Fighting Game Sprites. C+C Please!
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=8252
Printed Date: 17 November 2025 at 3:19am
Topic: Fighting Game Sprites. C+C Please!
Posted By: Jappio
Subject: Fighting Game Sprites. C+C Please!
Date Posted: 21 April 2009 at 7:34pm
I have been put in charge of coming with a style, and spriting about half the people for a fighting game. The game will consist of basically a ton of our RP characters. I'm still not great as a spriter though, and I fear what I've come up with needs work. I really could use critqiue and comments about these sprites, so I know what needs to be worked on. I want to get these guys perfected as soon as possible. The big guy on the left is Raizou. He is my RP character. He's basically a big beefy asgardian who serves Thor. Packed with electricity, strength, and huge axe, Raizou will be sure to be one powerful character. The lady next to him is Alexa. The guy running this project uses her in RP's. Think paladin kind of with her. She lives in a cold area, hence the large amount of clothing. She wields a claymore in battle and if I remember correctly will have ice based attacks. I won't be spriting her, the leader will be. The guy with the guitar is Bill. It's hard to describe Bill. A good way to describe the type of person Bill is, is by describing his win pose. "He does a spin while tearing off his shirt. He then proceeds to rub his nipples." Yep, Bill is pretty cool. He uses a guitar to fight with, so you know he's cool. I might be doing his sprite sheet if I get done with the other characters fast enough. The guy in the red robe next to Bill is Shun-Yu. Shun-Yu is a Jiang Shi, or Chinese Hopping Vampire to some. He will actually have two fighting styles. One where he has his arms at normal length, and one where he extends his arms to be longer (using rigamortis). I'm sadly in charge of this one's sprites (two sets of sprites for one character X/). The guy in red with the spear is Moonblade. Not much for me to explain about him, most of the stuff I know about him is random backstory and stuff. He's suppose to have a lot of moves and can jump and stuff well too. Another set of sprites I wont' be doing, the leader instead will be. Last but not least is Ryu. A ninja-fox-ronin-kid, or something along those lines. Like all the others, he is an RP character. Ryu will be fast and annoying with range. His sprites will be done by his owner, who is our side spriter. Thanks all to those who even take the time to look at these guys. I hope to hear from you all soon. The help will be greatly appreciated, and don't worry about sparing my feelings, I want all honest opinions. |
Replies:
Posted By: Marshall
Date Posted: 21 April 2009 at 9:38pm
| Looks pretty good here. Watch the dithering on Raizou's pants, it seems a bit excessive. |
Posted By: Jappio
Date Posted: 21 April 2009 at 10:01pm
| Thanks for the comment, it's greatly appreciated. The pants are chainmail though, hence the fact it's nothing but dither. |
Posted By: Marshall
Date Posted: 21 April 2009 at 11:01pm
| Oh, that makes sense now that I think about it. Good luck on the project. |
Posted By: Jappio
Date Posted: 28 April 2009 at 7:18pm
|
Ok. I've done some more work. With the critique I've gotten (Again, thank you to all who have. Anyone who has given me some critique or just plain out told me I needed work, thank you. I greatly appreciate and it's thanks to you all I've been able to make any improvements so far) I have now fixed up some errors with these. I haven't quite gotten to everything. Ryu has remained fairly unchanged, but I don't care too much about fixing him. Shun-Yu and Raizou are most important to me since I'm actually doing more for them. Raizou I'm getting real happy with, sadly Shun-Yu not as much. Due to a recent decision by his creator, his outfit has changed. That stupid under robe just doesn't look right, but I can't figure how to fix it! The biggest thing I've done is I've altered the style a bit with them all. I went for as suggested, darker borders and greater contrast. I must say I like it, and it is easier to do due to some colors being less plentiful. I can't say for sure if it's better myself, hence my posting of them. I want to continue to evolve these sprites, so I'm again asking for any critique anyone is giving. 
