The VG Resource

While you're clearly making efforts to try to improve this, I think in the long run it would be easier to remake the body from scratch, to fix the anatomical issues. It's a cartoon animal character, so don't be afraid to use looser shapes than circles and boxes to base it off! What I like to do is do a loose sketch first before settling down on everything, so you can tweak proportions before investing too much into pixeling them. Also, be sure to use references. Perhaps you could look at other professional cartoon characters to get a feel for how to portray an animal character in such a way, while picking up pose ideas to give it more life.

And of course, after getting the anatomy and everything down, make sure you're consistent with the shading. For example, on the one you have already, the pants have less shading than the shirt does on the same side, which on top of having one whole leg be in shadow to signify that it's farther away, looks rather odd.

Of course, work at it bit by bit. There's no harm in getting some done and getting feedback before diving into a big project.

Thanks a lot Devicho and Kopaka


there.....
happy?
the other one is just for fun

Now don't get discouraged, but this latest sprite is as rough as all of the rest,
if not worse. The lines (like, all of them) are jaggy and uneven, and the anatomy
seems to have disappeared completely.

I think it would help you a lot if you held back a little on spriting, and drew some
more, become more comfortable with your canvas.

Devicho's suggestions are spot on. My only additions would be that you should start
drawing more, getting more practice with form and anatomy. You don't need to have
a perfect understanding right at the start; draw what ever you feel comfortable drawing.

Perhaps you could start a thread in the art section, so we could help you on your basics.

yeah. In my humble opinion, you're still far from attempting pixelart. Pixelart, as any visual art media, requires that you know the basics such as composition, basic shapes, perspective, shading etc. If you don't have this knowledge, you'll find more difficulty on making pixelart.

I suggest looking for general art and pixelart tutorials, also drawing more often. Those might help you in the long run.

Yo guys! I'm finally back! HAHA. Well it's been 2 months I think? Anyway, I'm still tying to figure out EvilRaccoon cause he's kinda hard to deal with... So um here's Mr.Einstein

He's also my own character So please suggest which base should I use. The first one, second one or the third one? I think I got the proportion right with the first and the third one. Anyway, Please leave more ideas and suggesstions cause I need it since I'm a newbie. Again, I'm using the TFR's palette since I can't create my own palette yet. I don't know if i'll join but most likely no cause I don't have the skills yet... XD so...um... that's it... Oh! and that Peach costume was just for fun cause I thought he'd look very cute in a pink dress XD HAHA.

I'd recommend doing a rough sketch of a sprite, rather than just using the line tool to do it. Try to imagine that you're working with a painting, and add more and more detail as you work with it. ;D

Try to add stuff like sel-out if you're going to go with a style with less shading, some anti-aliasing, and most importantly, never copy/paste inside a sprite, use reflection tools, etc. unless you plan on changing that area a lot. Work with colors with less saturation as well, especially for the pink and teal on that sprite.

Before even attempting selout or antialiasing, it's important for him to know how to make smooth outlines without them. Those techniques are used only for FINE-TUNING of the outlines, never as a main part of the outline. Therefore, if your basic outline is wonky as fuck, then no selout or antialias will smoothen it.

It's good to achieve the most smoothness possible with simple lines, then correct the minor quirks with those techniques. If you can't outline for shit, you'll hardly know how to selout/antialias properly.

Thanks guys for giving ideas..
It's my Sem- Break and it lasts for almost 2 weeks so expect more posts on the following days..
Still working on Mr.Einstein and making/creating another idea for EvilRaccon... GOD he's so hard to deal with..

OKAY GUYS. Here's the deal. Give me your opinion on what base i should use then I'mma figure that base out... Any ideas? People? 'Cause Mr.Einsteins pretty much dull and he doesn't have any details as for now.. You could suggest things that would most likely to appear with a scientist Thanks Again I'm working out on another character but that'll be a secret for now ;D

EDIT:

Hey Guys! My first gif upload. This one is albert einstein summoning the symbols E, =, mc, 2 due to his famous equation E=mc2.
I haven't made the projectiles yet. Only one of these would appear at a time and the range and the damage would be diffrent than each other. For example: "E" has the highest damage but only has a very short range ( in this case, the shortest range among the 4 projectiles) and vice versa to the others.
THIS IS NOT YET FINAL.
please comment and add more suggestions. It is unknown if I would join TFR yet. It's a big responsibility so I'll think about it..

Instead of using a horrible GIF animator that puts a watermark on it, you could use PGA (see my signature) or any other not-awful GIF software.

I think it's too early for you to work on animations, you really should focus on shape first. Your lines are all really wonky and scribbly. Furthermore, working on humanoid characters, you should get a few references and try to get a grasp of anatomy. Your animation shows that you're disregarding bone structure completely (see how the upper arm bends - that's require gummy bones!). It's not easy, certainly, and requires a lot of work and practise.

(10-27-2012, 06:23 AM)Previous Wrote: [ -> ]Instead of using a horrible GIF animator that puts a watermark on it, you could use PGA (see my signature) or any other not-awful GIF software.

I think it's too early for you to work on animations, you really should focus on shape first. Your lines are all really wonky and scribbly. Furthermore, working on humanoid characters, you should get a few references and try to get a grasp of anatomy. Your animation shows that you're disregarding bone structure completely (see how the upper arm bends - that's require gummy bones!). It's not easy, certainly, and requires a lot of work and practise.

Thanks Previous. Anti-Aliasing maybe? I dont really get the wonky and scribbly lines. Should I anti-alias it? And yes, I know it's hard to animate like what the other users said on other forums but thanks anyways and I really like your GIF animator. It's easier to use and have no water mark

(10-27-2012, 06:32 AM)EvilRaccoon9 Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks Previous. Anti-Aliasing maybe? I dont really get the wonky and scribbly lines. Should I anti-alias it?

No... Make them less drawn and more sprited. Control them.



This applies to about all your lines - sleeve, coat, head...


Also, his neck should be at be back of the head, not under his chin. The eyes may be too close together.

I made some minor tweaks that can't be recognized that easily. I don't know if I followed Previous' suggestion cause I still can't somehow get it but I understand it, it's just hard to implement on my sprite. I need more suggestions on the details

The problem you've got is that you're not taking care in where you're placing pixels. The thing about spriting is that it's like any other form of artwork, in that you're working with very limited space. Because of this, you can't just draw lines and be done with it. Adding or removing just one pixel can make the difference between good work and bad. What you've got is a good start, but incomplete. You now need to go over it again and shift around individual pixels to smooth it out. Take the front most arm, for example. It has an awkward lump in it, because one side bulges out, and then moves back in, and the other stays flat - you have no consistency. Try making the arm get uniformly wider, or at least stay the same width.

Essentially, try and make things smooth. At the moment, you have lines which can be called "sketchy". This means they have been more or less haphazardly applied (i.e. sketched) rather than placed with care. This is fine to start with, but smooth them out afterwards!

Thanks Hoeloe. Yes, you're right. So I changred Mr.Einstein's whole body and edited some from the last upload. Is it any better or worse?