Sprite needs improvement

[Setsuna]

Hi all,

I was trying to draw a tall sprite and here's the result:



I'm quite satisfied with his head and arms but i know the body needs some work.
I can't figure out what to do with his weird right shoe..
I also 'tried' to add shading but really need some ideas because it doesn'look good that wayÃ, 

Any other c&c or improvements are welcome!

Edit:


Based on ProgZmax's edit, i just shaded the shirt differently and made his arms and shoulders a bit stronger, i'd also need to make muscles appear on his arms but i don't know how.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

This is a very quick edit, but it should give you some ideas

1.  I completely re worked the legs
2.  I know you liked the arms, but they just do not work (unless he's getting ready to draw two guns)
3.  reduced shoulders
4.  adjusted lighting on legs



Hope this helps ;>

[Setsuna]

Thanks for the edit ProgZmax, that's really helping me to see how it will look like in game because i think i forgot to mention that it was meant to be a special pose for the start screen or something like that.
He's supposed to be angry and concentrate a kind of psychic power (kindaÃ,  hard to guess i know :p ).

I tried to draw him based on a pic i took with my cam and the fact that he looks like he's about to draw guns is actually the result of him contracting hands as if he had some kind of claws.

I thought i would decrease its size for the walkcycle and other in game poses because it would be a pita to animate it,don't you think so?

Oh yeah btw: do you like it? is it worth continuing?

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Of course it's worth continuing, especially if you are happy with it.  Good luck with your game

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Here are a few arms in various stages I did quickly to give you an idea

[Setsuna]

Ok, here's a new version:



I worked on the face and shading, added a few pixels here and there but i think it still needs something...I guess this is how far i can go without help :/

Thanks a lot ProgZmax, this is amazing how well you can draw things!
Thank you again because drawing hands or arms is very hard and gives me headacheÃ, 
I just edited the pic with these arms you drew and it looks a lot more realistic and detailed now

[What a loser.]

Looks very SQ6-ish, very nice.

[Setsuna]

I spent some time drawing my second character because i'm starting to really enjoy this!
Here's Jenny, hope you like her



I'm just a noob in pixel art and i don't know anything about shading so it would be great if someone could help me for this or give a few tips, thanks in advance.
Also if you find anything that could be improved please tell me!

Thanks Alias,considering the fact that SQ6 is one of my favorite old-style games, i really appreciate this!

(I do not speak well english so please forgive me if i'm making mistakesÃ,  )

[InCreator]

Jenny looks much cooler than main character!

1) Jenny has too long feet
2) Jenny's feet are weirdly shaped, they should get a bit thinner near knees
3) Her head has a shape of an egg

4) Looking at hair, heir hairdo would look VERY weird from behind.
5) Her hands are too thin and spaghetti
6) Extra shade color wouldn't hurt

I tried to fix pointed out things - and discovered that this is a very nice sprite both to edit and start with. I like it!



2X

[Cluey]

Was the first one based off the movie Akira at all?

I like both though, good work!  You clearly have a lot of ability.

[Setsuna]

InCreator: Thanks for correcting these things,your edit looks great but i needed her to be taller so i modified it again, see below.

Cluey: You're right, i'm trying to draw the characters from the movie akira and the first sprite was supposed to be tetsuo but it evolved and turned into someone else.I'll have to draw him again.
I just finished the joker ( the black guy who's leader of the clowns), here it is if you have any comment, suggestion .



I gathered them on this one to see the modifications.

(I took ProgZmax's arms for the joker, i know it's lame but they look so cool i can't ignore it..)

[Evil]

The girl's hips are a bit high. All of the feet could use some help. Like in Prog's edit, try only showing the "front" of the foot. Colors also could use some help. The girl's are all really close to eachother, making it hard to see the changes. The middle guy has come of the best colors, IMO, mostly in his arms and face. But if you're going to use the face paint, or whatever, try making it a color that goes better with the skintone, like a purple or a maroon.

[Setsuna]

Thanks for helping everyone!

I updated the previous screenshot to see the modfications i made on Jenny.

I had to make her grow a little bit to fit the backgrounds and I tried to correct what Evil pointed out (exept for feet because I'm hopelessÃ,  ).

I'd like to have your C&C one last time on these characters before I start working on animations



The third character isn't finished yet and will use better colours and shading, hopefully.

[Evil]

No use explaining what I did, because I did too much.



