Character sketch

[Chis]

Hey guys :D I'm not exactly new to pixelling, but I have a lot to learn ...
Well, here's a character I made a while ago. I'm not really satisfied with the hair and the arms on the walking animation, but I'm not sure as to how to go about fixing it

Any critiques would be appreciated!




Edit: Fixed it up a little ...

[Atrophy]

Well I still have a LOT to learn. But the highlights on the hair and rest of the body seem a bit extreme. It seems fine on the shirt, but the face shows no color, and the difference between the color and white highlight on the hair are far to different.

As for the animation, to me it seems as if the arms are moving far to much for walking. And unless she's running, the hair probably shouldn't have that much movement.

Other then that, nice work.

[Mathias]

It's certainly a high-contract design, but I'm just going to call that a style choice. The exaggerated movement, of the arms etc, is a common (and good, if done well) technique to infuse some extra character into an animated figure. This Raggedy Anne lookin' guy is obviously meant to be cartoon style, not realistic.

When you apply such strong light to part of an animated object and don't reflect that movement in the placement of the pixel clusters affected by that light, you run the danger of lit areas looking painted on permanently. Simply make the hair's highlight's bob the opposite direction. (shine a flashlight at your hand and move your hand up and down, does the flashlight's highlight not stay put as your hand moves?)

[Chis]

Thanks for your comments!


In response to making a realistic figure, I experimented a little and came up with this:


Would something like that be better instead?

[CrazyMLC]

It definetly looks better but if you're just trying to get the hang of animating arms in motion I'd stick with the simple one, just to make it so its easier to edit the frames.

[bengo]

Am I the only one that thinks the original stands out more and looks like it has more potential? I like the style its got, reminds me of Yoshi's island, it just needs alot of cleaning up and some tweaks here and there. I think it losers that 'drawn' feeling you get from the original.

[Jorund]

Am I the only one that thinks the original stands out more and looks like it has more potential? I like the style its got, reminds me of Yoshi's island, it just needs alot of cleaning up and some tweaks here and there. I think it losers that 'drawn' feeling you get from the original.

I agree.
You should try cleaning the outlines of the original, maybe that could help. But it all depends on what you're looking for.

[infinitegames]

Thanks for your comments!


In response to making a realistic figure, I experimented a little and came up with this:


Would something like that be better instead?

I really like both of them, but I think the first one has a more unique style so I think you should go with that one. I've got to say, I really like it. It's got a great vibe. I'm sure there are always things you could improve, but I think it makes a very good base.

[Chis]

I guess I'm keeping the old one then I'm more fond of that one, too.


I tweaked the animation more and cleaned up a little.
I'm sort of hesitant to completely clean up the outline because I intentionally varied its width to hint at shadows, so it might look flat once they're removed.
But I dunno 

[iggybork]

I'm sort of hesitant to completely clean up the outline because I intentionally varied its width to hint at shadows, so it might look flat once they're removed.
But I dunno  

You mean like this?



Using black as the shadow color really worked for The World Ends With You (game this screenshot was from), because the world of the game is obsessed with street fashion, hard rock, gorgeous celebrities, good ramen, and a popular Beyblades-esque game (hello, screenshot!). You wouldn't call the game "edgy," but the Shibuya the characters live in is all about being on the edge of everything. It shows in the art; all the character portraits have hard outlines that resemble the sharpness of wildstyle, the main character likes the art of a specific graffiti artist more than anything else, and all the enemies have limbs that look like graffiti. So the hard black outlines work as shading. Your character, though, is cute, and is defined by its roundness. Sure, there are edges, but that's not the focus. The only times when I would say the black-outline-shading is helping you is when the feet are moving away from the viewer, and the right side of his hair where it goes behind his face. Aside from that, it's not really shading anything. Just try it and see if you like it.

[Edit] Is there a reason why making longer posts screws with the scrollbar for the textbox?

[Gil]

I disagree. I think the whole aesthetic of the original is based on the black lines and I find it looks wonderful that way. In fact, I prefer Chris stylized line widths by far over the lackluster graphics and concept design of "The World Ends With You", because there the black lines really do nothing to back up the form at all. There's tons of examples of good varied line work that could help Chris, but I don't consider TWEWY to be one of them.

[iggybork]

I disagree. I think the whole aesthetic of the original is based on the black lines and I find it looks wonderful that way. In fact, I prefer Chris stylized line widths by far over the lackluster graphics and concept design of "The World Ends With You", because there the black lines really do nothing to back up the form at all. There's tons of examples of good varied line work that could help Chris, but I don't consider TWEWY to be one of them.

