my first sprite. advice on how i can improve it please.

[Fusiomax]

i just signed up. i'm in the process of making a game and i made this sprite:

i drew it on paper then scanned it and pixelated and coloured it and got this:


is there anyway i can improve it?
also can anyone give me advice for alternate angles? i cant get it right looking at him side on and from the back
and one more how on earth do you do walk cycles?

thanks in advance!

[Calin Leafshade]

Well I did do a rather nice edit and then ASE crashed... :'(


but this is basically what I did and i'll redo the edit sometime later.

his left leg is shorter than his right one so I changed the legs and gave him flared jeans (flares always look good at low res for some reason)
I lengthened both his legs by about 6 pixels since they look a little short to me.
I reduced the colour count (you have way too many colours really)

plus some other things

[InCreator]

I like it.
I know that someone will make entirely different face for you, but I'd ignore it and fix only hair and jacket (hand seems to disappear into body, there's no room for pocket) and maybe general proportions.
"Walt Disney meets manga" look is absolutely hilarious and It would make a funny feel-good game

[Captain Ricco]

I like the face in the drawing, but the sprite one looks kinda weird

Maybe you could check out that Robot Teenager cartoon, it has a very similar style to what you've done in the concept art

[GreenBoy]

I'd move his hand.  It looks like he's having a game of pocket billiards.

[Calin Leafshade]

POW! Paintover:





Im still very amateur and there are a couple of things that I think are wrong but i cant seem to fix.

The hair looks odd to me still,
the collar area looks wrong. I wanted to give him lapels and a collar but couldnt seem to get it right.
His left shoulder still looks weird.
and i'd like to learn to do much more complex faces. i always shade faces rather simply.

I hope that helps though

[Fusiomax]

"Walt Disney meets manga" look is absolutely hilarious and It would make a funny feel-good game

why does that sentence seem so epic to me?

I like the face in the drawing, but the sprite one looks kinda weird

yeah it is but how could i adjust the face. calin's paintover is good but the face doesnt seem to fit the body (same as in mine)

Maybe you could check out that Robot Teenager cartoon, it has a very similar style to what you've done in the concept art

familiar?

POW! Paintover:




The hair looks odd to me still,

i think i was going with a sort of fry from futurama hair style.

a friend just texted me saying i should just draw everything scan it and use that as sprites/backgrounds.
what do you guys think?
I'm going to try editing some of the things mentioned and i will powst it back later.

Thanks!

EDIT: i used 17 colours is that to many?

[InCreator]

* Use shading & colors like Calin did, but leave your original skin tone
* Fix hand & jacket as Calin did but not feet. Just make them longer
* I'd still leave eyes as they were
* Jacket needs a turned-down collar. Also, you could close sleeves from shoulders as on image below, otherwise it looks like clay-sculpted - hand growing out of the body

Clothes have - you know - stitches

[Questionable]

Calin's upper body looks good to me, but from the neck up and waist down I think I prefer the original.... although that hair that Calin has drawn is epic.


@In Creator:
This doesn't feel like the type of jacket that has a turned down collar, to me... I could be wrong though.

[Calin Leafshade]

Calin's upper body looks good to me,

You know it, baby.

[Questionable]

You know it, baby.

Quit flirting with me in public! I thought we agreed to keep this private...

We're both married men.

[InCreator]

The question isn't whether this jacket has turned collar or no, signore questionable.
Question is does neck area need some extra detail and it can be hood, high collar or whatever, just for it to look less lame.

I'd put some image or fraction of text or something onto T-shirt too.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Please don't quote images, especially in such a small thread.

[Fusiomax]

thanks for all the advice. actually i got a bit overwhelmed by how much i was advised  .

heres my new version its got less colours and ive changed a few little bits:

Is it better?

by the way i didn't realise i was quoting images i will check next time to make sure. any way i can make the moderators lifes easier i will

Fusiomax

EDIT: i ripped the pallet from ags the first 40 colours and i am going to use that for all sprites. if thats a bad idea tell me and i will.....well i will do something else.

[monkey0506]

plus some other things

The most useful information ever given in these or any other forums no doubt!

[Captain Ricco]

Still needs a little bit of things...

heres my paintover, the arm looked weird in that position, so io chancged it, the collors could use some contrast, so i did that as well, also changed the shading of the pants and changed the shape of his hair and head in some areas

[Fusiomax]

Captain Ricco that is awsome its basicly mine but now it looks good.I'm going to take you edits and try to combo them into mine.

as i do that can anyone show me anything like a side view.
i have tried but i just cant really seem to get started properly.
i will have another go and then i will post what ive got.

thanks guys.

Fusiomax

EDIT: Captain Ricco what program did you use to do that?

[Captain Ricco]

I used a lil program called Idraw. Its pretty similar to paint, but it cant handle images with more than 256 collours The good thing is it has unlimited "undo"s
Its not the same Idraw as the mac version

Here is a link to it
http://www.rpg-palace.com/Utilities/iDraw332_e.zip