A Poison Green - Character Art

Honza · Sun 01/09/2013 02:01:51

Renal: That's what I keep saying! It's not just Disney, about half the cartoons I've seen look like that. But it's the first thing people notice, unfortunately - that the characters aren't as detailed and shaded as the backgrounds.

The neon sign is going to be animated. This is just something I slapped together to show the walkcycle in action.

frenzykitty · Sun 01/09/2013 05:59:42

I think it looks beautiful.

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Tue 03/09/2013 03:28:44

These look quite good but my advice is to be aware of proportions and how they impact viewer expectations of 'realistic' characters. A human is typically three heads wide from shoulder to shoulder, for example, and their arms extend down to where the elbow rests midsection of the chest and the fingers extend down roughly to the middle of the thigh. Judging by your work so far you tend to draw heads a bit too small and arms a bit too short (or torsos/legs a bit too elongated).

The side walkcycles are wonderful in my opinion, though the up/down versions could use some work, particularly the up versions where the arms are sort of swaying left to right like an orangutans would rather than moving back (towards the viewer) and forward again as in normal movement. Oddly enough your downward walkcycles reflect the front to back movement, so you should just focus on mimicking that to get a more realistic animation.

If I had to make any other criticism it is that some of the animations have a mechanical 'stop' to them at the looping frame where it jerks back into motion rather than a smooth transition. It's easy to notice in the girl's downward walkcycle when her arms are all the way back and then suddenly snap a bit forward. In the side walkcycle her movements are much more fluid and natural, so my advice is to focus more on the down/up walkcycles as you clearly have a solid grasp of side to side animation.

Overall, I'm very impressed and hope to see more of your work.

Honza · Wed 11/09/2013 21:21:07

Shane: Thanks for the thorough feedback! It appears I'll have to go back to the up and down walkcycles sooner or later - the more I look at them, the weirder the arm movement looks.

I have a question about the head size. Which of those two looks better to you?

[imgzoom]http://hvavra.sweb.cz/PoisonGreen/William_heads.png[/imgzoom]

The left one's head is probably too small, but I still like it much more for some reason. Don't mind the slight bluriness of the right one - will try to correct that when I settle on a size.

Thanks!

Honza · Sun 15/09/2013 08:44:35

So here's one more animation. I'm posting it mostly to bump my previous question about the head size

Creamy · Sun 15/09/2013 09:26:29

It's beautiful !

All your animations look fine but I hope they will be sped up ingame.
It's a bit slow for my taste.

Honza · Sun 15/09/2013 10:02:14

Creamy: Thanks! I believe speed is easily adjustable in AGS, so we'll see what testers prefer. And, um, what do you think about the head size

?

dactylopus · Sun 15/09/2013 11:24:12

About the head size, I think the head on the right is more proportioned at a first glance, but I haven't measured it out. It just feels a bit better to me.

As for the other animation, not bad at all! I really like the look of this game, its beautiful!

Keep up the good work!

Fitz · Sun 15/09/2013 11:45:47

The left one just looks like a very tall person, and the other looks average -- so whichever of the two was your intention is the right one. I'd say the right one looks more natural, though, the clothes fit better.

As for the animation, it looks beautiful. I really like the color theme.

StillInThe90s · Sun 15/09/2013 19:22:24

I would vote for the one on the right.
Great bus stop animation btw.
Not sure if this is still relevant, but I was looking at the girls walkcycle and noticed that her jacket is very fabric -ish in the side view, but looks almost starched in the up/down views. I figured this might add to the arm movement issue. If there still is an issue, that is.

Honza · Sat 28/09/2013 22:52:08

Thanks for the feedback everybody! I used the bigger head and it really does look better.

StillInThe90s: Yeah, I'm aware of that, didn't have time to do a more proper fabricish effect than the slight flap in the front view. I'd like to correct that, since the fabric moving adds a sense of fluidity, but there's no time for details like that at the moment :/

I have another question about an issue I can't decide on. While I can't afford to do lights and shadows on the character's body (it takes forever to animate them), it isn't a big deal to shade at least the head, since it isn't animated - it just moves up and down. Question is, isn't shading just the head worse than having no shadows at all? Not only is it inconsistent, but it might make the unshaded parts look flat and half-assed in comparison. Here's an example:

[imgzoom]http://hvavra.sweb.cz/PoisonGreen/Hafiz_shaded_unshaded.png[/imgzoom]

What do you think? Shaded head or no shadows at all? The more opinions the better, think of it as a poll

. Thanks!

