My comic sprites

[Eirikr]

Hi I'm pretty new here but I figured I should introduce myself. I do spriting making for a cutom-made sprite comic comic that I do. I've been doing it for a while, and thus have replaced some character's sprites. I figured I just show off a sample of some of my stuff, and open it up to a little criticism. Granted, I'm betting this stuff isn't too good, but I'm learning. Oh, as a last note, the first row is the new set, the second row is the one I created about 7 months ago. The rest is relatively new. Let me know what you think.

[Cure]

This forum has a zoom feature, it's easier to give critique when it's submitted at 1x.
You're using way too much aa, and you're banding it, which is bad. 
The characters also look rather flat as there's no shading.

[Eirikr]

Ok, the characters do have shading, it's just very subtle. One would argue too subtle, which is probably something I'll have to change.

Also, what's aa or banding?

edit: also thanks for tip about the zoom feature. I'll keep that in mind from here on.

[Seele07]

aa means AntiAliasing. It's a technique to trick the eye with "blurring" the image a bit, so that it does not have this "hard edges" at contours 

Ingo

[Eirikr]

Ok, how would I go about using less of it? I'm not really doing anything special with the sprites(no blurring,etc.), just drawing them in MSpaint. Is there something I'm missing?

[Fatalis67]

What you're doing is with the ghost guy. You're adding a few "layers" of lighter colors to reduce jagged edges. But too much isn't good. Remove one of these layers and it'll make a lot of difference. Also, make your shading more obvious. Currently too subtle to really appear shaded.

[Eirikr]

Ok, I've darkened the shading by a tone or two on the sprites, and I've toned down on what I think the AA is on the Ghost sprite. Any better? Also, for a frame of reference, I typically use the sprites at 2x.

[$ymbol]

Ok, how would I go about using less of it? I'm not really doing anything special with the sprites(no blurring,etc.), just drawing them in MSpaint. Is there something I'm missing?

AA isn't exactly blurring, it's more of sharpening/smoothening. And yeah, it can be done in MS Paint, cause you're the one that does it; not the program.


Though some programs do have an Auto-AA feature.