Dr. Death Suggestions Appreciated
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11189
Printed Date: 30 June 2026 at 1:58pm
Topic: Dr. Death Suggestions Appreciated
Posted By: stats
Subject: Dr. Death Suggestions Appreciated
Date Posted: 04 November 2010 at 11:23am
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I am working on a main character for a flash game I am creating. I have the programming skills but am a little soft on the artistic side of things. Below is what I have so far.
Dr. Death goes from sanding still, starts to run, is running, and then attacks. 
Below is my sprite sheet. 
I am wondering what I can do to improve the quality of the image. There are a couple of things that I can improve but wanted some assistance before I get too far ahead of myself. 1. I can easily improve the attack trail, I have to do some research but I am sure I can come up with something better than the rainbow. 2. I can add some frames to the run animation, to show a sway back and forth. Some of the things that I am wondering if someone could help me with are. 1. How do I make Dr. Death's cape look more cape like? 2. His arms look a little funny during the attack animation, any hints on making things look a little better. 3. How do I get more depth and detail for the shading, he still looks a bit flat. I use black for an outline to separate all the areas of the design. In some of the great pixel art here the borders are smoothed in with a color. What tips are there on getting this right and not coming up with a puddle looking thing? Thanks for any and all feedback! |
Replies:
Posted By: Numberplay
Date Posted: 04 November 2010 at 11:28am
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the attack trail could keep the same length during the attack dont make it too long like when his arms are in front of him. Then, remove it or make another trail on the other side when your character reposition his weapon. |
Posted By: PixelSnader
Date Posted: 04 November 2010 at 4:39pm
You want to do this for the attack:
Notice that the forward swipe is faster than the retracting motion, and notice that the motion blur whatevers are on the opposite side when retracting. For the cape - add ripples and motion, show it's flexible cloth. The arms look weird because they're at an unnatural angle. Pose out the attack and imagine what it looks like from above. Hint: the arms are straighter. For the outline, a simple way to do so is to take 1 shade darker from the palette and use that as the outline color:  ------------- ▄▄█ ▄▄█ ▄█▄ ▄█▄ |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 05 November 2010 at 4:26am
| Snader, thank you very much. I will work on all of this today and come back with something a lot better. |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 05 November 2010 at 7:47am
I did some work on the animation and I think it is working much better now, but I still have a couple issues.
And the sprite sheet: 
You might notice that the 4th and 11th animations in the sprite sheet has been removed from the animation. I did this because they did not seem to work well, and made the animation seem jittery. This animation corresponds to the 3rd 1:1 line in your animation examples. I think that this is caused by the 1:1 ratio not being enough of a difference compared to my rendering of the 2:1 line. The other thing I need to still put in is an extra frame in the retraction so that the arm retracts slower. Lots more to do (haven't touched the cape yet), but I think I am making some progress on this. Thanks again for the suggestions it made a world of difference for me. /* A side by side just for me  */
Wow... side by side the new one really looks flat. I am going to have to work on some better color depth. |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 05 November 2010 at 8:24am
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I plotted out my color ramp like I saw in a couple of tutorial posts (first time, hope I am doing it right).
My current ramp: 
It is easy to see why the character looks so flat. There is just not much difference in his body colors. I think that this new ramp I came up with should be a little better: 
Maybe you could comment on my color choice? I think I am going in the right direction, but it would be nice to know for sure. Or maybe I am missing the entire concept of what a ramp is. |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 05 November 2010 at 8:58am
And just so I can continue the conversation with myself.
I modified the ramp a little more, and it has some better depth, but it has lost a little bit in terms of a seedy look. I keep having a thought in the back of my head that using shades of gray is probably a bad choice for the character. |
Posted By: vlad61
Date Posted: 05 November 2010 at 10:37am
| Shadowing is deffinetly better in the latest one. IMO the second animation is still not very frightning or deadly needs more work. coming along well |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 05 November 2010 at 11:37am
| What would make it more frightening or deadly to you? I am all ears and I will be back with the improvement! |
Posted By: bannanawalrus
Date Posted: 05 November 2010 at 12:01pm
| the swing forward should really "snap" probably fewer frames even than you have in the forward, and the returning should probably just be playyed a little faster. |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 05 November 2010 at 12:10pm
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Not sure how to speed up the pull back as it is being played with no delay.
My better shading will have to be done again. I seem to have not saved that version. Here is a faster snap with both blades is use: 
Also wanted to include a full routine: 
The slow speed here is not a huge issue, in the flash game it will be in I can control the frame rate much easier. Funny to this point I have now spent at least 2x as much time on the image as I have on the code. This is why every code should have a best friend who is a talented graphic artist... |
Posted By: Zeratanus
Date Posted: 06 November 2010 at 7:17pm
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it is improving certainly, but that attacking animation is really unnatural. Looks like he's giving himself a fist-bump. Make that motion with your own arms - chances it'll feel pretty strange to end them at that point. I'd say make the arms reach out a tad more and cross over each other a bit, a wee-bit of an X motion. As i do it sitting here (and im at work so i cant exactly jump up and act it out <<) the arms would cross about at the wrists (so the arms wouldnt form a huge X or anything)
keep it up :) |
Posted By: bannanawalrus
Date Posted: 07 November 2010 at 3:10am
| i agree with zeratanus but at the same time i think the speed and "snap" of the animation is just right now.It looks like hes attacking now rather than waving his knives, definitely a big improvement. just make the arms cross just a little and then i think we can go onto the ruuning. Keep it up! |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 08 November 2010 at 8:50am
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Just wanted to put an update to let you know where this is going. Here is a prototype for some movement of Dr. Death (with some drooples flying by).
http://codetown.org/examples/drdeath/ - Dr. Death vs The Drooples Movement is by mouse, click to attack. The current spritesheet: 
I just got back to working on this today, from a nice weekend break. I am going to have to work a little more on the wrist cross. I will work on that starting now. One of the other issues I am running into is that in the game that attack animation is rather close to the body. I will most likely need to increase the size of the size of the knives and add some kind of kinetic blast from the blades. This is turning out to be a ton of work! I sure hope that the learning curve's slope evens out at some point because this is one heck of an uphill battle. |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 08 November 2010 at 8:53am
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Also... would it be a better idea for me to work out all the movement in blocks?