Limony · Tue 01/10/2013 16:58:38

Quote from: Honza on Fri 31/05/2013 23:00:15Also we've been getting multiple criticisms about the character style not matching the backgrounds (see this for example). I believe it's pretty much the standard for character art to be simpler (less details and especially less shading) than backgrounds, but in our case, it seems to be more obvious than usually. Any ideas on how to correct that without having to do hand-painted shadows on a zillion frames of animation?

Just adding a small darker area near the feet should help. It doesn't have to match the animation or shape of the character. I've seen this work well before.

Renal Shutdown · Wed 02/10/2013 10:20:49

Quote from: Honza on Sat 28/09/2013 22:52:08
What do you think? Shaded head or no shadows at all? The more opinions the better, think of it as a poll . Thanks!

Personally I'd opt for shading the lot, but given the options, I'd say no shading on anything. The one on the left looks like it's only half done.

Honza · Thu 03/10/2013 20:26:11

Limony: Good idea, putting it on my "things to try" list. Although I'm afraid what you say works better for low-res animations - with this level of detail, the shadow could look awkward if it wasn't animated.

Renal: Thanks, your vote has been counted in... it's 1:0 for no shadows now

Limony · Fri 04/10/2013 17:43:47

Quote from: Honza on Thu 03/10/2013 20:26:11
Limony: Good idea, putting it on my "things to try" list. Although I'm afraid what you say works better for low-res animations - with this level of detail, the shadow could look awkward if it wasn't animated.

It does look a little awkward when walking and stuff, but IMO that's nothing compared to having all your characters float in midair throughout the game. It must be really subtle, I can't stress that enough. I made an example, it uses a simple elipse that is strongly feathered and filled with black. This layer is set to 50% opacity and stacked under the character:

Anian · Fri 04/10/2013 18:10:50

So wait, might I know what is your proces of making a walkcycle for example (software and resolution wise)?

Limony · Fri 04/10/2013 21:15:19

Quote from: Anian on Fri 04/10/2013 18:10:50
So wait, might I know what is your proces of making a walkcycle for example (software and resolution wise)?

I've never done anything like that (the image I posted was made with GIMP). I just said I had seen this in a game, not that I was capable of making it

. Too bad I don't remember which. You need to have an alpha channel for this to work.

If you're using a vector program such as Inkscape or Illustrator, the equivalent would be an ellipse filled with a circular gradient from black to transparent.

And, your artwork is stunning, I'm not critizising it.

Anian · Fri 04/10/2013 21:41:21

@Limony: Lol, I was not being aggresive with you, I was actually just asking Honza.

Limony · Fri 04/10/2013 21:46:42

Quote from: Anian on Fri 04/10/2013 21:41:21
@Limony: Lol, I was not being aggresive with you, I was actually just asking Honza.

Oh, I actually thought you were Honza (I didn't read who was posting). I'm blushing here. I cannot believe I didn't notice that...

Honza · Fri 04/10/2013 23:31:06

@Limony: It sure looks better, we'll see how that works with animations. Originally I pictured a big oval acting as a shadow for the whole character, but small subtle circles just around the feet might work. Thanks!

@Anian: I draw it in Photoshop using only a mouse. There are no higher resolution originals, what you see in my posts is all I have.

Outlines of body parts are different layers (head, torso, arms, legs, feet) - it can look like this for example. A walkcycle has 12 frames, with 1 and 7 being the middle ones, 4 and 10 the extreme ones (torso most rotated, arms and legs most apart). I usually start with drawing the rotation of the torso, then move the torso & head up and down, then do the arms swing, then do the legs last (but it depends what I'm in the mood for, the order may vary). I usually start with frame 1, then 4, then the ones in between. I test the animation either with Photoshop's animate tool or by exporting to gifs if Photoshop gets too slow. After the outlines are done and look good, I color the whole thing (each color is a fill layer, I fill them using the lasso and brush). Then when I export the individual frames, I apply a filter to each to match the room's color scheme. The filter is a folder of layers (gradients, color overlays, curves and the sort) with a mask in the shape of the character in that frame.