G33X (Sketchasaur's sprites n' things)

[Sketchasaurus]

I've been fiddling around with NES related stuff lately (sprites, music, etc.) so I figured I'd post up a few things.

I'm trying to get a better grasp on palette optimization and maintaining readability particularly in regards to NES graphics.


I'm aware that the Sprite on the left breaks the 3color+transparensy limit of the NES. The one on the Right uses 14 colors + transparency, staying within the color resolution per sprite on the SNES (though it doesn't use the SNES palette, if one even exists)

I'm wondering if there's a good explanation somewhere behind some of the programming tricks that have been used to increase the amount of colors displayed on particular graphics (such as the Mega man sprite, as that seems to be the best known/most cited example.)

UPDATES:
I figured that I should probably put all of my spritestuffs on the first post for convenience.

Spoiler

"Newscaster, Arnie Cade"








NES Hero


Enemies:

Updated:

Chupacabra:


NES Enemies:

[##SKELETON##]

the megaman sprite works the way it does because it's considered two separate sprites by the games code


there's actually a robot fighting game on the NES that's japanese only that has sprites with way more colors, because it treats the head body and legs as separate entities. lemme look it up

[Sketchasaurus]

there's actually a robot fighting game on the NES that's japanese only that has sprites with way more colors, because it treats the head body and legs as separate entities. lemme look it up

If I remember correctly, the same thing is happening with the player sprites in Shatterhand; the player's upper torso uses black, lime green, and a fleshy pink and his legs use black, light blue, and white.
EDIT: Now, as I'm looking at sprites from Punch-out, the same seems to be true of that game as well.
Now I'm looking at the palette size of background tiles; I read somewhere that they are capable of 4 usable colors, but I don't know if they also support transparency.

[Sketchasaurus]

Instead of making a new topic, I figured I'd add to this one; right now I'm playing around with ideas for animations, one of which is a sprited short in which the character below will appear:

I tweaked his face a little in the sprite to make him more lively and upbeat than in the concept art. C+C is definitely appreciated.

[MotorRoach]

Certainly a fine looking design and a good sprite so far. Just make his finger lines a little stronger, but that's the only thing off I can see.

[Sketchasaurus]

Thanks, Roach; definitely going to tweak the linework on the hands for sure.
here's a rough animation of him reacting to something. I need to fix a lot of the linework and jaggs, but I'm trying to get the energy of the character down.

[Sketchasaurus]

I'd hate to double post, but I'd rather continue adding to this topic than make a new one.
The previous sprite of the sportscaster/anchorman is taking a back seat while I come up with a more finalized idea for him; in the meantime, I've been thinking of doing some NPC animation (in both pixel and vectors) and I started this little cycle today:

8 frames, 15/100th sec display time per frame
I've yet to include the arm swing, mainly so I can focus on the main body animation.
I'm likely going to leave the number of frames at 8 in order to reduce the amount of work per cycle. critique is much appreciated and desired.

[Gors]

idk but i am not a fan of the proportion, she has quite a masculine jaw and her head is 1/3 of the entire height. Kinda weird if you ask me

also the neck is literally jutting forward like a chicken, i dont think anyone would walk like that, except those heavily cartoonized meek nerds, maybe?

[Sketchasaurus]

Thanks for the input, Gors. I probably should've provided the concept art along with it. here you go:

I'm happy that the cartoonized meek nerd archetype came to mind since that's what my original intent for the character was.

[Gors]

ahhh, so that's great! looks spot-on, for some reason the art looks better than the sprite, but that's because the art remins me more of those wacky old cartoons

[Sengir]

Oh man, this stuff is really good. Cute character and nice animation!

(also her hairstyle is confusing; in the sprite it seems like she has two ponytails but in the concept art i only see one)

[Sketchasaurus]

I'm glad you guys like it, thank you!
yeah, the art definitely provides context as to what kind of style is intended. I prefer to use a cartoony style rather than a heavily anime-influenced one (although there is still a bit of that influence from arists like Keiji Inafune in a lot of my other designs)

Oh, the reason why there are two ponytails on the sprite is because there are: I didn't delete the sketch layer beneath
Here's an update to the sprite (I haven't finished much since I just woke up, but you know how that is)



EDIT:
Finished cleaning up the legs, Still have to add the arms---though I should probably make a set of different poses so she could be holding different things. There are definitely things that could use tweaking.

[KevinTriebel]

COol sprits!!! r u gonna submit them to tVGR

[Koopaul]

Refreshing to see this kind cartoon design style. Everyone nowadays seems to copy Adventure Time with those noodle arms and dot eyes, or MLP Friendship is Magic where everything thing has that flat Flash look to it.

[Sengir]

The character is seriously flipping adorable.

Her head looks pretty static compared to the rest of the animation, though. If you gave her a blink I think it would have a lot more life.