(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/talk1.png)
Here's andrew Barksdale at the beginning of rise and fall. As you can see, he does not differ much from WWTLF. Problem is, that I want him to look good for the game .And before I start animating or drawing the front view, I need help/advice. I am aiming at a 'broken sword'-y art style, but I dont know where to start from, nor how. I'd be really grateful if anyone could give me a piece of advice.
It looks pretty good. The arm seems to be wrong. firsly it should be a bit shorter and secondly make it a little bend, cos at the moment its dead straight, and not really at a comfortable position.
A bit of shading might be nice, depending on your style, and also, the pants and shirt are both white, and unless they are supposed to be like that for the game, it might be nice to change one to a different shade.
I think he looks a little too stiff. Is he supposed to be elegant & proper? If so, stick his chest out more, lift his chin up. If he's lazy, bored, etc make him slouch. I think this would add to his character, and make him look less like a stick with a face. I hope I wasn't too harsh. I do like it, especially the face. Keep at it!
Yes, I'd definately say he looks a bit stiff...
I think you misunderstood me. I want to draw the character in broken sword 1 style, not enhance the sprite's current look.
why not post some samples of "broken sword style"
since i really have no idea what that looks like
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/BS3111.png)
Kind of like that - cartoony, and not too complicated.
(http://sylpher.com/kafka/junk/forvel.gif)(http://sylpher.com/kafka/junk/forvel.gif)
you're gonna have to practice drawing quite a bit to get to that level i'm sure
draw him on paper first a whole bunch of times and then scan and convert to a sprite
i don't really have much else to say about it, relax him out a bit, get him standing correctly and do your best to show both feet in the side view, even if it's just a little, he'll look less like a cardboard cutout
Thanks eric, Ill get working tomorrow.
I coloured eric's sketch, please tell me if there is anything wrong and whether anything can be enhanced (without shading, which I will do once I've finished the walkcycle). After I get this right, Ill turn the character.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/barknew1.png)
i think the main reason why eric's (and George) looks soo good is because of the shading style. They both use differentating (sp:P) line styles. You can see that the line thickness changes to suit the folds in clothing.
This is what your sprites missing imo.
I agree with you, OSC, but its easier for me to add shading to all frames at once.
The top part of the suit is too dark. I cant see the difference between his arm and coat. Maybe its my eyes, or maybe its my monitor, but i think you should fix that. Either make it all white and shade, or make it a shade of grey, with darker outlines around the arm.
Just my 3 1/2 cents
TikkiTikkiMan, the coat will be white, I miscoloured it last time. So, Im off to draw the front view now.
I think Val's goal is that he finishes games... He could surelly go for a great-shadowed-detailed character, but I think it's quite correct for him as it is...
Farlander, that's a different topic, but I don't set myself goals that are too high for me. I will make the main character more detailed though, it's just easier for me to make the animation without shading and then add it to every frame than to animate a sheded sprite.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/andfrontside.png)
This is the front view, although Im not quite happy with it. Criticism welcome.
PS Sorry for double posting, but it had to go on top.
(http://www.fbc-bettendorf.com/evil/crap/vel_guycopy.gif)
Feet are kind of big. Didnt change them though.
I like Evil's edit, he doesn't look so much like he's about to sneeze.
His coat appears to just "sweep" back towards his pockets, rather than either folding or having been tailored that way. I think it needs buttons, a pocket, or something...
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/barkfront22.png)
I made an edit on evil's edit, what do you think?
The gotee (sp?)is quite low on his face. Could use more of a neck. Feet on both images are oddly shaped and big. The hands on the front view are too stiff. Loosen them up so the dont look like they are pointing downward. And the arc on the belt gives him a beer belly look.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/barkfront222.png)
I made another edit:
changed the belt a bit
made the feet thinner
changed the hands a bit
Here's the side walkcycle.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/walkcycle11.gif)
C&C welcome.
Its nice, i would suggest you make the legs bend more and also make the arm swing back further.
thats it ;)
Ack... It looks as if he's floating or skipping in the air.
Try to bend his knees a lot more to avoid this "skipping" effect, as the knees look kind of elastic-y now. Also, don't make the legs come up off the ground so much.
EDIT: Actually, it doesn't look that bad; it looks pretty good. :) Just bend the knees and that should be fine.
Arrg! It's the flappy hands from Eric's walking tutorial.
That might make a good horror movie title:
"The Return of the Curse of the Ghost of the Zombie's Walking Tutorial with the Flappy Hands."
it looks like you've settled on what your sprite is going to look like but i did a quick edit of one of my old sprites for you if you want to use itÃ, for your game, or maybe as a template for sprites for a new game. if you want to use it i can do a walkcycle of him.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/miamivice.PNG)
i'm not saying it's better than your own sprite or anything, mind, it's just good to get a grasp of drawing sprites in different styles and such, at least that's what i think.
take care and good luck with the game.
n00bie, thats pretty far from the style of the game, but thanks anyway.
So, I should bend the knees more or bend the knees higher? Or maybe both?
Animation looks cool.
The problem is, on some frames it looks like non of the legs are touching the ground.
Here's how you could fix it:
(http://users.volja.net/igorsi1/original.gif) (http://users.volja.net/igorsi1/edit.gif)
Igor, I am kind of, like, confuzzled. Could you explain a bit more how I could fix it?
look on igor's post:
The first image - both the guy's feet do not touch the floor, if you are walking you always have at least one foot on the floor - if your character's feet both come off the ground it looks like he is skipping
Okay, I got the idea, and here's the edit:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/walkcycle111.gif)
Nice sprite so far! :D
A few suggestions regarding the animation - On the frame where the characters' foot starts going back again, make it so it's flat on the ground until it goes up again.
The arm animation could use some smoothening, the line inside him seems a bit jumpy, and the arm outline outside seems to stay the same for two frames.
Regarding Broken Swords style - It uses very saturated colors and also defines shadows with the outlines. It being a hi-res game makes it hard to get a similar style to work for a low res game. I changed an old sprite of mine to a line style like that and took it to the extreme so it's more obvious:
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/dood1.jpg)
Don't think of an outline as just a line, let it also define shadows. BS doesn't do the outlines that contrasty, but you should get the idea.
Hope this helps! :D
Hm. You're advancing!
My suggestions here:
* Make his hand (fingers?) change less during hand move, otherwise it looks like his fingers are broken and hanging loose
* Walkcycle looks good, but doesn't go with the way your character looks -- maybe make his footstep size smaller, so he won't look like he's rushing somewhere and goes better with his age too -- he's not teenage, right?
* yes, legs could bend more from knees
Actually, he is supposed to be 20something.
Ill work on the sprite more this weekend.
I'd thought he was 40something... Could you make him look younger changing the beard and the hair... And the clothes.
Aren't 25 year-olds allowed to grow beards?
And the clothes are pretty vital for the plot of the 1st chapter, by the way.
IMO, you'll have a hard time getiing the character to look close to George Stobbart (or at least that style) because your sprite is a fair bit smaller than BS sprites.
Maybe yo could find some SS from the GBA version of BS to get some idea of how to make characters look simmilar at a smaller scale... just a thought.