The most recent SwitchBlade remake concept sprite I did and I'm much happier with the general costume and gun-arm design. The coloring came out a bit strange and cartoon-like but I think it looks good in-game against the darker gritty backdrop tiles. Added a couple of alternate palettes for a possible 2 player mode.
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Sorry if I seemed a bit harsh there.... really haven't had much sleep at all. Looking into getting transfered to a home where there might actually be more than 10 minutes of peace and quiet a day....
I still don't get what you mean. The dark colors of the grey on the gun ARE the same used in the hair. I don't think you can really tell how well it looks in game when you haven't actually seen the game. It's supposed to be pretty dark and gloomy, and the sprites are still the brightest thing in it. I don't understand at all what ya meant about the crotch highlight. The rear leg looks enough like its the closest to us in my opinion. About his 'buffness' he is very slightly less muscly in the new sketches but not by much and what you haven't seen is that nearly all his major enemies are much bigger than he is. Especially the end boss Havok who towers far, far above him (as opposed to just a stupid floating head in the original) And besides... I hate the fact some scrawny lil wimp character can take on huge demons and monsters in so many darn anime shows and manga. I tired of all that a long, long time ago.
Tell ya what though, I won't be posting anything else from it here at all. It's all gonna just be seen in the game itself and then maybe I won't have to spend ages explaining every single design decision. If I keep spending all my time writing this then I'm never gonna get everything done and I want ALL my projects finished by the end of June and then thats it. No more major pixel work.. I can appreciate the suggestions made but I really do disagree with most of them. This particular version is the umpteenth incarnation and I've tried so many costume revisions, body types, hair types, color choices over the last few years and I'm pretty set on something looking very similar to this one, as are my friends who are helping to work on it with me. When it comes down to it, its all about personal preference and its my project so it's my preferences...
For the hightlights, I didnt mean the ones you used for the very tip of the gun but the color you used for shading the gray. You could play with both (light brown, and that brown you used for shading the gray) for coming up with better hair highlights. There are other parts that are rather dark for noticing the features, so be careful aswell, especially if it is going to end up in a game. Oh another thing, you might want to give the crotch a better highlight so it makes it more obvious that the leg behind is actually on the front. As for the buff thing, I've never been to fond of buff characters so it might be it, but stereotypically, smaller people have been made the "winne rs" when battling than big ones, (ie. david and goliath) of course not power wise but giving them speed and all kind of fancy features, but that's another story, but again could be given some consideration. Either way, it is your sprite so do it the way you want.
His hair does use the dark colors of the gun arm. And I'm definitely not making it blue as for one, I think blue hair on him looks terrible and two, most of the backdrops in the game are dark blue. I've been discussing this with the friends of mine who I'm making it with and they actually like this sprite the way it is though I am going to be doing a new one fixing up the issues that I had with it. And I do not agree with that saying he looks slow, because he just doesnt to me and the speed and impact of his punches and kicks in the demo reflect that. Making him thin will lose some of that feeling of power that I get from the attacks right now.
While I like the way the sprite you did come out, I think you might consider a few points/parts from the edit faceless did. I think that the blue on the hair he added (light reflections) could help contrast wise on your character if you are planning to use it against different backgrounds. If you are not too found of blue, you might consider doing it brown using those colors you used on the arm weapon (gun arm). Also his edit, made the guy less-buff, which might give you and option to make the animations more interesting as it gives you more space for details and all. And character-wise, being buff might make it look let's say "up-to-kill-anything", it might make it look slow, and there fore vulnerable, but maybe it's just me.
Well, while it is more of a "everyone to his/her own likes" again you might consider the options the edit might open. But either way, looking forward to see animations and all.
Well...it's ok. But you've changed some things that I actually really liked about the recent one and don't want to change at all. I far preferred having the 'black' shoulder bits and I'm not sure why you colored his hair with the dark blues. He also looks a lot punier in the edit, as I preferred him having more weight to him so it actually looks like he really can take on these cyberdemon things in hand to hand combat and remember he has to be strong enough to carry that cybernetic gun arm which now looks a bit too big on him in the edit. Heh, he's gone through so many versions since I first planned to remake the game but that's probably cos this is the project I want to get right the most and am a damn perfectionist about it. I'm trying to come up with a style that's easy to animate and redo in both left and right directions so his gunarm is on correct arm like the original did. I'm still sketching ideas for it but the costume and general colors are pretty much the ones in the recent sprite and that's not going to change.
Well, I saw that someone agreed with me about the old sprite (I assume it's for the same reason I listed at least), and so I made a very quick edit. Hope you're not one of those "don't touch my pixels!" types, anyway, here it is. I think you can see the changes I made for yourself without me needing to list them. Obviously with more time spent on it, it could look a lot better than what I have here, but I think it conveys what I was trying to word in my original message. Forgot to add transparency...
How come you can even see it when it still says Waiting for Approval here?
Anyways I get what you mean about the pose but I still far prefer it to the old one. The old sprite just always seemed to me like he was very unsure about himself and his fighting ability, whereas this one I tried to get across that he's very determined to kill everything in the game and driven by vengeance. Agility isn't too important as the sprite in the original game wasn't exactly the most agile thing ever (and had damn clumsy jumping though I still love the game), but was a tough little fighter doing punches and kicks and all that. I'm going to be doing the new sprite soon based on this one. I just gotta figure out the best stance for what I need. Just realised this sprite is actually facing the wrong way. It's meant to show that his gun-arm is his right one, not our right.
Looks a bit top heavy to me, and a touch bow-legged... might want to tweak the pose a little. The older concept seemed more agile, and that to me, makes it a better player character, however, I much prefer this one's outfit. Good technique as per usual, with nice and clear small details.
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*the. sry