So, I thought I might try my hand at some pixel art, and I decided I'd put together a base sprite.  What I wanted was to get some C&C on the front view before I dive into the rest of it.  Here it is:



Any thoughts?  In particular, I'd like to hear about:
 * Proportions
 * Head, face, and eyes
 * Pixel shading

...but any other comments would be appreciated as well. :)

Thanks!

Bart



Edited by Lendrick - 15 July 2009 at 7:13pm

legs are extremely wrong in comparison to the torso. legs could use more pronounced curves and more well-formed feet

Here it is.  Thoughts?  I'm not sure how to deal with the feet.

How does this look?  I tweaked the shading a bit in general, and especially around the feet.

Looking good! :D
Here's a quick 'n' dirty anatomy edit:



I'm most certainly NOT an expert when it comes to anatomy, but the hips/pelvis seemed way too high, which also made the thighs too long. Corrected that, as well as thickening up the neck and adding clavicles (very sloppily).

You've got a lot of noisy, messy pixels sort of all over. It's making her look sort of, you know, mottled. I think I nice clean shading style would suit her well.

Lastly, you've got quite a number of wasted colors that are used only for a handful of pixels (and I don't mean the blues for the eyes, which I understand and agree with). May want to clean up your palette a bit. I should point out that the edited frame in that gif anim uses only 16 colors versus your 31.

...And here she is with her legs shortened by three pixels and her feet moved inward a bit:

Here it is, re-shaded.  Dividing it into three shades worked really well.  I like the result.  At this point, I'm satisfied with her general shape.  I realize the hips are wide, but that's the look I want.  As for her posture, this is pretty much just a reference image.  My plan is to create some animations, including a natural standing pose, which I imagine will be pretty difficult to do.



One other cool little note.  This is all being done in greyscale, so I can change the skin gradient in photoshop to whatever I want.  Check this out:






Edited by Lendrick - 12 July 2009 at 7:37pm

Also, holy crap, toes are hard!



I think I'm done for the evening.  :)


Edited by Lendrick - 12 July 2009 at 8:39pm

it isn't about being low-spec, it's about creating volume with a simplified palette. yours still need planes created via shading and contrast between the shades of those planes.

also, note the pose in the reference sprite you've shown. much more dynamic, much more depth, with more features exaggerated. As you've only exaggerated one proportion, it looks like bad anatomy rather than style. note how the reference sprite shades areas so that they recede back, or highlights them to make them pop out. yours is pillow-shaded, and pillow-shading is never good.


Edited by ThereIsNoCure - 12 July 2009 at 11:19pm

there are at least twelve shades of brown. you still haven't isolated the planes. please explain in your updates what it is that you've changed

no i did not (I could barely even tell it was different from the last one). still applies either way so whatever. both take note.

I'm in the process of re-working the pose at the moment.  The reference pose isn't working for people, so I've got a more natural one now that I'm working on.  I'll post it once I get it shaded with three tones.

@Lendrick

I see what you mean now -- your shading very clearly expresses shapes that the line art can't.  The question, of course, is whether or not I have the skills to pull it off.  I'll give it a shot tonight.

Here's my first ever attempt at animation.  I think I see some issues with it, but I'd rather get other peoples' opinions.  Here it is:



Thoughts?

Here, with her feet actually leaving the ground.  Also, she was bouncing lower on the wrong frame, so I fixed that.  I think it looks a bit more natural now, although her arms seem to be hugging her hips.



edit: Tweaked the arms...




Edited by Lendrick - 15 July 2009 at 8:06pm

She's got huge hips, and a small shoulder width, so her arms seem to kind of intersect her hips, if they were hanging straight down. That's why you're getting that 'hugging' effect.

It's going to be a bit more difficult than it should to get a loose, comfortable swing without having the arms rub up on the hips too much. They're going have to be doing some work on their own.

Here's a *very* rough edit, with some tweaks to the motion, and also a slower frame rate.  I'll clean it up later when I have time, but, in the meantime, does it look a little more natural?

I'm not sure what frame you're referring to.  Near as I can tell, there is always at least a 3 pixel difference, and there's only the 4 walk frames.  Are you seeing something that actually looks like a stray frame, or is my positioning incorrect?

Okay, the next step...  side view.  Thoughts?



(edit: tweaked the feet and shading a bit)


Edited by Lendrick - 18 July 2009 at 1:10pm

head should sit further back on profile view. also, still odd to have the middle frame where the feet are so close to one another.

Here's the 8 frame version of the right walk.  I also lengthened the lower legs on the forward walk a bit.



How's it looking?


Edited by Lendrick - 19 July 2009 at 11:29am

the side view is a bit strange because her head/torso/hips doesn't bob up and down enough compared to the size of the steps she is taking. i animation (and drawing in general) you often get a more 'realistic' result when you exadurate movement, not because that feels more real but because artist virtually always instinctively try to downplay the movement so when you try to exadurate you are usually a lot closer to the actual movement.

and people put ther foot down on ther heel and the round of to their toes. the movement she makes with her anlkes looks painfull...

One thing that's been noted to me (maybe I mentioned this earlier) is that the right walk animation looks a lot more "determined" than the front one.   I'm pretty much going to redo it at this point, probably this evening.  I'll take your advice into account when I do so.

Thanks,
Bart

Done.  Also, I gave her some more pelvis.



Now I *really* need to re-work the right walk.


Edited by Lendrick - 25 July 2009 at 11:06am