The VG Resource

piercings arent bad...you make it seem like they are demonic, im eventually piercing my face, maybe you could give tattoo's? being serious, if your character's have died hair, a piercing or tattoo would seem in place.

Ok, let me make myself clear,I know I said that I will take constructive criticism and I have been doing it, and it has been getting me places. But there are things that I won't do because they just go beyond my beliefs. Ok? No tattoos, no piercings, no drugs, no alcohol, no perverted things, no cutting off heads and making red ponds. This game should be good for all ages. Am I clear?

Also, no one said that they have died hair, the reason for the white parts is just that they are dogs, and often times dog's have patches of hair/fur that is a differeant color then the main color.

Now then, so that this post can be on topic, I'm going to add helming to the bottom of the turtleneck and perhaps at the end of its sleaves as well, I think I'm going with the "I like sushi" Sami. And for now either grooveman's Khaki Koki, or Koki #1. I'll post an image sometime of the results on the Helmed Sami.

Yeah Demonica, just let the piercing/tattoo thing go, it's obviously not the look he's going for.

(07-24-2009, 11:11 PM)ZeroTwo Wrote: [ -> ]Yeah Demonica, just let the piercing/tattoo thing go, it's obviously not the look he's going for.

wasnt trying to argue, just trying to suggest, anyways,
owner of this topic, your very biased and mislead, why did you tie in piercings and tattoo's with perverted stuff, drugs, and alcohol? my cousin has both a piercing and a tattoo, but he drinks moderatly and doesnt do drugs, piercings and tattoo's are not an adult only thing, its a way of expressing yourself, so you could have just left it with, thank you for your suggestion but no thank you, but no, you tied it in with perverted things and drugs, btw, im getting a tattoo sleeve and a lip and ear piercings, but im not a drug addict..so thats all i will say.
good luck with character design and all.

Angel let it go, peircings and tattoos would stupid on cute character designs, there's no need to defend your opinion on tattoos here. Back on topic.

You mentioned they were dogs, maybe a collar with a bone shaped tag on sami to help her accessorize a bit?

The turtle neck covers her neck, so she can't have a collar.

she could over the turtle neck though.

the models are fine, but the design is pretty chliche

I wouldn't say so. The designs are a hell of a lot better than what they were before. Clothing-wise, anyway.

(07-24-2009, 11:39 PM)Saijee Wrote: [ -> ]The turtle neck covers her neck, so she can't have a collar.

no hard feelings but you are quite dense
obviously you're going to have to change the turtleneck if you put something on her neck
protip: v-necks are pretty feminine

(07-24-2009, 09:43 PM)Saijee Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not going to promote facial/body piercing. Freckles never look good on characters, facial piercings look even worse. You guys better be joking, because is there anything unusual about a character drawn like these having a plain face, no? I mean it's hard for me to think of a many Japanese video game characters who don't have plain faces.
Like Suguri http://media.ign.com/games/image/object/...t_160w.jpg
Or any Touhou character.

you're thinking anime characters
anime: naruto characters, kid from hitman reborn, d-grayman protagonist
vidya: pretty much any sonic character, mario characters, parappa the rapper

nonetheless most characters have some detail on their head and/or hair (goku, naruto, ichigo) who have plain faces that makes them look extremely unique

But note that Touhou characters have an extremely eccentric design that makes them unique, which is what your characters lack.


Here I've got an easy way to do this
Look at Klonoa. What makes him unique? It's not just the red outfit (although it does suit him) - it's the unique marks on his hat; his facial features, his exaggerated ears. And like Koki and Sami, he's a dog as well.
and pardon the awkward example, but let me put it this way:

Strip Klonoa naked, or even Ash, Misty, Patchouli Knowledge, any major Naruto character, Mickey Mouse or Sonic
There are things about these characters which make them unique to the player/viewer and hence recognizable as said character, even without clothing or most accessories

here's an exercise
- Draw koki and sami naked
by that i don't mean draw them anatomically accurate, just draw them without any details on their lower body (Clothing, shoes). Nipples etc. aren't needed - you're going to draw the clothes back on eventually
- Add things onto the character that make them look unique. Make sure it's not something under the clothes (i.e. scar on chest), make it something the player would see (dog nose, collar). Keep in mind the bare areas the player will see on the character currently are the head, neck, hands and tail.
- Draw the clothes back on. Have some liberties while doing so - try drawing Koki with short sleeves, etc. If they look way too accessorized, take some things off that they don't need.

hopefully that's gonna make the duo have some extra needed detail :V



also

Sami is not really supposed to be feminine but rather tomboyish.

