Character Sprite

Emerald · Fri 29/02/2008 15:28:40

I made this sprite for the main character of a game. It doesn't look quite right to me though...
x1

x3

Maybe his head is too small, or his body is too fat, or his feet are too big... Or all three. I drew those three components separately, actually, so that might explain it...
I'm not very good at draw-ring... especially not faces.

VK Dan · Fri 29/02/2008 15:32:52

It looks to me like his feet are facing the wrong direction. The rest of the sprite is facing towards you, but the feet seem to be pointing to the right.

Emerald · Fri 29/02/2008 15:36:53

Hmm... the left leg is pointing to the left (our right) with the heel raised off the ground slightly, and the right leg's pointing forwards.

VK Dan · Fri 29/02/2008 15:51:17

Oh...

What if you remove the dark parts between his legs/feet? Most main character sprites I've seen don't include shadows on the ground. Here's a rough example of what i mean (I know it sucks, but I am really not an artist

)

It occurs to me now that I probably should've edited the small one instead of the upscaled one...oh well

Emerald · Fri 29/02/2008 15:54:53

Hmm, you're right.

Also, looking at it more carefully, there seems to be something odd with the chest. It's too puffed-up, or something...

bicilotti · Fri 29/02/2008 16:00:41

Out of curiosity, how did you do it?

MrColossal · Fri 29/02/2008 16:38:47

It's the complete difference in styles really. The face is pixeled and the coat is a photo. The face has like 10 colours in it and the coat is photoreal.

I'd recommend either tracing over the coat or running some photoshoppery on it to make it look more in line with the head. Or update the head with a real head.

Also, can you put up a non-JPG version? I makes it really hard to crit an image covered in artifacts.

Emerald · Sat 01/03/2008 16:40:03

Forgive my ignorance, but what are 'artifacts' in this context?

fred · Sat 01/03/2008 16:55:55

When you save as JPEG, pixel-data is changed due to lossy compression (which is why JPEG filesizes can be so small). Great for photos, but not for pixelart. Artefacts are traces of this loss of quality, like stray pixels and auto-dithering/antialias.

Overall I think it's an ok sprite, just needs a bit cleaning up. With VK Dan's edit you have a very good outline, so perhaps just try fewer colors and higher contrast, like some highlights on the coat. Is he wearing gloves? I think the hands should stand out more.

stajp · Sat 01/03/2008 16:59:21

Is that Chuck Norris? If it is, then oversized chest is OK

Andail · Sat 01/03/2008 20:40:58

Yeah it looks like a photo of Chuck Norris dramatically scaled down.
You could clean it up a lot by choosing pixels more carefully and go for fewer colours.

Emerald · Sat 01/03/2008 22:55:03

Quote from: Andail on Sat 01/03/2008 20:40:58
Yeah it looks like a photo of Chuck Norris dramatically scaled down.
You could clean it up a lot by choosing pixels more carefully and go for fewer colours.

Heh, except Chuck Norris is blonde, and this guy is red-haired.

That does look a lot like him though... damnit, you've just ruined this character for me now

stajp · Sun 02/03/2008 01:43:56

Quote from: Emerald on Sat 01/03/2008 22:55:03
Heh, except Chuck Norris is blonde, and this guy is red-haired.

That does look a lot like him though... damnit, you've just ruined this character for me now

I know you made this sprite, but it's definetly Chuck - http://www.fantasfilm.com/image/d-chuck-norris-x.jpg

Layabout · Sun 02/03/2008 03:53:16

Reducing the image size of a photo does not make it a sprite. Trace over if you must. Use a simplistic style. This 'style' didn't work in Police Quest open season, and it doesn't work here.

I know its an means to an end, but i don't believe you put any effort into this 'sprite'.

Therefore, my critique is, make a sprite, dont reduce a photo to spritely sizes and block out the edges.

Eric, to me the whole lot looks like a photo. Well 2 badly edited and joined together photos.

Character Sprite

bicilotti