Sprite Jam: the Fantasy A-Team -- 17 December - 31 December 2008

[Misj']

Goal:
Create one (or more) member(s) of a fantasy version of the A-team. The sprites must be based on the characters of the four A-team members (but not necessarily their physical appearance, or even their gender...that is all up to you). So create your own Hannibal (the brains), BA (the muscle), Face (the looks), and Murdock (the madman), but in a fantasy setting. I do not count the women in the series as members, but there's no reason why for example Face wouldn't be a woman (Starbuck is, so why not Face).

Character Rules:
One of the members is a human.
One of the members is a typical fantasy creature (dwarf, gnome, elf, giant, etc).
One of the members is half-man-half-animal (hippocentaur, onocentaur, bucentaur, ichtyocentaur, etc)
One of the members is something different (everything goes, as long as it's not one of the above: from werewolf to bunny-rabbit, from elemental to rock-based)

Which member is what is all up to you.

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

The size-rules is as follows:
- 1.70 meter = 25% of the Y-screen resolution (so for 640x480 that would be 120 pixels, for 320x240 it's 60 pixels).
- Characters size is not limited as long as this rule is taken into account, so if your bunny is 40 cm, it's height is 28 pixels (for a 640x480 resolution).

Any (logical) game resolution is allowed, but please indicate it. If you wish to make a fictional game for a 160x160 resolution device it's up to you. The same goes for large resolutions.

Additional Comments
Since I happen to have a soft spot for character design, I consider that aspect more important than the final sprite or functionality thereof. So 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!). Moreover, a superior design-sketch might result in a winner, even though he or she was unable to finish turning the design into a sprite. That does not mean that a functional sprite with a good design is not preferred of course...This is still a Sprite Jam, not a Character Design Competition.

Multiple entries per person are allowed and can increase your chances to win. However, each entry must be a different member of the team (so if you've already used a centaur, the second design can't be half-man-half-animal), and the style used should be such that they can be used within the same game.

Timeframe
This SpriteJam will close on December 31 at exactly 23:59 hours my local time. I will give my decision on the first day of 2009.

[pslim]

Hannibal for 320x200.




x2

[Ghost]

I declare this space reserved for later haunting!!!

Just to see if I'm on the right lines- rest of the team's about to follow.
Sorry, hardly any time this close to teh ends of teh years... that's my entry then.
x2

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Since I happen to have a soft spot for character design, I consider that aspect more important than the final sprite or functionality thereof. So 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!). Moreover, a superior design-sketch might result in a winner, even though he or she was unable to finish turning the design into a sprite.

This statement conflicts with your later statement that this is a sprite jam.  The sprite jam has always been about the resulting sprite, which should be usable in a game.  I was actually quite interested in the topic (I love the A-Team) but this has put me off it.  Just to let you know.  I'd rather the sprite jam was kept a simple affair, personally.

[Misj']

This statement conflicts with your later statement that this is a sprite jam.  The sprite jam has always been about the resulting sprite, which should be usable in a game.  I was actually quite interested in the topic (I love the A-Team) but this has put me off it.  Just to let you know.  I'd rather the sprite jam was kept a simple affair, personally.

The remark was meant to encourage people with little time in this busy time of year to participate even if they aren't able to finish the sprite. A good sprite with a good character-design is superior to a good sprite (from a usability point of view) with bad/boring/unoriginal character-design or a good character-design with a bad sprite (from a usability point of view again). However, since a truly good sprite is rooted in a strong character-design, I find the character-design more important than the final pixels, and will therefore take it into consideration. It is - however - by no means my only or most important criteria.

You should also not forget that I'm not a pixel-pusher, and am more able to determine whether a sprite is animatable/usable from a classical-animation point of view than from a pixel-art point of view. But since I don't want to favour people who use a style or method similar to mine, I have to judge based on other traits that are independent of style or imaging-method...things like character-design (including clothing, stance, shape, etc).

Misj'

Ps. I believe that the SpriteJam will be stronger (and I can learn more from it) if people are encouraged to think about design and how to turn that into a usable sprite. I can't force you to join, but I would find it a pity if you didn't join because I'm looking for a good design of the sprite. Especially since we both know that your sprites are thought-through and that you don't like generic designs...it's actually right up your alley.

