Eric's art thread

[Eric]

Here's a pause menu. Ignore that Kickstarter option. That's wishful thinking that (1) I'll be able to get a campaign together for a multimedia project I've been planning by next year, (2) that I'll be able to finish a small game to promote that campaign, and (3) that Kickstarter will even still be around.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I think you should narrow down the selection of fonts.  All the different styles detracts from a cohesive result.  The overall design looks clean and easy to look at, though.

[Eric]

I think you should narrow down the selection of fonts.  All the different styles detracts from a cohesive result.  The overall design looks clean and easy to look at, though.

Thank you for the critique. May I ask a few clarifying questions?

1. The goal of the menu design, aside from usability of course, is verisimilitude. So with the stamp, and the "PAR AVION," I'm striving to copy the actual usage of those two items. Do these add to the muddle? Would it help if I blurred the letters on those items somewhat so that they were more easily identifiable as mere design elements, and not text that's relevant to using the menu?

2. The Music/Speech volume labels were intended to mimic handwriting as one might see on the outside of an envelope. Of course, it's hard to find a handwriting font that is both legible and doesn't look like it was created by a computer. This idea might not work anyway, as the presence of the sliders definitively distinguish the labels as something other than writing on an envelope. Should I carry over the font from the left hand menu for these labels?

3. Do you count the "Back to Game" button as part of the "different styles"? Would it be improved by adding the beveling / shadow that the other buttons have (otherwise, it's the same typeface)? My goal here was to make an easily identifiable "get me out of this menu" button, but perhaps the difference in color is enough?

4. How cohesive do you think I should be across my other standard/out-of-game GUIs (RestoreY/N, Save, etc.)? I'm currently trying to decide whether to keep the airmail envelope as a defining design element across the board, or whether I could use other ephemera (luggage labels, tickets, etc.) so long as I kept the same color scheme and typography.

Thanks again!

[Khris]

Very nice so far, I love the amount of design you're putting into this game.

Using different ephemera (had to look it up ) sounds great and could work very well, provided I don't spend as much time looking for a menu option as actually using it.

Regarding the fonts: I'd use the same style for the "back to game" button but separate it from the others with a thin horizontal line or something like that. Its current style looks out of place to me.
I think the "never more than two typefaces" rule can be sidestepped if you use a font much closer the handwriting, here's a ton of free ones: http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=603ext=Music+Volume&fpp=50&psize=s

Btw, the letter's shadow ends a few pixels short of the envelopes bottom edge.

[Eric]

Very nice so far, I love the amount of design you're putting into this game.

Thank you for saying so!

separate it from the others with a thin horizontal line or something like that. Its current style looks out of place to me.

I'll give this a shot.

Btw, the letter's shadow ends a few pixels short of the envelopes bottom edge.

Seven pixels worth, I'll bet. I know exactly why this is the case! Thanks for pointing it out.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Instead of trying to force some functionality on the envelope, my advice would be to add an options area to that list and simply have sheets of paper shuffle back and forth over the menu page, each one with the save/load/options and so on.  You could place some kind of stylistic back arrow or whatever at the top of the page to return to the menu and if you did it right you'd only need one extra page (just changing the contents based on which selection was made).  I think something like this will prevent any confusion with the envelope having a purpose other than show.

I think the 'back to game' font looks more natural for a typeface than the beveled font.

[Eric]

Instead of trying to force some functionality on the envelope, my advice would be to add an options area to that list and simply have sheets of paper shuffle back and forth over the menu page, each one with the save/load/options and so on.

Just to let you know, I think this is a great idea, and I'm now trying to learn enough about AGS and animation processes to make the shuffling work. Thanks again for your advice.

[Eric]

Oh lord, here's something horrifying: Googling "diagonal walk cycle" and having the crudely drawn sketch seen in the first post be one of the first five results on Google Images.

Here's a first go at the L-R walk cycle for another character, the chief steward. This is pretty much a sketch. I need to rotate the torso, add some bend to the copy-pasted arms, and tighten up the sketchy legs.



I did this one all by hand, no templates. I started with this even sketchier sketch of half of the walk cycle and drew over it in Illustrator once I verified that it looked OK.



Here's the two walk cycles thus far together:

[Tabata]

He is doing kind of kick steps (by kicking with his heels on the ground inbetween every step).
That looks a bit funny, but somehow it might be the "special thingy" of that char.

I can't help myself - I like it to be a bit weird. 

A good start for becoming an interesting special walkcycle with personality.

[Uhfgood]

As a suggestion you might put an oval down where the bottom of his feet are with lines that go from one end to the other for all the possible walk directions.  Then use this as a guide when placing the feet of your character.  You'll have an easier time of drawing the frames of animation concurrent to the direction he's facing.

[Eric]

He is doing kind of kick steps (by kicking with his heels on the ground inbetween every step).

That probably mostly comes from the fact that those shoes are temporary too, and that I haven't aligned the feet properly. Still, a heel click might not be out of character for this guy so maybe I'll leave it!

As a suggestion you might put an oval down where the bottom of his feet are with lines that go from one end to the other for all the possible walk directions.  Then use this as a guide when placing the feet of your character.  You'll have an easier time of drawing the frames of animation concurrent to the direction he's facing.

