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...the biggest thing I want to fix on this guy is the face, but everything I do seems to make too big a change, what with only a limited number of pixels available.

I did a quick paintover, couldn't resist messing with more than just the face though.



First, the face:

- Made the hair less Ronald McDonald, just pulled it closer to the head.
- Resized the eyes to get away from the happy-stoned look.
- Added a darker skin tone, so that you have three skin tones. Remember when working with so few pixels, it is the suggestion of form rather than form (lines) itself that creates the illusion of a person's face. By moving away from a simple outline cartoon style I achieved the freedom to add a bid of depth. You'll notice that the guy on the right's face seems to have a nose now, although it is only your mind that fills in that 'blank' by the suggestion of shadows and roundness added.
- Also added another shade to the hair.

As you indicated you actually just wanted help with the face, I imagine that the rest of the drawing fits into a larger cartoony style, so I don't know how relevant my comments and edits will actually be for you.

Body:

- Added second shade to green shirt below jacket, also 'tassles' to hood - I think this just creates a bit more 'life' in an otherwise nearly monochrome (i.e. blue) sprite.
- Added shade of blue to trousers, once again for a bit of depth, and moved his legs more so that he isn't doing a split.
- Tried to give the same sense of dimension to the shoes as done with the face. Not enough pixels to give all the details, so just try and suggest them.
- Shortened the arms considerably, they looked way too long to me.
- Changed the hands with extra skin shades - it seemed like he had his hands in his pockets, otherwise I would have extended their lengths as well.

Clearly you're not going for a super-realistic style, so take everything I added with a large pinch of salt. Also, always remember adding shading adds details adds to complexity when animating - it's hard to achieve a compromise that will work.

My edits are just quick, personally I don't like the 'huncback' look he has now. Would try to go for making the shoulders more broad, bringing the arms closer in at the elbows and lengthening the neck. Let me know if it helps you, didn't have time to look at your other two views as well.

Just me 10 cents worth, mind.

Idea: Dualnames
Technique: Dualnames
Usefullness: Mad

I figure this contest ends today, so today is still valid for entries.

Behold, this background depicts the den of your typical average adventure game extra. Who do I mean? Well, the guy who works behind the counter in any adventure game you might mention, with only a name like 'clerk', 'bagboy' or 'assistant', if he is even important enough to merit a hotspot. Or the dentist who pulls a tooth, or the guy who drives the taxi while Ben Jordan or Sonny Bonds is busy making headlines. You know - that guy.

Seriously, just thought we almost never see a normal location in adventure games. Everything is always spaceship this, supernatural cave that, castle what's-his-name. Also, if there ever was a humble abode in the world of adventure games (reflecting Questionable's change of topic) then this is it.

Style is kind of line-claire, which in 320x200 was quite a challenge for me. Shelves could be fuller, but I figured a boring kind of guy might not have that much to put there anyway.

Oh, and the honorary big blue cup was a gift to Mr. Nameless from someone more interesting.  

Saberteeth, that is SCARY. Horror game, I see.

So I added a in-game mockup for my entry...





Not very proud of my background, but that's what time constraints and inexperience produce. Idea would be that our intrepid hero just arrived at a despicable hive of scum and villany, and is looking to replace a spare part for 'the fastest ship in the galaxy'.

GUI controls shamelessly borrowed from you-know-where. Inventory items are:
1. Trusty blaster
2. Said spare part
3. Navigation tool doohicky

Sprite alone is still 16 or less colors. Wanted to try to make BG use same palette as well, but I nearly died... so that's my entry.  

That's very nice Mad. Now I'm intimidated... 

I did a paintover based on Captain Ricco's paintover: (Nice work BTW, Captain Ricco).



- Exaggerated his bicep even more
- Baldy. Figured that 'hairstyle' is more typical of middle aged football-jock-past-his-prime-doing-menial work look
- Changed color of strap-bag to red, sprite seemd a bit dullish
- Enlarged clipboard and added extra detail, clip, writing
- Made belly bigger and more pronounced
- Tried to give position on the face for all features, eyes, nose.
- Allover tried to give more consideration to lighting
- Changed feet, in my opinion the relatively exreme angle at which we view him would make for higher contrast

Hopefully it gives you some ideas.

EnoRed, I couldn't sleep, that's the reason!  Seriously, wanted to see how your style would translate to a boy figure. Maybe it gives you some ideas, was good practise for me.

Thanks a lot, the added details are very good, especially the shoes... Who would've thought you could make them that much more detailed looking by just adding a few pixels? I think I'll stick with my more limited colour palette though, for ease of animation as you said. I'll need to work on some walk cycles soon enough... Man, I hate walk cycles. They're rather boring to make, they're difficult to get to look right most of the time and yet they're also the most important sprites to make, heh.

I redid the shading on the hair because I wasn't happy with it (it looks a bit more uniform now, but maybe a bit too smooth. Your thoughts?) and I tried flattening the cheek out a bit as anian suggested. Think it looks any better?

Enored, I agree regarding walkcycles, if you're only doing a static, and then start to have to animate, colors and shading bites you in the buttocks if it's too intense. Glad you liked a bit of what was added. I think the hair is better that new way, you get small people with hair like that! Regarding the back view, as far as I know most often that's the way it's done, having the back view's outline mirror the front, and then changing it from there.

Couldn't resist doing a paintover again; I only did these for fun, I think your originals are super! I have your original at the top and my paintovers below that. This time I stuck to your palette, too!



Side view:
I did a "proper" side view (note inverted commas) I don't really know what a "proper" side view would be!  I made less of little Loveable Lucy (had to give her a name of some sort, while she was visiting with me) visible as she is viewed completely from the side, and also made her a bit thinner from that angle. Shortened the feet to reflect that from the side less of the feet should be visible. I also made the arms bend, to make at apper less that Lucy is standing to attention. Major change, I moved her ears way down there. If you look at most people, their ears fit between the space of their mouths and noses. If you're going for a elvish look no problemo, just tried that out. Changed her hair a bit from the side, to get away from the 'helmet hair' thing she had going.

