Kelvin Shadewing's Pixels

[Kelvin]

Boy it's been a long time since I was here. Anywho, I shrank the boots to make him less Megaman-like, and added jumping and a running sequence.

[Gors]

that jump is totally megaman though

if you want to stray farther from it i suggest a different jump pose

[Kelvin]

Well, most of his animations are based on Megaman; I just don't want his basic design to look like Megaman. Anywho, bit of a problem here with this guy:



So, yesterday, I came up with a game design, and had a flood of ideas for this game that I call Peck 'n' Chomp. It's kind of like Banjo Kazooie or Yooka Laylee where it's about two animal buddies that cooperate, but the difference being in this that Peck the Oxpecker and Chomp the Alligator could separate from each other to do things the other couldn't do, but at the same time, Chomp would get a slight mobility boost while Peck was riding him.

The problem I'm facing, however, is I can't really seem to give this guy much of a visual identity. Apart from being a cute, pudgy gator with big goofy eyes and deceptively friendly smile... I just don't feel that there's much character in his appearance.

He's a pretty good swimmer, takes out most enemies in a single gulp, is very strong, and not the brightest guy, so your typical brawn character. I just feel that his appearance isn't very identifiable. I tried a few alternate color palettes, but still, I need some advice. Any ideas you guys might have?

Funny thing to note about Peck is I've already imagined him looking nothing like a real oxpecker, and more a different type of bird entirely.

Anywho, gimme some feedback, because I already like this character a lot, and I wanna make him good, because I also wanna see this game idea through.

[MotorRoach]

I don't know what to say about the design, other than suggesting distinct scale-like feature to maybe his limbs... what I do know is that the animation is very choppy and stiff. What is it even supposed to be doing? Why does he move like that? It just feels unnatural in general.

You shouldn't rotate the head like that at all, because it makes the animation look like it's made of cardboard. If anything, you could make a better impression of making him face slightly upwards by making it look like that the vertical angle of his head is actually changing, instead of just taking his head and rotating it like that... it looks awful.

The little amount of frames don't help the animation either. There's like three or four sprites in there? It makes the animation feel simplistic to the point of being generic, in terms of movement flow. I strongly recommend adding more frames and speeding up the animation, because it's entirely unnatural as it is now.

And at last... the eyes are kind of awkward. Why is the eye looking at the camera while the head is facing ahead of him? Can't his pupil face the same way?

[Kelvin]

I know the animation sucks; this is basically just a doodle I threw together to show the character thus far. I didn't add many frames or completely redraw the parts because I just wanted to throw the design out there before I put a lo of time into it because I don't want to have to scrap a bunch of stuff. I'm asking for an opinion on the character's appearance, like what color palette to use, or maybe add a piece of clothing or something?

And the eyes are gonna stay like they are; his personality is kinda floaty and he's not the most focused guy, so I made the eyes match that.

[Neslug]

If you really want to sell the goofy personality with appearance, I think the eye should be changed. It's your sprite though so feel free to do whatever.

Tried a thing.


Changes:
- Two different mouths, longer makes it more alligator-like
- Reduced number of lines on the belly, less detail makes it slightly more cartoony in my opinion

[SuperWarioWorld]

My problems with the actual sprite are the fact that both of his hands/claws look extremely strange in their positioning and it doesn't really look like he's standing on his feet, more like he's balancing on his toes.

[Gors]

Honestly nothing really sticks out. It's simply a fat biped crocodile.

I get that Banjo & Kazooie (and Yooka Laylee by extension) are popular, but I don't think it's great to have equally uninspired character design.

"But Banjo & Kazooie is great, it's my childhood videogame and stuff"

Yes, I get it. There's that, too. However honestly, grabbing a normal animal and drawing it upright isn't exactly what I'd call "10/10 amazing character design". Try making your character more like YOUR character, and less like "something anyone could come up with".

[Kelvin]

Honestly nothing really sticks out. It's simply a fat biped crocodile.

I get that Banjo & Kazooie (and Yooka Laylee by extension) are popular, but I don't think it's great to have equally uninspired character design.

"But Banjo & Kazooie is great, it's my childhood videogame and stuff"

Yes, I get it. There's that, too. However honestly, grabbing a normal animal and drawing it upright isn't exactly what I'd call "10/10 amazing character design". Try making your character more like YOUR character, and less like "something anyone could come up with".

