E-Man's Sprite R & D

[Virt]

Something bothers me about the Goomba (unanimated) but I'm not sure what. I'll try editing it later.
I don't know if you're trying to be 100% accurate to the ingame designs, but the shape of the mushrooms is off. The width of the original is fine, but the actual shape of it is off. I'll try to edit it later also.
(Later, only because homework is in the way.)
Also, the new axes have a lot of unnecessary colors.

[E-Man]

Well, I thank you for attempting to sort those out by creating edited versions of the Mushroom and the Goomba then! To give a prediction of why the Goomba looks funny, does it have something to do with the left side of the head? The way the "cheek" comes out might be a little strange.

As for the Axes, I only gave them so many colors because Ton didn't like how flat they are. It's either I keep them flat or I use a plethora of colors. Got any third options you would like to suggest?

[Virt]

You don't have to use these, but this is how I would've sprited these.

[E-Man]

Hmmm... I'm quite impressed, Trollerskates, but I think I will politely turn down your sprites. Not only have they shrunken a little bit, but they look too much like the official artwork. While there's nothing wrong with that, it just isn't the style I'm going for. The style I'm going for is trying emulate the offical artwork, but trying to put my own spin on it. As a result, I think I would keep my Goomba the way he is (unless someone else wants me to change him). Thank you for trying to help me on that aspect.

Of course, I do like how you did the Mushroom's general shape. I was stumped on how to do it, but now that I have a grasp on the general shape, I know exactly how to sort out my own fungus!



This is what i got after infusing my previous version of the Mushroom with some of your design elements. What do you think?

Also, if it won't be too much trouble, got any other suggestions on my Axe? I know that it shouldn't be flat, yet it should possess too many colors either. What would you think?

[Virt]

I think the main thing bothering me with the goomba is the weird perspective. I mean, I know you're trying to convey depth but the one eye being so much thinner than the other is kind of weird.

Also, for the axe, I'd recommend combining colors that are similar to each other, like so:

I tried condensing the palette a bit without taking away from the shading you were trying to convey.

[Garamonde]

Mighty, I know you're one of my good friends on this web site and I respect you, but why didn't you tell me all of this and specifically pointed out the flaws during the many weeks I worked on these sprites in this topic?

http://www.vg-resource.com/showthread.php?tid=23952

Forgive me if that came off as impolite, but if you see some problems with these sprites, then it would have been easier for the both of us if you pointed these out a long time ago. On top of that, since I didn't get a whole lot of feedback on these sprites and I keep getting advice that contradicts the other bits of advice I get, I did my best with the information I had to work with.

For the hue shifting, I'm already trying to decrease the saturation and make my shades darker than they already are. Even though I have a solid understanding of how hue shifting works at this point (a red base color gets orange highlights and violet shading), you suggest that I crank it up. I would consider it, but what if I end up going too far and ending up with a yellow highlight for a red base color? I try to alter my hue value in the hue/saturation window by about 10 or 20 ticks for each lighter/darker value just to be safe.

As for banding, I can see some of the areas that would suffer from this. Sadly, according to Gors, there are just some areas that are nearly impossible to avoid banding, such as a vine or a pole, due to how thin and cylinder-like these areas are. Even though those areas are excusable, I think what else you mean are the areas with wonky shading, such as my Star. I get why those areas look funny, but since my skill at shading areas is anything but perfect, I was almost hoping that someone would take the problem sprites and show me how to properly shade those areas in the style I have chosen. That way, I can learn from that mistake and eventually apply better shading without the help of others.

Do you get what I'm saying, Mighty? Please forgive me for this rather blunt opinion. I didn't mean to sound impolite during my explanation. I'm just confused about what to do for this whole matter.

Like I said I did not look at your thread until now... I don't know what else I could tell you other than what I said.

[E-Man]

Hey, it's alright now, Mighty. I know you're trying to help me, but I think Gors, Bombshell, Ton, and Trollerskates could take it from here. No offense or anything.

As for you, Trollerskates, I didn't think that the eye would be the problem! Thanks a bunch for telling me this! Here's how I decided to fix it up. What do you think?



By the way, I really like how you handled my Axes! Would you mind if I "steal" them as long as I give you credit?

[Virt]

Go ahead, use them. It's not a very big change.

[E-Man]

Well now! After my interactions with you, I have to say that you're a pretty swell user, Trollerskates! Thank you for everything you've done to help so far!

Anyway, with everything that I've gathered, I think I can finally wrap up with sprite sheet. See anything else I need to address before I send it off on it's merry way? (Note: For this submission, feel free to extract it out of this topic instead of the topic I used to post my submissions.)




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[Virt]

I think the sheet is a little cluttered. I don't think all those extra details (final thoughts, animation timing) are necessary.

[E-Man]

I could almost agree with you on the final thoughts, but I just don't know about the animation timing. If I were to exempt them, no one would know for sure how my sprites are supposed to be animated correctly (unless i made it a big ZIP file that contained GIFs I pre-animated). Sure, it uses more space than most spriters would like, but I couldn't think of any better way to do it. Got any suggestions on a compromise?

[Virt]

.......Don't include them at all. People don't need to know how to --exactly-- animate your sprites, IMO.

[E-Man]

True, but I just wanted to save a lot of frustration for people who use my sheet. Besides, if you look at the animated version of my Goomba, there's actually a very complex way it is animated.

Anyway, I think I'll let Ton be the judge of this. Since he knows layouts, he'll know for certain if my layout is good enough or needs to be changed.

[Ton]

Hmm, I don't think it's too cluttered, really. There's a lot on there, but it's all sectioned off and looks organized. I don't think the notes are a bad idea, but keep in mind that if someone uses the sprites, they'll probably ignore them anyway.

For the Star, I was actually thinking you could make the main yellow "yellower" and then highlight with white, rather than adding another shade to the dark part of the palette. I think you can get away with white-yellow-dark yellow on the star.

[Gwen]

My two cents are that you're underestimating people who might be using your sprites in the future. I'd get rid of the final thoughts for sure, the animation notes are quite unnecessary but if you really want them there, then whatevs. I'd also remove the sprite gag, it's just extra space, random, and it's not really that funny if you ask me...