Verb "coin" project - critique needed :)

SpacePaw · Sat 14/02/2009 13:58:02

While waiting for your comments on my first character sprite I've done the verb coin gui design and I want to ask you all about an opinion about it (if you point any errors I will be very pleased

)

Ookki · Sat 14/02/2009 14:17:32

I think it looks really nice! I guess the game it will be implemented on won't be a happy one?

SpacePaw · Sat 14/02/2009 14:30:34

Quote from: Ookki on Sat 14/02/2009 14:17:32
I think it looks really nice! I guess the game it will be implemented on won't be a happy one?

Yeah

good guess. You will die as often as in conquests of camelot and there will be a long episode in nightmare reality.

Jakerpot · Sat 14/02/2009 15:33:32

What is that? I`m sorry but i really don`t know what is this... it`s an alien? Oh, it`s a GUI... Slimer frenquently confuse aliens and GUI`s.
J-

SpacePaw · Sat 14/02/2009 15:37:59

Quote from: jakerpot on Sat 14/02/2009 15:33:32
What is that? I`m sorry but i really don`t know what is this... it`s an alien? Oh, it`s a GUI... Slimer frenquently confuse aliens and GUI`s.
J-

Lol, you're the 2nd person making this error XD Hmmm..Maybe it looks wrong? should I change something to make it look more gui like? any ideas?

Ryan Timothy B · Sat 14/02/2009 16:08:17

If you make it so that once the mouse rolls over the hand, mouth, or eye a single pixel outline around the action will light up yellow/white/etc.. anything bright really. That will prevent any confusions, I believe. It would show they are buttons.

The only bad thing about the black slime strands is that once it's over a really dark or black area of the background, it won't be seen. Perhaps a second grayish color outlining it all will prevent it from disappearing. But it depends on what color your backgrounds are.

I also find it odd with the red dot indicating where the interaction is, but the GUI actions are off center. The eye isn't centered over the red dot and the hand is moved too far to the left. The bottom saggy strand of slime is also off center.
It's nothing horrible, just looks sloppy.

SpacePaw · Sat 14/02/2009 16:17:30

Quote from: Ryan Timothy on Sat 14/02/2009 16:08:17
I also find it odd with the red dot indicating where the interaction is, but the GUI actions are off center. The eye isn't centered over the red dot and the hand is moved too far to the left. The bottom saggy strand of slime is also off center.
It's nothing horrible, just looks sloppy.

I made it on purpose thinking like "when you click and hold it shows up with the cursor in the middle where the dot is (it wont be there when it's finished - it's just the center dot for my use when drawing) and then you can decide what to do and slide your cursor there" Is it a bad aproach?, what should be under the cursor after the click then?.
And yes, it will highlite or even change (like the mouth open broadly, hand go into a fist and eye widening with narrowed pupil).
How would you do it?

SpacePirateCaine · Sat 14/02/2009 16:26:38

Looks Great Pixel, Er... SpacePaw. If I were to really critique anything, I'd say you could up the contrast a bit to have things (especially the hand) read a little better. Oh, and just to help out, if you want to supply an image magnified, you can actually do that in the img code. Just type in brackets img width=x height=y.

Personally, I like the oozing GUI. It's original and fun. I'm not sure about how easy it is to animate a GUI, but it may even be an option...

I did a few simple edits:

Actually forgot to change the background to transparency - sorry 'bout that.

The first is a simple palette edit. giving you a little higher contrast to make the individual shades stand out a little better. Helps give some definition to the piece. I managed to cut an extra color out of your palette this way as well.

The second is the same new palette with a few edits done - I spent the most time editing the mouth, though I don't know if really fits your idea so much anymore. And the last one is just the eye with a vertical slit pupil, just for fun - if the game's meant to be horror, for that more otherworldly feel.

Jakerpot · Sat 14/02/2009 16:57:28

AH! Now i get it... it`s because the way the slime is, its look like an alien.

SpacePaw · Sat 14/02/2009 17:18:55

Lol - to be honest the lips are even more of what I am after (opening of rocky horror picture show). Maaan...How can you learn things like that? I mean. The shading you did as well as the colors of the eyelid look great but are not at all obvious how to place them...
Thanks a lot...I'll try to tinker with it some more, test some things..If you have any tutorials on advanced pixel-by-pixel I would be very happy to get a link

SpacePaw · Sun 15/02/2009 03:18:52

some people were complaining about the hand not looking like a hand, more like a nose, so I made another edit. I also changed the skin tones to match those of the character. And here it is:

Ghost · Sun 15/02/2009 07:28:40

Very good, though with the additional shading on lips and hand, the flat teal of the eye stands out. Maybe add a small highlight, not *too* much though.
Apart from that it really looks good.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Sun 15/02/2009 23:15:46

I think the layout is fine, but the colors need work. With that in mind, I made an edit.

1. Altered the colors, shifting the reds and pinks a bit towards purple.

2. Removed one brown shade and replaced it with an additional green shade.

3. Reshaded the hand, eye, and mouth and fixed some aliasing.

4. Colored the slime to look more like slime and added an outline so it will always be visible.

If you want the slime to be a different color you could try tweaking the three shades, which will also alter the pupil color. I've made a few variations as an example.

SpacePaw · Mon 16/02/2009 01:13:17

Oh man 0.0 Thanks ProgZmax! It looks much more detailed and smooth and keeps the color count at the same place...Wow...Man...I have to learn a lot. But I'm trying my best

Now I dunno if I should keep it or not... It will kind of stand out from the rest of my work with it's smoothness

Thanks for the help, I'll try to learn from it as much as I can...

Ghost · Mon 16/02/2009 03:09:31

Quote from: SpacePaw on Mon 16/02/2009 01:13:17
It will kind of stand out from the rest of my work with it's smoothness

Not a bad thing thought, as it is the GUI- it should stand out.

Dualnames · Mon 16/02/2009 11:04:25

Quote from: Ghost on Mon 16/02/2009 03:09:31
Quote from: SpacePaw on Mon 16/02/2009 01:13:17
It will kind of stand out from the rest of my work with it's smoothness

Not a bad thing thought, as it is the GUI- it should stand out.

Speaking of which, it was hard telling (very first pic on very first post) that it was a verb coin gui. But progz ideas and rendition make it really clear.

SpacePaw · Mon 16/02/2009 13:20:32

Well after seeing Progz edit I wont get back to the first version

no chances. But I think I'll at least tinker with it a bit. I'll post it when it's ready but right now I have to do some work for my university

Dualnames · Mon 16/02/2009 13:45:00

I've done a small edit.

2x

4x

It's not really as good as progz, but I sort of wanted to differentiate the buttons from what's not of interest. I edited your sprite.

SpacePaw · Mon 16/02/2009 14:03:47

Interesting idea but I think the outline is enough

I can test it and alter it too just out of curiosity

SpacePaw · Mon 16/02/2009 17:06:22

Here's my latest version. As you can see I kept progz shading of the slime but made it black. This increased color usage so I made the eye red like the lips, now it's only one color more (but it doesnt matter as all the greys are used in main character too). I decided to keep my old hand too but tried to reshade it mostly like progz did (but with character skin tones)