E-Man returns to pixels

[Bynine]

Human base looks pretty funky, I get it's stylized but a lot of things are off like the connection between the calf and foot as well as the shape of the limbs in general

Also, why a base? Wouldn't you want to make each character separately so they have more differences than clothes and hair?

[E-Man]

I am using a base because there are some characters that have similar body types. To save myself some effort, I can apply changes to the base (i.e. altering the hight) when I see fit. Say what you will about it, but I rather avoid making an entirely fresh human from scratch if it's just going to end up looking exactly like a slightly edited version of the first one I created. The only exception for me not using a base is if I need to create a character with an extreme body shape that my normal human base couldn't handle. Get what I'm saying?

Anyway, while it's hard for me to understand all the anatomy problems you pointed out, I did my best and created this. I didn't know if you were talking about the male or the female, so I just went back to the female and edited it. Did I nail it this time?

   

[TheShyGuy]

Err I had a better response typed out..then I closed the tab =/

I'll just sum up what I wanted to say and try to focus on less ideas for criticizing at a time.

I have a few questions though. Why distinguish between a male and female template if their difference is minor? Why have them slouch or lean on one leg if its a template? Shouldn't that be applied to specific characters, not the template?

You have a few things to work on like anatomy, lines, shading, and poses. But right now, I'll talk about the lines. Not all pixel lines look appealing. Horizontal, vertical, 45 degrees ,etc lines are appealing and don't come off as jagged. This means that you can't pose the character exactly the way as initially intended. Choose poses and angles where the lineart will turn out appealing. I'd say go back and recreate the template with having better lines in mind. The biggest offender at the moment are the arms. You've done a good job improving the legs.

[E-Man]

Well, allow me to answer you questions then.

I want to distinguish between the male and female templates because males and females in real life have subtle, yet noticeable differences in anatomy. Since creating these differences for a female is harder to do than a male, that's why I started off with the female base.

Regarding slouching, I don't want to have my basic standing pose to look like a robot. I was thinking that the slouch would provide that kind of life-like pose. Still, not every human slouches like that, so if I try to make a high-class next, I need to edit the pose of the base when I get there. I might try to have more than one base for each gender, but I'll decide this when I make the next human sprites after the ones I have in mind.


Anyway, regarding your changes, I actually talked to Star about them. He said what I have is good for a stylized sprite, but what I need to iron out are jagged lines and banding in the shading. I haven't got any additional replies from him yet, but he said that so far the head looks fine (shading and all). From what you said, the anatomy of the legs is good, but I can assume that the shading needs work to make the banding less apparent. Besides fixing the leg shading, all I need to actually redo is the arms and probably the torso. I'll try to do an edit for those parts later.

[E-Man]

Smithy provided a good deal of feedback on these edits.

   

   

Am I getting closer to moving onto more interesting stuff, such as giving my Goomba more animations and actually editing my base into a character?

[Kelvin]

It looks like the very tip of the goomba's head is stretching back when it tilts. Maybe squish it just one pixel there.

[E-Man]

What about something like this then?

   

Anyway, nobody else said anything about my female human base, so I guess I could call that more or less completed. WIth that said, I started to work on the first female character to use it. Can you guess who it is?



By the way, I also attempted to try my male base again. What do you think?

EDIT: Omega mentioned that my male base would do with looking a little more blocky since he said that males are a little more square in their body structure. I'm not sure about this since I'm trying to create a basic pre-teen boy with no significant muscle mass, but I could give it a try.

[Mr. Jam]

For the bases, I think that maybe the head for both of them could be moved to the right a pixel or two. The female base's right arm(left of the sprite), could also be moved a bit to the right.

[Kelvin]

Yes, the goomba looks better now.

*pointy ears* As for the female humanoid, there is insufficient evidence to ascertain a positive identification on her. Live long and prasp her.

[FarmerM]

Your human female is improving nicely. It's still a bit -slouchy- like the head is pixel too far to the left.
Since you are wrapping up with it, I would really like to see the template used for something soon.