|
Posted By: Dhr. Bosch
Date Posted: 29 April 2009 at 3:42am
| moonblade is off on his centre of balance, especially spearwielders need to be greatly aware of this or they will be overrun pretty quickly. second one is better then the first but he could lean in even further |
Posted By: Jappio
Date Posted: 30 April 2009 at 5:13pm
While I'm here I might as well post something. I made an animation. It's just the normal standing pose. I have found that my lack of experience in animation has hampered the quality. I'm not asking for critique on this, just because it's not at my best, I know I can and how I can do better. You're free to comment and critique, I'm just letting you all know it isn't required.
|
Posted By: Jappio
Date Posted: 16 May 2009 at 9:18pm
Sorry for the long wait with no update. I've been working as much as I can though. I now have an attack started. I'm not going to call it done, or close to it. I know currently it needs plenty of work. I though felt the need to get something made. I plan on improving the sprites and perhaps adding a few frames. I wouldn't mind though some critique or anything. The move I'm showing is one of Raizou few "command" moves. In fighting game terms, I suppose it's called a "623" or as I refer to it as: "shoryuken". It's a simple jab with some advancement. I don't know if I'll be posting animations for more moves, it takes awhile to do sadly. The speeds in the animation are messed, so try and ignore that if possible =P. That lightning doesn't move fast enough when it strikes down. 
|
Posted By: Walrus
Date Posted: 17 May 2009 at 12:16am
| nice! in the standing animation he is lossing some finger pixels in some frames. |
Posted By: AngelOTG
Date Posted: 17 May 2009 at 12:35am
|
I think what would look better for the "Electric Jab" is if the lightning bolt didn't phase through his arm. Possibly his whole forearm should be completely electrified (instead of just some crackles). But, that's just an aesthetic thing. It looks great as-is. <3 |
Posted By: An_Anoniguy
Date Posted: 19 May 2009 at 11:45pm
|
This is pretty cool so far. The animation you have is smooth, with plenty of frames - not choppy at all. But I think you can make it better.
While I am extremely new to pixeling, I know a good deal about animation. One of the lessons that animators have to learn is that you need strong poses - exaggerated positions, strong silhouettes. You might wanna try to push the poses farther. If you think of fighting games, you'll notice all the best games and the most memorable characters have moves which are wild and over the top. Iori from King of Fighters is a great example. When he slashes, he doesn't just swing his arm, he lashes out with his whole body. When he kicks, he flings both feet at the enemy and collapses to the ground. He uses his /whole body/, and every action conveys bloodlust, rage! Very strong action, dripping with personality.
I'm not saying you need to take it that far, but just add a little more of your character's personality to his attacks. He's the big bruiser, yes? Look at the example of other bruisers in fighters - Zangief, Potemkin, Chang... Even their little moves are big, and their big moves are insane - there's a few frames anticipation where they lean back, they wind up, they tense like a coiled spring - and then SLAM, the attack is accross half the screen. And it has impact because the big anticipation helps convey the weight of him.
So yeah, TL/DR, sorry. Just throwing that out there.
Here's a little free primer on animation. It's focused on 40s/50s style cartoons, but there's nothing there you couldn't apply to fighting characters. It's all the same principals.
http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/05/meta-100000-animation-drawing-course.html - http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/05/meta-100000-animation-drawing-course.html
|
Posted By: Areinu
Date Posted: 20 May 2009 at 3:55am
|
I think his animation lacks footwork. You only bend his left leg a bit and... that's it. He shouldn't magically dash forward, he should make big step forward, at end of which his right leg is forward, and left leg is at the back. Alternativelly you could have him jump at the enemy a bit, that would keep the legs placed simmilary to how they are now, but you would have to bent them much more. And when he is preparing to swing you could add one more frame of animation to make it look like more extreme swing, make him move his chest and whole body, so part of his arm gets hidden by the body. And pretty much everything that Anoniguy said applies. |
Posted By: Walrus
Date Posted: 20 May 2009 at 8:37am
| is the shield glued to his back? cuase i cant see why its not falling. |
Posted By: Jappio
Date Posted: 03 June 2009 at 7:52pm
|
Thanks everyone for the critique. I greatly appreciate every word. I'll be sure to work on everything you all have mentioned. Well then, I'd like to call this an update, but honestly it isn't. I see it more as a glorified bump. I can't stand though just letting my threads go inactive for so long. For over the last weak I got almost no work done. The few sprites I did were crappy as all heck. I also plain couldn't get in the mood to sprite. I decided though I was only wallowing in self pity and decided to just start spriting again. For whatever reason walking sprites are tough. I made this so far. I know it needs more frames, and I know I'm missing stuff like the shield and axe head. I will get all those things added. Just wanted to bump with a little show of what I'm doing. On a side note. A got a couple of comments about how I don't have an axe move. I find it a little odd that you all thought I had to be told to make an axe attack. To remind everyone, this is a fighting game, and in a fighting game a character has multiple attacks. Just because I make the due throw a punch for my first practice at an attack sprite, does not mean I won't have any axe swings. Raizou will make use of his axe, and those blows will devastate. I'm not quite complaining about the critique I got about that, but I found it funny that multiple people felt they had to suggest to me to do that.  
