This is my Fist post in this forums and my first game with AGS, this is going to be the main character of my game and is based on me, i'm aiming for a early lucasfilms style, low definition and mid detail.
every comment is welcome since I work in a totally different area in graphics and i'm trying to go back to the pixel roots
and here it is, DAGO the mostly black pixels guy ;D
THX ALL
(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/278462/dagonew.JPG)
note: i'm from argentina, thaths why my english sucks
looking good dagooh. I like it. :)
It just needs to be shaped better and the shoes shouldn't touch each other (it looks like a big floopy thing). Besides that, the character is sweet. 8)
Thanx Ravenfusion
about the shoes, I normally wear big boots (HUGE BOOTS) that look like the boots frankenstein would use ;)
but as you say they don't look good on the character, I think i'm going to change them for normal shoes so it doesent look like he's wearing cemented boots ;D
Looks really good! I instantly thought Maniac Mansion when I saw it!
I think you will have a problem with resolution though. Right now the resolution is way too big. The character wouldn't even fit well in a 640x480 resolution. You could make the character look the same (or even better!) in smaller resolution which would basically be three times smaller.
You can keep the way it is now but I think it would make it harder for you to work with the graphics as well as the game run slower.
Another thing that will surely make working with the graphics harder is that you're using lots of colors, even in places where there should be just a single flat color. Like the black shirt for example, there are many shades of black even though they serve no purpose, other than make it harder for you to change the color of the shirt as you'll have to select all the different shades of black before you can color it (if you're using a selection tool, that is). Having many colors also makes the game run slower.
One thing that is very different from the Lucasarts' style is the skin color. It's very dull. The character looks dead. Unless it's not supposed to look that way, check out what colors Lucasarts used or pick one yourself. I wouldn't recommend using the kind of red like in Maniac Mansion though unless you're really going for 100% copy of the style, because it looks a bit TOO alive! A good color reference in my opinion would be Day Of The Tentacle. It has fantastic colors, in my opinion. I think it would be good to go with the pixely shapes found in the old LEC games yet not limit your color palette to the 16 or something like that, that they had in the old games but use colors that please your eye a bit more.
Here's a modified version so you can see what I mean. The image is zoomed in 2x, but it's really 100x90 pixels (whereas yours is 500x300).
(http://pelu.jns.fi/~teropa/Crits/Dagooh_Character.gif)
Anyway, I don't want to make any decisions for you even though I really sound like it. :P
WOW Pessi, you took a lot of work there!
when I look at your take I think my original character is crap, really CRAP! :'(
you are right in almost everything, the definition was way too high (I realize that when trying to import it in AGS and started animating).
I really like the skin tone that you gave to him (as he's based on me and I'm a really really pale guy that's why he looks "dull and dead" ;D heh ). I think i'm going to keep that tone but make it a little more pale, just to make a difference with the other characters.
and the different colors in the shirt, those are compression artifacts (I think) because I used just plain black in the guy.
I also like the posing in the side view, that was something I didin't like about my original.
But it is great, I love it, and thank you for helping me with all that, it's really going to make my characters better.
THX AGAIN!
Also Pessi, can you please give me some insight on the software and tools you are using to make your models?
I'm using Photoshop with a grid and pen tool on size 3 to make each pixel. but I think there might be easier methods.
and I'm also guessing that you didin't even used my original to make your version, it is made from srap right? (i'm just curious).
I was actually aiming for a Maniac Mansion (original, not the 90's version) look, because I don't know how to draw and the backgrounds in Monkey Island are far too complex..
but after seeing what you did, and how the characters might look in this style i'm really going to try for the Monkey Island look, I hope I can get it right!! (especially with the bg's).
Thank you for all the info in advance :D
I think Pessi used mspaint for this character! ;) Though I would have used mspaint for this result.
Thanks, Dagooh! I'm really glad you found it helpful!
