D'argo from farscape. help with walk cycle.

[Revan]

Hi, Just finished Ka D'argo from farscpae, Could I have a quick crit on his apperance. But I need help with the walk cycle. any ideas.

[EdLoen]

Hello fellow Farscape fan.  One thing i would first suggest it to watch how Anthony Simcoe portrays the character and how he walks.  If you have some of it on DVD, try watching him walk on screen, and see how the costume moves.

Though if I could say one thing in particular first before you move on to animating, you have a lot of costume detail in the fabric there.  Trying to animate that will leave you with a headache later.  less is more when it comes to sprites.  I've learned that the hard way.  You can still have a lot of details with showing a minimal amount of fabric folds.

[Revan]

Yeah... thanks, I'll watch one of my DVD's to see how he moves... I was also thinking that the fabric was too intricate, how would you personaly alter it for the less is more look?

[Ghost]

First and foremost, a decent sprite, with a neat and clean style that is easy on the eye- nice and simple, and I would happily play a game in that style too.

For simpler shading: A simple (and effective) method would be to work with about three shades of red, to create the clothing. Then, use one or at most two darker shades (one almost black) to add a *bit* of detail, and let the player imagine the rest. This works well in low-resolution games, where people tend to "remember more detail" than there really was.

You are currently detailling the intricate pattern of everyone's favourite walking sushi dish, and that really will be a challenge to animate. Try to reduce this to maybe one shape, like maybe an arched cross over his chest, and this might be enough to persuade players there's more detail.

A good way to try this out is to get a rather high-res photo from the series, and resize this photo to the size of your sprite, and then check what actually stands out. I tried this at home with Chiana (because she's sexier than D'argo), and she can be done in nothing more than five colours.

While we are at it, I see you mirror the static pose, which is a common technique but always results in a very static, unnatural image; try to make the pose less symmetric, by moving one foot out or something. "Mirror images" are on the Critic's No-No list right between "I have an idea for a Maniac Mansion remake" and "Look at my new Guybrush". 
I also think he stood more proud, chest sticking out a bit.

Good luck on the project, by the way, I always had a soft spot for the series.

[Revan]

Hello, Edited Dargo compleatly changed the style of the art. What do you think now?



Animation;


Can you show me what else I can do to improve. I think he's abit big.

[tube]

His legs seem disproportionately long and thick, which makes his upper body and arms look too small/short.

[MadReizka]

What happened? The first image was quite nice but these two looks like you spent 2 seconds with MSPaint to get the job done.

[Alarconte]

Remember me the D'argo of the "cartoon" episodies... But yes, maybe the head is too little and the legs to big... Try to make the character more thiner...

And how Crichton is going to be with this style?