animated space dude - first post
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=13005
Printed Date: 27 October 2025 at 2:56pm
Topic: animated space dude - first post
Posted By: skn3
Subject: animated space dude - first post
Date Posted: 23 September 2011 at 8:08am
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Hey All, This is my first post on the forum. I had been meaning to join for a long time but well now I have. Hello all! I started a sprite about 8 years ago for a game that never got past the concept stage. The plan was to make a fluidly animated platform shooter similar to metal slug! Well I only managed the sprite concept and then a line based animation before I moved onto something else and it sat gathering dust. 2 weeks ago I needed some sprite content to be used as a "model" for a texture atlas packer tool I am writting. So I thought Id go back and finish the sprite. (here is a screen shot of the texture atlas tool: http://www.skn3.com/junk/delistack/objecty/objecty-screenshot20.png - http://www.skn3.com/junk/delistack/objecty/objecty-screenshot20.png ) So here is a sprite that took 8 years to finish :) Comments welcome.   |
Replies:
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 23 September 2011 at 2:27pm
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Welcome to PJ! 8 years is a long time for 1 sprite! But it looks good at least ;) There are some things that look a bit strange.. The head moving around seems unnecessary, I would stop having it go forward and backward and exaggerate the up and down movement (together with the upper body, which does not really move up and down). Then the backpack looks like it is being shook as if this guy is running? Why is it moving at all? For the colors: I woudl recommend you to do some hue shifting to make things look more interesting. Also some colors could be removed and replaced by colors from other ramps. It will give your piece some 'one-ness' or how should I say it in English? ------------- |
Posted By: Lathien
Date Posted: 23 September 2011 at 4:04pm
| I believe 'unity' is the world you're looking for. And I completely agree. As of now, the palette looks a little bland, so mixing it up for more saturation and contrast and re-using colors throughout to bring your color count down will really help. |
Posted By: skn3
Date Posted: 25 September 2011 at 4:51am
| Hey thanks for the comment, could you give me some examples of what you mean? I'll have a play at tweaking this but would be good to have a visual aid... |
Posted By: Friend
Date Posted: 25 September 2011 at 12:57pm
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Your color ramps are very boring. Dark blue, medium dark blue, medium blue, semi medium blue, medium light blue, light blue, very light blue etc.You follow this pattern with every color. This is why the coloring of you sprite is so boring. Your color ramps are very LINEAR. With some experimentation, you will find that you don't have to use your colors in such a linear fashion. Instead of having 7 shades of brown for instance, you could have like 3 browns, one normal, one that is more red and one that is more blue. Then, because you have browns with reddish and blueish hues, you can eliminate more of your gold, navy, and even black colors. This is referred to as HUE SHIFTING. Take a look at this sprite by redshrike:  You can see how his colors can't be organized in a straight line. This is partially what makes the sprite so much more appealing to the eyes. I'd recommend studying more on hue shifting and the works of others. As for the design and animation you have so far, I think this dude has a lot of potential Adarias is a very gifted pixel artist who is one of the best with colors. http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixels/new_icons.asp?owner=3171&ob=search&dosearch=1 - http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixels/new_icons.asp?owner=3171&ob=search&dosearch=1 |
Posted By: skn3
Date Posted: 25 September 2011 at 3:56pm
| Ah that makes sense. I will have a play at recoloring the standing pose ony my lunch break tomrrow. Those examples are helpful. |
Posted By: skn3
Date Posted: 26 September 2011 at 5:14am
Well I blocked out some colors (might change to some less "boring" colors) .. but I ran out of time.. will keep playing later :) |
Posted By: skn3
Date Posted: 26 September 2011 at 8:11am
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Started experimenting a bit (not finished) with the suggestions made... am I on the right track?  |
Posted By: Qemist
Date Posted: 26 September 2011 at 8:24am
| starting to look so much cooler :D I can see this becomming really sick! |
Posted By: Friend
Date Posted: 26 September 2011 at 9:11am
| It is starting to look better already. One thing you want to make sure you do is make each component of his attire stands out, as to be recognized better. You don't want his backpack to be too closely colored to his shirt, or else it could be hard to make out. Definitely improving though! |
Posted By: skn3
Date Posted: 26 September 2011 at 12:55pm
More progress, thats all for today. Not sure about the hands! Any crits welcome, what am I doing wrong.. I need to practice :D |
Posted By: Alex Pang
Date Posted: 26 September 2011 at 1:41pm
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A lot of banding on the backpack.
But I like the clean and crisp style. ;) |
Posted By: Gecimen
Date Posted: 27 September 2011 at 7:10am
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You skin ramp and blue ramp are on the right track. Brown ramp is too much on the same hue. Try purple instead of dark brown, Maybe even shared color for blue and brown ramps. Try to saturate your grays, there's no pure gray in nature and always looks boring except grayscale palettes. Try to break the banding on the shoes and the backpack. You animation is quite cool. |
Posted By: skn3
Date Posted: 27 September 2011 at 7:12am
| Thanks both for the comments, I will definitely give this a try tomrrow when I have a bit more time. |
Posted By: CELS
Date Posted: 27 September 2011 at 3:48pm
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I like it a lot. The hands look good, except for his left hand (the hand supporting the hand holding the pistol) One thing that stands out to me is the shape of the head. It looks a bit flat and long to me. A style thing, or genetic defect? :) |
Posted By: skn3
Date Posted: 12 November 2011 at 8:33am
| HAHAHA only just read this comment! I'll be revisiting this sprite again soon (not eight years this time) so will try and make him look less deformed :D |