I feel better about this guy from the side than from the front or back, but it all looks a bit... wrong.
Any tips?
(http://waffleicious.co.uk/ags/prisonguy.png)
His head seems to be too big for this body and the legs are too short in my eyes - but I like the style!
Woah, this is awesome! It almost reminds me of Leisure Suite Larry... The head and legs are okay, IMO, but the arms a bit thin... I did a quick edit of the front.
(http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w344/swordofkings128/edit2.png)
I was getting kind of like a smug vibe from his sprite, so I my edit kind of turned it into a smug pose... It might be a bit too smug however!
Quote from: Swordofkings128 on Wed 02/11/2011 03:12:20
my edit kind of turned it into a smug pose...
Could be used for the idle sprite.
I actually like the cartoony look, so for me the proportions aren't that much of an issue, that is of course, if you're going for cartoony.
I tried to align the front and side view a bit more.
(http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab12/Mad1978/PrisonerPO.png)
- the main thing in the front view is the nose, I thought it seemed much thinner than the one in the side view.
- prisoners usually wear high-visibility clothing, but that's probably a design choice on your part, so take it or leave it ;).
- as you can see, I pushed some more pixels here and there, but nothing major.
Hope this is of some help.
The sprite looks good, I do like it even better with the orange jumpsuit. But either way, I like it.
Thanks Mad, they do look more unified there. I am indeed going for cartoony :)
The clothing choice was deliberate as I'm going for a 1950s era prison. I did actually start off with an orange jumpsuit but as I thought about it, (and after watching the Shawshank Redemption), I considered that they probably wouldn't have had those back then.
I like your sprites; they have a very classic, kid-friendly style and color to them. One thing I would suggest is altering the feet on the standing up and down poses to look more natural instead of like the shoes are facing opposite directions. I made a quick edit and a few cosmetic changes below to show you what I mean:
1. Adjusted shape of feet and leg stance to look more natural when facing up and down.
2. Thinned legs slightly so his jacket stood out. Also makes him look a bit more lanky.
3. Adjusted nose slighting facing down and left, just to make it a bit clearer.
4. Widened arms by one pixel.
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr218/ProgZmax/prisoner.gif)
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr218/ProgZmax/prisoner.gif)
Most of my changes were cosmetic for personal preference so use or ignore them depending on what works for you. The legs and especially the feet are the aspects to pay attention to as they add some depth to his stance and avoid the weird bow-legged appearance when the feet appear to be facing totally opposite directions. Nice work!
OK, I'm just going to put this out here. It's not terribly good but that's what the Critic's Lounge is for, right?
Some walkcycles:
(http://i.imgur.com/OYf0n.gif) (http://i.imgur.com/P3I9c.gif)
(http://i.imgur.com/OYf0n.gif) (http://i.imgur.com/P3I9c.gif)
You can probably recognise what template I used. ;)
I was happy with the down-angle walk cycle until I did the sideways one and then it looked so much better that the other one paled in comparison. :( I will have to do it again, the upper body movement, especially, is just laziness on my part.
The leg motions in both actually look quite good, it's the arms that need work. In the side view, you are stretching his forearm rather than bending it, so those last two frames where the arm moves forward make it look like his arm is stretching. What you want to do is have his entire shoulder (including the nametag and shirt) move left a pixel on those two frames and then move the forearm up a pixel or two so it looks like it's bending. You could make the nametag and shirt move right a pixel when he moves his arm back as well. With the downward animation he's barely moving his arms at all so you want them to sway with the same amount of animation as the legs, bending them a bit more over his torso and up when they are forward and back behind him when they are away. You can also show the shoulders moving up and down and have his jacket move left and right with his arms for a bit of added motion.
If you can't come up with an edit with some of these suggestions I'll show you what I'm talking about in a day or two.
Ah, I see what you mean. Thanks, I'll give it a go tonight.
EDIT: I think it's getting better...
(http://i.imgur.com/OVuvb.gif)
In my opinion you could do without that elbow swing, it looks unnatural to me. When I walk I hardly notice any elbow movement if any, it's mostly a relaxed shoulder swing. Unless I'm marching all goofy-like and want to appear comical... =D But yours doesn't look like a comical elbow swing, it's too slow to be funny, so it just seems unnecessary. My thoughts. Cheers and I like the sprite!
It's definitely looking better, just bring his entire shoulder and upper arm forward a pixel when his arm is all the way forward and it should look fine. I made a quick edit below that just smooths out the motion a bit.
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr218/ProgZmax/OVuvbedit.gif)
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr218/ProgZmax/OVuvbedit.gif)
Here's my latest attempt at a down walk-cycle:
(http://i.imgur.com/CcJfs.gif) (http://i.imgur.com/CcJfs.gif)
And the first go at an up walkcycle, (without any arm movement):
(http://i.imgur.com/ykCuh.gif) (http://i.imgur.com/ykCuh.gif)
It looks to me as if the legs go only backwards in the down walkcycle and only forwards in the up walkcycle, i.e. the legs become (perspectively projected) smaller than normal, but not bigger/longer than normal. I hope you understand what I mean.
The arm movement looks good to me.