Pixel Joint Forum: [CC] First pixel-art character

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   Hi all,

I would like to show you my first results of a work-in-progress character, which should be a bunny spy, loosely inspired by Splinter Cell.

I'm making this character for a game. I'm aiming for a 3/4 RPG perspective. I added an arrow to remind me of the direction of the light source that I chose, but I still had troubles with the lighting.

Here you can see the inspiration for the bunny's suit and the stance I wanted to capture:

It should look slightly sideways.

An early sketch that I used as a template for pixeling:

And lastly some more behind-the-scenes material, before the first attempt at shading the suit (left), and a previous step as comparison before I tried to fix some problems that I thought I was able to spot regarding the perspective (right):

Things I think I should improve (by far not an exhaustive list  ), but don't know how:

- I found myself falling into the pillow-shading trap a lot, so I desperately tried not to. I think in the progress I still shaded wrong... Any pointers would be very appreciated!

- The suit ended up looking very shiny. I'm not happy with the colors in general, but I didn't want to have to shade a black suit, so I color-picked an average from the suit in the concept art.

- The shoes. Again, I found myself shading pillow-shoes and decided to postpone this step.

- The hair, and the mismatch between his fur color and hair color

- I think the suit could use more contrast, but I have no experience with colors yet and never seem to be able to use colors correctly, unless I pick them directly from my inspiration.

Any CC would be greatly appreciated!

PS: I'm sorry for mentioning my problem again in this topic, but I'm hoping that someone can help me. I can't seem to be able to register on the Pixelation.org forums. If somebody can help me, could you be so kind and take a look at the thread I made in the support section here? Thank you!

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Paco1 Midshipman Joined: 17 October 2019 Online Status: Offline Posts: 10	Topic: [CC] First pixel-art character - spy rabbit Posted: 21 September 2019 at 11:54am
	Hi all, I would like to show you my first results of a work-in-progress character, which should be a bunny spy, loosely inspired by Splinter Cell. I'm making this character for a game. I'm aiming for a 3/4 RPG perspective. I added an arrow to remind me of the direction of the light source that I chose, but I still had troubles with the lighting. Here you can see the inspiration for the bunny's suit and the stance I wanted to capture: It should look slightly sideways. An early sketch that I used as a template for pixeling: And lastly some more behind-the-scenes material, before the first attempt at shading the suit (left), and a previous step as comparison before I tried to fix some problems that I thought I was able to spot regarding the perspective (right): Things I think I should improve (by far not an exhaustive list ), but don't know how: - I found myself falling into the pillow-shading trap a lot, so I desperately tried not to. I think in the progress I still shaded wrong... Any pointers would be very appreciated! - The suit ended up looking very shiny. I'm not happy with the colors in general, but I didn't want to have to shade a black suit, so I color-picked an average from the suit in the concept art. - The shoes. Again, I found myself shading pillow-shoes and decided to postpone this step. - The hair, and the mismatch between his fur color and hair color - I think the suit could use more contrast, but I have no experience with colors yet and never seem to be able to use colors correctly, unless I pick them directly from my inspiration. Any CC would be greatly appreciated! PS: I'm sorry for mentioning my problem again in this topic, but I'm hoping that someone can help me. I can't seem to be able to register on the Pixelation.org forums. If somebody can help me, could you be so kind and take a look at the thread I made in the support section here? Thank you!
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Paco1 Midshipman Joined: 17 October 2019 Online Status: Offline Posts: 10	Posted: 24 September 2019 at 8:00am
	Hi guys, I have a little update: The two previous versions surrounding the latest one, which is supposed to resemble the stance from the template in my previous post more closely. Any suggestions? In the meanwhile I bought the book "Pixel Logic" since it was suggested in another thread, and I'm trying to improve my color and shading skills.
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Limes Commander Joined: 15 September 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 683	Posted: 28 September 2019 at 8:12pm
	haha this is cool. My only thought is that the bunny and suit contrast heavily... Although I'm unsure how'd that get fixed. Good luck!~
	I use GraphicsGale
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Paco1 Midshipman Joined: 17 October 2019 Online Status: Offline Posts: 10	Posted: 17 October 2019 at 5:17am
	Thanks for your feedback Limes! I will try to find a suitable fur color for the next step. I do find it difficult to shade and highlight white/grey, so I think your suggestion pushes me in the right direction. Played around with the suit colors some time ago, unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time lately. After looking at some pixel art games that I like for reference, I found that most of them actually don't make too much use of shading and highlighting, and instead focus on fluid animations. I feel like I should also take this approach to achieve the look I have in my head. I guess I can always polish and shade it later if necessary.
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Paco1 Midshipman Joined: 17 October 2019 Online Status: Offline Posts: 10	Posted: 18 October 2019 at 4:40pm
	Hi guys, my first attempt at animation: Also: - reworked the fur color as suggested - added some (in my opinion very necessary) outlines - changed to ENDESGA 64 color palette Things I'd like to improve (not an exhaustive list ): - give it more character by improving the eyes. If you have any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. I would like to give him some "alternate idle" animations apart from the normal "heavy breathing" animation, e.g.: he listens and turns his ears, and then squints his eyes and glances sideways in the corners of his eyes. So I need to get some white into his eyes to give me some room for expressions I think, but all my attempts so far ended up looking very creepy at best, and horrifying at worst. - the animation... I want it to be more fluid. Need to study other pixel art animations. I have some ideas, like including the ears in the running animation to make it seem more bouncy, adding more frames with intermediate movement, make him look less stiff in general... What do you think? Any other suggestions, CC, drawovers if you have time, etc. very welcome!
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alexcalin95 Midshipman Joined: 05 September 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 15	Posted: 20 October 2019 at 2:58am
	I am not good at all at pixel art but, I edited your piece:-move the head a little bit lower -make his feet look like rabbit's feet because I consider it was too much spy not enough rabbit also made his hand visible. And a little advice try making him hop instead of walk that would give him personality and also when walking our heads move a little.
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NancyGold Commander Joined: 27 October 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 526	Posted: 28 December 2019 at 4:24pm
	1. Anatomy could be improved to make it look more like a rabbit. 2. Lineart, especially the one on ears, is a bit rough. Unimportant small concave details can be replaced with black outline, so sprite would look more solid for its size. That is the same logic which makes you exaggerate character's head. 3. Shading can be improved to make it look more 3d and readable. 4. Some colors can be removed (i.e. that purple outline). 5. For such small sprites single pixel holes, like between arm and a body, are not recommended, because background details poking through them could mess up sprite details, making it less readable. 6. Gamma function can be changed, to make it more contrast and leave more space for effects like explosions or dynamic lights. 7. The yellow part on the walk animation looks like a huge penis, shaking left and right. Is that intended? Because that is exactly what people will think Otherwise it is a nice character, although a bit overused, after Rayman Raving Rabbids. Also, it can be useful to test your sprite against various backgrounds to see its contrast and plan ahead. Here is an example of how it could be changed and how it looks against stereotypical rpgmaker background:
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WIP (Work In Progress)
Pixel Joint Forum : Pixel Art : WIP (Work In Progress)