I drew my first sprite today. I hand drew it then scanned it in and filled it in. Took me about an hour to do. And critiques or suggestions....?
(http://img28.picoodle.com/img/img28/4/5/28/f_CopyofBoym_59d728b.jpg) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/5/28/f_CopyofBoym_59d728b.jpg&srv=img28)
Really good, actually. Although the sprite seems quite big, what res do you plan to put him in? Because if he's going in a game, he needs to be scaled down.
thanks. yea, I have another version of him that is smaller, but it would have been hard for you all to see. Thanks for the comments. I have a few more that are almost done, ill post them later.
Update: Another sprite.
(http://img26.picoodle.com/img/img26/4/5/29/f_CopyofWomenm_ec26e79.jpg) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/5/29/f_CopyofWomenm_ec26e79.jpg&srv=img26)
Your work is very good, but your second sprite... she's okay in the main, but her breasts are... everywhere. And her left leg needs a knee.
ok, what do you suggest for her breasts? More on the same level? And she does have a knee, its supose to be hidden behind the other leg. Well, thats what its suppose to look like.:D This is the final sprite for my first room. YAY! now I can take a break from drawing and get back to creating the game.
(http://img31.picoodle.com/img/img31/4/5/29/f_CopyofDogm_cc0b71c.jpg) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/5/29/f_CopyofDogm_cc0b71c.jpg&srv=img31)
These look lively and fun, but I'd like to make two criticisms:
On the woman's breasts: her left breast is under her armpit. It needs to be further over to (our) left.
On the dog: its forelegs meet at a point in the dog's belly. This dog would have difficulty walking. They would look better if they were more parallel and came from either side of its torso rather than a single point.
I've some problems with the feets of the dog and its right ear (our left) is a bit pointy, and the snowman shape of the body.
And those empty eyes, staring at me...
I edited the dog a bit to fix some of the things you mentioned. It does look a little better.
(http://img26.picoodle.com/img/img26/4/5/29/f_editeddogm_2255fde.jpg) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/5/29/f_editeddogm_2255fde.jpg&srv=img26)
I agree with paolo- the dog's legs should be higher on its body, and less curved.
ok, I think I fixed the legs. At least I think so.
(http://img33.picoodle.com/img/img33/4/5/29/f_editeddogm_76c52be.jpg) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/5/29/f_editeddogm_76c52be.jpg&srv=img33)
Looks much, much better. These sprites look good, what sort of game are they going in?
Thanks! Not quite sure what type of game yet. Still just trying to settle on a style and increase my 2D drawing skills, then I will sit down and create a story line and plot. Thanks for all your critiques. The dog looks much better:D Not to fix that ladies boobs:D
Yet another: I had the most fun with this guy. Comments.....
(http://img30.picoodle.com/img/img30/4/5/30/f_chefm_84e1763.jpg) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/5/30/f_chefm_84e1763.jpg&srv=img30)
I think a more usual hat fits better... And the torso, in the left, maybe is wrong.. maybe not.
In anycase, you better need to rescale the characters to the useful size to use in your game, and then will be sprites. Now are just drawings. If you resize all the characters to the useful size, (thats could be challenging) would be deserver of joy.
Heres what I estimate to be the in game size. I'm pretty pleased! Most fun Ive had in a long time:D
(http://img34.picoodle.com/img/img34/4/5/30/f_spritepagem_888e289.jpg) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/5/30/f_spritepagem_888e289.jpg&srv=img34)
You have a nice style for those characters. They have this cartoony feel to them that I like.
I think the chef could use some more work. The face and hat just don't fit your style of the other characters, including the mustache. His body is 'alright', perhaps you could draw the serving tray on a slight angle towards the camera so it doesn't look like he's balancing a bar in his hand.
I like the evil grinning kid though. I hope that's the playable character.
Oh, and fix that darned boob! Looks like she has something wrong with her ribcage, doesn't look like a breast at all (by that I mean: the breast on the right should be moved to the left closer to the center of her chest).
haha, yea, the little kid is the main character. I have to find a way now to animate him. Any ideas...??? Alarconte, what would you suggest for the hat...?
I would suggest that you make a paintover of the resized sprites in a clean pixel-style before animating them. I've zoomed into your picture with the final size and I think it shouldn't be hard to do.
ok, heres the set of sprites with a more pixelized look.
