Thread where Makeout Patrol tries to figure out higher-resolution sprites

[Makeout Patrol]

All right, I'm working on a new project, and I'm at the point where I'm trying to hammer out a "look" for it. One of the goals that I have for this one is to improve the graphics over The Vacuum, and in order to give myself more room for detail, I'm bumping up the resolution to 640x480. That, of course, means that I need to get used to higher-resolution sprites, so I figure I'd probably better get some help with that, because the sprites I'm creating are all pretty plain-looking, and I could always use some advice, right?

I'll post more in this thread as I make them, but for now, I'll just start off with this:



So, what can you tell me? What works, what doesn't, and how could it be better? I like the front view more than the side view (although I realize that it's a bit of an unnatural pose in the front view), but I'm not totally sure why.

[None]

quick drawover.





I've stuck with your basic pallete and design, but refined the head to a more natural 'egg shape'.
Besides that I've spaced the eyes apart further, rule of thumb, is there's an eye-width between the eyes and half an eye's width on either side.
This isn't as important on low-res sprites, but on something this large, it's definitely a factor.
The problem with the hands is he's holding his arms out to the sides too much... They should fall straight I think...

All in all though, if you could actually sprite a dozen walkframes at THAT resolution, then you'll have accomplished something. Me I personally don't think I could have the patience...

[ThreeOhFour]

Depending on the style you are chasing, I would not point the chin, but leave it as a square jaw. Some suggestions about colour: Do not paint on a background where the darker hair shade is the same or similar as the backdrop colour, as it makes it harder to define your lines. Also, try using a darker shade of your skin palette (make another darker shade, that is) for mouth and nose - it often looks more natural.

Other than that, looking good

[Makeout Patrol]

All right, I've worked on it a bit and here's what I've got:



I kept the square chin because I wanted this character to have a really strong jaw, but that's quite useful for other characters I might end up making, so thanks, ShonenAiGuy. I used the hair with some slight modifications and I'm a lot happier with it now; same deal with the eyes. I also changed the colour for the mouth and nose. I made a shit-ton of tiny little changes on this one; some of the bigger ones include completely redrawing the head on the side view, placing the arms in the front view closer to the core, redoing the left leg in the side view, and working on the shoes. I drew a back view and I don't know whether I'm happy with it or not.

Tomorrow I'll probably start trying to animate this thing.

[TerranRich]

The mouth needs work, and the arms are way too thin and hang awkwardly. Otherwise, they're pretty good.

[None]

I like the progress, your onto something with the firmer chin, but, on the side view his chin looks weak not strong, it disappears!
The mouth could be improved but I still say it's good 'nuff. Definitely Game Quality.

[Makeout Patrol]

I spent all night at the pub, so I didn't spend any time working on it, but I'm actually a bit confused about these comments on improving the mouth. Can you be a bit more specific? How exactly can it be improved?

[Trent R]

With the mouth, I think it looks generally fine in the front picture. However, the side looks like he's biting/eating his own lip, so it's distracting. Perhaps that can be solved by defining the jaw more like ShonenAiGuy said.

~Trent R
~Sirus Squire

[toonaholic]

with the mouth I would just try shaving 1 or 2 pixels off the right side.