[WIP] Generic Platform Hero #784

[madforthefiddle]

Hello pixel artists! Just slapped together a little fellow that's been floating around in my head for some time now. Thing is, I've never really given shading an honest try, so I was wondering if y'all had any pointers for me (my shaded attempts are on the right, complete with Earth's yellow sun as a light source). If you're wondering, I've got a 12 color palette because that's how many colors the guy had in my head (I know the idea is to use restricted palettes, but I just had to color in his black leggings - even if it only is 2 pixels in this particular pose).

I plan on giving him more frames (running, jumping, ducking, attacking, and all of the other things a generic platform hero might need), but before I go nuts I'd like to know how I could improve my shading.



Thanks everyone!

[Gil]

An edit says more than a thousand words. actually, mine just says "needs more contrast and less banding"

[madforthefiddle]

Well, I learned quite a bit from your critique Gil, thanks!

The thing I immediately noticed was the contrast. Working with a limited palette, making those related colors pretty different goes a long way. Also, darkening the outline really made those colors pop.

After that, I had to look up what banding referred to (like I said, I've never done shading before). I saw bad banding in the left boot and in the right arm - if y'all thought it was terrible elsewhere let me know.

Speaking of things that were terrible, I hadn't noticed just how awful that lump of flesh at the end of his right arm was. Funny how shaving off his Popeye forearm by one pixel and extending the hand solved that one. I did steal Gil's skin tone and shading on the right arm because, so far, I haven't managed to find anything that looked better (if it isn't banding, it baffles me). I'm going to keep trying though - I don't want to steal from the critique.

Here's the thing I still don't get - anti-aliasing. Gil really made the hair outline flow into the guy's hair color nicely, but I'm not sure the rhyme or reason for the particular locations of lightened pixels. Is it just the sort of thing you eyeball until it looks good?


Well, enough blathering about my continued education of the pixel, here's my updated version (number 1 is the original, 2 is Gil's critique, and 3 is my update):




As awesome as the blue hue in the armor looked, I wanted to keep his colors in the "warm" range. I can't decide, though, if my choice of color has made his armor look something other than metallic.

[Gil]

I'm glad the edit was of some help. For the banding, try looking left of the ear, I changed a few pixels there because of banding issues. I also think that a light and colored outline creates some form of banding on its own, hence why I broke the line in a few places, being careful not to end up with a jaggy broken outline.

The arm edit is basically something you'll end up seeing after practice. Swapping a few pixels around and ending with something better. I redid it like 3 times to get what I have now, you'll probably be doing 5 redos to get it in the beginning. You tend to get a "pixel art vision" after a while.

My way of anti-aliasing is indeed based purely on eyeballing. I see something I don't like, I try a lighter pixel, a darker, etc, to see if it looks better. Your original was nice already, so if you don't find anything better, leave it. You'll be the only one who notices it anyway, the players will be focusing on the whole game, not a pixel in your character's hair.

As for the banding, look in the area around the ear. The mind plays tricks and creates this sort of invisible horizontal line. Just change a few pixels and it dissapears. There's tons of theory to read up on, but it's unnecessary. Just change something small and it usually goes away. If it doesn't, the crazy people will take over and post 4 page long diagrams and examples to help (read: confuse) you

[Dr D]

There's the criminal!

I prefer to think of banding as a pattern of hugging colors.. Like a gradient snake..

[madforthefiddle]

Okay, I think I got the banding out of the hair. No more gradient snakes there.

I decided to emulate the platform hero and press onward. Today was the day that the platform hero learned his most useful skill. What could this be you ask? Walking? Jumping? NO!


Hitting stuff.

The hair gave me more trouble than I care to admit - especially the shading. I tried to keep my light source in mind, but I also wanted to make sure that the hair looked like it was moving. Here is a break down of the frames in case you want a closer look at that mess.


The four frames on the bottom comprised my first hittin' animation, but the static hair looked a little dead. Two more frames and a little extra hair on the standing frame later and I ended up with the second row.

Any advice on shading, animation, or anything else you see wrong with today's work is greatly appreciated! Thank you all very much!

[Gil]

I think it makes more sense swinging bottom up, because it requires less energy.

Added a bit of anticipation and strength to the swing

[madforthefiddle]

Here's what I ended up with after working with your version:



The upward swing is a nice animation, but it doesn't suit a morning star. For most blunt force weapons, a downward swing with a little bit of hip pivoting is a lot more damaging than swinging up towards the jawline.
With that in mind I kept my "morning star is closer to the viewer" frame in order to keep that downward arc consistent.

I incorporated your two extra arm animations (start-up and follow-through), but I moved the hair around a bit (and fixed up some shoulder pad stuff too - or maybe I screwed it up  ). When you say you added extra strength was it by throwing the hair forward while the morning star was completely extended? If so, I think I may have undone that change, but having the thing sticking out mid-swing seemed odd.

Oh yeah, I noticed that the extended arm on frame 6 is all wonky - I've fixed it up in my still version, but the only method of gif making I have at the moment is too much of a hassle to repost the animation just for that.

[Gil]

Looking good

I added strength by making the jump between two frames higher. It seems to go a little slow in yours.

Apparently you know more about mace swinging than I do (I have better knowledge on spears and swords than maces), so I trust your judgement

[madforthefiddle]

So by making the jump from the "at his side" to "out in front" frames without much in the middle, it looks like a quicker attack?


Edit: Duh, of course it'll be quicker - what I meant was stronger.