EDIT: Here's the current sprites.

Quote:Raptor:
North:
South:
West:
Bat:
South:
Skelebat
South:
Marine:
South:
Item Get:
Tiles:
Cobbled Floor:
Riveted Floor:
Riveted Ceiling:
Grass (several different designs):
Wooden Wall:
Stone Wall:
tFR Dragon:

These are my Velociraptor sprites made from a top-down perspective at a scale of 1px:1in.


I haven't got much at the moment, only really a basic body for the genders and tails for the male, but I wanted to know if these were any good and if there were any tips I should bear in mind when making the rest of the sheet.
Also, if these go well, I will make try and make a Carcharadontosaur or something bigger but the sprite would probably take a while.

-Curly

Looks like a flat, brown crocodile-thingy. Instead of adding those hardly visible "darker" detail stripes, you might want to add some actual shading to convey volume and depth.
You generally have way too many shades with too little contrast.
Either way, real top-down perspective is usually quite hard to do right because it is really difficult to portrait said depth and make objects not look awfully flat.

(03-31-2012, 03:49 AM)Previous Wrote: Looks like a flat, brown crocodile-thingy. Instead of adding those hardly visible "darker" detail stripes, you might want to add some actual shading to convey volume and depth.
You generally have way too many shades with too little contrast.
Either way, real top-down perspective is usually quite hard to do right because it is really difficult to portrait said depth and make objects not look awfully flat.

How's this? I've done sort-of dithering along the sides of the body.

You need to show that the back (especially at the shoulders) is above the tail and the head is even higher (when standing, not running). The tail should be darker and the head brighter while the neck should not be as dark as it looks now. There still is too little contrast between your shades, especially for the yellow and orange.

(03-31-2012, 04:27 AM)Previous Wrote: You need to show that the back (especially at the shoulders) is above the tail and the head is even higher (when standing, not running). The tail should be darker and the head brighter while the neck should not be as dark as it looks now. There still is too little contrast between your shades, especially for the yellow and orange.

There we go, I've done what you said apart from that I tidied the tail up a bit, as I figured it would be raised for balance or kept level with the body. The neck will never be stretched out that far so I think I'm done with it now. I can make a different shade for the head when it runs. Only thing is, I'm not quite sure how to produce a realistic walking motion with the legs. Tips?

Top down is difficult for long creatures. The main body still needs work. I suggest you remove those details for now and continue to focus on the shading. I think you still have too many shades for such a small sprite. See large detailed sprites need lots of shades. Small ones like these only need about three.

(03-31-2012, 06:54 AM)Koopaul Wrote: Top down is difficult for long creatures. The main body still needs work. I suggest you remove those details for now and continue to focus on the shading. I think you still have too many shades for such a small sprite. See large detailed sprites need lots of shades. Small ones like these only need about three.

Three shades per colour, shaded. Would the sense of depth would appear better when the sprite was fully animated and moving?

(03-31-2012, 11:12 AM)Curlyw42 Wrote: Would the sense of depth would appear better when the sprite was fully animated and moving?

No. Don't use that as an excuse. The shading needs redoing entirely, in a different style.

(03-31-2012, 05:01 PM)Hoeloe Wrote:

(03-31-2012, 11:12 AM)Curlyw42 Wrote: Would the sense of depth would appear better when the sprite was fully animated and moving?

No. Don't use that as an excuse. The shading needs redoing entirely, in a different style.

elaborate, and if posible, provide examples.

if you cant, you'll get warned.

Dude, really?
I can agree that maybe he could have provided more in-depth C+C, but that's nothing to warn over.

excuse me sir


warns are only for posts that break the rules, and tbh I don't think that Hoeloe broke any rules at all. Is his c+c vague? Yes. but he said that animation alone doesn't fix the problem (which is true) and told him to change. There is completely no reason to dish out warns in this case, imo.

I can give more in-depth C&C if you want. The shading at the moment seems to be solely for the sake of shading, and doesn't convey the shape of the object very well. This is because you've used a technique called pillow shading, which involves simply shading around the edges of the object. This technique is frowned upon, because it adds little to the sprite as a whole. Instead, focus more in using shading to convey the differences in the heights of different parts of the sprite. Things nearer the light source (which I assume is the top of the sprite, since I also assume you want this to be outside) should be lighter than things further away. Don't bother so much with trying to convey the curve of the side of the body. That will almost deal with itself, in time. I suggest you have a look at some other top-down sprites for reference.

(04-01-2012, 06:19 AM)Hoeloe Wrote: I can give more in-depth C&C if you want. The shading at the moment seems to be solely for the sake of shading, and doesn't convey the shape of the object very well. This is because you've used a technique called pillow shading, which involves simply shading around the edges of the object. This technique is frowned upon, because it adds little to the sprite as a whole. Instead, focus more in using shading to convey the differences in the heights of different parts of the sprite. Things nearer the light source (which I assume is the top of the sprite, since I also assume you want this to be outside) should be lighter than things further away. Don't bother so much with trying to convey the curve of the side of the body. That will almost deal with itself, in time. I suggest you have a look at some other top-down sprites for reference.

I knew it was pillow-shading when I did it, but I couldn't see any other way to shade it seeing as the top is the light source. I have tried to show different heights but it obviously hasn't worked very well so perhaps someone could show me what they mean? I can't seem to find any sprites that look relevant to what I'm doing. I'm also not quite sure what you mean when you say, "Don't bother so much with trying to convey the curve of the side of the body." I haven't made any conscious effort to, I've just tried to shade it.

Just because it's top-down doesn't really mean it's a good excuse to pillow shade it

Hell there are a lot of top down games out there and they don't even use pillow shading. fact of the matter is you have to experiment with where the lightsource is coming from other than making it dead center of the screen.

This is an incredibly bad example, partially because your lineart is very awkward and it's hard to understand what exactly you were going for (particularly at the head and tip of the tail), and partly because I just suck at top-down sprites. However, it does demonstrate that it is possible to shade something like this without resorting to pillow shading, and still having the lightsource as top-down.



Note that I attempted to use the shading to show the shape of the sprite, not just to shade down the edges.