For the program... I nowadays basically only use Photoshop. It's just something I've got used to. Minimi is correct, it could've been done in MSPaint equally well but I find Photoshop faster to work with - even with pixels! By the way, I recommend working without the grid, just using single pixels. It's a lot faster and then you won't have the problem of making the character too big or have pixels that would be too small to work in low resolution. It's often good to first draw a really quick sketch of a generic room (in 320x200, for example), then draw a character standing in the room, then just cut it out and paste it as a new image. In Photoshop, when you have something in the clipboard, it'll make the new image the correct size, you won't have to modify it. It'll be easier to find the right size for the character this way. You know, I had to learn it the hard way as well! :)
And yes, I actually did use the original character. In fact, you can check it by scaling my version bigger and put the both versions on different layers and compare them. I basically just pushed a couple of pixels here and there, nothing big really. It essentially is the same as original. I'm sure I couldn't even have done it without the original! :) Believe me, the reference (the original version) IS good! The proportions, for example, are perfect.
About the compression artifacts - you're totally right! I don't know how I didn't realize it earlier. Perhaps because of its subtle nature. I mean, usually you can instantly tell if an image is a JPG. :) I recommend using GIF format for pixel graphics, as pixel graphics usually have less than 256 colors and colors of the pixels must stay unchanged. GIFs are also smaller in size.
Basically, I think the character would fit Maniac Mansion style backgrounds if you just used the colors in the same way in the backgrounds as with the characters. Maniac Mansion was limited to so few colors that they might seem weird with that character. However, the shapes and shading are great. So... What I'm saying is, you don't have to go for detailed Monkey Island look if it's not your cup of tea just yet - you can just use Maniac Mansion style with greater amount of colors (less saturated, more realistic). Well, it sounds easy, at least!
Anyway, I'm glad I could be of help. Keep us posted on your progress!
I hope that you don't mind if I use your edit, and further edit it to use it on my game.
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/dagonewtake.gif)
this way it looks a little more like me with a bigger nose, a little different hair, and the black boots (that's a must ;D )
now i'm trying to make the rest of the cast in the same style, wish me luck! ::)
Cool tips on the character size, i'm going to use them also.
one other thing (this probably should go to the tech forum) but when I tried to open the demo that comes with AGS it didin't let me use the 320x200 resolution in full screen, whereas the old MM and ZAK did worked on my pc...(and if i'm correct those 2 use 320x200) that's why i'm aiming for a little bit higher resolution (320x240) that I think it's more compatible with newer systems.
(http://www.spike-domain.net/fcwaonline/gallery/dude.png)
^ Muahahha. lol
HA HA HA HA
LOL indeed my friend ;D
he looks like dave grohl, of the foo fighters, hahahah
I was just messing around with your character...it's incredibly hard to edit the hair and make it look good :S
I call him: The ferretmeister. :P
OK!, I have finished (I hope) two characters, DAGO and Rick, let me know what you think ppl!
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/dago-rick.gif)
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/dago-rick.gif)
BTW the game is going to have 4 main playable characters (i will show you soon) and a lot of plain generic looking guys in the bg.
Good stuff, dagooh. It looks like you really improved your style a lot. Your second sprite looks very professional. The only thing I can come up with to possibly criticize is that the legs seem kind of odd to me. I know they're supposed to be rumpled, but at such a low resolution, each pixel is pretty big so it makes the legs look rather wavy. I'm not sure how to fix that (I'm not a good artist), so I'm sure it's fine to leave it if need be.
Anyway, great sprites!
blame it on the big pants kids use this days ;)
and thank you for the comments
you seem to have got the hang of the sprites but what about animation? Animation sucks ass. :(
yeah, animation it's hard as hell..
I've been looking at the old lucasfilms and lucasarts games, up to monkey island and indy jones last crusade (i can't find my the dig cd, that one used to have better animation than the others I remember) but anyways, the animation in general used to be crap, like 2 or 3 frames for walking and 1 frame for everithing else.. and as i'm going for a very "retro" look i'm going to animate like crap ::)
When i'm finished with this 4 main characters and the first BG i'm going to start animating andd show it to you all.