LucasArts-style toon hero

Zaidyer · Mon 15/05/2006 07:01:17

This guy began life as a comic strip character:

I've tried to draw him using a "Day of the Tentacle" spin on my own cartooning style. But I just know there's something about him that could use some work.

His pose and attire are supposed to reflect his personality. He's a "Marty McFly" sort of guy... Nice, but usually out of his league (note the facial expression) and easy to wind up. Not surprising, considering that he hangs around with a brilliant but slightly crazed scientist, owns the world's only talking cat, and is best friends with a hyperactive caffeine addict.

That's supposed to be a flannel shirt, by the way. But I'm at a loss as to how to implement the palette or pattern.

Critiques and edits are welcome. And while I don't have a problem with major changes like extra shading or new features, I'd prefer they be accompanied with steps of how they were made, so I have a clear method of repeating it.

AÃ¯Â¿Â½rendyll (formerly Yurina) · Mon 15/05/2006 07:50:13

Well, I WOULD comment it if the image link wasn't broken... Did you make a typo?

~Yurina

Gilbert · Mon 15/05/2006 09:16:36

I can see the image, maybe you can try draging the link to a new window or whatever?
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/Dart_Zaidyer/sprites/Char-Booster1.png

pslim · Mon 15/05/2006 09:22:11

It doesn't show for me either. $:-\$

Gilbert · Mon 15/05/2006 09:31:42

Odd. How about this? I uploaded his sprite to Noele's space.

skw · Mon 15/05/2006 09:50:26

Nothing.

Ubel · Mon 15/05/2006 10:03:25

Hey Zaidyer, a nice sprite you have there. One thing I would change is the colors of that shirt, because those tones of red and blue together look kind of confusing to me. It would probably help if the red wasn't so bright.

I like it how you've used double pixelling in some places. It makes it look more cartoony (thick outlines). Good job so far!

Krysis · Mon 15/05/2006 12:52:49

Uploaded 3 times and I still can't see it? This is so odd.

ildu · Mon 15/05/2006 13:35:01

I can see all of them.

Yeah, I would definately change the shirt color to a solid color rather than a flannel pattern. Otherwise it looks ok, I guess. You could still try and exaggurate more to make it even toonier.

Khris · Mon 15/05/2006 14:01:07

My IE won't display it, Firefox does. I suspect the PNG to be slightly corrupted, cause IE " knows" its pixel dimensions but can't display the contents.

HillBilly · Mon 15/05/2006 14:31:10

I can see all of them too. Re-saved and uploaded to Imageshack:

Nice sprite, by the way. I like it. I agree with Pablo on the color issue.

Kweepa · Mon 15/05/2006 15:00:49

I like it a lot.
I definitely wouldn't go with the solid colour for the shirt. That's one of the cool, unusual things about it, and it looks fine zoomed in x3 on my monitor. It may be a tad tricky to animate, but such is life.

Gilbert · Tue 16/05/2006 02:01:50

I guess IE was just too retarded to be not able to display PNG in 4bit colour depth.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Tue 16/05/2006 12:29:55

Here is an edit to give you some ideas.

1. Used black with the red to make a more obvious flannel pattern
2. changed the skin tones to DOTT colors
3. Only Laverne (as far as I can remember) had bulbous eyes like that and that was to make her look nutty.
4. Made the arms somewhat thinner and the ears larger. The DOTT characters were all about exaggerated proportions.

Nice work on the sprite!

dsg_charly · Tue 16/05/2006 16:27:32

Quote from: ProgZmax on Tue 16/05/2006 12:29:55

Very nice dude !

Snarky · Tue 16/05/2006 16:35:08

Quote from: ProgZmax on Tue 16/05/2006 12:29:55
3.Ã,Â Only Laverne (as far as I can remember) had bulbous eyes like that and that was to make her look nutty.

Heh, I knew you were going to say that. You really don't like the cartoon eyes, do you?

You're wrong, though. Both Hancock, Washington, and the sculpting Edison twins (as well as many other characters) have bigger eyes that show the whites.

But hey, it looks good.

vict0r · Tue 16/05/2006 17:23:56

Bah... The only pic i saw was the pic ProgZ were sawing with

Zaidyer · Wed 17/05/2006 00:42:58

I find it pretty odd that so many people were unable to see the image. I'm guessing IE has some kind of weird issue with 4-bit PNG images.

Anyway, ProgZ's edit is fairly interesting... It interprets the character in a way I had never considered before.

Here's the most recent hand-drawn version of the character:

(eyebrows not included.) A lot of his features were made out of necessity, since he usually appears in a black-and-white format. The bulbous eyes are intended to give him a larger range of expression, for instance.

Here's a before-and-after sprite edit after taking a look at ProgZ's:

Changed the skin tone, improved the ear, edited the nose, arm and pants slightly, and made the squiggly curl in his hair a little more noticable. Probably the biggest change here is the shirt, which now sports a convincing flannel pattern and a more flared-out collar. I think at this point it could work either as a flannel vest/T-shirt combo or a flannel hoodie.

Any further critiques or edits?

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Wed 17/05/2006 07:07:43

QuoteHeh, I knew you were going to say that. You really don't like the cartoon eyes, do you?

Well, this isn't really the place for Q&A, but no, I have nothing against cartoon eyes if they fit the style. I haven't played DOTT in years and only remember the main characters and Dr. Ed, but after finding an image in reference to your point I would still say that the eyes as Zaidyer has made them do not fit the style. Perhaps making them somewhat smaller and putting the darker skintone as an outline around them would help.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/Dottscreen.png

Afflict · Wed 17/05/2006 09:01:00

I like it alot.