Just pick a single color and mock it out? or is it worthwhile to work with all the outlines and such? If anyone has an example of how they would mock up animation I would real appreciate seeing it. And thanks for all the help, it is really helping. |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 08 November 2010 at 9:22am
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Before I get to deep into drawing the new positions I wanted to share an animation of how I went through coming up with the positions.
1. I took my original image and blocked it out. 2. Found the head was too far forward, and moved it back. 3. Drew in the shoulders in blue as an anchor 4. Lines for the arm positions 5. Added in the hand with the knife at the end points. 
Next Steps: - Flesh out the arms - The arms might be a bit too short. Might need to lengthen them. - Add the color back in Is my through process correct? Should I flesh these out or am I still missing something here? |
Posted By: ChrisButton
Date Posted: 10 November 2010 at 5:47am
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It's good, but the thing bugging me still is that I feel that it's somewhat robotic. I get the 'robotic' impression because his body stays still the whole time while his arms are swinging. If you could somehow incorporate a little momentum into the head and torso I'm sure it would look far more organic. |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 10 November 2010 at 7:08am
I am a little confused by the movement in the head and torso bit (the kinetics that is). I think that should maybe move forward during the attack, back after the attack. Showing that he puts his whole body into it. I will most likely need to incorporate some legs and feet into this for that... I have been dreading that. |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 10 November 2010 at 8:30am
And some legs working on a run:
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Posted By: bannanawalrus
Date Posted: 10 November 2010 at 9:31am
| looking nice. the arms might need to bend a little in the middle, but that might just be me. the wrists are right now. im liking thje blast too. |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 10 November 2010 at 1:11pm
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Could you show me an example of how you would do the arms?
I am having trouble doing any kind of slight angle. I can do a 2:1 angle, but getting less than that 3:1 or 4:1 it starts looking bad to me. |
Posted By: PixelSnader
Date Posted: 11 November 2010 at 10:00pm
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->
Improvement +1! Skill leveled up! Now, what you could do is have him carry the swords lower and further back, with his arms: O __O__ /( )\ instead of ( ) and then right before the strike (or even while striking) moving the arms up, for an upwards slash. ------------- ▄▄█ ▄▄█ ▄█▄ ▄█▄ |
Posted By: Siscoman
Date Posted: 12 November 2010 at 10:35pm
I put his arms at a sort of angle, I thinking about it now I should have
made the forearms darker so they appear to be lower on the body.
Anyways, here's a suggestion from me... This is more for how I think the arms should move, the torso's still stiff because I'm not really sure how strong this attack is supposed to look. Hope it gets you closer to what you're looking for. |
Posted By: ChrisButton
Date Posted: 12 November 2010 at 11:22pm
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Do the arm movements yourself, and you will then understand how it works. The arms can be either straight or bend whilst idle. The arms then bend and begin moving inwards. The lower arms do not bend for a few frames, as the movement of the wholearm is being controlled by the upper arm.
Right at the end, the lower arms bend in again, while the whole arm is moving.
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Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 16 November 2010 at 9:52am
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I spent some more time thinking about the character and its positions, and I seem to keep moving backwards, i.e. redoing where I have been cuz what I have just doesn't work.
Were I to be running with some swords in my hands, I would most likely be holding the blades in a way that would make running easier - i.e. in an arm pumping position. I think that I would then model the attack from this neutral-ish position. 
The more I look at this, the less I think of it as a top down view... I am going to have to shift the angle a little more. |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 16 November 2010 at 12:12pm
Maybe this is a better angle. Definitely need a frame or so transition between the standing and running states, and a little movement of the arms.
UPDATE: The transition looks so off because there is a 1px difference in size. I added in a transition frame, and fixed the sizing issue, looks much better. 
UPDATE 2: Looks even better with a little waggling in the shoulders. And removing the knees from the front. 
UPDATE 3: And ultimately I have to bring back the attack, but with better arm positions. I am thinking that I will remove the in-between pose from the attack animation, and use better trails to convey the motion as in Siscoman's example. 
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Posted By: Zeratanus
Date Posted: 16 November 2010 at 10:06pm
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arms need to end straighter. try to find a place between what you have now and what you had back with the red 'beam' thing a few posts up. the wiggling in the arms im not sure of, but they dont really bother me either. keep up the improvements :D |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 17 November 2010 at 7:07am
Trying with straighter arms, and with a more powerful attack animation.
I still need to add in some trails, will work on those next, they are actually causing me some problems, but nothing I can't get through. UPDATE: And now with attack trails. 
I think I am getting close to the point where I can start thinking about shading the character in again. Unless there are other objections? |
Posted By: bannanawalrus
Date Posted: 17 November 2010 at 8:58am
| i agree. although i did like it when he leaned forward, i dont think its necessary.its at a stage where you can start detailing again |
Posted By: stats
Date Posted: 17 November 2010 at 9:41am
Thought that this was interesting. The different stages in the development of the file.
And now a first shot at some detail. 
Am going to have a similar problem to address as I did with the drooples shading. If I use a light source that is not right above the character, I am going to have problems when he rotates, as it will look like the lighting is constantly changing. Anyone have a solution for that? |