Need help with the front view of (sierra)agi-style character

Uhfgood · Wed 12/01/2011 22:18:48

This kind of sucks -- the front view isn't really good because of the low res and double wide pictures... any suggestions would be helpful... He's supposed to be a bit barrel chested -- (ie a bit muscley)

Gilbert · Thu 13/01/2011 02:33:19

Something like this, maybe?

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Thu 13/01/2011 06:56:35

just reduce the size of his feet and bring his collar around his neck. Don't give him yellow skin, please! The age of jaundiced heroes is thankfully in the past.

Gilbert · Thu 13/01/2011 08:05:14

Quote from: ProgZmax on Thu 13/01/2011 06:56:35
Don't give him yellow skin, please!

Why? There isn't much that you can do. The PC version of AGI uses the standard EGA palette, so choices are limited, unless you're more happy with gay pink

(or... use dithering with such wide pixels which just make the character look as if he gets... pox):

I know the palette on other platforms (e.g. the Amiga) may be different, but this is not my concern (the OP mainly asked for help with shapes and compositions), and the fact that I really drew it with WinAGI didn't help.

Of course, when one is just mimicking a retro style, it's not absolutely necessary to follow every detail exactly (depends on how close to the style he's after) and so he can improvise a bit and use colours that look better.

MMMorshew · Thu 13/01/2011 20:19:58

Quote from: Gilbet V7000a on Thu 13/01/2011 08:05:14
Quote from: ProgZmax on Thu 13/01/2011 06:56:35
Don't give him yellow skin, please!

Why? There isn't much that you can do. The PC version of AGI uses the standard EGA palette, so choices are limited, unless you're more happy with gay pink (or... use dithering with such wide pixels which just make the character look as if he gets... pox):

As far as I can remember there is a relatively dark red colour in the palette that was always used for skin. Why not use that?

I really like the character and the colours you used so far by the way. Even if the pixels are huge, its pleasant to look at.

Uhfgood · Thu 13/01/2011 23:13:08

Thanks guys. I actually took a palette from a discussion in Pixelation and then modified it slightly for my own purposes... I could post the palette if you like.

I've since updated the image -- As you can see Gilbet - I took your "shoulder pad" idea because I thought it looked cool... Then I didn't know what ProgZMax meant exactly when he said bring the collar up around the neck. If I did it fully it would look like a full button up collar in the front... so I improvised a little, and added the blue collar around the flesh colored neck piece, and then added the back of the collar in the side views. Plus I added a little badge (since the character is supposed to be running contraband medical supplies I wanted something that made me think a little red-cross-ish) Fixed the feet I think. anyways I think I'm happy with this version.

What do the rest of you guys think?

Gilbert · Fri 14/01/2011 01:55:43

It looks quite good IMO now. I may choose for removing the two pixels that make up his butt in the side view though. It's just up to you, as it's sometimes quite hard to decide how details should be interpreted, thanks to the annoying wide pixels.

Quote from: MMMorshew on Thu 13/01/2011 20:19:58
As far as I can remember there is a relatively dark red colour in the palette that was always used for skin. Why not use that?

I hated that colour very much, unless you're really drawing red people like the Indians. There were some games (I think LSL1 was one) that used it as skin, but not all (as far as I remember, at least KQ1 and KQ2 used yellow for skin).

Uhfgood · Fri 14/01/2011 05:27:23

Another bone of contention (pun NOT intended) is the crotch area. I look at it like something to break up the flatness of the pants (trousers) without anything there, it just looked kind of weird, so it was meant to be just a dividing line of sorts. It wasn't really intended to be "anatomically correct" just simply an outline. As far as the backside is concerned I'm not really sure, to me it looks alright... again when dealing with this res and these double pixels it's kind of hard to get any detail in. This was part of the challenge, see if I could make a-somewhat retro adventure game, using some limited resources (namely colors and resolution, as well as a parser based interface).

I still might tweak it a bit.

Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Uhfgood · Sat 15/01/2011 08:18:09

I updated him. Made him longer to be more correctly proportional (about 7 - 8 heads high). Modified his hairdo, and the crotch area. Let me know what you think.