(http://img28.picoodle.com/img/img28/4/5/31/f_SpritePagepm_69911a2.jpg) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/5/31/f_SpritePagepm_69911a2.jpg&srv=img28)
I'm not sure why you put a pixelation filter over those sprites...
Anyways, the faces could use a little more definition. When they're at the sizes you said would most likely be "in-game" it's very difficult to make them out, with the exception of the chef.
I really dig the cat, the dog still seems weird for some reason and half of the people have their hands in their pockets! lol
Someone doesn't like drawing hands...
It will be much easier to animate the characters without hands in their pockets.
well is there a problem with using the filter...? And Ill fix the hands. im going to try my hands at animating the main character. We'll see.
If you want a pixeled look, do not use a filter - it is messy. Draw it with pixels to begin with.
If you want a not pixelly look, keep at it the way you're doing it :)
Well, i sure don't want them to look messy.:D How would I repaint them so they look pixel ed? Im a little confused with the process. Thanks for all the feedback
That depends on what program you're using :)
In The Gimp, I'd use the Pencil Tool with 1x1 brush size and 100% opacity. In Paint, hit the line tool and/or the single pixel brush.
You'll have to redo these from scratch if you want a clean pixelled look, but it shouldn't take long and if you use a new layer to draw over it, you can practically just trace the old sprite and colour in the lines.
im using the GIMP. So just outline the old sprite with black then color it in with flesh colors and such...
Quote from: makerofgamz on Sat 31/05/2008 17:52:01
I'm using the GIMP. So just outline the old sprite with black then color it in with flesh colors and such...
Take a look at this tutorial. especially sections 8,9,10, & 11
www.petesqbsite.com/sections/tutorials/tuts/tsugumo/default.htm
I learned everything I know about sprites from it. It was an invaluable tool for me & I hope it helps you.
I redid the boy using the link above for instruction. Does it look a little better?
(http://img27.picoodle.com/img/img27/4/5/31/f_spritemaybem_4a16379.jpg) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/5/31/f_spritemaybem_4a16379.jpg&srv=img27)
I am looking at it now. One thing of importance is to
never save your pixel art as a .jpeg or .jpg
Jpeg is
not a lossless format and truly destroys your work by adding artifacts. you should save them in .bmp, .png, or gif.
I believe the site prefers that you post in .png
====== Edit Quote from posting recommendations
Quote* Only publish .GIF or .PNG images here. .BMP is too bloated and .JPG's have severe artifacting in most cases.
Anyways, I will have to zoom in on your sprite... but at first glance it does look better. It's "neater"/"cleaner" (don't know how else to explain it). Although your first one is more of a freeform sketch and "loose", this version looks more like a game sprite and it will be easier to animate and draw at different angles.
I'll post more when I am done zooming in on it.
===== Edit After Zooming in...
As I suspected the .jpg format artifact(ed) your sprite to heck. So please post a clean version of it. Hopefully you have an unartifacted save in either .bmp or .png if not you will need to redo the pixel work to fix this one, or start again.
ok, heres a cleaner version. i saved it as .png...
(http://img29.picoodle.com/img/img29/4/5/31/f_spritemaybem_122ff60.png) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/5/31/f_spritemaybem_122ff60.png&srv=img29)
I don't understand why everyone was going on and on about how you should shrink down your images so that you can use them as 'pixelated'. There is nothing majorly wrong with your hand-drawn style, and it definitely looks better than artificially shrinking down your image. You do know that AGS can support resolutions of up to 800x600? The most I would suggest is scanning in the images at a slightly lower res, and then using them in a 640x400 game.
For one thing, the black outlines look okay on the higher resolution sprites, but on the one you just posted, even if you cleaned up the double-pixels, it still wouldn't look so good. Then only thing you have to make sure about is that you can animate them.
so i still hav'nt hit the notch yet huh? Back to the drawin board:D
Babar, is correct in that you don't necessarily have to do your characters as 'pixelated' sprites. My post was more aimed towards if you "wanted" to have them appear that way. It really all depends on the look/feel you are going for, and your skills in animating characters. Personally I tend to think of 'Sprites' as pixel art, and the other as cartoon Animation. So choose what works best for you.
