I've made those designs just for fun, don't know if I'll ever do something with them.
My main problem is the big guy's walking animation, anything I could do to make it more dynamic and less stiff?
(http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/luca_taro.gif)
(http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/luca1.gif)
(http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/taro1.gif)
Those files have a tendency to not show up sometimes because they're on geocities, so I'll post the direct links, too:
http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/luca1.gif (http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/luca1.gif)
http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/taro1.gif (http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/taro1.gif)
http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/luca_taro.gif (http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/luca_taro.gif)
Thanks!~
I like that little kid with the blonde hair's walking animation. Well done! To make them walk more naturally, you should make their limbs rotate more, instead of just moving.
Very well-done indeed!
The first animation looks great!
The second one ... I should think maybe if he wasn't leaning so far back? (It reminded my of Weekend at Bernies 2) Aside from that, what Geoffkhan said. Add some 'sway' into his limbs and it'll loosen it up quit a bit!
Great job!
])]V[
Thanks for your comments. I'll try to fix the big guy up. Gonna post it here when I'm done. :D
Hokey-smokes, Bullwinkle!
Now that's some tasty sprite art, that is!
I'm so jealous...
The poses might look a bit more natural if they were in a contraposto (low shoulder on same side as high hip, high shoulder with low hip).
The big guy, who I'll call Blanka for simplicity, could use a bit more work on his walkcycle. Blanka's head bobbing forward like a chicken's isn't too much of a problem (it gives him character), but there's one frame in there where his chest seems to change drastically. Also, maybe the tails on his little gold belt thing could move.
Otherwise, keep up the good work!
P.S. How cool is the mullet...
Thanks! :D I've fixed up the big guy's walking cycle, I'll post a new gif later (they're a pain to make).
For now, I've uploaded a quick interface test thing with the kid as main character. It's best to judge from what it looks within the actual game, and maybe I've missed a few bugs in my interface, if anyone wants to take a look. :)
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/test1.zip (http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/test1.zip) - 950 kb
EDIT - Here's the big guy's new walking cycle:
(http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/taro2.gif)
http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/taro2.gif (http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/taro2.gif)
Niiiiice!
Can't wait to see more of this.
Um, thanks! :D Are you refering to the interface test?
By the way, does the new walk cycle look better than the old one?
That's a really nice interface! I love it.
The background in the test, as well as the intro screen, is amazing. I also enjoyed the music. Did you compose it?
Oh, and the sprites look nice.
Thanks! :D I can only do graphics and programming, but when it comes to making music, I'm at a loss. I found those midis somewhere on the internet. I'm not sure who made them, though.
EDIT - I drew a new picture:
(http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/design3bw.jpg)
http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/design3bw.jpg (http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/design3bw.jpg)
and in (sort of) color:
(http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/design3.jpg)
http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/design3.jpg (http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/design3.jpg)
Hmm...
(http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/shotx4.jpg)
http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/shotx4.jpg (http://www.geocities.com/samcarbonite/shotx4.jpg)
I'm not sure why I'm not getting more replies, but it is most likely because my pictures don't load all that well.
To be sure, I'll post the last bunch again. This time they're at Neole's place (thanks) so they'll load better.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/lxt_shotx4.jpg)
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/lxt_design3bw.jpg)
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/lxt_design3.jpg)
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/taro2.gif)
Maybe you don´t receive more replies because we can hardly find anything wrong with your art... I think that it should be difficult tp find more quality in an amateur graphic Adventure... I wouldn´t be happy with the green guy walkcycle, but he is some kind of creature, so, the pose can match with the plot, I have nothing to say about that...
really good work!
Thanks! I'd apprecciate it if you'd still tell me why you're not happy with the walk cycle (the new one from my post above yours). I have many problems with walking animations, so any info would help. So, um, please? :)
OMFG!
that backgrounds amazing, i cant find anything wrong with it. What program did you use for it? lol its bloody brilliant.
-a chicken
Man, they are awesome. It looks brilliant! Tell me more about it!
Technically there's nothing wrong. A personal preference then: I'd love to see this character in a lighter shade of green. Maybe moss-green even.
The background artwork is simply amazing. I love the lighting, especially the windows.
Oh, and the pictures indeed didn't show up before. Luckily you fixed that now :P
--Erwin
That background looks totally professional. The only crit I have is the same others have posted. The green guy looks a bit awkward during his walk-cycle.
Really, though, great drawings.
Usually big green fellows lean forward instead of backwards ;)
Thanks for the comments! :D
I made the backgrounds in photoshop, using a tablet.
I'll see if i can fix up mr. green guy. I've already changed his normal pose, side view, since it seemed to be be the biggest problem. Next up is the walk cycle. Any pointers to what makes the animation awkward? Arms/legs/etc?
Erwin_Br: Hmm... is changing single colors on sprites possible for 16 bit games? That would be really useful. Editing all those frames and changing the colors by hand is a bit of a pain (lazy?), but I'll see what I can do.
