Nazi Guard. Updated with backgrounds! 7/22

cpage · Tue 14/07/2009 13:28:44

Hey all you wonderful folks!
It has been over two years since my last post, but the recent Monkey Island news got me interested again.
Anyway for a small game I am working on I drew the following Nazi. It have been a long time so I am way out of practice. So I post this in hopes that someone here will be able to give me some suggestions on how to improve the little guy.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.
It's cool to see so many old names still here!

Edit: New Version

3x

Nacho · Tue 14/07/2009 15:28:16

Hello Cpage... I sorta like it, but I have a "basic concern"... he seems adorable. Are you sure that the personality of the character matches with its image? Art is not just about painting, but about thinking a bit before painting...

And another issue... Why using 105 colours when you could do the same, with same appeal, with 15?

Captain Lexington · Tue 14/07/2009 16:44:30

Since he refered to him as "the little guy," I imagine he has thought it through, and he's some kind of Seargent Schultz type bumbling, comical Nazi.

I like him a lot, too, and I agree that that color count could be dropped considerably.

Good job so far, though!

Abisso · Tue 14/07/2009 17:37:22

I don't understand if he's meant, like... to be resting his back on a wall: otherwise I couldn't understand the position of his feet.

Apart from that, I think it's light years from what I'll ever be able to draw. Excellent job.

cpage · Tue 14/07/2009 23:42:12

Wow thanks for the swift replies!

Nacho- Thanks! Yes I have thought it through, He is supposed to look like very little like an actual Nazi guard. But I don't want to give too much away just in case this game actually gets finished.

Captain Lex- Thank you. Yeah the color count was what you get when you don't really think about budgeting. Hey it was 6 AM and I hadn't slept.

I have reduced to 15.

Abisso- It is true at first he was supposed to be leaning against a wall, but then I realized my flaw in putting the light source behind him. I have moved his right foot further to his right. Does that help any?

New images in first post.

Captain Lexington · Wed 15/07/2009 00:04:38

Now that's what I call a lovable Nazi. Boffo color reduction, there's hardly any difference!

Abisso · Wed 15/07/2009 00:13:56

It actually helps a lot... it could be better even if you'd straighten the part under his belt: did a quick paintover, just moved his left feet to the left, adjusted his belt and the uniform below the belt. You probably can do a lot better than this... sorry but I suck at drawing. I'm just trying to help.

Gazzo · Wed 15/07/2009 00:46:30

HI there cpage!
I did here a quick edit with the following modifications:

1. Moved the feet (both of them) further back.
2. changed the shading of the left foot (for the character) to match the light source ...i hope so

3. changed the hand a little bit.
4. Moved the nose 1 pixel to the right

Any way, Great looking sprite there!!!

cpage · Wed 15/07/2009 02:22:44

Captain Lexington- I'm glad you like it.

Abisso- Excellent paintover! I see what you mean about the coat and belt. I used that in the update.
Gazzo- Thanks a lot for the paintover! I have used it to correct his posture a bit and excellent work figuring out what I was going for with the hand.
Thanks Guys. A new version is up in the first post

Nacho · Wed 15/07/2009 07:33:23

The magnified images are blurry for me, it never happened before... any kind of script line has been changed in the forums, so I have this problems in CL? ProgZmax? CJ?

Gilbert · Wed 15/07/2009 08:23:23

It works without problem double (errr... triple) pixelled for me under Opera. Are you using FireFox?

cpage · Wed 15/07/2009 10:31:08

Yeah that is a major downfall of firefox.

Abisso · Wed 15/07/2009 12:11:26

I'm using Firefox 3.0.10 and everything seems fine...

By the way, cpage, your Nazi guard is ready to strike now (or, more likely, cry for his mommy). Hope to see him in a game.

Nacho · Wed 15/07/2009 15:21:28

Ah! Okay guys... IT'S NOT firefox, but now I remeber I am suing the new Explorer from a few days ago... Sorry to highjack this thread with this (And for being hypocrital and put it back to the top of the page with the reply...) Eeeeer... Thanks.

TerranRich · Fri 17/07/2009 18:34:29

That's not a bad idea, suing Microsoft.

cpage · Wed 22/07/2009 16:01:21

Hey Folks,
I just did a background to go with this game and I wanted to know if you guys had any ideas.
Also I have two versions I can't decide between.

2x

Thanks for any feedback you have.
Also if you are interested in the process of making this here is an animation of the steps I made for my own reference.

zabnat · Wed 22/07/2009 20:08:27

Well the second one does have a little more painting like feeling, but it also seems that you just overlayd the sketch on it (on a toolbox the outlines don't match).

Personally I would go with less noisy color reduction.

Bensch · Wed 22/07/2009 22:43:07

Hello cpage,
i definitly prefere the first one. The second looks great as a painting but in a game the first beats the pants of it. The outlines dont fit in to the rest at some points (toolbox, cable across the room, right end of the flag) also the jointings (ouf is it the right word?) on the floor dont appeal to me in the second picture.
In addition the first one doesnt look that handdrawn, so your (awesome!) character fits more in it.

besides that, both, your character- and background-style are really close to what i wish i could design.
which program do you use?

the flag doesnt seem to be affected by lights and shadows in both versions.

Abisso · Wed 22/07/2009 23:43:33

I think the second one is the best, and I like it very much (I love that sketchy feeling, produced by the more evident outlines). But I also agree that your character fits better in the first one. So I suppose you should go with the first one.

And, since you drawn so much things in the background, I hope you considered which of those will be animated. It's usually better to insert modifiable things as objects for animation purposes, but you probably know that already.

Anyway, I once more have to congratulate for your art.

Matti · Thu 23/07/2009 05:03:30

Definitely the first one. Also, as it's been said already - less noise!

But it's a really nice BG by the way...