SpriteJam - Granny Edition (21/09-05/10)

[Misj']

Here's the thing: the gaming company you're working for is developing a new adventure game about a young man named Solomon, and his little sister Rachel. It's a fantasy/fairy-tale/family kind of game (with some lighter and some darker parts). The project leader has asked you to develop and create the sprite of one of the minor characters called Granny Rurbuncle. She runs an orphanage in a desolate outskirts of the woods.

The project leader gave you the character description of Granny (and a few other characters in the game), as well as some inspirational art (these are not game backgrounds; they are merely some artists' impressions to inspire you).

Goal:
Create a character that clearly shows Granny's personality (and age) based on the character description below. The description is quite 'open', so you'll have to decide a number of things...is she mrs. Doubtfire, one of the Goldengirls, the evil stepmother, or something completely different? - It's all up to you.

Rules:
- There is no colour limit; but a good use of colours (or lack of colours) will be taken into account.

- The size-limit is as follows:
          Minimal size:  1/8th of the game's Y resolution.
                                (for a 1024x768 game that's 96, for a 320x240 game that's 30)
          Maximal size: 1/4th of the game's Y resolution.
                                (for a 1024x768 game that's 192, for a 320x240 game that's 60)
          These sizes are head to toe, and do NOT include props like wigs, hats, monkeys, etc.
          So the final sprite-size may be bigger (but not smaller).
          Game-resolutions that are allowed are:
                     320x240,  640x480, 800x600, 1024x768
          Please indicate the game-resolution you're designing for.

- Character development sketches, tutorial-videos/images, character sheets, and small character-animations are highly appreciated, and may be taken into account (but are not demanded!)

- Multiple entries per person are allowed. This will especially increase your chances if the entries are either in clearly different styles, or contain clearly different interpretations of the character.

Character Description: Granny Rurbuncle

Granny Rurbuncle runs the orphanage. She's somewhere between 65 and 95 years old, and is an orphan herself. She's lived in the orphanage for all her life. While she complains about the pain in her back quite often, she can move in a way you wouldn't expect from a lady of her age. Nevertheless, when she walks she intensively uses her cane (not just for walking by the way). She normally wears a coat and hat, that were donated by the mayor's wife (fifteen or so years ago; it's worn out nowadays).

Granny Rurbuncle: “Rachel my dearest, could you fetch some fresh water from the well for an old lady?”

Character descriptions of a few other characters here

Inspirational Art
by Exsecratus
by Loominous
by Misj'
by Neil Dnuma
by Zyndikate
more...

Timeframe
This SpriteJam will close on Sunday October 5th 23:59 hours my local time. A winner will be declared on the 6th.

[Stefano]

What? No one posted yet? Hum... kind of intimidating to be the first, specially after being away for so long.
Anyway, I'm back to business and here are my first studies and doodles (last one is getting there, I think):

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee177/stevetera/oldlady.gif

Cheers!
-Stefano

---

EDIT1: Here's what I decided to do:
granny 1 - 320 X 240 game - limited palette pixelated sprite
granny 3 - 800 X 600 game - digital painting no color restrictions

And a brief study regarding their size: CLICK!
The little bars show the max/min heights allowed.

---

EDIT2:
Here's the first granny pixelated as promised:
1. Check it gainst Loominous' background (Although it was painful, I had to resize and crop it to fit the resolution I picked.).
2. And the final result:

1X	4X

---

EDIT3:
I started to go crazy with all the details on second granny and so I decided to declare it finished (didn't finish feet, hands and part of the hair mostly).
I've made a Step-by-step animation of granny being born: >HERE!(360Kb)<

sprited	original size

I definitely overdid this piece, but I'm glad I did since it was great practice and it's going to my online portfolio.

Cheers,
-Stefano

[Misj']

Nice studies/doodles.

Looking forward to seeing the final product.




Ps. and without contestants it would be difficult to come up with a winner next week

[abstauber]

Not an entry



But I'll join you this week...

[monkey0506]

Not an entry...

Sorry, but when I think of an orphanage, that's what I think of. Oh and Stefano I definitely like your sketches, but I think the first is my fav.

[abstauber]

So here's my entry. This granny would fit best in Neil's orphanage or a pirate's orphanage (which I would prefer  )

Granny Rubuncle: Call me granny again and you get to feel my cub. It's Bucaneer Rubuncle or simply ma'am

There's a flat colored version, as well as a more detailed one. There's no anti-aliasing or semi transparency on the outline to keep a good contrast to the background.

Height excluding the hat is approx 147px which qualifies her for the 800x600 resolution

I'm definately not a good role model, but I kept track of this creation anyway.

1) Drawing a skeleton


2) Flesh and muscels


3) Some more details and a hat


4) Clothes: coat


5) Clothes: dress


6) Oh dear, the neck is way too long - put the head a little lower and hid the skeleton layer and improved the contrast of the sketch


7) Outlined the sketch (having the layer at around 20 % visibility)


8.) Basic coloring
At this stage, I like her most - it might also be the easiest to animate.


