First character, please critique.

[bigrd32]

Well, after my last post I'm hesitant to put this up.Ã,  I've decided to keep trying with AGS and I've just finished my first attempt at drawing a character.Ã,  I know some major improvements can be made but with my lack of drawing skills I'm pretty much stuck.Ã,  He is supposed to be barefoot wearing sweatpants and a wifebeater.Ã,  (he just got out of bed)

http://www.freewebs.com/bigrd32/characters.htm

Edit:Ã,  There are also a couple of backgrounds there worth looking at.Ã,  Thanks.

Please let me know what I can do to make this better and feel free to edit it in any way so I can see visually what can be done.

Thanks, Randy

Edit:  I've made some changes using tips from YakSpit and InCreator.  I painted over the walk cycle like YakSpit said and I used most if not all of the tips from InCreator.

Did it help?

[Akumayo]

I like the overall effect, though a bit cartoonish for my taste.  The two things I would change would be the eyes, they look too bright, like he's amplified their brightness with alien powers or something (is he an alien, by the eyes, I mean?) so I would darken them to a less flourescent green is all, and secondly, the feet strike me as being bear feet (not bare, hey!  A pun!  )  I mean, they bow up too far, and don't arch properly.  Try slimming them up a bit, and giving them at least a one pixel arch on the bottom (though the tops are what really bother me, they look like tan boots (his feet)).  Okay... I'm done.  The sprite looks nice though, nice use of color and shade.

[bigrd32]

Wow...look at those eyes!Ã,  Thanks for pointing that out he looks like he ate plutonium.
You're right about the feet, too.Ã,  I'll try to make them suck less.

I would also like it if someone could help me with his hands.  I don't want them to be all the way open like he's slapping his legs and I don't want them to be in fists either.

[TheYak]

Lacking character ability, the only thing I can suggest for the hands is to reference someone else's forward-facing sprite.  His arm muscles seem to bulge in the wrong places, as he's gone one large bulge instead having deltoids and biceps/triceps. 

Given that it's your first character, it might be wise to simplify him a bit with just two-tone shading (primary/shadow) and remove some of the fine lines where they can be sacrificed.  It'll make duplicating him for walking views easier as well as maintaining consistency. 

You could even just paint that character over the full walkcycle provided by Mr. C (Kafka), since that's what it's there for.  I think it'd make for a good learning experience with good results.

For the background room, I definitely prefer the non-textured version.  Textures skillfully used can enhance a picture, but often they just make it too busy and flat.  The photo-styled textured also seem to clash with both the lines of the room and the character.  What the textured picture might be good for is a basic reference so that you could shade in some hint of the fine details (like wood grain or stones)

[InCreator]

A pleasant surprise! This guy looks like Bruce Willis/Chuck norris clone!

Things you have to improve are color usage and proportions, to make him look more human. The colors are way too bright and hands-toes look weird.

To make up my harsh crits on your game thread a bit, let me show you 10 simple steps to make this person better - use it as a simple tutorial to get better results.

original size:
http://www.increator.pri.ee/i/critshelp/person.png



1. Changed colors to actually see the character (it was too bright!).

2. Redrew hands. Since your outline usage was quite random, I made them proper too. New hands are longer, because in your version, this man could barely put his hands into pockets... which is illogical.

3. Removed random shading and outlines from pants. Also, pulled right leg about 2 pixels left to make foot support man better.

4-5. Removed random shade & outline from his shirt. Outlined properly again. Also, outlined pants.

6. Made head a pixel taller and a pixel thinner. Made lihter spots under eyes, outlined feet, made area around eyes darker, etc

7. Brought some new colors into play. Secondary skin color, darker pants shade and darker hair (previous brown looked too unnatural to me). Also, painted all body parts to a secondary shade color so it will be easy to add third, the final one.

8. Added third shade color to pants. It's quite easy to do, just freestyle with pencil tool, and try to make some wrinkles. Also,  the places where flesh meets cloth should be lighter, such as knees. Shirt secondary was too light, so I chose other, darker color. And finished some outlines plus moved them a pixel to the right.

9.  Shaded shirt same way I did pants. (pencil, by feeling)

10. Drew some toes, finished shading skin by adding third color.

See, it's incredibly easy, to be honest. My version is far from perfect yet, but I hope it helps a bit.