As far as the Sprite character, you would need to clean up the double pixels in the outline as well as get rid of unecessary corner pixels. And it's possible that this character would look better with a darker shade of the interior color for the outline, as opposed to being black. The tutorial i posted covers this, as well how to achieve some anti-aliasing by alternating pixel shades near the outline. I can post later about what I mean, or if you don't mind I could do a version of that character tonight and post tomorrow.
sure...why not:D I'll go over this sprite again and see what I can do to change it. I'm kinda using this sprite as a practice, so that I can replicate it the technique on the est of the sprites so I'm expecting to have to alot of learning work. Ill post back later today with a redone version.
Thanks guys!
I cleaned up the pixels and redid most of the outlines as well as the side of his face. Its looks smoother although im sure I will have to do some more work on it.
(http://img26.picoodle.com/img/img26/4/6/1/f_spritemaybem_2f65de9.png) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/6/1/f_spritemaybem_2f65de9.png&srv=img26)
I think it's coming together nicely. I see a lot of improvement, and it's looking good. You've got the outline and solid coloring down.
The other things you can try is working on the shading & highliting to give the character more depth. remember to choose a single light source and shade accordingly.
Finally try playing around with giving the facial feature more detail, closer to the original large drawing. This and the shading is the most difficult part to get right, so give yourself a few practice shots at getting it right. It can take time but imho you are well on your way to creating great looking sprites.
===
One tip, in the original the head (more specifically the face, not the hair) is pretty symetrical left<->right, while in your sprite things got shifted a bit. So for symetrical parts like the head, make one side and then just copy it and mirror it to make the other side match. then do the hair style. I find it easier/faster to do this then to count and match each pixel manually to maintain symetry.
I don't really understand why you've redrawn theat character as pixel art. It worked well the way you had it. I think you should practice with pixel art but for this time around, until you're proficient, the art style you had was real good.
oh for sure, I will practice with pixel art, its an art I really want to master. it just seemed that everybody thought perhaps the pixel redo would make the character look better, and also be easier to animate. Although I still have all the original work files, redos etc so its not all lost:D For my next sprites, I will do them in pixel form, but still draw out my sprites to use as a tracing guide, but just change the resolution and scale.
this resolution isn't a bit tiny for this character type?
(well, I think yes..)
not quite sure what you mean....:D Are you saying it should be smaller...
I decided to take a jump into making a character from scratch using pixels, so I made up a template to use:D Turned out pretty good. I enlarged it a bit so y'all could see it.
(http://img33.picoodle.com/img/img33/4/6/1/f_SpriteTemplm_a64edb4.png) (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/4/6/1/f_SpriteTemplm_a64edb4.png&srv=img33)
Looks nice, but something about the arms/legs/torso ratio seems slightly off to me. Keep in mind that generally your hands will rest at about mid-thigh level. Then again the arms look slightly bent so if you unbend them you should be right :)
I didn't have much time last night, so i'll continue working on it later today.
(http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/8054/fspritemaybem2f65de9zl0.png)
Let's look at your pixel art version of your main character.
(http://img26.picoodle.com/img/img26/4/6/1/f_spritemaybem_2f65de9.png)
Now let's reference back to the original character which I loved.
(http://img28.picoodle.com/img/img28/4/5/28/f_CopyofBoym_59d728b.jpg)
He's a little quirky and he's got flaws, but that's not a problem! Flaws add character unless they're sloppy flaws, this is all part of the style. When turning him into pixel art you want to maintain as much of this character as possible.
The first things I notice are that the colors feel dull. The second thing I notice is that his eyes aren't those dinner bowls they used to be, now they are just tiny specks. (There goes some more of his charming character.)
Then something bothers my eyes, there's not enough contrast in many of his features. When working on such a small level you need contrast to help differetiate between the many minute features of the sprite.
The last thing I noted was that his over-all silhoutte is vastly different: mHis hair is different, his arms are different, his pocket is different. And, it all seems a little messy.
So, trying to keep the style of the original character as much as possible; I replaced his eyes with larger circles, I used the original colors you had. I added higher contrasting colors (if you zoom in close enough you can see that the outline of his shirt is purple, his pants are a dark green instead of a muddy yellow and the outline of his skin is a dark brown.)I tried to maintin his silhoutte as much as possible (sometimes with pixel art, things just look different, so changes usually have to be made when scaling.)
(http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll183/QuestionableQontent/minimenace.png)
does my pic not show up??? I'll try one from photobucket rather than imageshack
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/zenassem/f_spritemaybem_2f65de9.png)
hell yea! Looks awesomeness. Ill have a go at making mine look this good.
Thanks~!