Jappio's RPG Sprites

[Jappio]

A friend and I are working on an RPG. He's in charge of things like coding and the game itself. It's being made on RPG maker. I'm in charge of the sprites.

The perspective of the game is similar to Final Fantasy, with a side view of characters in battle. Each character will have 2 or so animations for basic battle actions: Attack and Magic/item.

Here is a very crude mock up of what things are going to kind of look like? (Not made in game engine, so this is very conceptual and janky. Here for basic idea, not actual game appearance)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5psTATW6zY

Newest Stuff:



I also have some 'completed' animations below. I'll be sure to go back to them at some point, but probably not right away.

Other Sprites

We have Ryu, the games main character. A young fox man set out on adventure!

Raizou, the team's power hitter. An Asgardian beefy guy with the power of electricity, sent to worlds by Thor to recruit new warriors.

Shun-Yu, a Chinese hopping vampire. A real goofy guy.

Shroomette, our white mage. She's very clearly not a fully original character.

Ray our White/Black mage.

The team's mimic. A mysterious warrior clad in robes.

The team's scientist, who uses a "Int" stat for black magic-esque spells that instead use science!

[Jappio]

Well, I've gotten the gist of Vargas done now. A few detailing work needs to be done, but that can be for another time I'm thinking. However the frames and such should be good. I also have a flamey sword variant due to the request of the characters creator. Chances are, the flaming version will be for certain skills and not basic attacks, but who knows.

[Jappio]

Well, I'm not dead, which is good.

My usual spriting time was taken from me, and so many things have kept me busy (Oh Smash Bros, you're so wonderful). However with school, I actually have a few new opportunities to sprite thanks to a class being in a computer lab. So, here's a new member of the team, Professor Anouto!



A scientist who will act as a black mage, though instead of spells, he'll use his inventions. Flamethrowers, freeze rays, and typhoon missiles will be his way of attacking.

[Kelvin]

I thought RPG Maker was limited to still images in battle? Oh well, sprites look awesome as always! Love the scientist idea. ^^

[FarmerM]

There are several versions of RPG Maker. You can edit the combat system quite a bit if you know how. Combat animations and even action combat is possible.

Professor Anouto is looking good but it's a bit hard to see his tie.

[Jappio]

Yeah, I'm not on the programming side of things, so I'm not always aware of what's possible. However, I do know that the maker is using custom scripts to make things work in his favor. I've heard that you can indeed do things like real time action RPGs (like the 'Tales of' series). So, I don't know the exact specifics, I do know that these sprites can be used.

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Well, I've gotten an animation going for this one already. An animation for his basic attack, and probably some of his 'magic' actions as well.

[E-Man]

The way the lab coat moves is rather jerky. Maybe apply some more frames to smooth it out?

[DragonDePlatino]

Aww, cool! I remember seeing that guy just get submitted to PixelJoint! Nice stuff, man. It's great how you're making an endeavor to do some larger animations with some nice, custom palettes.

As for the scientist, his design is nice but his face looks really quick odd at the start of the animation...the perfect roundness of his head, placement of his mouth and how it opens makes him look like a puppet of some sort. It's also odd how his lab coat flaps while he shoots his gun. Would there really be enough kickback on the gun as to push back his coat like that? And if so, why isn't his arm pushed back?

[Jappio]

Ok, so I smoothed the animation, and I tried my best with the face. I tried a few things with the shape, and did my best with the mouth opening, not sure if I really did much good for it. Everything else I was trying just made it look even goofier.



As for the flapping, it isn't because of standard concusive kickback... rather energy being let loose. So not really like a bunch of force that would push him back, just some 'wind' or 'energy' being the source of the flapping.

[cuedaninja]

They are look cool to me...keep up the good work!

[FarmerM]

The mouth on the firing animation looks a bit off. I would go darker. Maybe just use the brown outline color to give it enough texture so people get the point. At that scale I doubt you'll be able to put in enough detail to get the full effect you are going for.

[Jappio]

This is Myobu, another fox person for the party. Her colors are undecided so far, but this is what we're thinking about for the time being.

[Jappio]

The frames are unfinished and lack proper detail, but this is the general motion and frame count I think I'm going to go for.

[Thor]

You're off to a good start! While this may be still fairly unfinished, I think some things should be taken into consideration/addressed. I apologize in advance if anything comes across as unclear or ridiculous, I'm no expert (and if someone with more expertise can correct me, please do)! Just here to give feedback~

Perhaps you could change the way she thrusts her spear forth so she uses both hands? Doing so would allow greater force and control in the thrust. If she is meant to have equipment (pragmatically, a shield; anything is possible though, your call) on the arm not holding the spear, ignore this bit! However, if you do make her thrust with both hands, I would then suggest making her step forward with her other leg; stepping forward with the leg on the same side you're holding the spear is a little awkward. It's doable, yes, but it's a little more fluid to step with the opposite foot. I think it would be a good idea to maybe make her step forward a bit faster, too! That way you could give off an even stronger sense of momentum.

When she actually does thrust forward, her head does not turn at all, so it looks a bit awkward as well. I think shifting from 3/4 side view to full side view when she does this would help considerably.

On another note , the momentum from stepping forward should be enough to carry into the thrust. I think it would be impractical to step forward and pause briefly to force a thrust when you could do it with more fluidity by just thrusting the spear forward as you step. Though, like stepping with the same side you're holding the spear with, it's doable, so I could be wrong. 

As for the sprite itself, her face is a bit flat. Maybe bump up the contrast on your shades (from what I can see, there isn't a noticeable enough amount of the shade colour to really allow you to see the shading and depth) and rework her face a bit? Additionally, the shading on her legs is a bit broken even when just standing still. There's no display of depth, so it looks like she's awkwardly standing trying to balance on that green line under her.

In addition to that, her left (our right) foot in her standing frame is actually positioned above the other one when it should be vice-versa. To stand how she does, I'd imagine, would cause some balance issues, which would be detrimental in any given situation, let alone combat!

I hope this helps! Like I said, if anyone can correct me, please do~
quietly returns to lurking

[Jappio]

*A fantastic critique*

First and foremost, thank you very much! This was well thought out and written and will definitely help me out =)

Funny that you mention a shield, because another friend had suggested it to me when we were first designing her, so she will have a small little one on the other arm.

As for the step, I was actually basing it off a move in this video, at just about the 55 second mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FypvnDZ...freload=10

Is it still wrong to use that as the source? I mean, the move looks natural and fine the way he does it, but maybe I'm wrong?

The head was more so just a lazy point for me as I was just using the same one in each frame to get the basic idea there. However it's still a good thing you point it out, as it definitely stops me from being lazy and keeping it that way! (which there could have been a chance of =P )

Though I won't upload it for a more minor update like that, I already have altered the speed of the frames based on your suggestion. I definitely agree that a bit more momentum carrying is good for it.

Face work is noted and will be used.

Sadly, I can't say I totally follow with the leg thing. I get the idea behind the shading, but not so much the position thing. I agree that it does look like she's balancing on the line, and I'll probably spread the feet farther (along the z-axis rather, so bring one foot lower and one foot higher so her feet are more so on either side of the green line)... yet I don't get how her left leg shouldn't be the one on top?

Your critique is great overall though, it's good to know the things I should fix and what not. So thank you again for it =)