Mini Mario...REALLY mini... [WIP]

[Yo-Yo-Master]

Just another noob trying out pixel art stuffs...
Because I have absolutely no abilities in shading, I thought I'd have a go at some animation.     My idea is a Mario world that combines elements from the NES and SNES (and others).  Just an animation of him going through it, nothing much.
Here's a walking animation...ugh, much too stiff.  Plus both legs look funky.

Running (more like jogging)animation...his right arm is choppy...

Jump...

Lakitu?

Piranha Plant:

Sample environment (link works now )



I guess I shoulda done more work before posting.      

[missingno]

I like the running animation a lot -- it's very smooth, although I think that it would be more suited to replace the walking animation.

My biggest problem is that it doesn't feel like Mario. I mean it looks like Mario, but it doesn't really capture the charm of the cartoony style. I don't necessarily mean that I want you to try and emulate the style, but I imagine Mario as shorter and portlier, and maybe with a bigger head in comparison with the body.

But of course it is entirely recognizable and it makes sense visually, which is a pretty good accomplishment for something that's this small.

[Ryona]

Aww! So cute!
I am really going to enjoy this thread! 
Can't wait to see more tiny characters.

Anyway, yeah, I agree with missingno. And I made a little version of mine to demonstrate what you could do with yours...

:MODIFIED:

I took it a step forward and made Mario even teeny-tinier! wheee! ^_^



Yeah, this thread is going to be fun. XD

[infinity+1]

[Yo-Yo-Master]

Hm, any better? Still looks pretty wonky.

Sorry for edits, I accidentally saved it as file that can't be zoomed in.   


Edit:
Koopa walk?

[chriskot]

I think that he could use some dark pixels behind his head for his signature mullet.

[Yo-Yo-Master]

Hair.  Dang, I didn't realize how hard this is gonna be.  Just changing one or two pixels makes a world of difference.   

Blocks.  Here's a question: do you think it would be acceptable to have the "eye" blocks give coins, and question mark boxes to give power-ups?  Or does that deviate too much from the Mario norm?  Actually, I'm not even sure what the deal is for the blocks in the real games, my memory is failing me.   

Cloud.

Goomba.  Is it just me, or did photobucket corrupt this?

Bush.  What a beaut.

[ptoing]

Suff in the original game has no eyes, so there are no eyeblocks either. I think the first smb game with eyes on stuff was smb3.

[Yo-Yo-Master]

Yeah,what I wanted to do was combine stuff from different games...that's my indirect way of saying "If something's not accurate to the games, too bad, 'cause it's my art."  For the blocks, I just wondered if it was possible to use both, or maybe I should just stick to ? ones.

[PypeBros]

having coins in eye'd blocks and powerups in question blocks would imho completely defeat the gameplay of a mario clone (e.g. you know whether a question block is important for you or not). It would be just like having treasures out of their boxes in a rogue-like.

imho, the goomba is unreadable at regular size. Maybe you could get a look at Super Mario Land's goombas instead. Bushes and clouds are indeed cute, but giving them black eyes seems too much. Maybe dark green and dark blue would be better.

[Shrike]

Oooh, this is gonna be a really neat thread. Nice animations, you've improved alot before i saw this.

Theres a few things that bug me about some of the animations:
The jump animation. He seems to be hovering and raising his arms. i would add a bit of a leg bend (I would say knee but at this size you cant really tell.) before and after he jumps, like so: (Click)

i only have graphics gale so i cant animate this for you. sorry, man.
i forgot, i have ImageReady. It wont look half as good as it did in GG but you get the idea.

Man, its sooo slow. it looked much better in GG... 


In the walk animation, some bounce would be good, but i cant imagine how you would do it without overworking it because of the size. Other than this stuff, i cant compliment you more on the fluid-ness (I have a hunch that thats not in the dictionary) of all of it. Fantabulous job, keep it up! and remember that im far less talented than you, so feel free to not listen. 

[Yo-Yo-Master]

Thanks Coran for the input.    I'm not going to use the running animation anyway to give the animation a more fast paced feel.  I see what you mean for the jumping, I plan to rework it a bunch.  Your edit will help.
I won't start any Mario animation, however, until I'm done with the basic build.  Do any of you pixel gods or demi-gods have any more divine input for my measly project? 
Haha, I'm jes messin wid ya.   
By the way, here's an update for Lakitu:

What the donk?  Is it just me, or did Photobucket add some wonky aftersprite things for some of the frames on the spiny koopa?
Goomba remake...not really to my liking...


EDIT:
Wow, I'm more delirious than usual...I meant Imageshack, not Photobucket.

[smiker]

sorry about this, but eyed blocks first appeared on super mario world, and they can have all kind of objects. that's the correct way they work. I think that goomba does'nt read at all.

PS:another thing: when you save your gifs, set each frame on background replace mode, there'll be an option somewhere

[PypeBros]

Goomba remake...not really to my liking...

much better imho, and much more readable (except the "trunk" that is a bit light against this grey ... but again, it'll show against blue sky, so ... still, maybe the reason it's not to your liking comes from the "jumpiness" you pushed in the goomba. It's definitely no longer looking "i'm boring here and i just walk forward until something blocks my path" that defines the spirit of a goomba.

