GR#033 - Lion Warrior - Anatomy / Sprite Process

[Cure]

Early stages of my contribution to the pixel art show.
Comments/crits/suggestions welcome.

CURRENT:

[Xion]

Knights legs are way tiny. If you were trying for foreshortening, I can't really give any advices on a fix since I suck at it myself, but yeah, it's not working. I think the lion's forelegs are a bit short, as well.
The cape also seems a bit stiff. It should drape more, you know?

[decker]

Enlarge lion 1.5x, for sturdy carry

[Krumbs]

The lion looks a bit small compared to the man. But I really like it's mane.

[willfaulds]

here's a quick non-pixel art edit: i thought making the knight smaller would be better than making the lion bigger (same affect but i love the pixels laid for the lion's face). i also elongated the knight's torso's as he felt a bit squashed but dependent on what you intended it might not be right... i know some of work's are humorous and thought there might be a joke coming. can't help with the knight's leg other than to say its looks gimpy.

[Salvage]

a grand start!
at first glance i noticed something strange to my eye re: the helmet.
if the metal fin on top is supposed to flare out towards the back, then we should probably see some of it on the left side.
if you meant it to be more of a standard mohawk shape, it should run straight down the middle and not protrude out to the right side as much as you have it.
anyways, its a fun piece, you make me want to join the project

[Bacteriophage]

Aside from the size differences, I'm not too hot re: the shape of the knight's right leg.

It looks like either it's too short or it's shaded wrong.

[Fool]

Thats some nice idea, though it is feels a bit odd design wise - full armored knight doesn't feel right in combination with a lion - fast and dodge cats nature with a somewhat limited in motion man. Maybe  give him some light stuff, at least partially - like chain shirt and so? If put that aside (i'm not too confident in here at all , haven't done realistic humans much) but proportions looks a little off. See if that makes any sense.=)

[Dan]

Madness love the textures lots of levels and for the colours used its impressive. My crits have been previously expressed. Can't wait for the final piece.

[Cure]

[copy/pasted from PJ]

CURRENT:

I shrunk the knight, and I think this now drastically helps the composition.  Got a nice triangle goin' on.  Worked on other bits (notably the cape and elbow) and cleaned here and there.  The arm and leg nearest to us are still posing a slight problem, but that'll be ironed out eventually. Thanks for the critique guys, keep it coming!


WIP ANIMATION:


TIMELINE:
It started off as this sketch:

which I then reduced to hand-picked greyscale palette and shrunk down.
I've only really used this process once before, and it's not super-easy when all you've got is mspaint.  You can see how messy it still is in the first few frames of the wip animation.

Fool: Thanks for the edit.  The pose is much less stiff and the leg looks fantastic, I'll try to bend it in that direction as the image progresses.
Salvage:  I tried to fix the perspective issue with the helmet, it may need further work.
willfaulds:  No joke yet.  I just like lions and knights.  You'll notice I went with the "smaller rider" approach, as I also didn't want to mess up the pretty lion.
all:  Rider is now smaller, thanks for the heads up.  I didn't intentionally try to cop out on the leg... that's just where the cape blew.  I can't control the wind.