Pps. It wasn't meant as conflicting...just expanding.

[SSH]

He loves it when a plan comes together!

[Buckethead]

3x

Additional images (character designs) will follow. 

Time for an update:

I wanted to go for a muscular person like BA but not exactly like him. So quickly Conan came to mind. So I losely based my character on him. Then my workflow:

I first started with a sketch of what I wanted to make. As I'm not very good with spriting I model my character in 3ds max. It's always a good idea to do sketches on paper before you start the real deal but it especially comes in handy when modeling. I wanted to scan the sketch and put it up but lost it some how 

Anyway. I imported the drawing into 3ds max as a reference. The modeling process was very simple. I started of with a box for 1 shoe. Then I made cuts and extruded polys and worked my way up to the crotch area. There I copied/mirrored over what I had so far. The rest of the body was just more box modeling. I also tried to modeling things fast rather then modeling it correct. For example I made alot of cuts and more the 4 sides polygons. As it would just get rendered at a low resolution it didnt matter that it wasn't clean. When I was done modeling I used the mesh smooth modifer to hide some errors and smooth the corners.

A screengrab in 3ds max. After the model was done and rigged:


After modeling comes unwrapping. This is the process of taking polys and flattening them so you can make it into and image and edit it in photoshop. As the model was only going to be seen from one side I went lazy and unwarpped the entire front at once with planar mapping. I took it to photoshop and handpainted
everything. I didn't make it too detailed as it wouldn't come out right in such a low resolution.

After modeling and unwrapping was done I took a biped (which is sort of a skeleton) and skinned/rigged my model. This way I could move for example the arms around to pose him. because of after he was modeled he was in the infamous T pose.

Then I made very simple lighting setup. Just an omni (which is a light that casts light in all directions like a light bulb) and a skylight ( a light that globally lits everything)

Then I made a render that looked pretty much like this:



I took the image in Photoshop and cleaned it up and changed it around a litte to get the final result.

[Misj']

Wow, you guys are fast...

Nice entries so far.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I still would like to keep this competition friendly and open to people of all talent level, and concept art and documented steps aren't something most novices do (which is why I'm against it as criteria for winning).

Be that as it may, I have made an entry. 

This time around I decided to go with the Nintendo palette, and the image totals 20 colors (with transparency) since I wanted each character to have a fair bit of individuality.  Their sizes would be ideal for a platformer or something like that.





In case it's not obvious, from left to right:

Faceman, Hannibal, B.A. Baracus, Murdock. 

Since B.A. loves his gold, I decided to make him a Gold Golem.  With Murdock, he usually acts like an ass so that's what I made him into  (he's an inverted centaur)!  Faceman was a bit more difficult, so I just went with a snobby Elf.  Hannibal of course has to be a human, because only a human would be crazy enough to create...

THE A-TEAM

[pslim]

My first idea for a BA was a minotaur, which Ghost was kind enough to steal on Day 1. Then I was going to make him a bling golem---thanks Prog! 


Back to the drawing board. 

[Ghost]

My first idea for a BA was a minotaur, which Ghost was kind enough to steal on Day 1.

This is creepy, because my first idea was a golem, too.
But make your minotaur anyway! I bet we will also have multiple elf-Facemen, because it's just a logical connection!

[Mr_Frisby]

The foo is well and truly pittied!

SNAM!!

[bog]

it was supposed to be half man, half rhino

i was going for a 320x240 sprite and thoght i'd make it bigger than 1.70 m since it's a muscular man and a rhino but i guess i went overboard and ended up with something better suited for 640x480

[Stupot]

I Spent Aaaaaaages on this 
It's Mr T with a gun for a hand.
I call him B. A. rrett.

[pslim]

That's scary awesome Stu.  :o

[Khris]

Wow, 6543 colors, that's awesome color management.
Seriously though, what is this? Looks like downsized concept art.
This is obviously not hand-pixeled, how did you create it?

[Stupot]

I did it in this little known paint package called 'Google Images'.   

[pslim]

I did it in this little known paint package called 'Google Images'.   

All great images end up there, why not cut out the middleman? 

