[WIP] Generic Shmup

[philjones]

Last night a friend asked me for any old pixel art I had.  Upon further prying, he wants to make a schmup which suits his needs as an avid fan of the genre.  So I figured, why not make some graphics for him.  I don't know what I've gotten myself into, but here's the start of it.

He demanded that everything look tough and scary, including the player's ship.

Quick ballpoint sketch.



Kindly tear it to pieces.

[Sherman Gill]

I like it. Coloring looks smooth. Yogurt smooth.

The only thing I don't like is on the jets it looks like it cuts off at the bottom.

[philjones]

Good call.  I don't know yet what it'll look like once the burner flares are in, but here it is changed anyway.

[mice]

Nice!

Make the air-intake (or is it a weapon?) more visible. Like in your sketch.
And maybe it's got a missile or two, too many?
I would have added a hilight here and there, but that's just me.
Lastly, the red thing in the middle isn't the cock pit, is it? To me it looks like it could be.

And it's shmup. 

[philjones]

They're not air intake they're... some sorta gun. (if we're thinking of the same thing, the two white lumps on either side of the red thing in the middle)  I think I made them better.
I don't actually have any visible missiles on there, but I took out those two useless spikes and added more detail to... the cylinders with spikes, some sorta laser gun.
I tend to stray from highlights that are too high.  I rarely ever use white.
The red thing actually is an "air-intake," except there's no air in space... so I'm not sure what it is.  The cockpit's at the front.  I changed that to make it easier to recognize, i hope.

[mice]

Yeah, I kind of figured that actually, regarding the weapon.

I did a edit to point you to what I ment.

- The weapon now shows the 'hole' in them, like in your sketch.
- I removed two of the red (which I thought was missiles) things next to the cannons.
- Toned down the red of the air intake (which I mistook for the cockpit).
- Darkened the cockpit
- Added more shadow on the white wings.
- Made it all one pixel wider to get a middle-pixel.

And as I said, your piece was fine from the beginning so you don't have to listen to anyone else. 




EDIT:
trying to get transparancy...

[philjones]

I actually changed more than I had intended.  Most surprisingly (for myself) I expanded it a pixel, which I was rather against because of an irrational need to make things even numbers.  Anyway, it looks better and has a more appealing width now.  Thank you for all those suggestions.

I didn't get rid of those little guns because the guy wanted as many guns as possible, and I'm envisioning the wonderful quad shot it'll create.  I did change the lengths of them, though, to kill the monotony going on in that area.  May have overstepped on the closer ones in, though.  I may changed those back, but otherwise, I think this is done.  On to titling animations!

[edit]
So, of course, once I say that's the end, I go and change it rather drastically, but much for the best, I think:

[/edit]