I had this feeling I was asking for trouble by using TWEWY; I guess I was right! I'll rephrase my point: When I look at the animation, the black outline makes me go, "huh?" It looks really good from a short distance, but if I look too closely, all I see is that chunk of black pixels on the back of his head. But, I'll admit, if he were in an environment done in this style, chances are I'd love it. All opinion and context, I suppose. I picked TWEWY because, to me, the hard outlines convey a mood and are representative of the game world. Whether or not the graphics are art or even good, they set the tone of the game. I think I was moments away from asking whether the Chis's black line shading was artistic intent or just a test, but if we start talking about artistic intent then the focus will start shifting away from the WIP. (And we'll all get mad at each other and I'll sound like an idiot. Yay, internet!)

What examples were you thinking of?

A thousand apologies for sounding pretentious, I promise to do better next time and spend more time pixeling than I do C+Cing.

[Chis]

I imagine that variable black outlines can add some artistic flavor even if it isn't edgy - if done correctly But I see your point.

Well, I actually had this game Scribble in mind, going with the bold crayonish theme, as well as Closure, but I guess both of them are also pretty edgy ...
Although yes, I was planning on a similar style for a game my character will star in.

By the way, she's a girl

[bitterbug]

I can't really offer anything in the way of critique, but I absolutely love the style and character of the original.
The highlight do seem to be overcooked, but for all I know they live on a planet with three suns

[Chis]

Thanks bitterbug! I'll think about the highlights.
Sorry if I'm necromancing this thread, but I recently made an outline for a jump animation.

Before I color anything, is there anything I should fix? (I'm sure there are.)
Responding to the style thing again, this is sort of what I was going for. (Ignore fail animation plz)
It's from a commission I did on Gaia, but I was pretty fond of the messy splintered look. I didn't quite adapt it on my sprites, but I plan to soon

[Lizzrd]

The impact looks a bit weird at the head, becasue the hair is floating and not settling soon enough, while the head just stays at the same height compared to the torso.

[twodayslate]

The jumping does seem to be very floaty.

[PypeBros]

The jumping does seem to be very floaty.

And I love it that way. I was about to spot that timing could be adjusted for more realistic physics and stuff, but it actually gives us the feeling that she is "lifted" while jumping, e.g. by bottom-up blowing wind, which gives a magical touch perfectly fitting the freshness of the character. I think you could even reinforce this by allowing more intermediate position to the arms in the jump/fall transition unless you're already doing the max of the #frames you're "allowed" to use.

Maybe only the feet could turn to "fully extended" earlier to convey the impulse she gives to jump off.

[Jad]

hair needs to follow the landing downwards, I think O: just put some frames of 'hair-weighed-down' in there and you'll be all set! O:

[xbogx]

seems to me like she should crouch more if she's gonna jump that high. it looks like low gravity the way it is now

[Jad]

the more time she crouches, the more delay between the player's button press and when the jump actually happens! That can get seriously annoying for the player

I'd choose floatiness over that any day!

[xbogx]

that's true, i hate it too when games don't respond right away

it might depend on what the framerate is and whether you can choose different speeds for animations to be played at. If it were possible, i'd try to add an extra frame where she's crouching more and then have the animation played faster

it's looking good as it is though so none of that is really necessary

[Accident]

A different take,



Yeah, don't be looking at mine for originality either, since it's too girly and kind of... boring in terms of design, but my suggestion on the shorts stay, as does the hands. Her hands are too... noodly? I'm not sure how else to describe it. Take from the edit what you will, and what you won't.

[bengo]

If I may say something... I don't think we should be trying to CHANGE the style, only refine it, what OP has is fine I think.

[Accident]

If I may say something... I don't think we should be trying to CHANGE the style, only refine it, what OP has is fine I think.

which is why I mentioned that the only suggestions I'm sticking with is how to shade the shorts and block out the hands. the rest is all pointlessly cosmetic.

[gliding]

I like the style but I think the black outline detracts from the appeal. I tried keeping as much of the original's feel as possible by letting the dark lines recede to black. The most important change was desaturating those shadows of yours. I think the palette works a lot better this way, and yet, it still retains the cartoonish, simple look. In my opinion, having black lines within the sprites outline just doesnt work as well as using actual colors to differentiate areas from one another.

[Mike]

the more time she crouches, the more delay between the player's button press and when the jump actually happens! That can get seriously annoying for the player

I'd choose floatiness over that any day!