Indiana Psychonaut: I have no idea if this game will go anywhere. Right now, there's only this one room, I've only been putting ideas to paper (and pixel) for now.
I love the green dude's walk cycle. Nothing wrong with it. He reminds me of a rasta.
Thanks! :D I don't think I can make it better at the moment anyway, still have a lot to learn, so I'll leave the animation like that for the time being.
Oh my, the drawings are beautiful ! ;D It seems they are drawn a bit in a manga style.
QuoteEditing all those frames and changing the colors by hand is a bit of a pain (lazy?)
It would be really easier if you had made shadows on a separate layer, so just changing something in the color layer would also affect the shading. Well that's the way I make backgrounds and characters.
There's also the record feature in photoshop that can apply a common modification to all sprites... But I don't know if it would be practical in this case.
The easiest way to replace colors is importing all the frames into a single photoshop image, make it indexed and replace the colors using the color table, but it's a lot of work, still. :D
Here's a new picture:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/dream1.jpg)
Nevermind the blue cup, I was running some rests with objects.
And yes, the thing on the right really is a bucket with wings.
:o
That's a VERY nice background!
Stop posting in here and get your ass into the Games in Production board!!
(I think I speak for most of us when I DEMAND you make a game with this style!!!)
;D
Excellent work man. A+
~ d
Thanks! :D
I've posted a game in GIP a few months back, but abandoned it a while ago. Since I'm not sure if this game will go anywhere, I don't want to make a new thread about it in GIP. But once I'm confident that it will be finished, I'll post one.
Quote from: Bernhard on Fri 06/02/2004 02:26:19
Since I'm not sure if this game will go anywhere, I don't want to make a new thread about it in GIP. But once I'm confident that it will be finished, I'll post one.
Holy crap, someone read the rules.
Nice artwork you've got there. Seriously. Keep up the good work, and keep us informed with more.
I remember your thread from a while back ... thought I reconized the look of this!
Well until then I eagerly anticipate the arrival!!
~ d
Thanks again! :D
There's something I wanted to ask...
I've been thinking of designing this game for anti-aliasing activated, only this would require the sprite size to be 95% at max during the whole game. However, if it's not activated, the characters would have jumpy pixels during some animations.
I was wondering what you guys would think about this, good/bad/etc? Would it bother anyone? Or maybe you'd prefer the pixelled look without any anti-aliasing?
Here's a picture with alias on and off at 95% scaling:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/alias_x1.jpg)
why not just antialias the characters in your paint program?
Well, that would be possible, but I like the AGS anti-alias.
But what I wanted to know was what others thought about AGS' alias, and if they'd prefer the 100% size pixeled versions over the aliased look.
I prefer the non-anti aliasing look personally.
But that's just me!
~ d
well,
Ive always loved the pixelised look but im afraid that the antialias may suit your backgrounds more. Then again the charactersdo stand out more with the pixelised look.
sorry, im stumped
-a chicken
first of all, great artwork!
second, no AA. IMHO the pixely look fits adventure games more, especially with cartoony/anime look.
the picture of the AA/ no AA kind of reminds me of an arcade game Metal Slug.
Holy shait! That is awesome! Very very very very very very very VERY VERY VERY nice art indeed! MORE! WE WANT MORE!
Are going to make hype thread of the game soon?
Maybe, dunno yet. :D
I think I'm not gonna use AA... it would be sort of cheating, anyway, heh.
Thanks for posting your opinions!
Quote from: oversizedchicken on Sat 07/02/2004 09:52:13
Then again the characters do stand out more with the pixelised look.
You make a very good point here. I'd say stick with the pixels.
--Erwin
Ok. :D
Anti aliasing seems to make the sprites work better with the backgrounds.
Reducing the sprite size to 95% max in the whole game doesn't look so bad when AA is off, but it may be harder to work with. There would be a few jumpy pixels here and there but they don't seem to bother all that much.
If I made em with 95% size max, the player still could turn AA on and off, whatever he prefers. I wonder if it would be worth it, just for AA to be available. Hmm... :3
but you can get a much better aliased look if you do it in a paint program
and if you turn off anti aliased then you have all your sprites shrunk down 95% and crisp and it may end up looking like utter poo
I don't really want to re-edit em in some other paint proggie. Then I'd have less control of the animations and I'd be much slower at making sprites.
Anyway, good point with the 95% looking like poo in crisp mode... the main characters look fine that way - I've tested it, but some side chars are quite jumpy when they're animated.
