Custom Purple Piranha Plant

[Zanzio]

Well, I figured for my first graphic posted here, it wasn't exactly a good idea to do something difficult like translucent objects right away.
So, I made this opaque enemy.


And here's what it's supposed to look like in action (excuse the fast speed, I'm not too great at animating)

Yeah, that's it. Don't be afraid to tell me if it sucks.

[Cytric Acid]

well, the bending of the vine is alright, but the shading is very awkward. It seems to me you haven't hue shifted at all, which makes it look pretty flat. the shading on the head is not very round at all, i believe the spriting guide on the main board has a tutorial or something for that.
don't use black outlines to outline the markings. it looks bland and it detracts from your sprite.

the vine is awkward too, because the way you shaded it is very pillowed. it also bulges a little in the last frame. you should also try to fix the outline itself, it's pretty obvious you used an MS Paint circle. in my personal choice, i think you should sel-out your outlines, especially the ones inside. however, i think anti alias will also do pretty well.

the mouth is the most awkward part; i won't go over the animation of it as i'm not too good with it either, but why is it crooked, when it's implies the mouth goes either straight up or horizontally? also, where are the teeth? the way it opens it's mouth isn't symmetrical either. You'd be better off making a third shade of white to blend it in with the rest of it's mouth, at the moment the parting of the lips contrasts very highly and you can tell it's pixelated.

i must say, you do have potential. your sprites remind me of when i was young. study up on how light works, and learn to build things from simple shapes. also learn to imply shape and form with the amount of space you have. If you can, i'd suggest learning to shade the basic shapes (ie, spheres cubes and cylinders) before you apply it to pixel work. trust me, once you know how light works it will be a lot simpler.



i made a quick edit for you to see what i mean. you also might want to refrain from default MS Paint colors and eye-blinding background colors, while i can stand it, others may not.

[brandman1996]

I almost wanted to say its an edit from Yoshi's Story, but I checked and it's not. Well, good job.

But wait why is it purple? What's wrong with red?

[Garamonde]

Um, the Purple Piranha Plant's from Super Mario Galaxy...



Also he probably just wanted to sprite a purple one instead of red.

[Zanzio]

you also might want to refrain from default MS Paint colors and eye-blinding background colors, while i can stand it, others may not.

I used a SMW palette, but a SMB3 outline...
Perhaps I shouldn't mix the style.

And I made it purple because of that thing from Super Mario Galaxy.
It's not too hard to recolour it to red if you want.

I'll take Citric Acid's example and apply it to all the frames.

[Zanzio]

I improved the first 2 frames like Cytric Acid said.

What do you think?
I have yet to make the other 2 frames.
I'll post the whole fixed sheet when I'm done.

[Omega]

his bite doesn't seem to look menacing enough....
Maybe try making the jaw bigger with larger teeth.

[Zanzio]

his bite doesn't seem to look menacing enough....
Maybe try making the jaw bigger with larger teeth.

Yeah, there's teeth, but you can't see them very well...
I guess I'll make them stand out more or something.
Of course, it's not exactly to easy to see white teeth on a white background.

[thernz]

I think the problem is that it's lacking in life. It just opens its mouth. Maybe if the first frame was it leaning back with its mouth open, and the second with it lunged forward with its mouth snapped. Well, that's an idea. Unless it's like, always biting around. Just biting around. Chilling and biting.
I would still have it move a bit so it's not stiff.

[Garamonde]

I have to be honest, its animation kinda makes it look like a Snipper Plant. So I believe thernz's crit. is spot on. I'd also personally make the palette a bit darker (if you're trying to get it as close to the original as possible). Just my two cents though.

[Zanzio]

Here. It lunges a bit.

I realize the spikes move around too much. I'll fix that later.

Edit: A couple things fixed:

[Zanzio]

Alright, here is the final version.

And now for the spritesheet.

[Alex IDV]

Pretty nice! You should add more frames, though - the biting looks very... choppy.

[Kriven]

You need to move the spots when it opens its mouth. It just looks like pieces of its head are disappearing.

[Badassbill]

What Kriven said. Very nice improvements so far.