Top down RPG type character

GreenBoy · Mon 08/02/2010 10:20:42

I've recently become quite interested in making a RPG in AGS, mostly as a bit of a scripting challenge and also because I always felt that the "Wheel of Time" books would make an excellent final fantasy style roleplaying game.

Anyway I'm not really a hundred percent sure about this first sprite. I want a angled view look to the characters but I want to fall somewhere between those old games that I used to play on the snes and something a bit more modern looking. Here's what I've come up with so far...

Any advice etc will be appreciated.

Arboris · Mon 08/02/2010 10:29:26

It's not bad at all. Altho I would advice you to give the colours some more contrast. You're using allot of colours which I can barely tell apart from each other.

Here's a quick example, I only redid his clothes btw. Didn't touch his face or hands.

Jakerpot · Mon 08/02/2010 15:40:58

It looks great! But it looks a little SD, Chibi, i don't know, it doesn't look natural... I think his head is too big, but that's intentional isn't it?

GreenBoy · Mon 08/02/2010 19:18:23

Yeah it's supposed to be as if you're looking from above making him look a bit distorted. It's kinda a difficult thing to achieve without making it look a bit japanese cutified.

Ahhh Arboris that looks amazing, I'm always too afraid of using colours but I think I'll make an edit based on your suggestion. Also the wrinkles in the cloak looks great.

Stealing image now...

GreenBoy · Tue 09/02/2010 06:16:36

Okay I think looks a ton better.

Thanks for the help.

miguel · Tue 09/02/2010 12:08:05

If that is supposed to be Lan, then you accomplished it very well.

And you got yourself a fan!

GreenBoy · Tue 09/02/2010 19:24:41

I wondered if anyone would guess who it was.

He still needs some work, the cloaks all wrong it should be colour shifting acording to the books but I'm more interested in getting something workable to see if I can do the scripting side of things.

Andail · Tue 09/02/2010 19:44:05

Alright, I'm not the best pixel artist around, but I think that sprite suffers from a severe case of pillow shading, which you can google and read plenty about.

The other thing that bugs me is that he's supposed to be seen top-down, but the face is still straight forward, which doesn't make sense.

Did a paint-over:

There's plenty to do in terms of colour count (mine isn't at all optimised), but maybe you can still get my points.

JimmyShelter · Tue 09/02/2010 19:46:18

Quote from: GreenBoy on Tue 09/02/2010 19:24:41
He still needs some work, the cloaks all wrong it should be colour shifting acording to the books but I'm more interested in getting something workable to see if I can do the scripting side of things.

You could do the colour shifting by changing the colours between different frames in your walk/idle animations.

Jim Reed · Tue 09/02/2010 20:49:27

I'm too lazy to hunt them all down, but you can look up sprites from these games for reference:

True Lies (SG, SNES)
Chaos Engine 1 & 2 (Snes, SG)
Story of Thor/Beyond Oasis (SG)
Shadowrun (SG)
Techno Clash (SG)

SG - Sega Genesis
SNES - Super Nintendo Entertaiment System

They have non-anime sprites (except for Beyond Oasis), and just the right perspective.
I hope it helps.

GreenBoy · Wed 10/02/2010 04:48:19

I've tried to give him more of a realistic angled look but I'm not sure, I think I prefer the original way I did it.

I like the fact that the original showed more of the character, even if it sacrifices some realism. To be honest I quite like the old final fantasy style of doing things.

Ryan Timothy B · Wed 10/02/2010 05:56:15

It'd be better judged if you put it on a background, unless you've already done that.
Personally I like it more realistic with his head tilted forward (down).
With his head tilted towards the sky (camera/me) would constantly make me think he's a retarded character who is waiting for my every command.

Look at him... he's staring at me again!

Khris · Wed 10/02/2010 13:00:09

A quick shot at the general anatomy & cape: