Ecking Crew's House of Noob

[Ecking Crew]

Hey! As I said, I am not exactly an advance level spriter, so this is basically where I post custom stuff I do and you guys can help me out and critique me. Don't be afraid to absolutely critique me into the dirt! This is all a learning experience, and I'll try to take into account whatever advice you give me.

First up, a lovely little pot! good for storing your pixelated flowers in, eh?



I actually sprited this in around 5 or so minutes just to test out my style and skills. What do you think?

[DioShiba]

Well at least you're being honest about the time you took on it. It's good to some extent, but honestly do something about the jagged outlines and get rid of the banding on the darker shades.

While I am here, I'm going to leave this link here. I'm not sure if you read this thread yet, but ether way it's good to look at it once in awhile especially if you are a beginner:
http://spriters-resource.com/community/s...?tid=13868

[Ecking Crew]

lol, and all this time on every sprite I've made I've been banding like an idiot!

the link really helped. I had been wondering what a lot of those terms meant!

At any rate, here is an improved version of the flowerpot based on crits and some stuff from the links:



Well, at least, I hope it's improved...

[UnHolyDarkth]

lol, and all this time on every sprite I've made I've been banding like an idiot!

the link really helped. I had been wondering what a lot of those terms meant!

At any rate, here is an improved version of the flowerpot based on crits and some stuff from the links:



Well, at least, I hope it's improved...

Much better

[Ecking Crew]

Hey, guys! I've been working on my new avatar lately. Here's a WIP sprite of him in a front-facing pose for reference.



The basic idea is that he's a sort of robotic puppet - a fusion of wood and steel. So why are his hands weird plasticy circles? Well, I guess to sort of give him some level of simplicity. They're kind of like Bomberman's hands, if you will. He has some secret weapon compartments and other robotic-puppet esque features, but he mostly just attacks with whatever he can grab. What do you think of him? How about the shading?

So why is this a WIP? well, as you can see, there is no shading or grain or any of that fancy stuff on the wood parts. This is... because a rodent could sprite wood better than me. Does anyone have any pointers?

Other than that, what do you think of the idea and the design as a whole?

[EvilRaccoon9]

Well I just started out too, But creating your own avatar/sprite/character is good!!
Planning on changing your Username??

By the way, the other hand should have less "shiny-ness' because his head is covering the Light... unless it's from the upper left side that the light is coming from...... Anyway just add shading and it'll be all good!!

Keep up your good work and compassion ;D

[Baegal]

Most of the shading on your edit doesn't make much sense. You're shading the head as if it were a circle, and not a sphere.

Anyway, I thing GG has somewhat an idea of shading. It's just the colors are a little jarring.
I like the design-it's simple and effective, although maybe making the shaped a little more interesting would help (having the torso taper, making the arms like tesla coils, etc.). It's just the pose is very unnatural and stiff. I understand it's a puppet, but it can still have some life to it.
Usually, making a frontal sprite almost perfectly symmetrical is a big no-no (it can work sometimes, but most of the time it looks lazy and boring).
Is the puppet operated by strings? If so, why not have the head dangle more?
Not a bad start! But work on the composition a little more before you get into colors.

[Ecking Crew]

Most of the shading on your edit doesn't make much sense. You're shading the head as if it were a circle, and not a sphere.

Anyway, I thing GG has somewhat an idea of shading. It's just the colors are a little jarring.
I like the design-it's simple and effective, although maybe making the shaped a little more interesting would help (having the torso taper, making the arms like tesla coils, etc.). It's just the pose is very unnatural and stiff. I understand it's a puppet, but it can still have some life to it.
Usually, making a frontal sprite almost perfectly symmetrical is a big no-no (it can work sometimes, but most of the time it looks lazy and boring).
Is the puppet operated by strings? If so, why not have the head dangle more?
Not a bad start! But work on the composition a little more before you get into colors.

Thanks for the crits! Well, the reason the pose is unnatural and stiff is that it's just sort of a "practice" pose for me to get the design and shading down, and is "not for retail", if you will. I'll also take some of your design suggestions into consideration, they sound pretty cool. Also, the reason the puppet has "got no strings to hold him down" () is because he's a robotic puppet, or technically I suppose he's more like a robot that looks like a puppet - he's mostly robotic, but a lot of his superficial parts are wooden or look like puppet parts. Also, again, does anybody have any tips on how to sprite wood? I've tried searching, but all that I get are pictures like this. lol

[Baegal]

Sorry, I don't have much experience with wood
I like the idea, though. It's pretty much a robot, controlled like a puppet.
Good luck with the wood part!

[Ecking Crew]

Hey guys! After hours of searching I politely told the internet to go screw itself and decided to sprite the wood parts myself without any reference.



What do you think of it? I think it came out surprisingly good. Obviously it still needs to be shaded, but what do you think of the general lineart and contrast?

[Garamonde]

Not enough contrast on the wood part.

[Ecking Crew]

nyeh?



Added more contrast. At least, I think I did...

[Hoeloe]

Not really, you just changed the saturation.

Contrast is the difference between shades, so making both shades brighter won't change the contrast.

[Ecking Crew]

Not really, you just changed the saturation.

Contrast is the difference between shades, so making both shades brighter won't change the contrast.

Ah.

Well, first of all, I made the wood darker and the grain stayed the same color, so I did in fact change one color.

And second of all, now that I think about it, what would "contrast" be if the wood part... actually... isn't shaded yet...?

[Hoeloe]

Well, it seems you changed the hue of the wood, but didn't darken it enough. Contrast isn't just about shading, it's the difference between any colours, even if there's no shading.