Spriting Technique

[SookieSock]

I need help




X3

This is my Gargoyle. his proportions are OK but the shading is pants. As you can see you cant really understand what's going on as my pixels are just too messy and I don't really know how to tidy them up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

By the way his tail is floating because its wrapped around a wall.

[SinSin]

Not a bad image to be quite honest
Just a quick touch up here...
Got rid of the black
Edited the wings and lower abdomen area
Did some slight touching to the hands hope this is ok

[Jim Reed]

2x


I reduced the colour count, but you original sprite still looks better to me.

[ThreeOhFour]

2 good ways to 'tidy up' a sprite are to limit your palette and to try using outlines.



My attempt is a bit more 'video gamey' than I intended but perhaps you might get some ideas from it.

[SinSin]

Although I love the way you draw Ben, you have to think will this sprite fit the rest of the background
I like it tho 

[Calin Leafshade]

I think the point of the thread was really about general technique and making sprites more readable.

The particular sprite was just an example really.

It seems outlining is a very good start.

[SookieSock]

It always looks so easy when you do it Ben. thanks for the paint over Guys. There's bits out of all of them i like, especially the readability of Ben's. thanks for the help.

[Questionable]

Although I love the way you draw Ben, you have to think will this sprite fit the rest of the background
I like it tho 

Good point, maybe we can get a shot of the background for reference.

[Tuomas]

Yeah, a background would be nice, to see how it should look on it.

People tell you  to reduce colours. If you're making a small sprite it's better to have less colours in your palette or the sprite will get rather blurry. You see, in a gargoyle like this, Ben's got a point: his garg. doesn't need a whole lot of shadows. Just enough to show the outlines and the face. Stuff like the breasts and the abdominals, eyes and wing scales are details that look good visible. But a stone doesn't have a lot of detailed surface, so just restrict the shadow-lines to a few necessary details. It'll look cartoony, but it'll also look better. After all, all the outlines are the shadows. When there's light, use less dark colours, when there's none, use darker, I don't have to tell you this But too much colours makes it look antialiased and in other words blurry. And when drawing outlines like around its ears: try to avoid double pixels and filled in corners.

I'd love to make a paint-over of this, but it's hell with just a laptop touchpad

[Chicky]

I'd hope SookieSock's already finished this sprite, there's no point bumping with useless comments, or should i say 'questionable' ones.  

Mind you, having an outline as in Ben's sprite wont make it conflict with the backgrounds if all sprites are in that style.

[Questionable]

I'd hope SookieSock's already finished this sprite, there's no point bumping with useless comments, or should i say 'questionable' ones.  

=D

Well I often obsess over things (guess that's why I never get anything done) and I figured that since he hasn't turned in the game yet, maybe he's still working on it, and if so maybe he'd still be interested in variou view points...

Also, I didn't check the date of the thread... (Oops)

=P

[SookieSock]

This is the back ground for the gargoyle



And this is the finished gargoyle. I say finished in the loosed possible way though, if I think of some thing else to do with it ill change it. lol
Still working on the game though slowly but surely.



oh and  im not a HE  im a girl. 

[Chicky]

That's an ace background sookie, i'd add some detail to those background trees.  Remember to keep your character sprite fairly dark so it doesn't stick out in those shadows

[Tuomas]

A girl? But I thought Calin was... oh, never mind

[Dualnames]

A girl? But I thought Calin was... oh, never mind

I think Tuomas, she's Cal's girlfriend.

[SookieSock]

Can I not be referred to as Cal's girl friend please. I have my own identity you know 

[SSH]

With a name like Sookie, I thought you'd be Bill Compton's girlfriend... 

[SookieSock]

If we're going to talk about the true blood series, I've got to say I prefer Eric.

Sookie is actually the name of my cat, why I adopted the name I really don't know.

[Dualnames]

My cat's name is Trill (off-topic: No fu^&^* wonder where that came from)..

But well, people remember you with the first impression. ALWAYS! Trust me on that.

[abstauber]

My cat's name is Trill.

Like the bird seed?


well, I bet the don't sell it in Greece

Anyhow, SookieSock, I hope you're making a game with that background. It's looking quite interesting, just the style gap is bugging me a bit.