Anatomy Break

[xhunterko]

Hello!

It seems I've been keeping something from you. Heh heh. Anyways, I felt a little uncomftable putting things up here becuase it feels like I get abused, and like it. Okay, sorry, that's enough. I've been working on a little game (ha ha, little) now for some months and am pleased with the way it's turning out. The engine is good. The first song is okay. The gui is okay. And I'm okay with the graphics. But they're bothering me now for some reason. Mainly because I want to try and animate a running for the characters and am completely stumped as to how and make it look right. I'll probably end up giving them a scissors like look without any bending to make it easier. Anyway. The first sheet contains all the little sprites that are going to be in the game. Plus some random stuff that I've done lately. You may recognize the below comic that I've pixeled. I would like a little crit on that as well. I don't know what I'm worried about. Which is a good enough reason to ask for crit. Here's the pics:

Protagonist


Chained


Rehash


detail


num3


Update2


Update


Light source study


Speed pixel (minus background and protagonist)


Modified


Next


vehicle1


pose


sprite or fail, I dunno


Walk attempt


TouchUp


Reduction


P.A.L


protagonist rework


comments later



based on avacado's edit





CnC please
Thanks

[Avocado]

I would have edited some more stuff but im kind of short on time (I lost track of time while editing this, haha), hopefully you see sort of what im trying to get across. My edit is 6 colors (four on the character and two on the gun), your original sprite had some repitition of colors and a lot of very similar hues, and did not seem like he was "guarding" the base.  I used your colors and some slight modifications and changed his pose.

I brought the gun arm back because it seemed like a large gun, and made his other arm a support for it, and I bent his knees a little to make him seem more alert.  I wasn't sure if the head was supposed to be a helmet or a head wrapping of some sort, so I gave him a wrap. I liked your eyes but the way I changed the head they came out looking kind of weird, im sure you can figure out how you want to do it.  Your legs are also a bit conical, seeming really thin at the top and expanding down, and your waistline seemed kind of low. This might have been the reason you had difficulty with movement animations.
I feel like you might want to keep an outline around it though because I tried setting it against a darker background and it comes out looking hard to read. Upping the contrast might help with that, im not too sure.  I think mine is also off balance and leaning backwards a bit but hopefully the ideas get across.

I feel like most of these crits go for your protagonist as well, I feel like he could do with a more energetic pose.
Hope this helps!

[xhunterko]

Hello!

Thank you for the edit. I really like the way that's headed. I was kinda afraid about something being said about the outlines but it seems like they'd be okay in your version. I also noticed that you rotated the torso a bit as well. I had a little trouble shading that mask. I was trying to figure out how to shade it and get the mask look at the same time. I agree about the legs. Though they may be a tad too long in the edit. And it still has the same light source as well. I'll see if I can't work something out like that.

I was also wondering about the background. I was trying for a seemless tiling when it came to this one. I like what I've got for now. But that only means there could be errors in there that I'm not seeing. I'm also wondering about the background items and objects. I was going for an old pc/dos game look. I'm wanting to know if I have the same style going or if there's anything wrong there as well.

Again, thank you for the edit.

Hopefully I'll have time to work on it more this week. Looking forward to more CnC if it's needed.

[Gil]

For critiques, just look at all your other threads. People do not stand with their legs in an upside down V.

I see the cat character returning, so why don't you post this in the other thread?

[xhunterko]

@Gil: Reason 1: That thread is old.
Reason 2: People hate necro-bumping.
Reason 3: Am I really that predictable? If your talking about my avatar, no. Any changes applied to this character will go across the board.

rework based on avacado's edit


Do I have the V look fixed in the new edit though? I tried to avoid some of the common problems I have. Things like shading and 45' angle legs thing and other problems. Anyway, hopefully I've solved the v thing. I'll take a look at it some more and post any changes. And thank you for the coment.

As always, CnC please.




(Really hope I changed things here. sometimes it feels like i'm goin in circles.)

[Avocado]

EDIT: I feel like what I wrote originally was too harsh and not clear enough so i'm going to rewrite it.

I did the limb silhoulette thing to sort of show you what my biggest concern is:  You seemed to have changed the coloring of the sprite more than the shape of it and the limbs still all look very similar and are still kind of shapeless.

I feel like the biggest problem you have is that your limbs are stiff and dont seem bendable. It might help if you think about them in terms of yourself and how your own limbs might work.  Right now it seems like you're just drawing them so that they look like body parts rather than function like them. Another concern of mine is that there's a slight lack of definition and the limbs look kind of blob-like, which I feel that having more discernable joints would help out with as well. 
Also, the way he's holding the gun seems a little uncomfortable to me; is he preparing to fire or just idling?

There's still some trouble with lack of contrast between colors and the eyes are kind of hard to read with the new mask but overall the sprite looks a lot more crisp and less messy. Can you tell me how you're going about doing your outlines? I'm just curious because different parts of your outlines are different colors in some places, it's not a big critique of mine or anything.  I'm also curious about why you chose to make the mask, gloves, and pants grey but the shirt and shoes khaki-ish. Good luck, hope this helps!

[xhunterko]

I'll comment a bit later. off to work now. and before the power goes out.

And thank you for the second edit.


Okay, back. I tried not to follow avacado's edit too closely, but I think I failed in that aspect. I changed the arm pose a little and hopefully it looks correct. As cute as your edit looks, I really don't like the two-color style that's going on there. I also wrapped the darker color around the eyes and they stand out a bit more. It was supposed to be an idle and a firing stance. But I guess that didn't work out as intended. About the outlines. I was trying to not use any black for them. I'm going for a "choose darkest color" method instead. There's an actual term for it and it's supposed to make it look better for some sprites. The color choices are just that, color choices. He's supposed to be part of a terror group so this is how they identify each other. Plus I don't like cookie cutter generic color types. So, how'd I do?

Your thoughts?
(CnC please)
Thanks.

(There's also a stray lighter shade in the stomach area. I forgot about it and didn't see it until later. I just noticed the front leg looking off a bit as well.)

[xhunterko]

Gil is going to hammer me for this one. Oh well.



Here's a second rework of the protagonist. I have now given him two pistols instead of one. (To make the player feel on par with the enemy.) I changed the left side foot slightly because it didn't look right in the last edit. I removed the stray highlight in the stomach area and added a darker tone on the other side instead. I changed the tail count colors. That is bothering me a bit as I'm not sure how to go about shading that properly. I also made sure to make his eyes stand out a bit more by working on the bandana a bit.

Any improvements?
CnC please!

[Gil]

I'm not going to hammer you, I actually think you're slowly moving in the right direction with your art. I'm not, however, going to do an extensive edit. I think that some pointers in the right direction might be more helpful.

Think about how to apply the following concepts:

Contrast - The soldier is lacking contrast mainly in the brown areas
Shading - The guns cast shadows, the arm casts shadows, etc
Material - Metal is shiny, clothes are dull, try to play with the palette
Cohesion - The colours are all separated. Try to work some grays into the brown and vice versa, try to pull the ramps together.

[xhunterko]

I think that material and cohesion are probably the hardest two for me to get right. Contrast and shading are something that I can easily look up. Color ramps was another thing that was stated as a problem for my pieces before and I still don't udnerstand it. I'll have to look those  up later.

Thanks!

(As for the hammer reference, I was refering to the return of the cat character. Which you had mentioned in your first post.)