Kern Trooper

[baccaman21]

Here's a sketch I did a few years ago (or 10 to be precise) for a game called HardKorps that never made it to the shelf... Set in 1984 the premise was that the boar war had escalated into what was become WW1 - in fact, the war never ended... you know the crack... usual 'what if' scenario... anyway... this chap is one of the enemy forces who in the game were called the KERN. This is one the standard Kern Troopers.


Seeing that I got time free I thought I'd pixel the little chap up...

16 colors, 64x64

C&C's Welcome.

Thanks guys & gals.

[Ryumaru]

the helmet seems to not have a lightsource and looks somewhat pillowed.
other than that, it looks like it would fit well in any control your soldier game

[Dhaos]

Sprite matches the pic pretty well. The designs is neat.

There is a bit of room for improvement though:

-gloves could have a highlight like the boots
-the orange pants might make nearby black one tone brighter...
-helm is a bit pillow shaded, dark contrasting tones could help add a reflective texture
-torso could be darkened since he appears to be leaning over
-groin area could be darkned for the same reason

[baccaman21]

wey hey... some proper criticism... ! Thanks guys... I appreciate it. Time to learn some new tricks... 

I get most of what you guys are saying and I'll have a crack at some mods... however... I'm a bit unsure what you mean when you refer to 'pillow shading'...   I've seen mention of it elsewhere on these boards and I've got a vague notion of what it is - but can one of you clarify for me? Thnx

Also... Dhaos... you say "-the orange pants might make nearby black one tone brighter..." sorry my friend but this isn't scanning properly... can you elaborate please?

and finally... you also mention that the gloves should have hilights, like the boots? -  - not sure what you getting at here either ... I deliberatly didn't place anything on the 'leather' sections of the boots and gloves... I tried adding tonal hilights intitially but removed them as I felt the image was getting too busy... besides, the front toecap of the boots are supposed to be steel caps... if you get what I mean...  I guess that's not coming across too well? may change that...? any ideas?

Thanks agains chaps... 

 
since writing this, I've made this edit... based on what I can understand from your comments.

<<<<original      <<<<edited

Added more depth to the shadowing as suggested... looks better I think... I've rounded the helmet more, and used a bit of dither. Hilighted the boots and gloves... darkened torso generally.

Thanks guys he's looking a lot better... (I think)

Still not sure what pillow shading is though... lol 

[Pawige]

I like it a lot! Nice design and dynamic pose. I did a very quick edit here to see if I can point out some things that I personally would change.
I added the end of the gun as it looked a bit tilted out in the sprite. Also brought the colors down to 12 for the aesthetic improvement, I feel that fewer colors are almost always easier to work with and pack more of a punch.
Shined up a few choice metal bits, and pushed his chest and tail back to reduce confusion about the forms.
Put a bit of a highlight on the glove so it stook out more, same goes for the boots.
Reducing the colors also helped eliminate the pillow-shaded appearance of the helmet.

[Perciv@l]

Here you have a brief description of the term pillow shading: http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/pixipedia/index.php?title=Pillow_Shading

So, pillow shading is when you shade following the outline towards the center. When you do this you get a strange effect that make your pixel art looks "fluffy". This happens because the shades doesn't have a well deffined light source.

[Dhaos]

Lol sorry for my lack of grammar, I was tired hehe.

To clarify this:
 "-the orange pants might make nearby black one tone brighter..."

Basically, in a small space (such as the pants) if you have two really contrasting tones (in the pants it would be the orange and the black stripe pattern) they will influence each other...they will blend with each other more. I was saying you might lighten some of the black in the pants by using the next lightest 'black' tone in your palette.

Pillow shading is pretty much a fluffy effect created by shading an area evenly in all directions, generally it looks bad X_x.

I'm preping an edit to explain some of my points...Pawige did pick most of them up already though.

[spacer for edit]
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[baccaman21]

Here you have a brief description of the term pillow shading: http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/pixipedia/index.php?title=Pillow_Shading

So, pillow shading is when you shade following the outline towards the center. When you do this you get a strange effect that make your pixel art looks "fluffy". This happens because the shades doesn't have a well deffined light source.

Thanks For that... exactly what I thought it was... nice term

I like it a lot! Nice design and dynamic pose. I did a very quick edit here to see if I can point out some things that I personally would change.
I added the end of the gun as it looked a bit tilted out in the sprite. Also brought the colors down to 12 for the aesthetic improvement, I feel that fewer colors are almost always easier to work with and pack more of a punch.
Shined up a few choice metal bits, and pushed his chest and tail back to reduce confusion about the forms.
Put a bit of a highlight on the glove so it stook out more, same goes for the boots.
Reducing the colors also helped eliminate the pillow-shaded appearance of the helmet.

Whilst I agree with you in principle with respect to the color reduction I fail to see this is in your edit... sorry to disagree with you I just feel that by reducing the pallette you are losing tonal variety (that one can manipulate to create a more interesting final result) as well as losing certain (what i'd consider to be) key detail (the tiger striped camo for instance). I've made another edit (see below) in an attempt to demonstrate this. Having said that... I would definately agree with you if this was 1 frame in 1000's that would need to be created for a full blown game, but as it is it's 'just' a one off (well for now at least) 

At first I didn't go with the gun angle up - but I've reconsidered this and made the necessary change. It's funny how these things can be interpreted in different ways... (like the mettalic helmet for instance [which was matt white in the original concepts]) I've also attempted to add vents to the end of the weapon, as well as a 'suggestion' of the hole. (I felt you'd pulled the hole up too far - making the gun look bent) 

Thanks for the feedback though, it's good to take it onboard and as it happens has made me reconsider certain choices... I appreciate it. 
<<<With 'tonal variance' across the 'grey scale' - updated gun end, added additional hilight to boots and gloves.

Cheers

Lol sorry for my lack of grammar, I was tired hehe.

To clarify this:
 "-the orange pants might make nearby black one tone brighter..."

Basically, in a small space (such as the pants) if you have two really contrasting tones (in the pants it would be the orange and the black stripe pattern) they will influence each other...they will blend with each other more. I was saying you might lighten some of the black in the pants by using the next lightest 'black' tone in your palette.

Hey there Dhaos...  I understand exactly what you're talking about, I mentioned it to Neverest in his ISO robot post the other day - it's an effect I know very well and one I use advantagiously occasionally... what I call 'tonal edging'

Incidentally... it's not his pants, the design of the character has a kind of bulletvest on made of a kind of quilted sack type material - closely resembling the underside of a turtle... it protrudes down past their groin area and tapers down - I imagined it to be a little bit like the front section of one the mutant turtles carapace. (hence the turtle reference)

[Dhaos]

[Edit]


-shifted his <foot to the right a bit
-aligned his gun a bit to take advantage of perfect pixel lines
-added shines to the gun and gloves
-added helmet detail (half-black piece + notch)
-made his suit more orange
-removed two reddish tones
-graphics gale mighta screwed the transparency again so wee!

I mostly just tried to clean the sprite up, but based on your above post I believe I missed the quilt/caparce look, so my edit might be pointless haha. Since I finished it I thought I'd post it, hopefully you can find it useful in some way, if not um wee!

[Miguel]

I'd go for pawige's edit,which is, in fact great. it fixed the light source and eliminated the pillow shading and if that wasnt all, it also cleaned totally the sprite with the pallette fixes and changes.

Dhaos edit its very good also, i think the shadow on his body gives him more volume.. and his lightsourse feels more consistent IMHO.