|
Posted By: AngelOTG
Date Posted: 03 June 2009 at 8:29pm
|
He doesn't look like he's walking. More like waddling. ._. Go on YouTube or something and find some videos of people walking in the same method as your character. Note how their legs move (when the knees pick up, how one leg moves to compensate for the other moving, etc.). A good walking animation should probably be about 4 frames at the least to make a nice, smooth loop. Looking good so far! :D |
Posted By: Jappio
Date Posted: 06 June 2009 at 12:50pm
I think I've made enough of a representation of what I want for the walking sprite. I can now move onto a different set of sprites. I probably will just do jumping and or running sprites next. I'm not done with this one, but it looks like what I basically wanted, and I'll tweak and improve it over time. Critique and all that jazz is welcome of course.
|
Posted By: Jappio
Date Posted: 04 July 2009 at 10:31pm
New thing done. Now I have a jumping animation. I still need to find out if there are special jumps for forwards and back though. The height and speed are also pending still. 
|
Posted By: dtek
Date Posted: 05 July 2009 at 10:08am
|
Hey, I really like the work so far, if I can add any C&C it would be for the sideways walk and, in my opinion, when his leg crosses over his other leg he could be a bit off balance leaning to the left
 peace!
|
Posted By: Dhr. Bosch
Date Posted: 05 July 2009 at 11:30am
|
for a jump to be that high his movement should be more exadurated. and i very much agree with the above post
------------- Vanitas, vanitatum omnia vanitas |
Posted By: Hatch
Date Posted: 05 July 2009 at 11:34am
|
The axe head completely changes shape and size during the walk animation. ------------- |
Posted By: Dr D
Date Posted: 05 July 2009 at 3:30pm
|
Your jumping animation is lacking any sign of how a jump really works. In order to jump, your legs have to push against the ground and spring off. This pushing down phase is usually called 'anticipation' in animation, and it's something that your animation lacks right now. To me it almost looks like as if he is willingly just levitating off the ground, nothing is pushing him up. I also doubt he would be able to jump very effectively with such a heavy and giant friggin' axe. |
Posted By: Jappio
Date Posted: 05 July 2009 at 5:03pm
|
Thanks everyone, great C+C. I will work with the walking animation like mentioned. I will try fixing the axe. Originally it was meant to just be changing angle, but it does appear I altered it too much. The jump does have some anticipation, but I can see how it could be a little more exagerated. As far as the realism about the height of his jump, three points: 1. I don't know how high the jumps are suppose to go. Perhaps my animation is a bit more than what it will be. 2. To preserve some fairness between characters, Raizou will have to be able to jump probably more than he normally would be able to. 3. Things are going to be very exaggerated and unrealistic in this game. So some realism things are going to be ignored. |
Posted By: Jappio
Date Posted: 20 July 2009 at 8:44pm
Ok, I went ahead and changed up some issues that I could figure out that people were telling me about. Better/more realistic standing pose, better abs, and more. I still plan to go back and tweak and fix problems later again. Also more frames and stuff where needed. C+C is again very welcome. I didn't redo the punch since I'm sure how I want to fix it still, so I decided to put it to the side. I should now be back on schedule and work on more jumps, running, and crouch sprites. I also realize I have a finger count inssue in the animation. Lastly I'd like to say please ignore the speed of the animation in some areas. These were very rough estimates, I don't know how fast Raizou will move for these, since I'm not actually in charge of the balancing and coding of the characters. Also the jump is quite exaggerated as a convenient way to loop the animation. 
|
Posted By: The B.O.B.