These ideas apply to the other charcters too I suppose, I just don't have the time right now.

[Setsuna]

They're all supposed to be arround 16-18 years old so the beard wouldn't look right i think, the work you did on his face makes him look older to me ,but thanks, now i see what you meant with the feet, i'll try to improve that for the others as well.

I'll play with accessories later, chains were here just to be sure he doesn't look too kind because he's supposed to be one of the bad guys heh.

That shading you did is quite neat.
It looks like a tiger skin or military pants texture though,nice
Edit: it would be hard to animate too.

I can't believe i have those 3 characters now, and this is all thanks to your help, i really appreciate it!

EDIT:

I just changed the feet on my version to see if it would be better,hope it is.

[SpacePirateCaine]

Setsuna - the sprites are looking mighty fine - I just thought I'd throw in my two proverbial cents, and see if they're helpful at all.

You said that these sprites were characters from Akira, right? I'm a big fan of the series as well - been collecting the comics as well. Assuming that these are, I just thought I'd see if I could help make them even a bit more Katsuhiro Otomo.

Your Tetsuo looks great, It'll be neat to see him in his torn up t-shirt and cape. I would suggest, however, moving his right eye (Or the one on the left, if you prefer) a pixel to the left in the 3/4 view, at the moment, they seem a little too close, and (I tested my theory), it seems to work. - The 'Jenny' sprite is looking pretty good, too, though her colors are pretty low-contrast, creating a much softer sprite than the dark-outlined others.

And as for Joker - he was one of the more unfortunately overlooked characters in the movie (Didn't need to be there, I know, but still). I dig your muscular, slim Joker, but he is, for lack of a better word, a rather bulky man in the series. I took your sprite and padded it a bit, as well as taking the liberty of putting some make up on him. Mostly for fun, but if it helps you out, that'd be awesome.

x2
Here we have the with and without makeup versions of my paintover/around. obviously, I let the pixels out a lot, to make him a sight more rotund. By and large, the colors are the same, though I added some reds and an extra shade of gray for the makeup. I also added his gloves, but left the pants alone. if you prefer bare hands, they're easily fixed, of course.

You'll also likely notice he's a bit shorter - that's one problem with the sprite as i made it - Pulling his gut and legs down a bit, and filling up the space in the middle ought to remedy that, if you prefer all of your sprites to be roughly the same height, or you could pad it even more, if you wanted to make him gargantuan. It's been a while, so I forget how big he is in relativity to the other characters.

I used the images here for reference.

Hope this is helpful, somehow.

[Setsuna]

Wow, that paintover you did is so cool really close to the original and proportions are much better than the ones i used! Very stylish.
It seems i too overlooked him a bit... But you did an exellent job to correct this and i have to thank you a lot for the help SpacePirateCaine!

I'm glad to see there's another big fan of Akira here, i have the comics as well and i was really disapointed by the way they treated the Joker and lady Miyako in the movie! (even akira)

Well,I'm working on tetsuo's hospital clothes at the moment,but next will be his famous cape and all, with the special arm, i hope he will look good.

As you expected i wanted to make your edit a few pixels taller so here it is:



It is just perfect as it is, i just altered the eyes color because he seems kinda blind but maybe it's just me.I'll try to modify tetsuo's right eye too.

I really appreciate your comments and help, thanks again.

Edit: (i didn't want to bump the thread) here are some new characters i made:



I didn'work on the feet and i need to change the scientist's robe.
The third one is here to get an idea of the proportions.

[SpacePirateCaine]

Glad to be of help, and great job on the eye, as well - I have a tendancy, as you'll see on most of the sprites I've posted here, to not actually show the whites of eyes - partly 'coz I'm not very good at getting them right, but I must say, you seem to have worked that out quite well. One thing you might have missed, though, the fill you did seems to have also filled in the space between his right arm and gut. I'm sort of hoping that doesn't have anything to do with the sprite I provided, but as of late, GraphicsGale has been behaving oddly. I may reinstall it... Anyway, my computer issues aside, great work. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

Also, to keep up with the constructive criticism, I'd say you were really on the right track with the left foot (right side) in the first image in the thread, really, facing mostly head-on, with decent angles. I didn't change much in Joker's shoes, but they still seem to be a little too angled at the moment, if you ask me. A good idea is to keep the sole of any side-on feet nearly completely flat, and the toe area similarly flat in head-on sprites.