Any chance you could provide a graphic example? Do you use the same oval for all views? With the first sprite, I used two parallel lines, slightly offset, to determine where the shoes hit, but didn't formally determine the swing of the foot. That's a good idea though. If you have an image of how you manage it, please share.

I finally got back to this tonight, after spending too much time on competitions and teething baby over the past week or so. I decided to try to start on a front facing view, and in the past hour have knocked out this rough sketch for the Felix character.

EDIT: Took another hour and made an even rougher sketch for the character's back view. Need to improve his posture on that one so it doesn't look like he's gloomy slouching.

[Tabata]

Still, a heel click might not be out of character for this guy so maybe I'll leave it!

Cool - very nice and individual!
It gets more and more interesting to see, what you are coming up with


Your new sketch-versions fit well to the charakter in my eyes.
Maybe one little thing: The front view lift the knees at a usual high, but since “dangle-man” lift them a bit more than normal, I think it needs to be done in the front view, too.
Also the back views head shaking up and down is too much in relation to the original.

The sketch-versions would be interesting to be used in a little separate game â€" I like them

[Lad]

 I know this could be a bit late to say, but for me it looks a bit weird. The knees are too low.
Other then that it is really great. Looks cool.

[Eric]

for me it looks a bit weird. The knees are too low.

Thanks for the crit, Lad. I'm afraid I'm too far along to change his knee-height now, and his legs are on-model for the way I'm drawing him in other (non-game) places.

I think part of what's throwing people off about this sprite is that his face is too realistic. He's much more of a cartoon character. The face that's there is sort of a placeholder until I can figure out how best to transfer my drawing style to the screen and have it mesh with other graphics in the game (I've had several failures at this already -- my drawing style is more reminiscent of the European "ligne claire" artists, somewhere between Herge and Floc'h [but not nearly as talented]). I'm not eager to hand-draw everything, but I'll want the faces to look right.

Unless you mean the same thing as Tabata, whose message I've just seen for the first time. Hmm...I see what you mean about the knees in the front view. I might have to change it some of the below 3/4 views as well? I can't tell right now, I've been staring at them too long tonight already!

I hope you all don't mind me continuing to dump process pics / maybe progress if we're being kind into this thread. Thank you all for reading and supplying suggestions. Here is, again, a very rough frame work for what I believe should get me all eight views for a player character sprite. Now I'm going to start looking at these in transparent layers, cleaning up the sketchiness of the lines and smoothing the 'tweens.

[Uhfgood]

Well I will give an example (although it looks like you're already doing great), but it's pretty poor, but it *should* give you the idea.

[Eric]

AH. That is actually quite useful, I think. I'll use that method with my next set of sprites. Thank you!

It also helped to realize I only needed to animate one leg, and that I could mirror and slightly adjust for the other. Made things much better.

Then I got stricken with strep throat, along with my baby son, and haven't made any more headway. I'll try to get this sprite worked out by the end of the week. I think it's the only one that I'll need all eight directions for. Everyone else pretty much appears in one room, and can be shown in three views. I'll make their heads and uniforms symmetrical too, so I'll only have to draw two views!

[Eric]

Thank you for your continued tolerance of this thread and my work. I had some time and the energy to take a stab at this walk cycle animation again, and so, of course, I started over -- not from scratch, but I completely redid everything but the hands and the shoes on the right-walking sprite. That head is still a placeholder.

As a result of the Spriter Kickstarter thread, I decided to take a stab at the combining isolated parts (e.g. forearm, upper arm, torso all separate vector pieces in Illustrator) and did all of these in one afternoon. So I think I'll be using this method from now on.

There are some wiggly places, especially around the shoulders and, uh...crotches. I also need to add some butt lines for the rear views, and add shadows for depth.



More lessons learned:

1. Never create elaborate footwear for your characters.
2. Make characters as symmetrical as possible.
3. Legs are weird!

[gameboy]

I understand that it's supposed to be a cartoony character and realistic proportions is not what you're after, but I think his body looks a bit too narrow on the front and back view.

[Eric]

I can see what you're talking about. Do you think it's the whole body that's too narrow? I think it might just be that his torso narrows down too much and the hips are too thin. If I widen the top of his pantaloons and the bottom of his sweater, would that look better? I'll give this a shot as soon as I get home.

Thanks, gameboy!

[Andail]

You're bold to create sprites with such high resolution for your very first project
I think you're on the right track, but there's plenty of work ahead... some pointers:
* The right walk cycle - I think he's facing the "camera" too much, making it look like a diagonal view. You would probably see his torso more from the side.
* The down view is too jumpy - instead of a smooth bobbing motion, he's kind of shaking.
* About the cabin background - this is very obviously a photograph painted over. This is fine, but is it a style you're pursuing? The character is rather cartoony, maybe the backgrounds need a more hand-made, cell-shaded look?
* Also, I'd really really suggest waiting with the diagonal views until later. Not only do they require a ridiculous amount of work, they're also not very necessary except for a stylistic touch. Better proceed with story, coding and backgrounds, to give you a sense of progress.