Getting back into sprites

[GearSting]

How do you do?

I'm GearSting and I used to go by Keiyos but thought I'd start a new. I've been out of spriting for about a year and a half and have recently found my love for the art once again. I hope I'm not too rusty so I'd love to hear your advise.


By gearsting at 2011-04-18

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

how do you do, gearsting!

it's really not bad tbh. the only issue i have is with the legs, which lack a lot of definition. i'd saturate the purple a bit more, too.

[Cobalt Blue]

i think you should use a little less black. right now, the whole thing's palette is being devoured by it, rendering an even more darker and desaturated character than it is.

[GearSting]

Sorry to say but I think I just added moar black if anything I just really think it compliments the style is all.
But I did change some of the colours to be a little less ugly and with the purple I only saturated the lighter tone a tiny bit but I de-saturated the darker tone because the purple in itself isn't suppose to stand out too much. I also heavied up the shading a little around the legs especially on his back foot in attempt to add that definition but I'm not sure how well it worked.


By gearsting at 2011-04-20

[Cobalt Blue]

Sorry to say but I think I just added moar black if anything I just really think it compliments the style is all.

funny how using pure black says exactly the oposite: you dont really have a clue about design.

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

it blends better like that yeah
i've realised the shading is all over the place, try and keep it consistent. it's rather inconsistent on the trousers.

[GearSting]

Don't have a clue? Yeah it definitely looks nicer with the dark brown but that's pretty arrogant of you to say isn't it? It's not as if it looked like shit without it especially because as I said, it was part of the style. You know like Marvel vs Capcom 3 kinda thing? Words aside, thanks it's good to get more perspective on style. I'll definitely have to adopt this and learn from it.

Also may I ask what's wrong or different with the shading on the trousers in specific?

[Rakia]

Just as a general design thing for any artist, pure black and white are never or rarely used.
It's just a thing.

[thernz]

Yeah, the shading is kinda suffering because of all the heavy darkest color so you have a lot of spots where form is accurately shown and others where it's just plop. That could also be because the lightsource is a bit inconsistent too and the shadows dont really build up any form.

[Cobalt Blue]

It's not as if it looked like shit without it especially because as I said, it was part of the style.

cool story, bro.

[GearSting]

cool story, bro.

So now you're just trolling me? Thanks, you're really helping push enthusiasm towards the art of pixel art well as long as you don't get all "I'm a mod" on me then you can be as much a jerk as you want. It's good for the soul.

But yeah I know I kinda suck at shading right now so I'll work on that as well as smoothing my colours out. Thanks for the feedback as always.

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

i tried to make a few things better. i suggest you copy/paste in paint and have a look at it.

[Gors]

if this is "style"



then it's not a good style. At all.

pure black makes your sprite look flat as hell and it eats your available space as a plus. Unless you're in such a palette limitation, pure black isn't the best choice.

Also don't forget that the way you counter all criticism with 'that's my style' makes us lose the enthusiasm on giving criticism.

[GearSting]

Look I love criticism as much as the next guy but you have to understand that there are certain things that sprite is trying to do and be with their look. Now yes change can be a good thing and I'm trying to stay open to the thought of it but to tell the original artist that they're wrong unless they apply these core changes is simply not on! After all you're trying to help their creation, not to turn it into one of your own.

I didn't even say no to the dark brown instead of grey, I accepted that. I just didn't listen to Fuchikoma in the first place because I thought he meant to keep the black but to simply remove allot of the black pixels.

And @ChrisBalls, That's really interesting what you did with the available colours there and I love what you did with his scarf(<-that wasn't gay was it?) but I think moving his foot looks really weird with the weight distribution because he's kinda leaning backwards but his foot makes his legs look like they're trying to lean forward and makes him look kinda stiff to me.

Oh and lastly, when I talk about styles I don't just mean how pretty they are because if that was how it worked then there would be a sever lack in original looking styles. Instead I like to look at the feel it gives to the game and atmosphere and that's why I was so content with the black/dark brown levels.


[EDIT] On a brighter note I just made another sprite so. . . yeah!

By gearsting at 2011-04-21

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

mh.
well. we are entitled to think and say that there are things "wrong" with your sprites, it's up to you to doubt your work and tweak it. if you've posted your work here, it's so it can be exposed to our feedback. this feedback doubtlessly will be biased in the sense that we're telling you what we'd do if they were our sprites. this kind of information is practical, as it widens the view you have on your work because you might have never considered what others may suggest to you. if you don't like us or our honest feedback, then you can go, nobody has ever stopped you from leaving.

to be honest, i think that in both of your sprites you have issues on anatomy (especially the bottom half of the torso downwards) and pose according to weight distribution: i say this because i have the impression you treat your characters as if they were on one plane and not in a space.

using blocks of black, or any other value/colour/tone, will eat away at definition and in some cases at form. personally i don't think it's a case of using a more or less pure black that is an issue, but the amount you use.
example:

breaking it down, the most important thing is contrast. i could've done this with desaturated colours too. i've noticed that more saturated tones tend to work better with pure black- this is certainly due to their purity.

i don't understand what you're saying about prettiness and originality. :I