Also, do you actually intend to stick to the 4-6 colours of SMB1 on NES ? not that it matters for the Goomba, but i think Lakitu and the spiked koopa would benefit from some slight shading ... and you could use a darker tint for doing goomba's eyebrows that might restore its "mood".

[Shrike]

Nice progress. i like the new Lakitu.   

I think the ....turtles...? koopas should be bigger. In super mario bros they are taller than Mario without a mushroom.

heh heh.. and in Super Mario Atari and SMB, the goombas are about the same size as Mario without a mushroom as well.
( < Atari)

Oh.. and i would use Imageshack. www.imageshack.us
never corrupted a file for me!

[EDIT]
heres a quick edit for you to show some other stuff:

i added whites to the eyes, made it bigger, and changed colors. hope i could help!

[Yo-Yo-Master]

Well, he certainly is bigger now...    
->
I'm not going to make the spiny koopa bigger, though.  He's a lot smaller in the game than koopas, since he has them spines.
OH CARPZ, should have mentioned this before...I'm borrowing colors from the SMB palette.  Yeah.  While that obviously isn't ripping, I want to know if that's acceptable.  Here.  And anywhere, for that matter.
About the palette...yeah, well, its a heckuva lot more than six so far...

The reason for a dumpload of blues is the background,, which is like this...maybe:

Holey moley, Coran, your goomba kicks some major mushroom. Making things bigger certainly allows you to add more features.  "My" version, not very different :
No more bounce.  I want to keep it for the koopas, though.
Update Lakitu, again. 

[Antago]

it's funny because you say imageshack never corrupted an image for you (I think) and yet you posted that image today and it is not showing up?

[Shrike]

That was before just now when i noticed that it wasn't showing up. But he is obviously having a lot more problems with Photobucket than i am with Imageshack. Why dont we keep this to constructive criticism. this forum is for critique.

And thanks for the compliments, Yo-Yo-Master. glad you like it.  Your mushroom looks much better. You could eliminate some of those blues and try some dithering. Never got the hand of it myself but if mastered its quite useful i assume. Oh, and you could try www.maj.com too. i use both.

[Yo-Yo-Master]

Yeh, I misspoke, I actually DO use imageshack.    But anyway, I'm not sure if I want to dither the sky.  Nothing else in the piece is dithered, so it might stick out.
Maybe I did too much.     But at least it's three colors.
Two colors. 
New run.
A failed head turn...I think it looks better without it. 

[PypeBros]

And thanks for the compliments, Yo-Yo-Master. glad you like it.  Your mushroom looks much better. You could eliminate some of those blues and try some dithering.

I'd say you should consider what you're going to do with those sprites (is it just a mockup or a game running on some hardware) and if its for a game, what will be the capabilities of the hardware. On many devices, it is possible to change the color of the background synchronously with the start of a new line, meaning that with only one entry in the palette, you can actually have a colorful raster for your scene ... and going with dithering actually make the things more complex.

[Shrike]

And thanks for the compliments, Yo-Yo-Master. glad you like it.  Your mushroom looks much better. You could eliminate some of those blues and try some dithering.

I'd say you should consider what you're going to do with those sprites (is it just a mockup or a game running on some hardware) and if its for a game, what will be the capabilities of the hardware. On many devices, it is possible to change the color of the background synchronously with the start of a new line, meaning that with only one entry in the palette, you can actually have a colorful raster for your scene ... and going with dithering actually make the things more complex.

Thats a good point- you obviously know more about the hardware aspect of it. I guess i assumed it was just for fun and not going in an actual game. So really i agree with you.

BTW, Yo-Yo-Master, the sky gets lighter as it goes towards the horizon. It does depend on the time of day but in the afternoon i believe it gets light towards horizon. And, if this is for an actual game you plan on selling or just giving out, i'd love to help.  i can program and make music as well as pixel. And i really love the new run animations! no critique really- they look perfect to me.

[EDIT]
About the head turn. I think your main problem is its too exaggerated. try a 2px head turn, that might work. And i would make the M on his hat 2px long, but thats just me. Great so far!

[Yo-Yo-Master]

I'd say you should consider what you're going to do with those sprites (is it just a mockup or a game running on some hardware) and if its for a game, what will be the capabilities of the hardware.

Its not a game, just an animation.   
I should have talked earlier about what I want to achieve here:
Yes:
-animation
-style
-character
No:
-palette compression/restriction
-anatomical realism (obviously, its Mario)

[ptoing]

( < Atari)

Not. It's a NES romhack. Also some stuff could look way better than that on the 2600, but it's not possible to have 2 colours in one line in a sprite afaik.

[tocky]

If you're dithering to smooth a gradient (rather than to add texture/draw the eye) you want to emphasise the flats and halftone dither, use less of the odd midtones (like the diamond/plus shape one). When you're texturing sometimes you would want that, but I think it's distracting here. I'd avoid dithering altogether, personally, but it could work.


yours | more emphasis on flats, halftones | probably taking it too far

[PypeBros]

A failed head turn...I think it looks better without it. 

Yep, indeed. I once used headturns in running animations myself, but i wouldn't use it anymore. Reason is that, when you're running, you focus on where you're heading. Your shoulders rotate, but you usually try to keep your head in the right direction.

So head turns might be a mistake from animators that feel rotating shoulders is too much for them (as an afterthought, i was definitely in that category on my last attempts )