Spark's Sprites

[Hoeloe]

By "off-balance", it is generally referring to the fact that he is leaning back. This is problematic, though, because it's very unnatural to lean backwards without having any kind of support.

When drawing characters (or anything, really), you should at the very least consider the centre of mass of the character. In most cases, this hangs around the middle of the waist, but if, for example, a character is carrying a large sword, it can change position depending on the weight distribution. Objects (including people) also have a base. This base is flat to the ground, and covers exactly the area between their feet (or connects together all the points that touch the ground). When you draw a line vertically down from the centre of mass, it should intersect with this base. If it doesn't, the character will fall over. On top of that, a more balanced pose will intersect the base closer to the centre, so even if your character is technically stable, it may look very unnatural.

Oddly enough, those 3 characters give perfect examples:



Your first character is unbalanced because his centre of mass intersects his base near the edge (note his centre of mass is further back than the other two because his head is drawing the weight). Your second character is balanced because the intersection is quite near the middle. Your third character, being that only one foot is actually touching the ground, will fall over, because her base is very small. Note that, even though she will fall over, she will fall onto her other foot, because she will fall towards her centre of mass.

Hopefully this helps a little.

[SparkMouse]

Figured I might as well update here, since I need a little help for one of my other projects.

Logo for one of my other projects, RMS.


Idle animation for Soot Sprite.


WIP Idle for Baron (need to add a bowing animation).


Idle for Totoro.


Some Cucumber Quest sprites:





And I guess I never posted Yubaba here.


Does anyone happen to have a good tutorial for spriting rocks? Most platforms and obstacles in RMS are going to be large rocks, but I really have no idea how to sprite them.

[Goemar]

Lots of Jaggy edges there. Always a danger when using strong black for an outline. I know you might be thinking "I have to use black, like they do in the movie" - go look at some screenshots, they don't.

Your detail is generally good, but the line work needs fixing. The big totoro also looks a bit wrong angle and form wise. If any of this stuff is meant to be to scale it's a way off.

Baron's arm is also really small, even more so considering his body it tilting towards the screen.

[SparkMouse]

Always a danger when using strong black for an outline. I know you might be thinking "I have to use black, like they do in the movie" - go look at some screenshots, they don't.

...you're definitely looking at an older version of what I posted. The only characters that use pure black at all are Porco Rosso (whom I haven't updated since I moved to colored outlines), No Face (only a partial black outline), and the Soot Sprites.

Your detail is generally good, but the line work needs fixing. The big totoro also looks a bit wrong angle and form wise. If any of this stuff is meant to be to scale it's a way off.

Specifics? "Linework needs fixing" is extremely vague and doesn't tell me anything about what to fix and on which characters.
Generally everyone is to scale as best as I can estimate since none of these characters have really shown up in each others' movies (the only character like this is the Soot Sprites). I also had to rescale a few characters just because they wouldn't work at their original or canonical size (and obviously this is not uncommon in crossover games, just look at Smash Bros). Robot is scaled down a bit, Baron was scaled up using Haru as a base (I generally figured she was about as tall as Nausicaa or San), Soot Sprites are scaled up around 2 times (Ponyo is about the same size as Mei and Mei could hold one in her hands easily, although they were slightly bigger in Spirited Away). The blue Totoro needs to be redone since I made it a lot bigger than it should've been (I noticed this after rewatching the movie a few weeks ago).

Baron's arm is also really small, even more so considering his body it tilting towards the screen.

I'll go find the reference from the movie that I used for his idle pose, will edit it in later.

[Goemar]

Specifics for line work: most of it. Hell, it looks like you used the circle tool for the top of Baron's hat. I'm not saying restart, I'm saying look at some official sprites, look at the edges and get some inspiration of how to smooth it out.

As for the scale. That's a terrible excuse. You have Kiki and Ponyo as good general references to go by. Totoroko is far too big. And when did the Baron become full size? Kiki should have to kneel down to look him in the eye.

[SparkMouse]

Specifics for line work: most of it. Hell, it looks like you used the circle tool for the top of Baron's hat. I'm not saying restart, I'm saying look at some official sprites, look at the edges and get some inspiration of how to smooth it out.

"Most of it" is even less vague. What specific parts of which specific characters are you talking about? Why would it matter if I used the circle tool for the top of Baron's hat when the top of his hat is supposed to be a circle?
There aren't "official sprites" of anything Studio Ghibli. None of the movies got their own games, and the only game which Studio Ghibli had a hand in used 3D models (Ni no Kuni).

As for the scale. That's a terrible excuse. You have Kiki and Ponyo as good general references to go by. Totoroko is far too big. And when did the Baron become full size? Kiki should have to kneel down to look him in the eye.

How is it a terrible excuse? Olimar is the size of a quarter and Pikmin the size of dimes, and yet in Brawl, Olimar is the same height as Kirby (8 inches tall) and Jigglypuff (1'8" tall). Dedede is about 1'4" and yet appears to be at least three times taller than Jigglypuff, who canonically is 4 inches taller than him.
When Baron and Haru were in the Kingdom of Cats, Baron was very noticeably taller than Haru because Haru was scaled down. I just did the opposite and scaled him up because it made the most sense for having him playable.
And I even specifically said that I knew Totoroko was too big.

The blue Totoro needs to be redone since I made it a lot bigger than it should've been (I noticed this after rewatching the movie a few weeks ago).

Having things properly to scale is less important than having things at a playable scale.

[Goemar]

I never said Studio Ghibli sprites. I meant sprites in general.
All your line-work needs work, there are no specific parts, the majority of it is jaggy.

Look if you're going to be a dick, just leave them as they are. Make more of them, I'm sure they'll be perfect.

- Goemar out.

[Gors]

being an angry fuck hardly solves issues, they rather create them.

Spark, your main problem in your sprites is really line control. Pixelart is not exactly like drawing on a paper, and there are many compromises in order to render graphics on screen. The main compromise is that sprites are composed with pixels, small squares that make up lines and colors. Obviously, such thing does not exist when drawing on paper, because in theory, the resolution on a paper is really high.

It looks like your likeart is made with shape tools instead of pencil tool, which also can give the lines an unpolished look (not saying that you do use it; it really looks like it though). The drawing is also rather poor in the sense that the detailing is made with lines inside the sprite, instead of giving that job to the shading. It somewhat reminds me of those children's coloring book, where the details are all done in lines, and that makes the sprite really flat, no matter the shading imo. Paired with your basic anatomy skills, the issues get really blatant, and something must be done to solve them.

I will try editing one of your sprites later, I hope I can enlighten your point of view.

[Gors]

Okay, I made a quick rushjob sprite to demonstrate what I mean



when making a character, any character, dismember him in simple pieces and glue them together. Your sprite is all wonky because no 3D was taken into account. That's why his belly line is not in the middle of his body like it should be. I also don't really know why you made the outline on his legs jut out 1px, that makes the sprite look really bad and ugly as fuck.

I avoided those weird jut outs and used a lighter outline color for details INSIDE the sprite. That makes the sprite look cleaner and 3D. I don't really have time to work on this anymore as I am late for work but I hope you can analyze this instead thoroughly, and apply it into your other sprites. Remember; quality > quantity.