9) Nonetheless I've tried some advanced coloring and miserably failed

[Stefano]

abstauber,

That C64 orphanage is cool as hell! Is that a real game?
Anyway, your piratey granny is pretty neat. I think I like the flat colored one best, though.

I would definitely love to see an orphanage built out of a wrecked ship.

monkey_05_06,

Then you'll be happy to see that I decided to bake a granny no.1 sprite as well. 

[abstauber]

Yeah I know, the coloring of the pirate nanny sucks.
Mainly because I was to lazy to do a good per pixel shading. Instead I just took a pencil at 30 % visibility and corresponding dark color - well, not the best technique for a sprite
Besides I'm afraid that tweaking that sprite's shading won't help anyway, because I'm sure it's not exactly what Misj' had in mind.
Somehow your granny reminds me of GBA or DS sprites. I can't say why - must be the perspective - really neat stuff.
The orphanage btw. is from The Three Stoges, it looks even better on the amiga version. But Cinemaware generally did an awesome job on graphics these days.

[Misj']

With still a few days to go, and two very good entries, I've decided to write down some of my own thoughts on this design (maybe it inspires some extra entries...the more the merrier).

When designing an elderly woman (granny) there are two archetypes:

The first is the slender - sometimes even thin - aristocratic lady.
The second is the shrunken round woman.

The first is often used either for royalty or for the evil nemesis like Yzma (emperor's new groove), Cruella De Vil (101 dalmations), etc.
The second is either used for the nice 'mother-like' granny like Ma Bagge (courage the cowardly dog), or the evil witch (snow white and the seven dwarfs).

There are of course a lot of variations, but these archetypes are often a very nice start...as long as you are willing to use your own imagination.

For those of you who are still not sure whether you want to join this competition (yes you, you know who you are), here is what you can win:
The golden-animated-granny award

[abstauber]

Since I don't want do be the last one, just showing one granny, here's a different approach in low res.

Meet Gargoyle Granny


Granny Rubuncle: The last time I flew? My dear, that must have been a long time ago.


She about 54 pixel high, and founded the orphanage as the cities begun to get too fast-paced for her.

This time I worked without a sketch and created the skeleton in inkscape.

looks more like a pokemon


Now I've imported the bitmap export from inkscape to my pixel tool (ProMotion)


Here's the basic coloring again.


Shading and a dress


A foundling on her arm and done



Here's a little sample animation on a background I've stolen from Gilbot's Sprite Jam (Thanks  )


Well, that's it.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Granny Cooks are a bit twitchy, specifically in their 'motherly' programming.  Model 73, called Ms. Rurbuncle by its original owners, developed a maternal instinct, and since it is illegal for Artificials to care for real children, Ms. Rurbuncle ran away from her adopted family to a small, out of the way shack in the middle of nowhere.  Purchasing the home with what little money she had and, pretending to be human, Ms. Rurbuncle started an orphanage so she could be a surrogate mother to local homeless children.

In spite of her physical appearance and age programming, all Granny Cooks are able to run for short bursts at up to 20 mph, lift up to 1 metric ton, and their vision and hearing are well above the human spectrum.  While no Artificials can taste or smell as humans do, Granny Cooks are all programmed with extensive data on recipe preparation and the understanding of various ingredients and their effects, making them able to create a wide variety of food suitable for human consumption.

14 colors, suitable for a low res or cartoony 640x480 game.

[Misj']

The spritejam is closed. I would like to thank all the participants for their really nice entries. I'll give my decision as to who may take the golden granny home shortly.

Misj'

[Misj']

It was a difficult decision to be honest, but I've decided on a winner.

Each of the three contestants had good entries.
Age was best visualized by Stefano and ProgZ. Faces, posture and clothing in their entries were well decided. I feel that Stefano was more successful in implementing the sentence 'she normally wears a coat and hat, that were donated by the mayor's wife'. On the other hand, Abstauber's entries - particularly his Gargoyle entry - is the most original use of 'fantasy/fairy-tale' setting I mentioned for the game.

I think all of the entries are usable as an in-game sprite, even though their styles are very different. Stefano and Abstauber both entered two entries in clearly different styles and character-development. ProgZ entered a sprite in a style that is proven to be animatable and workable in a game (not saying that the others are not).

My final decision was based on the following:
- Stefano and Abstauber both entered two sprites that were very different.
- Abstauber had the most original character design.
- Stefano's design showed her age best (I think).

After much internal struggle, the winner is: Stefano.

Congratulations, you have won the golden granny award


(I'm sorry...Gold only this time)

[IndieBoy]

Sadly I missed the deadline of the comp but I did work on an entry for a little while.

And for stickamers

[Stefano]

IndieBoy,
Oh, noes! I've found the secret link. I wish I didn't.
Too bad you missed it.

Misj'
Thanks for kind analysis of my work and for the lovely ever-moving golden granny award (that I'll be keeping in a locked up closet, just in case so it decides to climb my bed in the middle of the night)

Congratulations to all the other artists. Gotta say gargoyle nanny is my personal favorite.
I will come up with a new SpriteJam edition soon, so stay tuned.

Cheers,
-Stefano