Midi's Sprites

[Level 1]

The fighting position looks a bit awkward, it sorta still looks like a platformer idle, and not a fighting idle.

[Kelvin]

I know. I think instead of just doing large versions of my platform sprites (obviously didn't work) I should try using ones from an actual fighting game. It was supposed to turn out looking like a mix of Sonic and Knuckles' idle stances.

http://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/10039/
http://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/10041/

[EDIT]
I'm gonna take a break from spriting for a while anyway; I need to practice coding again, otherwise I'll never get my game development library done. Once I've gotten it functional enough, I'll make some simple games as a tech demo.

[Iocus]

HOLD IT!

It's evident you're ready to call it quits, but I had some things I wanted to mention (yet again) before you do, some of which I forgot to talk about on my previous post.
Also, the obligatory edit!


The main issue with your sprite is dynamism. Your sprite looks rigid as a board, and the reasons as to why are not all that difficult to draw out. Take a good look at his torso, and you can see that the spine line is essentially vertical. Now, I think this was mentioned before (probably in the tFR topic), that not all battle poses require bent knees and a lean, but the pose you're aiming for kind of begs for that. The body should be more inclined forward, to show he is ready for battle. His legs ought to be further spaced out and probably bent further for the same purpose.

About his arms... It's hard to word it, but basically, they are too perpendicular. In fact, try the pose out; stand with your arms at a 90 degree angle, them being parallel to each other. Pretty awkward huh? The pose doesn't invoke that battle readiness that is necessary for this pose. Try looking for some references on combat stances (as you mentioned, fighting games are always good references) for more dynamic angles for the arms. You don't have to emulate them exactly, but they can at least help thinking up of ways to fix yours.

Also, this has been a recurring problem I've noticed on your sprites (at least the ones I've given criticism on); the neck! The head is misaligned, and it really contributes to the stiffness witnessed here. Of course, this sprite requires to move the head even further than usual to add to that lean.

I forgot to mention this last time, but I agree about the 'darker than black' shades...it's kind of weird that such shades exist in this palette, I'd imagine they're mostly for graphic effects or something...So I came up with an alternative for your shades. Red hue shifting to purple is often a good idea, I'd say! Just a suggestion, in any case.

Finally, the other thing that makes your sprite look not battle-like, is the face. It's so neutral and bland. Not to mention, the eyes still look glassy... I came to the conclusion that the fact his sclera area was so small had to do with it, as well as the angle at the top left corner. His hat also does not look as hat-like as in the portrait...kind of looks like a leaf just fell on him or something.

OH! On the topic of the portrait, they are meant to be in the style of the manga Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, probably as ironic comedy or something. I added an example at the top; NicktendoDS's character, who is a fluffy animal like yours, has an absurdly manly and serious face. Not saying you have to do it that way, but it'd probably be out of place next to the others.

As a sidenote, I'll be a tad disappointed if your character's Midnight Moe is not Makoto Nanaya

[Kelvin]

I'm not quitting; I really do need to get back into coding. I'll pick this up again later, unless there's a deadline for character submissions, but the TFR topic is so cluttered and you have to go to page 70-something to find the final palette, so I dunno if there is one. I seriously think they should move it to its own board.

Also, I'm probably going to pick an anime character I actually know. Sorry.

[Kelvin]

*sigh* Well, I said I was gonna get back to coding, but I ran into some issues with that and then looked at Iocus' edit, suddenly I'm messing around with that and find myself with this:



Left is his version, right is the changes I made, with and without the background arm being shaded. I think I like it without being dark in this one, but consistency tells me to use it. I also fixed the foot, with the way he'd done the knee, it made his foot look backwards, and at this angle, it works for both a fighter and a platformer. Buuuuut, is it wrong to use an edit of an edit, even if the edit came out looking so well edited? Even if I put an edit in your edit so you can edit while you edit?

By the way, does that pose remind anyone else of Megaman 8?

[EDIT]


Wh... what am I doing wrong?!

[EDIT 2]


Added cheekbones. Soooo handsome!

[recme]

if youre trying to figure out the portrait part, i suggest looking at jojos bizzare adventure style, since thats what its based on (the style of the mugshots of course)

[Level 1]

The battle sprites look to similar to Iocus's

[Kelvin]

The battle sprites look to similar to Iocus's

Well yeah, I basically followed his example, but made things different here and there. I tried making more things different this time around:



I added some detail to the pants, changed the face to match the mugshot better, (mine, not the JBA-style one), and tucked in his arms a bit.

As for the mugshot, I'm looking at JBA images now... they really creep me out... but I'll do my best.

[EDIT]
Quick update.



God, this style makes me feel dirty.

[Level 1]

I understand that, but it looks like you literally took what he made, and just edited it by adding your own details. His example was for you to get an idea, not to take, tweak it, and claim it. As to the mugshot, I dig the face yo, but the face is the only part that has detail, don't forget to add detail to the rest of it, like the neck having a collar bone, or the shirt having slightly more wrinkles etc.

[Koh]

God, this style makes me feel dirty.

Pfft, lol! You've certainly got a knack for expressionism. Actually once you have a working base, why not wow us with some expressionism?

[Kelvin]

No, I just recreated it. Most of the parts came from my sprite anyway. This isn't the first time I recreated someone else's edit of my character and came close to an exact copy, and nobody cared about that.

[Level 1]

There is a difference between "recreating" and "editing". And I'm beginning to think you don't know the difference. I mean, I literally took both sprites, and made one overlap the other, and there was little to no difference to the lineart, even when I take all the colors out, there is little difference, that isn't "recreating", that is you taking what he made, editing it to your liking, and calling it "recreating.

Anyways, I know you are going to say that's and stuff, so here is something more useful, that pose, you might want to keep the feet closer together, arch the back, lower the head, and make the fists go up a bit higher, because it looks like a platformer's pose still.

[Kelvin]

Look, I'm only good at art when I'm copying a pose from another source; my past work is a testiment to that. Even if I did just edit what Iocus drew, which might I remind you you said was "his", "his" version was an edit of mine anyway, so it was never really his anyway if mine isn't really mine. You wanna know how I made mine? I copied parts from my old one, moved things around, and drew new parts that were similar to what Iocus had. Don't believe me? I'll prove it by making a video of me recreating a sprite, and you'll see I didn't just edit it. Either way, I don't think anyone has the right to call anyone an art thief on a site mainly dedicated to ripping art from video games.

As for the pose, I still don't get what you mean by "platformer pose". There's a bunch of different poses being used by others, all of which could work in a platformer or fighter, and that's because every character has their own fighting style. Even in professionally-made arcade fighters, characters had all different poses because of their different martial art styles. Some of them even look completely relaxed because that's just how they fight.

[TheShyGuy]

What's your character's personality like? I quickly skimmed you're site and I didn't find any info on it. That should help better to decide what kind of poses would suit him.

Otherwise, I don't see much of an issue with your current pose.

[Kelvin]

He's kind of a mix between Rainbow Dash and Shawn Spencer; a cocky smartass who likes to taunt and mock his opponents, very sure of himself despite lack of experience, but with the exception of him knowing when to stop bragging. Since he isn't very physically strong, except for his tail, he depends on evasive moves and ranged attacks and traps.

Also, test animation for the idle pose.

Just a test run. The arms still need a little work. Gonna have them rotate a bit too instead of just sliding up and down.