The VG Resource

Hey guys, after rewatching most of the dragon ball z series, I decided to try my hand at spriting some of the characters. Right now I've sprited the heads of goku, teen gohan, and super saiyan teen gohan. I do plan to continue on with the bodies of them, but I thought I should ask for some criticism for each step along the way developing the style I want.

As for the style, I plan for it to have a black outline, and a single uniform light source to the top left. Each individual piece of the sprite will be allotted up to three colors, but no more.



I'm least happy with the super saiyan's hair; I know I should shade the hair as if they were all separate parts, but I'm still a bit shakey on it.

Edits are always welcome and appreciated.

Edit:

I gave more thought to shading by parts of his hair, so I have an updated super saiyan teen gohan:

I decided to redo the shading on goku's and gohan's hair, and redo super saiyan gohan's hair completely, I'm happy with normal gohan but the others could use some work:



Have any advice for me?

Black hair needs WAY more contrast. It's hard to tell it even has shading without getting really close to my screen.

Yeah, I thought about that while I was making the sprites, but I really don't like what it looks like with more contrast:



Is that the correct way to do it?

Edit:

It's growing on me the more I look at it, though. Though it's probably not enough contrast, so I'll add another one with a bit more.

Generally, when I think of making a sprite a certain color, I avoid using that exact color (especially in the cases of black and white).
Take for instance, you want to make this hair black. The problem arises when you need another color to contrast with black in order to make it look nice and readable, as you can't find another color that will provide a balanced medium of black.

I did a quick edit to show you what I mean:

I changed the black to a very subtly dark shade of red, and made the grey a blue tint in order to balance back to black through the contrast.

Thanks a lot Nin, I tried doing it with a dark shade of blue, along with a lighter shade of a slightly different blue:



I'm trying to get it as close to the appearance of gohan as possible, so that's why I thought pure black would be the best; I still don't completely see what is entirely wrong with the original black one. I see that the two shades of black are close to each other, but I tried to do that to preserve the complete blackness of his hair.

Nevertheless, I kind of like the blue-on-blue I made there. Would it be better to use two tints of more contrasting colors? I just thought blue on blue would be closer to the wholly black which I wanted. Though I'm open to change. =]

And I kept the pure black outline of the sprite.

Ultimately, it all comes down to what you think is best for what you are going for, we as critics can only give you an opinion based upon our experience and our bias. I personally would go for two tints of more contrasting color, as seen in my edit, but that is purely what I would do. I'd say, if you aren't quite sure what you want to do with this yet, work on the various options you have until you are sure which of the options is best. You've got the pure black and grey hair, a contrasted blue hair to facilitate a black color, and the more heavily contrasted dark red and blue to try and represent black to the viewer's eye.

However, if you are sure what you want to do, work on what you see is the most fit for what you want to do.

The sprites look great (No doubt on that), its just that the style looks too general. It doesn't have much "pizazz" (If that's how you spell it.), and looks alot like that overused sprite style you'd see at places like Mcleodgaming. But nevermind me, that's just what I think. Carry on

EDIT: Bah what am I saying. Screw my opinion.

Ahh, that's very true. I plan to actually sprite the entirety of teen gohan, so I suppose I can decide on which way to depict black once it's all finished. I'll just continue with the blue tinted one since that was what I was working with before I saw your comment. xD

I have the basic body's form sprited:



Of course I'll edit everything to make it look nice; by no means are the outlines the definite shape I am going for, but I wanted some opinions on whether or not I have the anatomy right.

Edit: Sorry, didn't see your comment there, iceman. xD

Yeah, I totally agree with you that the style is bland. It's kind of just to get me started; I like the black outline because it makes the sprite look more organized, and the color limit is so I don't go crazy with them. Thanks for the compliment, dude. =] And you rock for your king kai sprite I saw you make awhile back.

Gohan has the fattest legs ever.

Also, his pose is very unnatural. If he's leaning slightly forward like that, his legs would never be positioned like that.

Man. I keep having to point this out to people. I am going to get it tattooed on my face or something:
block out the entire body and the head before you start detailing anything. Otherwise you're going to end up with a stiff pose, and possibly a head that doesn't look like it belongs on the body. Even if it's just a stick figure to give you an idea of the pose, you need something to build from.
Finishing the head in its entirety before even planning out a pose is like building the roof of a house before the floor plans are even written up. How do you know it's gonna fit?
You don't build your house to fit your roof, you procedurally build your house and add a roof to it.
Lay down a basic structure for everything before you start working in detail anywhere.

I wouldn't worry too much about style right now. Work on improving your general technique, and you'll find your style will develop naturally as you start finding ways to speed up your work!

(11-30-2010, 09:43 PM)Iceman404 Wrote: [ -> ]The sprites look great (No doubt on that), its just that the style looks too general. It doesn't have much "pizazz" (If that's how you spell it.), and looks alot like that overused sprite style you'd see at places like Mcleodgaming. But nevermind me, that's just what I think. Carry on

EDIT: Bah what am I saying. Screw my opinion.

The style you're thinking of is JUS/JSS, which is Jump Ultimate/Super Stars,
the closest thing to SSB on a DS.

Usually results in sheet after sheet of poor edits made to look like OCs that shouldn't have an O.

But I see your point.
It is close to it, just softer colours and a rounder chin.


The gi or whatever the thing he wears is called needs to be refined,
let it show off fold and details and what have you.

(11-30-2010, 09:56 PM)Oddish Wrote: [ -> ](...) I like the black outline because it makes the sprite look more organized(...)

nope.

@Lexou - Yeah, those were supposed to be gohan's pant legs, which are pretty puffy, but I should definitely bring some of it off. (my ref for gohan)

@Tachikoma - I actually tried making a stick figure outline after I finished the head, and it didn't really work. Your house-roof analogy makes a lot of sense; I'll go back and make a full little stick figure and build it from the bottom up, then edit the head to make it fit.

@Prontron - I kind of disagree, I don't think my sprites look like the Jump! sprites, except for the black outline.



I think my style is a lot more different.

@Fuchikoma - Yeah, that was kind of bad wording on my part. What I meant to say way that I think the black outline gives the sprite greater structure; without the black outline everything looks a little more dainty and less precise. Though, I only want to use the black outline for the time being, I think it keeps my style nice and simple.

I should have another draft of the anatomy of gohan by the end of the night, thank you guys for your comments. =]

what are you planning on doing with those sprite mean if its for a comic I CAN HELP