When I use crouches for jumps in my games I make the delay in microseconds by making the animation super fast but even still it feels like the delay is simply too much but it adds a nice springy-ness to it overall.  Shadow of the Colossus used it to great effect though, most of the time.

[Chis]

The height of the jump was kept because it was mostly a mockup, as in-game her position will be controlled by some programming code (and also because I'm a lazy bum, and also because I like the floatsiness).  I also have no limits on number of frames that I know of. Planning fail ftw.

I tweaked her crouch animation and decreased the microseconds on the jump, but as far as I can tell something wonky's still going on with her hair when she lands. Gaaaargh.

Those edits are awesome! I totally dig the hair on Accident's edit, and the softness of gliding's edit, and the pants on both. They make me painfully aware that the hands and pants currently look like crap (), and inspire me to make another edit. Speaking of which, they give me an idea of some awesome game in which the character is always the same, but the style changes throughout. I don't know how much work that would be though.

[Accident]

They make me painfully aware that the hands and pants currently look like crap (), and inspire me to make another edit.

THERE IS NO TIME TO FEEL BAD. SUCK IT UP. <33333333333333

you have a distinct style all your own. it is /not/ crap. we are just here to help you refine it. 

I must say, what I like most about the animation is that she actually looks up.  it's something I've seen a lot of people forget.

[Mike]

Heres my 2 cents on this


Honestly I wasted my time working on the actual vertical velocity considering you'll be using code to move the sprite.  If I were you I wouldn't even worry about that.  Just use it for a quick mockup of what you want to see in the game but there's no reason to refine it.

What I did was take out frames for the hair that had doubles when she is hitting the ground.  Typically with follow through animation you need to be on 1s and do it straight ahead.  What I mean by that is don't make duplicates for the hair it needs to be unique each frame while at the same time following behind the base movement.  You can do your keyframes using pose to pose but I believe it's best to do the hair, clothes, scarves, tails, antennae etc, after your base animation has been established. 

Oh and one last thing.  I think you should keep her hands sort of non descript.  I love the powerpuff girls type style hands.  Plus it's easy to animate, which is why I used it for this character


(Not pixelart)

They make me painfully aware that the hands and pants currently look like crap (), and inspire me to make another edit.

THERE IS NO TIME TO FEEL BAD. SUCK IT UP. <33333333333333

you have a distinct style all your own. it is /not/ crap. we are just here to help you refine it.  

I must say, what I like most about the animation is that she actually looks up.   it's something I've seen a lot of people forget.

Yep I forget that most of the time too.  It's amazing how that can really bring a jump animation to life.

[Chis]

Thanks Accident
HAH. You know how I didn't forget? Lots and lots of Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

Mike, that looks so much better disregarding the code. I added all these crap frames cause I was all worried that it wouldn't be smooth, but quickening the pace killed that problem.
I think I'd settle for a compromise hinting at a hand and fingers, but mostly keeping the powerpuff theme intact xD Your character's adorable, btw.

[Chis]

Did not mean for it to turn out so creepy, but the smile seemed to complement the grunginess so much.
I don't think I will use this, but I rather like it.
Tho, still failing at hands.

[CrazyMLC]

It needs some AA, but i've grown attached to the simplicity of the original design.

Though, if you really want to give it a detailed look, perhaps you could find a middle ground?

[Chis]

Yeah, I didn't mean for it to be so detailed; it was more like ooh, this looks interesting! lemme see how this works out.
I tried to aa, but I might've overdone it (again).

[PypeBros]

what is a bit poor compared to proposed alternatives, is that you stick to value-slide-only. Your dark tones and highlight all seem to use the same hue as the medium tones. You'll get more lovely and vibrant graphics with some hue shift.

[Chis]

? I tried not to overdo it.

Random question: If I wanted to post a piece unrelated to this project, would I do it here or in a new thread?

[Accident]

Yeah, it would be best to make a new thread.

Also, I liked your attempt of more shading. It indeed looks grungy and I'd like to see it implemented on the sprite.   

[Chis]

Ahmahgawd I finally got around to working on this again.
After much indecision I decided to just stick with the original style, mostly to keep the animation simple and my sanity intact. I did try dulling down the white highlights but she ended up looking flat ... Yeah. Buuut I really appreciate your edits since it was a great learning experience for me as a pixel artist :D

I sped it up in lieu with Mike's edit while still keeping some of the floatiness. (I also just realized that I had no idea what he said about being on 1s. Can anyone clarify?) The highlights I didn't move up and down too much for practical ingame reasons. I centered the highlight on her head a bit more and will do the same for the walk cycle. I also hueshifted a little more.
Edit: Did the same for the walk cycle.