AuthorTopic: Spydermine  (Read 7258 times)

Offline Sokota

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 148
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • WeThePuppets
    • View Profile

Spydermine

on: July 30, 2008, 12:35:14 am
Ok, so I'm redoing graphics for my team's game called Frozyn. Firstly, here is the main character, Patrick O'Grady:


Patrick O'Grady

Now, I'm pretty sure he doesn't have many problems, save for shading...Me and my team went through so many, so I don't want to change him, unless someone thinks he will look better in a certain way. I want to maintain the style, though.

Now, the real reason of this post. The Spydermine. Here is the old/new comparison:


Old/New Comparison [The "lightbeam" is for preview and explanation for programmers only]


'Blind' Version [No headlamp "eye"]


A teammates edit, which, in my opinion, looks less distinguishable from my original...

Ok, so the sprite is of a mine with legs, with a body of snow, and sticks of dynamite with a timer on them. In the game, the mine will collide and either light the fuse to explode, or explode on contact. In any case, I'm simply trying to give you an overview of what it is/does. Now, I guess what I'm looking for is some critique and general feedback, because I want it to remain the same shape/size relatively, yet I feel that I can improve on it, yet not sure how. So, any help is greatly appreciated.

Sokota

Offline c_raethke

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Spydermine

Reply #1 on: July 30, 2008, 10:48:10 pm
Ok, Sokota asked me to make a walk/run animation for the Patrick O'Grady sprite, but he/I don't think it's perfect yet, so I am posting it here. I am not all that skilled in pixel art, but I am (or at least, I thought I was) ok at animating. I animated a few other walking characters for the team, so I have a little bit of experience with it, but not much. So, here it is:

Could someone help me figure out how to improve it, and make it more smooth/realistic? Thanks.

c_raethke
« Last Edit: July 30, 2008, 10:49:51 pm by c_raethke »

Offline tomblifter

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 21
  • Karma: +0/-1
    • View Profile

Re: Spydermine

Reply #2 on: July 30, 2008, 11:03:57 pm
Ok, Sokota asked me to make a walk/run animation for the Patrick O'Grady sprite, but he/I don't think it's perfect yet, so I am posting it here. I am not all that skilled in pixel art, but I am (or at least, I thought I was) ok at animating. I animated a few other walking characters for the team, so I have a little bit of experience with it, but not much. So, here it is:

Could someone help me figure out how to improve it, and make it more smooth/realistic? Thanks.

c_raethke
Make its arms move.

Offline c_raethke

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Spydermine

Reply #3 on: July 30, 2008, 11:15:07 pm
It doesn't have arms...  ??? Haha. It is a sprite for a game; He holds a gun, so I can't really animate the arms moving. The thing that looks like an arm is just a brown shirt underneath a kind of armor thing; It's like a bullet proof vest, but made out of metal, and outside his normal clothes.

Offline Cow

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 528
  • Karma: +1/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Spydermine

Reply #4 on: July 31, 2008, 01:12:13 am
This edit might not be worth anything, especially now that you've started animating, but I thought I'd post it anyway rather than having it rot and die on my hard drive.



The main problem with the sprite is the stiff, uninteresting posture of the character. I tried to take a more dynamic approach to the character with my edit. You can get a dynamic look without sacrificing the perspective, I just took a different approach to show some possibilities. :B

Offline Sokota

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 148
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • WeThePuppets
    • View Profile

Re: Spydermine

Reply #5 on: August 03, 2008, 06:39:52 am
Ah, I see now. But considering this is a mouse-aimer, with 360* rotation, how...[efficient?] is your sprite going to be? I'm not trying to avoid criticism, I'm just considering the alternatives. And if we sprite the main character with a 3/4 perspective, doesn't that mean we'd have to sprite all the enemies, etc the same? ???

Sokota

Edit: Oh yeah, the main point of this was to get feedback on the mine, but anyways....
« Last Edit: August 03, 2008, 06:44:01 am by Sokota »

Offline JJ Naas

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 409
  • Karma: +1/-0
    • View Profile
    • My Deviantart page

Re: Spydermine

Reply #6 on: August 03, 2008, 08:51:11 am
I believe many such games ( like Abuse ) have that perspective. In fact I can't figure out how it could be otherwise:

Offline McStinkus

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 43
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Spydermine

Reply #7 on: August 04, 2008, 10:34:12 pm
The fact that it has a headlight on it implies its going to be dark?  In which case the light may cast shadows and reflect against the little guy.
...
is a really fast edit.  I also sort of changed the perspective, but nothing major

Offline c_raethke

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Spydermine

Reply #8 on: August 28, 2008, 02:28:38 am
I believe many such games ( like Abuse ) have that perspective. In fact I can't figure out how it could be otherwise:


Well, usually they turn around instead of leaning over backwards...  :huh: Anyways, my post was for the animation, not the actual sprite. So, any suggestions there?

Offline Rox

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 591
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Spydermine

Reply #9 on: August 30, 2008, 09:04:25 am
Well, usually they turn around instead of leaning over backwards...  :huh: Anyways, my post was for the animation, not the actual sprite. So, any suggestions there?
Oh, but having them turn means you have to have two sets of animations for the legs instead of just one. The way Abuse did it works very well. Looks a bit wonky when shooting straight backward, but it's much more fluid than having the character turning back and forth while running about. And you save an animation!

As for the animation... well, actually, you could take a look at Abuse for that, too. Examine how the leg movement differs from yours. The first things that hit me are that you have some segments staying in the same position over two frames, which makes it look choppy, and that the foot doesn't move along the ground at a consistent speed. While on the ground, it should move the same amount of pixels for every frame. Furthermore, are you sure you want him to walk rather than run? Walking in games always feels sluggish.