You've basically just reiterated exactly what I've been asking for. >.-.< Heck, I've only ever played five minutes of Banjo Kazooie in my entire life; I'm not a fan of the game or anything. I'm just using the design of two animals working together.

Anyway, I changed the eye, cheek, and muzzle, so I think it looks cuter now, and I've decided to go with the second palette.

[Gors]

I think a good example is Bubble Bobble's Bub and Bob



They're supposed to be dinosaurs, but they're stylized in a way that makes them unique. They aren't simply short dinosaurs - you can recognize them for what they are.

I think they achieved that with interesting color schemes (different colored limbs), different proportions and specific features such as the buck tooth.

look for other reptile characters, it might be good inspiration.

[Filler]

For character design, I suggest doodling up many different ideas and styles without really getting the destructive thought of "What does X have to look like?".

Just doodle what you think and like. Not going by annoying theory and fundamentals, that thought of using formulas and principals itself is why we have so many generic designs these days. Not to mention, we also influence ourselves by stereotypes.

I mean, how many times will we have to see the generic animals just put on 2 legs with no interesting character traits, and then design it to let appeal drown into it? Quite a-lot, from what I see.

Your crocodile/alligator design looks like a generic cuddle toy I would buy for the youngsters. You don't have anything interesting going on, he's just a crocodile that looks cute.

What's his story? His personality? Is he dumb? Smart? Sarcastic? Does he have a strong body type? Or is he weak? How does he relate to the other characters in his or hers story? Does the crocodile hate others? Like other characters?

These are questions you should ask yourself while making characters.

Also, the shapes and contrasts and designs used make him look generic. There's no interesting traits or design choices. His colour choice is also thought-less, like most cartoon colours (Brown trees, blue water, blue skies, green grass). Try using other closer colours to green (like red-green, or blue-green). As simple basic colours tend to be boring.

Heck, some characters don't even need to be well-received to be recognizable. Some characters are just famous because they're hated so much. Like Navi and Bubsy. Well, at-least Bubsy had SOME design, unlike the blob that is Navi.

Just try to create something YOU like. And not try to go cute and "appeal to everyone" by making things cute. As that's just a waste of talent and time. As no-one is going to make everyone happy.

[Silversea]

I was trying to design a fairly generic animal character recently (generic in that is isn't anthropomorphic or anything just the typical quadruped design) and the first thing I looked it was what could be customized, as well as what colour markings/palette could be used. The bubble bobble characters are a really good example of customization with the added cheek spots, colour palette, eyes, and different but similar proportions.

You don't want the entire character to look mostly uniform in colour. Even though Banjo (as an example) is all brown, he has his clothing which adds new colour interest visually. Keeping to uniform or similar colours is what makes things look generic and realistic. But you can "recover" a generic colour palette in the character design. It comes down to the eyes, proportions, and personality. You made a good start by shortening the snout and stuff.

(I like those sprites by the way, they are very clean and sharp and the shading works really well. But just see what else you can pull off on the design, you might be surprised).

[The KKM]

Throw in a note to "put the eyes back as they were, regardless of what else you change". The deadset eyes looking into nowhere sell a different kind of goofyness than the half-closed eyelids. If anything I'd take it further and move the eyes further to the back.

[Kelvin]

Well, it's sure been a while since I posted any crap here, so here's more of my terrible pixels things.

First, it's a sprite that someone asked me to make for them. It was supposed to just be a simple shot animation like X uses in Megaman X on SNES, but I decided to give the gun some more recoil and have the hair flap back to give it some more weight.

Looking at it again, I think I should add a frame where the hair goes back a bit further and then moves forward back into its resting position, cuz it kinda just stops dead.

This one's for someone's Undertale fangame. I never thought I'd end up touching anything related to Undertale, but here ya go. They made the standing and laying frames; I did the falling animation.


And one of the public resources I've been working on recently, a collection of gems.


And then there's my new avatar. I wanna make the wings better, but I'm not sure how to do so.

On a unrelated note, when I get sleepy, my internal reading voice thingy turns into Peanut Butter Gamer. I don't know why.

[Hiynastrike]

that arm cannon doesn't feel like it has enough kick, a blast like that would look more realistic if her arm jerked back in addition to the muzzle climb. For example