Also, couldn't resist making her eyes blue again, and giving her a little smile (she looked SO serious and angry!) She's your creation, you'll know what she feels like today...

Front view:
A made her a bit thinner, I don't know if Lucy has a weight problem yet (assuming she's young and all!). Made the feet thinner from the front as well and once again tried to avoid the ATTENTION, SOLDIER! look. Maybe it's just me. You'll see that her legs are not identical exactly, tried to suggest that one leg is slightly forward of the other, just to add a small bit of 'stance'. Oh yes, and I gave her a throat, and lowered her shoulders, she nearly looked a bit hunch-becky (Get it? Oh boy what a bad pun). Lastly, she smiled again... maybe at me doing a paintover! 

Maybe something I did helps, don't know if it's any good, but at least I had fun with it! I'd LOVE to see any friends she has in the same style, it's awesome what you've got going here.

I really like it, well done! Your  limited palette will also make animation easier. I have no real suggestions, just felt like doing a paintover. I made very minor adjustments, tried to make it a bit less cartoony with a bit more depth. Really like your style, I couldn't do it!

Maybe because we had the topic at least twice and it's getting boring?

Or maybe people are just busy? It is a lot more work to make a bg than a sprite, like. Anyhow, glad to see others are at least considering doing something... shutting up, I know, I know, empty posts and all.

Why no entries...? Not that I'm really a superdooper artist, but I am planning on entering. Come on, anybody else? It a very funky topic and everything...?   

We already have a Clint Eastwood sprite...

As Chicky points out, it's not Clint Eastwood (again) but in fact Han Solo from Star Wars, everyone's favourite smuggler, pilot of the Millenium Falcon, and who has a walking rug for a best friend. I see the resemblance with the famed gunslinger though...

Hopefully it won't be too difficult to figure out who this rakish fellow is...



EDIT 1: Please see newer post with game mock-up included.

EDIT 2:
So I had this up for C&C in the critics lounge and figured that saving the galaxy makes this intrepid commander FAMOUS ENOUGH, so why not invite him to the party?

Just to be clear, I'd still like Han the man to be my entry, but adding this adds to the fun, right? Right?  

Master Chief is in da house!

Not qute the Master Chief no... but close!

I'd use cyan for the mask.

Thanx for the suggestion... I'll have a look.

So again, high contrast on the one side, original on the other.

I edit Calin's edit. Lightened up the mask a bit... he switched some pixels around and so I decided to MOSTLY leave them. took a piece of an old background I had and threw it in there, blurred it out a bit.

Overall I lightened up all the pixels a tad, re-darkened some key spots that I thought worked best and that's kind of it. Really quick, really sloppy.

If you isolate your background and setup various background colors and textures it can help you get an idea of how a character like this is more diverse. DO NOT use my edit, retouch your own lol with more time and care!  I'm interested to see what you do with this, GOOD LUCK!

Thanx for taking the trouble to rework. I tried making it darker and still keep things in balance and also changed the feet. Added left and right side view also. What do you think?

what about something like this for the mask?

Hmmm. That might work. I'll have a look at it, maybe with a lighter shade of blue and keeping some of the white lines. Thanx!

I think you could stand greater contrast. At natural size it all gets muddled, zoomed in it looks great!

That's true, I'm realizing more and more that i worked too zoomed in all the time, losing sight of the way he would look at 'normal' resolution. I have already increased it, but point taken, contrast needs to be even more, as your rework illustrates.

I think the reason Jim put those shoulder flare on him was to give him the idyllic T -shaped body of epic heroes! Nobody like a bland protagonist...

Also true, and I like that look. However, the T-Flash shoulders doesn't go in the direction I'd like... maybe I'll use something like that on a similar character, if I ever get to one.

All I did was recolor him. I mainly just replaced the palette with higher contrast colors & colors of lower saturation:

Understood; and it does make a huge difference. I'm just a bit worried by having the darker areas TOO dark, which could cause problems if he's moving in front of a very dark background. By having him either on the light or the darker side of the spectrum as a whole, I imagined that it might be easier to manage his appearance. I.e. if he on the lighter side, I just need to keep my backgrounds darker to keep him standing out. Maybe that's a stupid idea... any suggestions?

I took away his mask, to see how he looked without out...  I think I like it better on. I don't really like the way it stops halfway. I think the diagonal lines need to go all the way across his mask. Also, I might consider making them mildly transparent. I had a problem with his feet too, but I wanted to focus on colors more than anything else.

Yea well, I attempted a glassy kind of look but didn't quite get there. Any thoughts on making it look better would help a lot. If the lines go all the way (which I tried) then (for me at least) it starts looking like these white lines just running across his face itself, and not like a mask anymore. But if there's a better way, I haven't found it yet.

Regarding the transparency, I'm trying to stay with a specific look, i.e. no transparency and not too much dithering. If I make the white lines semi-transparent, I'm worried that it might interfere with that. Once again, thoughts are welcome regarding better ways to solve this.

Thanks Questionable, for your effort and suggestions!

This is the edits I've come up with so far:

Please use .PNG or .GIF when posting images. .JPG images leave artefacts we need to remove before editing.

You needn't resize images by hand, here's the easy way.

Thanx Jim, been a while since I posted anything. Replaced the JPG with GIF. Hmm... Does look better already, with more contrast. Note sure about the folder flaps though... but does make the sprite more interesting. Thanx again.

Hi there

I'd like some advice and tips on improving this sprite. Some of you might recognize who I tried to pixelate.