Date Posted: 21 July 2009 at 1:43am
|
There's so many things going on with the sprites right now that are bothering me. 1. NEVER use style or fiction as an excuse for improper anatomy. Even cartoonists first learn how to draw figures in their natural appearance. Once they have it down pat, THEN they can distort it's figures. A good artist can tell if one's knowledge of anatomy isn't up to par, even when the piece in question "isn't supposed to be realistic" 2. Character. Most of your characters, ironically, are lacking character. It seems you've chosen style over substance here. You must be able to put some emotion into the character, and if they are too small to show facial expression, the body can still make up for it. Choose more dynamic poses, stop going with the flat positions you have so far, break the 3rd wall. 3. Looking at your characters animation also lets me know that you're abandoning natural physics as well. Your characters walk cycle seems like his legs stay positioned apart, and that he's walking bow legged. The punch lacks build-up, and just looks like he raises his hand forward, and slides randomly toward his enemy...not frightening, for the type of character he's supposed to be. The giant jump also lacks build up as well. When animating, sometimes you may have to over-emphasize an action, to help the user better understand what your character is doing. Any hoo, I've decided to make an edit regarding the sprite style, as the current one isn't working out for me...not to be rude, but bland is the only word to describe the current design..  I'm just hoping this doesn't deter you from improving the characters here, and hope you study some more online references. For animators it's pretty simple...just look in the mirror and do the action yourself. Ask yourself, " What's the least amount of frames I can get away with, to make this walk/action to look readable!?!" Once you can make a proper animation with about 3-4 frames, you'll notice that everything in between becomes filler, and you'll become better at finding you "key/primary frames" and doing the "tween frames" in between...I would go further into detail, but animation is a long subject, and can go several ways...hope to see some good stuff here! |
Posted By: Zeratanus
Date Posted: 25 July 2009 at 12:54am
|
I agree with Bob about the issues with anatomy that need to be fixed and a number of the character's poses are just unnatural. Axeman looks like he's holding his axe pole against his chest. The sword girl's got her hands over her crotch, and as its already pointed out the spear guy is way off balance.
get a stick or something and try out the poses for yourself. These dont feel natural. Find something that does (by posing yourself) and you'll be a lot closer to getting a proper stance for these folks. And like bob I'm not trying to make you feel bad either. Please, keep it up, and keep in mind what's been said :) |
Posted By: dtek
Date Posted: 30 July 2009 at 11:21pm
|
Hey, another update! As far as the walk cycle I like the new one better, what kind of critique were you looking for? I mean, are you going for a more limited animation approach? I notice, and correct me if I'm wrong, but there seems like a lot of cut and paste done, for example in the walk cycle his ankles seem identical in each frame. I know for my own work that's the faster approach...but it limits the motion I guess, you know what I mean? |
Posted By: Jappio
Date Posted: 12 August 2009 at 2:57pm
|
Thanks Bob for comparing my earlier crappier sprite to yours versus my newer one =P Serious though, thanks. Although not quite the Raizou I know, that's an awesome sprite you made of him. Well everyone, I have to let you all know, I'm putting the Fighting Game on hiatus. I have decided that I am not doing as good as I'd like with the style. So instead of just continuously working on the same old fighting game sprites making small changes to the style, redoing everything continuously, I will instead just work on other things. I will eventually return to work on these and what not, it's not going to just go and die. I just need a good amount of improvement, so yeah. Hope to see you all some time soon, and hopefully bring with me some real nice amazing skill. |
Posted By: dtek
Date Posted: 16 August 2009 at 9:23am
|
Hi, if I can add anything, if you're just working on practice sprites for the next little while, I know I found I learned a lot by just using some of my favourite characters.
I would grab a resting animation cycle, and just add my own move that animated back to the original resting pose. That way I didn't have to worry about colour styling, character design, etc, just the animation frames and poses.
peace!
|