[bigrd32]

YakSpit: The textured room is part of the storyline for the game. Ã, The character believes he is awake but he is actually dreaming. Ã, I thought having a textured bg with a toonish character would add a little to the dream. Ã, 

It is going to be a single room game with the character "re-waking up" over and over in the background (different rooms ex. room1 and room2 etc. so the objects can have different interactions in each dream). Ã, 

Please feel free to critique the theme of the game and offer any ideas.

Edit: InCreator:  That is a huge improvement...although I might have to change the overall look of the character now because nobody wants to play a game as The Norris
Anyway thanks for the tips I'll apply them on my next try.

Randy

[MrColossal]

although I might have to change the overall look of the character now because nobody wants to play a game as The Norris

HEY! You take that back or I'll ban you!

[bigrd32]

Hey everyone, thanks for all the help.

[Corey]

although I might have to change the overall look of the character now because nobody wants to play a game as The Norris

HEY! You take that back or I'll ban you!

what's so special about chuck norris??

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

That's Chuck 'ROUNDHOUSE' Norris to you.

I think Increator did a fine job showing the steps to get a specific style.  You should try following that method with another character and post the results.

[TheYak]

I'm not sure if you know how or not, but you can always insert updated pics using the image tag (i.e. using .png, .gif, or .jpg instead of .bmps, link using [ img]http://www.freewebs.com/bigrd32/personbignotbmp.jpg[/img ] (without spaces)). 

I didn't notice until checking the page that you'd already done a second version that shows improvement in consistency, proportions & coloring.  The hands are still a bit funky, but improved over the previous (as well as the arms).  His head could still use a little narrowing.  If you like the width as-is, at least give not having the hair stick out a shot.  With a close-cropped hairstyle like that, there shouldn't be a protrusion.  In that low a resolution, it tends to look like a bowl-cut. 

As far as palette, my personal preference would be something in between the two; softer colors but not so soft that they become ghost-like.  Of course, whatever's going to fit with your style and backgrounds is probably the best bet. Maybe it's just the low-contrast work LCD I'm seeing it on, but this haircolor also seems unnatural - somewhere in the realm of baby-crap color.  His beard seems the most natural hair shade, maybe just a lighter tone of that? 

I'd recommend saving as .png since even MS-Paint can handle that alright, it's much smaller than .bmp (and postable in forums), and keeps all the image integrity that .bmp does.  Also, even though it's tempting to add more and more lines and colors to detail it, it might be best to keep it simple since you're looking at doing this at least 15 more times for a simple 4-frame walkcycle.  You can convey a good amount of personality without needing many facial features or realistic clothing wrinkles.

Umm..  sorta like that (quick-color of friend's pic), except good.  That's more InC's department.

[InCreator]

Yeh, what Yakspit just said was that if you feel very unsure about animating, follow my tutorial to only step 7.

And try if you can animate him.
I usually DO this, I just make animations without third shade, work until I get the animation correct, and only THEN add third layer of shade.

This is good, because it saves time.

[bigrd32]

Ok, I've taken all of your advice and I think I've reached a point where I'm ready to begin animating.Ã,  If you have any further advice just let me know.Ã,  Thanks a lot.

[Damien]

First of all, that sprite has been improved greatly, keep it up.

The colors you used would be ok for a cartoony game, but if you want to make it a bit realistic, I would suggest using less saturated ones.

I'm guessing you're using mspaint (that's what I use for pixelart). So, this is a color edit screen, but it's simmilar to this in most drawing programs. The color range in the white rectangle is considered high saturation. I would suggest you not to use the colors fom there unless you really need it (for a colored light source or something). If you want more control over the saturation, you can also use the textbox with Sat: text left of it.
There are some contrast issues which can be fixed by adding darker shadows. Like on his shirt. I can barely see what's going on there.
There are some double pixels in your lineart that need to be fixed too. Here is what I mean about double pixels:


And the last tip would be to never ever save pixel art as an .jpg file. This makes paintovers extremely hard to do. If you're using photoshop or the Gimp, save it as gif, and if you're using mspaint, save it as a .png file.
Also, there is no need to change the resolution in the image itself to zoom it, just use this forum function:

Code: ags

[img width=x height=y]The link to your image[/img]

Where x and y are the desired dimensions of the image.
Choosing the skin tones is always tricky, I'd suggest using the ones InCreator posted in his paintover. Or atleast trying to emulate simmilar colors.