Woman Sprites (updated)

[Sephiroth]

Hi,

I've been trying to create some characters sprites, this is my first attempt and they should fit a 320x200 bg.
I could really use some help, they are simple enough for animations but maybe i should work a bit more on them before i go further, that's why i'm asking for your help once again, pls don't laught at my skills

Some of them are nude fairies, click here, x3 if you are at least 18 years old, i warned you :p
Here are the others:


I'm not really satisfied with the face details, and of course arms are to be added for a normal pose. Any idea or comments welcome!

[X-Heiko]

I'm no expert on graphics, but I guess a layman opinion is better than nothing (Is that even a word?).

1. Pose: Nothing against a sexy pose, but your women aren't standing upright. That would be okay, but the torso sections look as if the pose was normal standing and not leaned back, yet the shoulders look like they were pointing backwards.

2. Legs: The legs are quite thin and flexible in your pictures. There's only the knee, so it's actually two straight lines (thighs and shins). The round shape of a slightly bent leg comes from the thighs and shins being thicker. These womens' legs couldn't support their weight, I think. Give the thighs some more substance, shins are okay imho. Also, the leftmost woman has unevenly long legs or is it just me?

3. Hair: Nice, but monochrome and, about that left woman: Hair doesn't stay that way. May be intended, but I thought why not say it. 

4. Face: I think better defined faces would decrease the anorexic look a bit.

5. Said anorexic look: You should make these women a bit broader, then you can also save up yourself some pixel trouble. See for example the right leg of the leftmost woman? It's only two pixels wide. Three would be too many.

Advice? Well, you could start out by using proportionally aligned lines to determine how broad the shoulders are, how long the torso is etc.

I'd say your sprites look good for freeware AGS, but you wouldn't ask for help if you wanted no improvement 

[Trent R]

I actually like the very unique look, the only thing that truly bothers me is the leg that is bent (seems much longer than it should be).


~Trent

[Sephiroth]

Thanks a lot for your replies, now that i look at it i realize you're totally right about the bent leg beeing to long and i'm working on details X-Heiko mentioned as well, i would love to add more details to the face but it doesn't look good with the thin body and i don't want to make them "chibi-like", i wil try to make a bigger version to get more details but i thought they looked kinda cute ;p

[Moresco]

Heh, I agree about the hair....she is thinking to take someone out with that 'do.  Slice a head clean off! =D  But I like them, good job.

[Sephiroth]

Heh i know I overdid the hair, maybe i have a problem with blades and katanas  :

But I like them, good job.

I actually like the very unique look

Thanks a lot, really, i wasn't sure if i'd be able to add a unique touch to it with the low size and my poor skills. Hit me in the heart.

I modified them a bit trying to focus on what you said X-Heiko, I also tried my best to apply some shading to the hair, now let's focus on males and anims. I'm gonna stick with the sprite size and let go of the old blueish palette.

Of course any advice or crit is still welcome.



Regards

[X-Heiko]

Already looks a whole lot better. If you ask me, it has a good unique look now. For example the hair: it's still not realistic but it fits much better this way. The poses are the same. Still somewhat bent the upper chest upwards but it does have its own style. You might want to experiment with an additional pixel for the neck to make it look less fragile, dunno.

However, the legs of the left woman still look a bit strange. I'd say the knees are slightly too low and the Gastrocnemius muscles (sorry, I don't know the English word. It's the muscle on the rear side of the shin) are non-existant.

Yeah, the shading is better but I would advise you to do even more about it. How many sprites are you planning to make?

[Sephiroth]

Thanks, I see exactly what you mean, I tried adding one pixel for the calf but it would make the upper part of the body really thin compared to legs, i may try a resized version to get more details.

I already have like 16 sprites and it could reach 40 to 50 in the end for a small length intro, i meant 40 to 50 distinct characters not compting the quick two frames animations and some walkcycles, idle etc.

PMed you

Edit: Here's the last attempt experimenting with shading and spell visual effects:



Regards

[yarooze]

AAaa! How can it be, I didn't see this thread until now!!?? And nobody told me!  I was about to miss some pixel girls! :'( 

No way!!! 

Nice girls you made Sephiroth! 

I don't think I can improve them, but I can't lose the chance to put some pixels on them...  :

3x original

But I think they are cool enough without curved legs...  :


Besides, you haven't to resize the pictures to show them bigger. Just use width/height tags... 
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/Themes/default/help/posting.english.html#bbcref

[Sephiroth]

Heh thanks yarooze, i'm glad a pixel-girl expert likes them

About the left sprite, i see you added one more pixel to the leg's width and that's exactly what I tried when X-Heiko mentioned the lack of details for the leg muscles but then i thought it looked too large compared to the torso.

It doesn't look bad, but she would be more "plump" i think it's the word, and would lose that anorexic sexyness i liked about it. ( i know it's just a personal opinion) but i could really use this example for other charcaters, it would contribute to get more varied styles.

I worked on a few other characters, maybe i can get your opinions on them, the man will be one of the playable chars.

Quick update:


I know about the tags but I hate the blurry resize effect (maybe due to firefox) and the server host  is mine so a few png won't hurt

[X-Heiko]

Yo! I see you did some work on the black clothes. They look far better now, good job!

The broader and more detailled legs would require the whole body to be made broader, might as well create a totally new sprite from scratch.

The blonde woman still has somewhat weird shading. I see you're trying to make a different material, but I'd still try making the grey either darker or use gradient-like shading.