[SpacePirateCaine]

Like everyone else, apparently, I started with my version of BA. I decided to move away from the xyz-taur trend, though and decided to answer the question - What would T look like as a dwarf? The Answer: Not very pretty at all. Next, I've made my half-breed... It's not a 'taur' by any right, but I think 'Lizard-man' fits the bill for our "Howling Mad Murdock". Third, we have our 'anything-goes' creature, and I've decided who would make a better Faceman than a Doppelganger? So that gray-blue thing with a lazy smile and fab hair is our Templeton "Faceman" Peck. And last, but not least, our human, in fashionable English Full Plate, Jonathan "Hannibal" Peck leads the team.



And all four of the team, in one handy package.



Finally, here are the WIPs. I've saved the images along some key points. Sadly, didn't do it with B.A.

[Misj']

It's midnight, the year 2009 has started in the Netherlands, and the Sprite Jam has come to an end...and I'm quite happy with the number and quality of the entries.

Taking a personal look at the assignment of this Sprite Jam competition, there are a few thoughts I've had that I wanted to share with all of you.

When I thought up this assignment, I thought it was going to be a fun - yet simple - assignment. It was also an assignment where people could play around with character design (where a lot of ink could flow and a lot paper could pass your hands); something that I consider to be one of the most basic (and possibly most fun) skill of creating a sprite. ProgZ pointed out that many novices do not include this and he didn't want the Sprite Jam to alienate these people. While I can understand his position, I do however believe that - while these people may become extremely skilled in the technical aspects of spriting - their sprites will always appear more amateurish than those that have a strong design to work from. When working in a team - of course - a technically professional spriter does not have to be good at character-design if a character designer is also on the team. But unfortunately the Sprite Jam is a 'single player game', and people who are trained in both skills have an advantage...as a future assignment it would be fun to start out with a (hand-drawn) character sheet and see different takes on spriting it. But...it's not a Jam I would ever conduct (and I doubt anyone else will...and if he or she does I think many people will be opposed to it, but hay...).

Anyway, back to this Jam. I originally thought it was going to be quite simple, but when I was thinking about what I would have entered myself I found that the constraints weren't as easy as I had imagined. In my mind I was trying to develop them as a group; which meant that I did not only have to add a fantasy creature that accompanied the character of the A-team member, but also that I had to think beforehand about which of the characters was going to be what. The advantage was, that it is easier for the characters to complement each other. Looking at the characters I tried to think of multiple fantasy versions of each of the characters.
Hannibal, he's a planner, leader, but also cunning, and presumptuous. In mythology/fantasy the following characters represent a number of these traits: Puss in Boots (the animal), Jason (the human),
Murdock, whom I consider a trickster rather than crazy. To me there were a few mythical/fantasy creatures that truly represent that character: Puck (the fairy/nature spirit), Pan (the faun), Loki (the Norse god), or an imp.
BA is the muscle of the bunch, but the heart is a muscle as well, and it's just as big as his other muscles. Furthermore, BA is normally the guy in charge of modifying things they encounter in order to be enhance their usefulness. In the fantasy/mythology realm there are a number of candidates to play BA: Conan (the human), Asterius (the minotaur), Goliath (the giant), Reginn (the dwarf), Vulcan (the Greek god), Hercules (the Greek half-god).
Face's role is to be the pretty-boy who gets all the girls, can get anything he wants any time, and could sell manure to a cow. His fantasy/mythology equivalent could be: Casanova (the human), Cupid (the Latin god), Autolycus (the human), Peitho (the Greek goddess), Nessus (the centaur).

Had I entered the competition, then the next step would have been to mix and match within the pre-defined rules. My personal favourite for Hannibal is Puss in Boots, which implies that the other characters should be a human, a fantasy creature, and a half-man-half-animal. It also implies that all of the gods mentioned are out. Murdock to me would be best represented by a faun. This means that for BA and Face I will have to choose between the fantasy creature and the human. I think that BA's traits are best described by the dwarf-smith Reginn, leaving Face to be human (and my personal preference is the thief Autolycus).

So my personal Fantasy A-team would be Hannibal the leader and cat, Murdock the trickster and faun, BA the blacksmith and dwarf, and Face the thief and human. It would have been fun to create concepts for these characters (if I had the time).

Thank you all for participating, and I will give you my results tomorrow.

Misj'