Archie Comics Sonic Game (WIP)

[damnablebear]

So I just started this project idea yesterday, but I eventually (and I mean eventually because right now it's only me) want to make a 2D Genesis-style Sonic game based off some of the lore in the Archie comic series.

Disclaimer: I've never really done pixel art before, aside from once or twice modifying a sprite I saved somewhere... so I'm pretty dang new to all this.

That being said, I'm starting on my project with some story and also beginning to learn pixel art. I started working on a Knuckles idle model yesterday (and as you can see, am still working on it.)

I'm mainly looking for criticism here, as well as any advice - either for noobs in general, or else for people who have had experience making Sonic characters in particular. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated!

Here's what I've got so far:

[Garamonde]

if you are wanting to get better at spriting, I would really wait on trying to start a project, at least until you have enough sprites made to warrant it.
for now, I am moving this to the regular spriting forum, as it will get much more attention there anyway.

[damnablebear]

I'm also super interested in game development and have just been looking for an outlet there as well, so it's kind of a "do it as I go" sort of thing - rather than just being an artist, I want to be responsible for a lot of other things as well - I compose music so I would want to do that, and also incorporate a lot of the level aspects from places in the comic, into the game. I think working on some of the art first will motivate me to continue when the going gets rough. So far I'm having a blast working on this art though!

[Garamonde]

yea, it's always good to be optimistic but also important to take on one thing at a time. we also have a thread for showing off music (aka "Magical Sound Corner" in the Creativity board), so if you ever want criticism on that too we'd be glad to give it~

[damnablebear]

Oh believe me, this will strongly be a "one thing at a time" project - I've been involved with a few groups working on games before, and they didn't quite work out. Pacing and time management is a big thing and I think I've learned how to deal with it pretty well for right now. I figured I would explain what the point of spriting all this is for, but right now, my mindset isn't really even in the whole "I'm going to make a game" frame of mind. I'm just making some sprites that maybe possibly will end up in what might become a game sometime.

And thanks for the heads-up on the music as well, I appreciate it!

[Bombshell93]

use img tags

and core problems I'd say your contrast is too low, the fists are oddly shaped and the pose is too stiff, his legs should be spread a little especially with that angle.
welcome to tSR looking forwards to your works

[damnablebear]

use img tags

and core problems I'd say your contrast is too low, the fists are oddly shaped and the pose is too stiff, his legs should be spread a little especially with that angle.
welcome to tSR looking forwards to your works

Ah, wasn't sure if img tags worked here, haha. Though that would be stupid if they didn't.

Anyway! Thanks for the criticisms - I couldn't get his fists how I wanted them - it's tough to accentuate his actual Knuckles, and his gloves always looked really puffy to me - I also didn't want to make them too big. I'll have to fiddle with it a little more.

His pose does look a little stiff - I would probably only really have a one-pixel difference between his legs since his torso is kinda jelly-bean shaped, and it narrows in a little more towards the bottom. Would the 1-pixel space look odd between his legs?

[damnablebear]

Here's a quick update. Added some space between the legs, upped the contrast, and made the shading more consistent in regards to the light source.
(not reflected in the teeny one - will update that after i get what I like on the big guy here)

Further crits?

[MotorRoach]

Just want to say that his arm doesn't looks exactly connected to his hand. It can be fixed by either moving his arm one pixel to the front or moving his hand one pixel back.

[damnablebear]

Thanks, I did *kind* of notice that - but I thought it wasn't too bad. I might either make the glove hole one pixel wider or else bring the glove back towards the arm one pixel - and that actually might help the awkward optical illusion making the front leg look smaller.

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Update:

[Previous]

Just a few points quickly illustrated:



Some of the shades could use more contrast, namely the red highlight and the skin tones plus the eye shading. His head appears quite squished and his chest points in a differend direction than the head. Also, the head and chest shading don't really convey volume, but are just there - with banding at the back of the head, too. The far hair strand things look like they bend the wrong they compared to the close ones.

[damnablebear]

First off, thanks for the crits! I agree with your points about contrast and eye shading, and I totally never would have even seen the difference between the chest angle and face angle unless you had mentioned it!

A few creative differences:

-I seem to recall that Knuckles' head generally *is* actually quite a bit flatter than it is round - with the hedgehog characters having more of the rounded heads. Could be that there's more brains or else more air in there - who knows.
-His dreads have been inconsistent in his character's design as well - I took a minute to look up some picture of him and mostly the more modern pictures officially from SEGA show him with the dreads how you have him, while many of the Archie comics just show them bowing around his head and having the bottom all point towards his center.

Here's a pic that shows some of what I mean (granted his eyes are looking in two different directions - ignore that.)

[Previous]

I'm just dropping suggestions, you don't need to follow everything and anything at all ;-)

[damnablebear]

Oh no no, I appreciate it and I just wanted you to know where I was coming from!

[damnablebear]

Incorporated some of Previous' changes:



I think the contrast looks a lot better, the gloves look a LOT better, thanks for that visual suggestion - Knuckles' gloves no longer have udders and now they're as they should be. Can't believe it was such a minor change. Light source and chest look much better, and I'm pretty proud of this over all. I think I want to fix how wide his far leg looks in comparison to his front one, but that's the only thing standing out to me right now. I might also want to fix its depth a little.

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I also didn't get to the eye shading yet - It looks a little strange to me on the one Previous tried, but I definitely think Knuckles needs some. I'm going to mess around with getting it to look how I want.