The weapon-bearing poses look like the women need some item to carry so you gave them a gun. People aiming somewhere have a more upright if not bent forwards stance and the gun at eye's height. I also think that people who actually use guns wield them both-handed, but I've never used a gun. I think the Counterstrike Logo is a man with an MP in a quite professional, stable stance. That would point out what I mean.

Of course, that's all scene dependant.

[yarooze]

Heh thanks yarooze, i'm glad a pixel-girl expert likes them

Thanks for "expert" title! 8) I think, I'm more pixel-girl amateur, but "expert" sounds cool.. 

It doesn't look bad, but she would be more "plump" i think it's the word, and would lose that anorexic sexyness i liked about it. ( i know it's just a personal opinion) but i could really use this example for other charcaters, it would contribute to get more varied styles.

As I told, IMHO your girls are great enough, without my paint over. BTW I like this anorexic sexiness.  : It is much more difficult to draw thin but sexy girls, than curved... 

I also think, that the weapon-bearing pose is OK. Yes, you have to hold the gun higher, if you want to hit your target, but you have not, if you simple want to look cool or your target is very close to you...

[X-Heiko]

Scene dependant, just like I said.
What I meant is that that pose doesn't look like these girls were trained to use guns.

[Sephiroth]

thanks I will use 4 frames for the firing animations and the one you saw is like the 2nd or when you just want to keep the target under control and not threaten him with a more agressive pose.

Here's another version, any comment on clothes and shading are welcome, thanks!

[X-Heiko]

I'd still not stretch out my arm totally when holding a gun. I think that would make my hand shake too much. Also, you're trying to have detailled shading on the clothes with not so many different colors. The man's shirt looks like it's black camouflage or something and could use at least one more shade of grey. The woman's clothes are okay but look like they have less contrast than the man's.

Other than that, it's definitely gaining style!

[zabnat]

I'd still not stretch out my arm totally when holding a gun. I think that would make my hand shake too much.

Have you ever fires a gun one handedly? You are right about no totally streching the arm, but the little bend that is usually left when aiming with one hand would probably not be visible in this resolution. And you don't hold a gun like that unless you want to aim and shoot. But maybe she hasn't ever shot before so she doesn't know how to handle a gun (if she did, she would use both hands)? Anyway, I think the pose is good enough. And I really like the sprites and style, especially in this last picture.

[yarooze]

If I shoot the pistol, I stretch out my arm totally - like that. 
But I'm bad pistol shooter. I prefer rifles. 

My wife, shoots pistols much better than I. (usually she hits every target) She uses both hands to hold the gun. She also stretches out her hands completely. If not, there is a possibility to been hit with the gun to the head...  :

As for clothes, I like them. Even if I don't really understand, what she wears 
She has a dress and pants?

[Sephiroth]

X-Heiko: The shirt is supposed to be camo but you're totally right about shading, I know I have a lot to learn, btw, thanks for your mails and the useful edits as usual, i'll focus on this from now on! The woman just uses softer colors, less contrast, it was just a try to see what would look best.

zabnat: I'm glad you like them, thanks!  About the weapon pose, the woman is supposed to be a lethal assassin or at least a good agent so she's supposed to know how to use them with ease. I'll work on that because I don't want her to look like a weapon noob

yarooze: I like the unrealistic way people shoot big calibers one handed without any recoil as long as it looks cool like in your example pic. And yeah the woman wears a kind of mix between skirt and pants like those chinese outfits I must have seen somewhere, same here, I don't really know what she's wearing but I like it :p


I know I can get more details with an improved shading so this will be the next step.
Hopefully they will gain more style, and this is mostly thanks to all the comments!

Regards

[Evil]

I really like the revised version of the red-head with the gun, though her awkward pose doesn't fit her assassin persona. Still a great pose to keep on file. The variation in characters is nice too. The black chick looks nice, other than the red eyes.

But the bikini bent knee girl has been driving me crazy. Yarooze's edit is very nice, but doesn't fit the style. I tried my hand at it, trying to maintain the style. She definitely needed more sass in her pose. I fixed the legs for the bent knee pose, but in order for that pose to work, the hips need to be leaning one way to get the other leg up. I'm not a fan of the 80's/90's high-side thong thing. I think low sides is far sexier, if that's what you're going for. So I shifted the hips and the shoulders to match. Gave her breasts some more *ehem* definition. Also defined the jaw which will give the character some visual depth.

I also changed the hair. The red-head has awesome hair, but this girls Sailor Moon thing doesn't looks so great. I adjusted to to the "back" of the head and gave it some more volume. The bottom I placed behind her arm to also add to the depth.





Edit: The hips in my edit angle the opposit way because she has a hand on her hip, but here's an example of how the hips shift when in a contrapposto pose. I guess I would consider it a NSFW image, but it's only a 3D model.

[X-Heiko]

@zabnat & yarooze: No, I've never fired a gun before which is why I said "would" and "I think that" all the time    I don't want to theorize too much, I just thought professionals shoot both-handedly with slightly bent arms. I don't know how to prevent a gun from hitting your head by recoil so it would be arrogant to theorize about how to prevent that. I'd be glad to learn something about that.

@Evil: I think you're changing so much that every hint of the original style looks non-fitting. The legs are much more stable now, the shoulders are broader, yet the chest and belly remain, making the overall appearance too wasp-like imho. Sephiroth's girl looks almost naked, but your girl looks almost nude. It's a different style and would look good if applied to the whole body... I have to say that oversexy-izing Sephiroth's girls is something I would avoid.