11-03-2017, 12:36 AM
Anything with constructive criticism is not "negative feedback". Negative feedback would be saying "haha that's bad, you should quit". Even though we may sound stern and blunt, that's just the nature of criticism. We are trying to help, and to help with sprite work it is important to work out the problems and areas of improvement.
The best way to improve is to have others apply this constructive criticism, or you will be spriting for a while without knowing what is good, or not.
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So with that aside, here are the steps for you to consider (these apply to all of us, so this isn't a specific to you):
1. Is the outline as smooth as possible? Mr. I is a circle, so you want the outline to be as circular as possible. If you look at each corner, there is a sort of 'stub' which could be smoothed out. Of course, there are limitations to where you can place the pixels, but this is just part of the challenge of spriting. The blue portion of the eye should be symmetrical (as a circle viewed from this angle), so you should check that out too.
2. Colour choice. Since you are newer I won't go into colour stuff now, but there is one rule worth knowing. Colours need to be contrasting so that they can be seen. The grey shade is ok, but I would suggest making it a bit darker so it is easier to see. This is not an easy thing to learn, but if you can't see the difference between two colours on your sprite, generally that's a clue that you need to make the darker one darker, or the lighter one lighter.
3. Shading. By default, light sources are from the top left or right. That's the best angle to accentuate the artwork. In your sprite, the shading is limited to the right side, which makes it look like the light is shining straight from the left. Try shading it with the light source higher (if it is at the top left, which I recommend, the shadow will cover the bottom of the eye, and halfway up the right side).
There's some points to start with. Don't loose faith yet. All of us started out somewhere, it isn't like we were magically born with a good spriting ability.
The best way to improve is to have others apply this constructive criticism, or you will be spriting for a while without knowing what is good, or not.
-
So with that aside, here are the steps for you to consider (these apply to all of us, so this isn't a specific to you):
1. Is the outline as smooth as possible? Mr. I is a circle, so you want the outline to be as circular as possible. If you look at each corner, there is a sort of 'stub' which could be smoothed out. Of course, there are limitations to where you can place the pixels, but this is just part of the challenge of spriting. The blue portion of the eye should be symmetrical (as a circle viewed from this angle), so you should check that out too.
2. Colour choice. Since you are newer I won't go into colour stuff now, but there is one rule worth knowing. Colours need to be contrasting so that they can be seen. The grey shade is ok, but I would suggest making it a bit darker so it is easier to see. This is not an easy thing to learn, but if you can't see the difference between two colours on your sprite, generally that's a clue that you need to make the darker one darker, or the lighter one lighter.
3. Shading. By default, light sources are from the top left or right. That's the best angle to accentuate the artwork. In your sprite, the shading is limited to the right side, which makes it look like the light is shining straight from the left. Try shading it with the light source higher (if it is at the top left, which I recommend, the shadow will cover the bottom of the eye, and halfway up the right side).
There's some points to start with. Don't loose faith yet. All of us started out somewhere, it isn't like we were magically born with a good spriting ability.