Yes and no, I was kinda thinking of anime characters, but what I was really narrowing it down to was human(ish) characters, not characters like Sonic or Yoshi, characters like Link, Youmu, Mario, Suguri, or Miku.

Some information that you guys might want to know, the cut scenes in this game are going to be like the cut scenes in Touhou, illustrations of the characters will come up with various expressions. Overall the way I want to go about making this game in a some what doujin soft like way as well.

I think that making any more dog accents then what they already have would be too much and just make it look bad, things like a wet nose, whiskers, paws or even a spot around an eye. Although maybe things like collars could work.

You said a few posts back that you find Koki 1 to look fine, then is this exercise mainly for a design for Sami?

Um, Kosheh's really right. Specially if you're trying to make these characters such a huge thing. You have to reflect on their designs, don't add things to them just because yes, or because you like it. You have to add things to them because it fits the character, and because it will reflect the way they are. In other words, stop thinking of anime characters and think of famous characters in general. As Kosheh said, there are things on those characters that make them recognizable, even without their clothing.
Mario for instance, was built on this.



They had to create the character using as few pixels as possible, but still make it easily to be recognizable. So they gave him a big nose, a big moustache, a hat, and that clothing.

You can easily see his clothing, hat, hair, eyes, mostache and nose, even with those few pixel blocks.

Let's take Sonic as another example.

He was designed with "attitude" in mind. He was designed to be something cool, full of attitude and rebel. I couldn't pick a picture of an early design of him, but I guess his final design still counts.
His spikes give him a punk look, and leaning them backwards like that makes him look something fast, ready to ignite. Pointy shoes also contribute to that feel. Triangular/pointy shapes usually gives that feel.
Rocket Knight Sparkster is a good example of that, have a look:





The first screen is of his first game. His sprite has a bulky and cute look, but on his second game, Sparkster's sprite was changed to something more slim in favor of triangular shapes and a much more 'ready to ignite' look, which is something that Sparkster aims to represent.

Summing it up, you have to do character design based on what the character represents. Is your character supposed to represent something youngful, like Klonoa? Use all of your character's data that sums up his essence (personality, what does he do, where does it live, what age does the story take place, etc) to create the feel that you want to give to other persons about your character, and add an unique feel to their expressions and clothing that will make them outstand other characters. A good thing to do is after creating your character design, ask people what do they think of it, how the character is by just looking at his design. Their facial expression feels kind of generic if you want my honest opinion, and I can't see Koki's appeal by looking at his design. Sami does look tomboy-ish and actually looks like having a halfway solid character design. I guess the only thing that she really really needs is the touch of uniqueness. Koki still looks very generic, and if you're basing his character design on what you wear, stop it. Just stop it. Let go of your connection with the character and let them raise as something different than you. Having your character be based on your own identity, is the first step for being a Mary Sue.

I'd just like to say first of all, no I was not basing Koki's design on what I where, it was the other way around, one day I thought it would be fun to try to see if I had clothing similar to my character, though I don't normally where clothing that way.

At any rate, so... Make the character's design based on "what they stand for" as in treat the character as a symbol and design the symbol to represent something... ** Scratches head** ... So... a character's definition should be guessable by there design. Ok I think I follow.... I'll try sketching up a few things some time soon.

(07-24-2009, 09:43 PM)Saijee Wrote: [ -> ]Freckles never look good on characters.

Rip van Winkle from Hellsing has freckles and it makes her look kinda cutesy imo.

If you wanna play around with freckles then don't add too many and make them kinda dull so they don't like like the chicken pox or anything. But I think that Sami would look cuter with some.

Also the V-neck sounds like a good idea too but try keeping the darker blue in there because it seems to go better on her then the lighter blue.

Also maybe an earring would look good on her too but in all honesty that up to you.

I think after researching for a bit, that I know what you guys mean by "originality", as in some outstanding trademarks which make a character differeant then a character wearing similar clothing, like the 'M' on Mario's hat, or the giant zipper on Suguri, or even the triangle pattern on the base of Cirno's skirt.

Have not yet sketched, real busy with family and church related stuff. However... I did a miner edit to Koki: