A sprite in shining armor
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=2512
Printed Date: 14 September 2025 at 2:28am
Topic: A sprite in shining armor
Posted By: Morgan
Subject: A sprite in shining armor
Date Posted: 30 June 2006 at 10:13pm
http://imageshack.us">
 http://imageshack.us"> The perspective is off on the side view, I know. I'll have to work on that. Anything else I should fix while I'm at it? Also, GraphicsGale doesn't seem to want to export transparency for me. I've got it set in my layers options, and "disable transparency of bottom layer" is unchecked, but it just exports the background color. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Edit (latest):  |
Replies:
Posted By: Psychotic_Carp
Date Posted: 30 June 2006 at 10:19pm
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You need to set the color on the frame not the layer.
He looks ok so far, I think the legs/arms need to be a bit longer -------------  got game?
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Posted By: Morgan
Date Posted: 30 June 2006 at 10:36pm
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Geh. You're right. Hm. I think it's mostly the legs, actually... how's this? http://imageshack.us - http://imageshack.us"> Thanks for the feedback, and the how-to for transparency. Never would've guessed. :P |
http://imageshack.us">
http://imageshack.us - Posted By: Larwick
Date Posted: 01 July 2006 at 5:52am
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The detail in the armour is awesome. Looks very lifelike. I think the head lacks in comparison, which really shouldnt be the case. Okay then, well. I think his hair is too flat at the top, it looks like his skull is flat, which seems odd. He also looks fairly feminine with the subtle facial features. I say give him a fatass jaw and nose ;) Perhaps it's the fact he has those blue eyes aswel, giving him that feminine look. Anyway, great stuff, just need to refine that head. -------------  http://larw-ck.deviantart.com">
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Posted By: Morgan
Date Posted: 01 July 2006 at 12:28pm
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Well, that's the female version of the protagonist (player gets to choose their gender). I would have said so, but I wanted to see how people would read her. Glad you thought she was too girly to be a guy. Fixed hair, and the male version: http://imageshack.us"> http://imageshack.us"> I think the faces look better at 2x, which is probably closer to my target display resolution -- 640x480 fullscreen. I may end up adding another color to the palette and refining them a bit more, though. Thanks for the feedback! |
http://imageshack.us">
http://imageshack.us">
Posted By: PixelSnader
Date Posted: 02 July 2006 at 9:17am
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are these gonna be the ingame sprites? cuz if they are, i'm advising you to start over. not that the sprites are really bad or anything, but there would be a pain in the ass to animate, because of the illogical placement of some things and the use of ditherpatterns etc. etc. ------------- ▄▄█ ▄▄█ ▄█▄ ▄█▄ |
Posted By: Larwick
Date Posted: 02 July 2006 at 11:16am
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Personally i think Morgan's got enough skill to do each frame with the same quality. The dithering will be tough to cope with, but i don't think animating will be an impossible feat, it'll just take longer. Much longer. And i see now, good job i thought it looked girly. I think her face needs to be thinner though, or the anatomy of the face looks fairly odd IMO. ------------- http://larw-ck.deviantart.com">
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Posted By: PixelSnader
Date Posted: 02 July 2006 at 11:29am
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i'm not questioning skill. i'm just saying that the ditherstuff doesnt really make it better(plus its usually not recommended for metals) but takes a crapload of animationtime ------------- ▄▄█ ▄▄█ ▄█▄ ▄█▄ |
Posted By: Morgan
Date Posted: 02 July 2006 at 4:05pm
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Snader: Yes, they're game sprites. You can see some unshaded cycles here: http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2472&PN=2 - http://www.pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2472& ;PN=2 Illogical placement of what now? And I think it needs the dithering... or more colors, which would probably take just as much time to place... right? Is there something particularly bad about dithering + animation that I'm missing? I realize it's a little bit crazy. You'll notice I'm at least keeping the number of frames to a minimum. I just really want the armor to look good -- it's actually kind of important to the emotional impact of the game, that the player like this set of armor. Larwick: "That looks funny to me" is something you can't really argue with, but since it doesn't look funny to me, I'm not sure how to fix it. Do you think it's in the shading, or the actual proportions? The character design isn't supposed to be that realistic -- the eyes are big and really wide-set. |
Posted By: Monkey 'o Doom
Date Posted: 02 July 2006 at 5:15pm
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I think the reason dithering and animation aren't used often is because you have to re-dither to match the previous frames if you redraw a part of the sprite, but if you want to keep it dithered, go for it; I would like it better personally. Also, the shape of the body piece of the armor should differ between genders so the player won't just have a face to decide gender from. ------------- http://pixelmonkey.ensellitis.com"> 
RPG is numberwang. |
Posted By: Morgan
Date Posted: 05 July 2006 at 4:33pm
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Monkey: That's a valid point, but it was her father's armor (or his father's, as the case may be) so that wouldn't quite work. Also, it's much less trouble to only have to do one set of walk cycles. ;) Speaking of which: http://imageshack.us"> No animation on the head/hair, since I may still change 'em. And I have a feeling the body isn't done either, but I've been staring at it too long to see it anymore. |
Posted By: kaltsu
Date Posted: 05 July 2006 at 9:27pm
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You're
doing really fine, Morgan. Walking towards viewer is imo the most
difficult one to animate. After walking away from a viewer, that is.
Looking excellent so far. Maybe little shining on her/his legs also?
(Needs more glitter, lol!) -------------  Not now honey, I have a deadline.
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Posted By: Aleiav
Date Posted: 06 July 2006 at 9:42am
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He looks sort of bolegged. His feet are facing outward more than straight ahead and his knees aren't bending. However, the shading on the armor is very well done. It looks photorealistic! ------------- |
Posted By: Morgan
Date Posted: 18 July 2006 at 6:14pm
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More glitter and less bow-legging -- thanks, kaltsu + Aleiav!
Belated thanks to Larwick for pointing out that the head was, in fact, too wide. :)
Edit: Made the shoulders narrower to match... I'll save the original for the male version. :P
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Posted By: Larwick
Date Posted: 18 July 2006 at 6:21pm
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Morgan, that's looking superb!
Are they holding a sword? If so, i think it'd need to be angled inwards a tad more so it's more obvious in-game. But yeah, keep it up. ------------- http://larw-ck.deviantart.com">
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Posted By: Morgan
Date Posted: 18 July 2006 at 7:52pm
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Thanks!
It is a sword. I'm glad you could tell... or at least guess. I think it'll be okay in-game, though, since it will be obvious from the side views, and its angle should look like it matches. The front-view "ready" pose will also have the sword angled more.
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Posted By: iSTVAN
Date Posted: 18 July 2006 at 11:59pm
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The metalic backlighting is REALLY pretty and your walking animation is brilliant. Overall very convincing, although it's such a shame you went with an anime style face- give the character a nose please! ;) ------------- Listen to what the flower people say... 
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Posted By: Swiifty
Date Posted: 19 July 2006 at 4:21pm
| I don't know about the rest of you, but I think that the armor need a stronger outline, so you could seperate the parts from each other. Also the legs look a little to flat. Looks like the follow they same line from the top to the botton, which I don't find that attractive. |
Posted By: Stitchy
Date Posted: 19 July 2006 at 6:14pm
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That is some great armor you've got going there. D: The style reminds
me of Golden Sun a bit, too... totally awesome. Can't wait to see more.
------------- |
Posted By: Morgan
Date Posted: 19 July 2006 at 8:00pm
 More nose!
Good point, iSTVAN... thanks.
Swiifty: Unless some more people chime in on the lack of outlines, I'm going to say "stylistic choice." Outlining is common in sprites, and it can look great, but I don't think it would work well with the kind of shading I'm doing.
I don't follow what you're saying about the legs, unfortunately... can you be more explicit?
Stitchy: Thanks! I'm afraid I'm going to put this project on hold in favor of an entry for GameDev's 4E contest, but I did (mostly) finish the portrait today:
http://imageshack.us">
 Critique appreciated, as always. I should mention that that's the "lovestruck" background, so she'll have something less distracting for ordinary use.
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Posted By: Swiifty
Date Posted: 20 July 2006 at 3:33am
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What I mean, is that they follow the same straigh line. Like this for example ---------------, when I think it should be a litte more like this ------------__------ Note, those lines I showed an example with has nothing to do with the legs, just to show you what I mean. I think that the "leg armor" should be thinner the longer down you go. Especially when it comes into contact with the foot. Because now, she seems a litte clumsy down there... Hope you get my point now. Example: http://www.senocular.com/pub/kirupa/armor.jpg |
Posted By: Morgan
Date Posted: 20 July 2006 at 7:58pm
| Swiifty: I do see what you mean now; thanks for the clarification. Unfortunately, my quick attempt at tapering the legs was definitely not an improvement. When I come back to this project I'll see if I can make it work. |