I guess the only option for me is 100% size and no AA. xD
how about this:
(http://sylpher.com/kafka/junk/tarotarotaro.png)
compare the blurry one on the left [from a screenshot from your game] to the blurry one i made in photoshop to the crisp one
almost the same and all i did was take the crisp one, copy it to a new layer so there were 2 stacked on each other, add a gaussian blur to the top layer with a threshold of .2 and then select the crisp image behind the blurred, invert the selection and delete all the blurry pixels that went out of the outline of the crisp layer
that make any sense? that way you can animate them normally with your pixellated technique and then just do this for a whole sprite sheet and every one is done
eh eh?
ps, not that i'm a fan of the gaussian blur, just trying to help you get what you want, i prefer the crisp pixels
eric
MrCollossal has a good point there, and reasonably easy to do. but if you really want to split the bucket of truth and reccilliation then why not steal your sprites from a commercial adverture of a gaming sort, they're of equal calliber and the sediments in the rock are just rite.
LONG LIVE THE MULLET
*goes to bed*
Yet another reason why MSPaint sucks jaggon...
Thanks for the example, MrColossal. I know how to do this, but I prefer the AGS alias over Mr. Gaussian Blur and that other Photoshop blur.
And it would be annoying for every frame to do. At least, too annoying for lazy me. :D
I could spend ages on spriting, but then my game would never get done. I've done 4 characters with walking animations in all 4 directions and don't really want to blur em all in photoshop.
That's why I was considering using AGS' alias in the first place. Coz' it's fast and does the job well.
oversizedchicken - I don't understand what you're trying to say. Could you find some other words for me, please? I'm not so good with english because it's not my mother tongue and you used some of them more complicated words there and you used one too many phrases. Sounds like there is some irony in there tho, but i might be wrong, too.
what i mean is gaussian blur looks exactly the same, if by prefering you mean cause you don't want to blur each image that's fine but if you have sprite sheets made up already it wouldn't be bad at all
and if you don't have sprite sheets made up maybe you should get into doing them just for situations like this, especially when you want to change colours of animations like you wanted to do before, sprite sheets make it easy
Sprite Sheets - I hate to do those, but I've made a sprite sheet of my green guy, because I wanted to give him a lighter skin tone.
Anyway, I've decided not to use any alias at all because many people suggested not to use it. Thanks for all the info though, I really appreciate it! :D
sorry Bernhard, i was in a weird mood :P. I was just saying that Eric's idea was a good one, but if you dont want to do it the you dont have to.
anyway, great work but you still havnt told me how you make those amazing backgronds look soo watercolour/painted but still manage to keep the colours down... anyhelp :p
cheers
-a chicken
Hehe, no problem! :D
As for the backgrounds - I must have missed you asking me about that, sorry.
Anyway, here's how I do it (assuming you know photoshop basics):
I make them at the same size as they'll appear in the game (some people draw em at double size and shrink em down to 320x240 for better details).
Next thing I do is filling the image with blue, if there's lots of sky around. Then I just use the brush tool with single, solid colors to define basic areas, like meadows and rocks and whatnot.
By the way, I'm use a tablet - not really neccessary, but it helps a lot.
Then I usually give the grass some definition. I use a slightly darker color and smear it about until it seems right. After that I use a smaller smear brush to define grass on those darker colors I've splurted about, and pull up some green where the rocks come out of the ground.
Now you could use a lighter green to make some highlights and define some grassy shapes with those, too.
Then I give the rocks some shades using the brush tool. I smear those colors around until they have rocky shapes. To do highlights, just draw em with the brush tool and smear em about until they look right. It might take some tinkering with the smear strength if you're using a mouse.
Then i use a really small brush to define outlines of some objects. You can use the smear tool to fix em up if it doesn't look good with just the brush tool.
Trees are done sort of like stones, just pull lighter and darker shades up and down with the smear tool.
Leaves on trees are a bit tough sometimes. I usually just draw a basic shape with the brush, and draw some highlight and shade dots on those. Then I give the whole thing some leaf-bushy form with the smear tool.
Clouds are easy too - just splurt some white about and smear it around. You could make yellowy highlights which you then smear around if you want, gives it a warmer look than just white.
So, when it comes down to it, it's just choosing nice colors, defining shapes and their shades and highlights which you then smear into form.
I'm sure there are different techniques to do backgrounds, but this works best for me. If you have any questions, ask away! :D
EDIT - I forgot to mention the last step. When I'm all done, I adjust the contrast, brightness and the color balance, helps a lot with to give it some atmosphere. Then I sharpen the whole picture and fade the sharpen filter 20-40%. After that I switch it to indexed color mode with 160-256 colors, whatever looks best.
Amazing job, Bernhard!!
Do you have a Wacom tablet?
cheers Berhard!
wow thats more than my last english essay(and i thought english wasnt your mother language), thanks a lot.
now im putting a hella lot of that information into practive
cheers again
-a chicken
Thanks xD
I still don't know quite a few words (such as 'reccilliation'), but I guess I got the basics of the english language down.
Are you gonna post your pic when it's done? I'd love to see it and maybe I could give you some suggestions and pointers, if you want. :D