Custom character trying to gain his wings!

[Geou]

What's up, everyone? It's my first time here, but not my first time making games. I'm raring to go, man.

This time I'm starting from the absolute beginning and creating all of my graphics from scratch. The only problem is... I've never done this before. Up to this point I've been looking at old SNES and Genesis games and following their 2D hero poses for my character, but I'm at a complete wall here in trying to make my guy's flying pose.

A little explanation: the character will be flying for essentially the whole duration of this game, so he has to look good while moving up, down, forward (speeding up), or slowing down backwards. The screen will automatically be moving forwards. To be clear, there will be 5 poses (animations): stationary (slowly moving forwards), forward (the one depicted below), back (decreasing forward speed), up (like forward, but angling his body upwards), and down (angle his body down).

Any help is appreciated. You don't know how bad I need it.

Here's the guy standing (yes, the thick, bold outline is very intentional):


I understand that by your guys' standards it's probably pretty lacking. Yet I'm pretty satisfied with it; the game will use a certain effect for its art scheme, so I can get away with the lackluster shading. In time, though, I will perfect it. Now on to the troublesome part:


He looks horrifically awkward. Like he's coming in and out of the 3rd dimension. I've been given a piece of advice that I should angle his head more to face forward, while still keeping both of his eyes visible; I'm currently working on that. And being that this is the main sprite that the user will see during gameplay, I need to make sure that it's absolutely perfect. You don't have to touch up the guy to make him look right, just giving me some pointers or examples to look at would be great (though touching up would be amazing). Thanks.

[Bombshell93]

too big no details to show for it, dem jaggies, no colour variation, very little contrast, no real sense of form the whole guy looks like noodle arms noodle legs and stub body.
try actual PIXEL art, that is art where you work on the PIXELS and dont just draw a shape with the pencil tool.

Here is a quick throw together for example:

thats a fairly low quality sprite but it was thrown together in less than a minute so meh,
anyway this is what a sprite should look like (though given time and effort it can look much better)
the size your sprite is you'd be better off with vector graphics, unless you intend to do some proper spriting for results like this http://www.spriters-resource.com/gameboy...sheet/7146 (of course you don't need that many frames, I just like the style of the sonic advanced sprites)

[Thumbtacks]

Except that's absolutely wrong, Bombshell.

Its done in that style intentionally, and its definitely a sprite.

Spoiler

Take inspiration from the Paper Mario sheet, It has a similar outlined style

Smooth out the lines, minimize the colors.

That's about all for now, we'll see what arises after you work on that.

[Gors]

if he's going to stick with that style, then it's better for him to scrap everything he has and use a vector program to render the sprites. A pixel-by-pixel program such as Paint isn't exactly the best for the visual style he's going for.

[Bombshell93]

Except that's absolutely wrong, Bombshell.

Its done in that style intentionally, and its definitely a sprite.

Smooth out the lines, minimize the colors.

That's about all for now, we'll see what arises after you work on that.

no doubt going big can lead to better sprites but I wasn't saying its not a sprite I was saying its not pixel art.
fair play the "anyway this is what a sprite should look like" line was mis-phrased, what I meant was in the context of pixel for pixel spriting AKA pixel art. (which it obviously isn't it is simply the use of a pencil tool, as apparent by the thick and very jaggy lines.)
anyway I did say it'd be better to use vector graphics for a sprite of such size, the lines would be cleaner and the process would probably be easier for such a simple character.

[Ploaj]

This is the kinda sprite anti-aliasing was made for
Ignore the shading. I got bored fixing the lines

[Geou]

It's been only 8 hours since I posted this and already my mind's been blown. Seeing Ploaj's version really puts in perspective the flaws in my original work. I don't know what vector graphics are, but seeing what's being said I'll go ahead and look it up and see if it can work for me (and yes, the style is intentionally Paper Mario-ish and super-deformed).

The flying pose still bothers me, but obviously I'm going to work on fixing the foundations first before moving ahead.

[Bombshell93]

a vector graphic is similar to a 3D model but is usually aimed at 2D (technically 3D models are vector graphics, but the term "vector graphic" is normally used for 2D)
to cut a long story short, the pen tool on photoshop, though most programs aimed at vector graphics have more vector based features, such as shape division, automatic forms, image to shapes, etc.
it can be a lot more work with complicated pieces, but with a character such as this its perfect, the lines will be smoothly anti-aliased, have no jaggies (unless you intentionally put them there) and provided you take care with your vector placement you will have smooth curves and good forms.
The same is possible with pixel art of course but the anti-aliasing will take longer and the curves may take a bit more tweaking.

[Hoeloe]

The difference between vector art and pixel art is that pixel art is stored on the computer as a collection of colours, which are then displayed on the screen, one for each pixel. Vector art, on the other hand, is stored as a series of drawing instructions. The difference between these is that you can scale up or down vector instructions without loss of quality, where scaling down pixels will lose information, and scaling up pixels will not appear smooth.

If that makes sense.

[Cobalt Blue]

Except that's absolutely wrong, Bombshell.

Its done in that style intentionally, and its definitely a sprite.

Spoiler

Take inspiration from the Paper Mario sheet, It has a similar outlined style

Smooth out the lines, minimize the colors.

That's about all for now, we'll see what arises after you work on that.

i hope that you're aware that these sprites do not follow any particular "style" nor they do represent one. the only reason why these sprites exist and they look like that is purely due to the N64's poor sprite support.

not to mention OP specifically stated he's based on sprites fron the genesis/snes era, so i dont get from where these were done intentionally in the "style" you mentioned.

[Previous]

not to mention OP specifically stated he's based on sprites fron the genesis/snes era, so i dont get from where these were done intentionally in the "style" you mentioned.

Up to this point I've been looking at old SNES and Genesis games and following their 2D hero poses for my character

(and yes, the style is intentionally Paper Mario-ish and super-deformed).

---

As for vector graphics, you might want to check out inkscape, the best vector editor you can get for free. Even better than Adobe's Illustrator in some aspects (not as good in others, though).
If you want to make these sprites to use them in a game, vector graphics will certainly speed up the process and give you smoother results.

[Mashuga]

He looks 3D.

[Cobalt Blue]

welp. my bad.

[Thumbtacks]

i hope that you're aware that these sprites do not follow any particular "style" nor they do represent one. the only reason why these sprites exist and they look like that is purely due to the N64's poor sprite support.

No.
The only reason why these sprites exist is because the art directors of the game decided to make it represent the visual "style" of a popup book. It had nothing to do with the N64's capabilities, or they would have made it look like any other Mario game on the console.

Unless I'm grossly misinterpreting the meaning of the word "style"

[Geou]

Thanks for all the help guys. I got a friend to lend me Illustrator, and I'm creating a quality vector. The more I read about this, the more perfect it seems for me. Animation definitely seems like it'll be far, far easier with this method.