ive fixed the left and right body sprites *Doesn't include cleaning up the animation*)



You can see some pixels shifting? or appearing which means I still need to clean it up abit. I could use all the tips I could get, thank you!.
« Last Edit: June 02, 2019, 12:28:11 am by PiskelDot »

Offline eishiya

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Re: 16bit Character Sprites

Reply #17 on: June 02, 2019, 05:24:06 pm
The animation looks like it ping-pongs and the feet shuffle forward and backward, instead of cycling as in a walk. When moving forward, the foot should lift up and the foot should be angled differently. You don't really have room for a clear lift, but you can still angle the foot.  Moving forward, it should be led by the ankle, moving backward, it should be led by the heel.