From paper to pixels: A DOTT-style character, round 3

Started by Zaidyer, Thu 05/04/2007 05:41:05

Previous topic - Next topic

Zaidyer

From concept art to game sprite:



Not exactly a one-to-one conversion, but the concept art helped tremendously in setting up the character design. This is probably the third or fourth shot at this character I've taken so far, but every improvement helps. I'd say it's a strong match for the Day of the Tentacle art style by now, but I'm looking for ways to improve and bring him a little closer to his initial conceptual design, without making him too busy or difficult to animate.

Crits and suggestions are encouraged.
~Zaidyer

updownleftright

Love the sprite, he's great!

Here's a quick list of what I think are differences between the concept and the finished thing, or just amends I would make. Hopefully one of them will inspire you...


  • The sprites hair is a little flatter than the concept, less pointy.
  • The collar looks a little wonkey, almost like it's twisted to the side, also a bit high maybe? I think you did the right thing losing the bow tie though.
  • The outline of the shoes is too dark compared to the rest of the outlines, perhaps a slightly lighter gray?
  • The trousers in the concept look a little 'jacked up' which adds to the geeky look, any way you can add that to the sprite?
And that's it! Keep up the good work dude, i'm looking forward to seeing the first edit :)

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens

I think you've done a great job here.  I did an edit to correct a few things and to suggest a few others.

1.  Adjusted pose to equalize him.  If you look at Bernard's sprite, even though he leans back his head swings forward to compensate.

2.  Made the face resemble the sketch more by giving him a forehead and making his hair larger.

3.  Added one additional shade to each area.  This isn't really necessary but with your obvious talent why not improve upon the DoTT style?

4.  Made his left arm look like the sketch.

5.  Darkened the outer hair color and lightened the inner shirt color to increase the contrast between colors.





Hopefully this will help.  You don't really need the additional shades but I think highlights add so much to the personality.  Nice work!

ManicMatt

The shape of ProgZ's drawn glasses are much better, yours look like old ladies glasses!

And the hair and stuff.

Although I personally prefer it without all the complex shading he added, but Im probably in the minority. Sure it's impressive, but it takes away some of the character's simple charm for me.

Steel Drummer

Also, animating would be harder with the shading. I think the original is more suited to a DoTT style game.
I'm composing the music for this game:



Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens

QuoteAlso, animating would be harder with the shading.

This is an argument I've heard used many times in the CL as advice and I would just like to point out that it's not really true.  Shading doesn't make animation any more or less difficult, really.  Difficult and time consuming are two completely different things, and while it may require slightly more time to redraw the character for a frame it is not really any more difficult to do so.  I just want to clear this up because I'd rather not see people keep operating under the misconception that additional shading makes animation a sudden chore. 

Either you can do it without a problem or you can't, and shading isn't going to make a bit of difference :).

Steel Drummer

Prog, the shading style of yours actually looked a lot like Simon The Sorcerer's style (only way cartoonier).
I'm composing the music for this game:



Zaidyer

I had some time today, so I decided to redraw the sprite. Unlike last time, I shrank the concept art and used it as a basis instead of just winging it. The result is actually a big improvement.


I also took about 10-15 minutes to do a really quick highlighting job. I originally didn't want to do it that way in case it killed the style, but it's starting to grow on me.

~Zaidyer

Sparky

I like his style! Lots of character, good execution. The hair and eyebrows are much improved. His white vacant stare is very expressive, actually. It would be fun in a cartoony way if you treated the glasses rims like a pair of giant eyes, and made them frown, squint, etc. The lines and colors are very soft and pleasing, except perhaps the pure black on the shoes. His left shoelace also looks a little awkward in comparison to the rest of the drawing, which is very fluid and natural. He still has a bit of a center of gravity issue- it sort of looks like he's leaning backward against a wall or something. I like how far back he is leaning, but I'd recommend compensating by sticking his head and / or hips forward past his feet.

updownleftright

I vote no to the extra shading! I like the simpler style, closer to DOTT better :)

Ubel

I like the new shaded version. It looks much more alive than the simple non-shaded one. I'd love to see that in a game.

Buckethead

I agree, although I like the hair color of the non shaded version better. I think it looks more natural.  :)

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens

QuoteProg, the shading style of yours actually looked a lot like Simon The Sorcerer's style (only way cartoonier).

That is a very nice compliment, thanks!

Very nice versions you've done Zaidyer, just remember that balance is important.  Move his head forward a bit, and increase the contrast between the shirt shades so they stand out more.  You should also put his left arm into frame, even if slightly (showing a bit of his hand by his pants would be fine).  Great work!


Steel Drummer

Quote from: updownleftright on Fri 06/04/2007 10:01:07
I vote no to the extra shading! I like the simpler style, closer to DOTT better :)

So do I. DOTT's style was just fine, without a bunch of complex shading.
I'm composing the music for this game:



Zaidyer

The highlights are more or less an extra step that requires very little work. Crafting the sprite from nothing more than a piece of black-and-white concept art took an hour, but adding the highlights took ten to fifteen minutes afterwards. Plus, that's only four extra colors in addition to the base 12 of the sprite, making an even 16.
Day of the Tentacle was limited to only 8 colors per palette. There are a lot of places in the original game that would have benefitted from twice that amount, such as Doctor Fred's curiously jaggy lab coat. Most modern animated cartoons use simple color highlights anyway... What makes this different?
~Zaidyer

Sparky

I feel complex shading isn't good or bad- it's a matter of the style of the game. Regarding the hair in the shaded edit, it might look more natural if the highlights were smaller and sharper.

Zaidyer

I'm now working on the front view. Here's what I've got so far, side-by-side for comparison:



This is the part where the extra highlighting has come back to bite me, since it's a bit tricker to figure out how to make it look right on this pose.
~Zaidyer

Steel Drummer

Hey, it looks nice, but I think the original fits your background style better. The front view's hands look like lumps. Add some fingers.
I'm composing the music for this game:



prowler

in the front view, try making the light come not directly from the front, but slightly from the side instead

markbilly

It's a very good conversion from the side view. you could experiment with shading, like prowler says now. But if you just want to leave it at that, with some fingers that would pass for a more than good enough sprite.
 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk