CoatRack's Sprite Hangar

[CoatRack]

So, I've been working on expanding my sprite skills recently. Namely in spriting humans and backgrounds, and have been finding myself coming up short in quality. So this is gonna be my little workshop where I'll post my sprites as I work on them, so you guys can tear me apart as I over look flaws in them.



A nice little background of a cloudy sky.


Same one as the last one, but the sun has set, and there is a hot air balloon floating above the clouds.


Yet another background, this time though. we are looking from off the shore of an coast into the sea, With clouds lining the ocean under a moonlit sky. Although I fell flat on my face when I started on the water, so I have left this thing alone until I could figure out something that would work and not be a pain to animate.


And finally my latest sprite works, two of my own characters I designed for a project I have been working on. Cirrus Carlson and Pastel Skye, these both mark as my first acceptable human sprites I have made, all my other ones looked like rubbish, so I am seeking to improve here a lot.

[Kelvin]

The first two are flat-out beautiful. The third one has an odd perspective on the beach, and the clouds are gradient-shaded.

[Silversea]

Love the first two! 

If I had to crit image two, I'd say that some of the orange-reddish clouds are too similar in shade and blend together. If two layers are blending together to the point that you can't really see a differentiation, there isn't much point having it there in most cases. I'd consider having the purple-orange transition more gradual overall from front to back, it sort of starts at purple and abruptly jumps to red and orange.


Some advice for background three:

For the third I notice you've used a gradient for the sky. I wouldn't recommend this, it isn't a nice effect for sprites or pixelled textures/backgrounds, especially since you've done fine without it on the first two. For the clouds, they look a bit flat. If you are going to use one shade, include more of it in shadow like in this crap 10 second sketch I made:



However, to keep with the style, it is probably better to keep them unshaded. None of your other clouds are shaded, so it might look odd. For the moon, instead of using grey to portray the darkened area of the moon, try using the blue of the sky.

I would suggest darkening all of the clouds (including the horizon clouds) so they don't stand out so much. Night time focuses more on darkness, with focus on the light sources where they exist. The clouds at the moment are sort of distracting as they are. Imagine if you stood outside at night and looked at clouds. The moon should be the main focal point of this scene since it is the only light source (and a bright one at that).

Sorry for the ramble, just some personal suggestions.

[CoatRack]

If I had to crit image two, I'd say that some of the orange-reddish clouds are too similar in shade and blend together. If two layers are blending together to the point that you can't really see a differentiation, there isn't much point having it there in most cases. I'd consider having the purple-orange transition more gradual overall from front to back, it sort of starts at purple and abruptly jumps to red and orange.

Is this better? I added in some more purple while also making the other clouds shade jumps bigger.

[Silversea]

If I had to crit image two, I'd say that some of the orange-reddish clouds are too similar in shade and blend together. If two layers are blending together to the point that you can't really see a differentiation, there isn't much point having it there in most cases. I'd consider having the purple-orange transition more gradual overall from front to back, it sort of starts at purple and abruptly jumps to red and orange.

Is this better? I added in some more purple while also making the other clouds shade jumps bigger.

Yes that looks better.

[CoatRack]

Just finished the base work of a new  character sprite, I haven't done shading yet though as I am trying to get the human anatomy down in sprites. 

[Virt]

*glances at your familiar username* Huh.
Anyway. The skies are nice. The outlines on that character should be darker.

[CoatRack]

I live! haven't been spriting much until today, been busy with life and all. I decided to sit down for a bit and work on my sprite skills, so I cobbled together a small tile set, I plan on making more to this set later but here's what I got so far.

[StarSock64]

ah I love little rooms like that! seeing the sky in the background gives it a nice vibe

[Silversea]

I like this a lot... You need to be careful of two things though.

- the shading on the metallic cylinder. You want to make sure it doesn't look out of place, and try and avoid pillow shading if you can
-try and keep the tiles lined up. the bottom left area doesn't line up quite as cleanly. It will look more awesome if it is perfectly aligned.

[CoatRack]

Hey guys, been ages since I last posted here, today though I got inspired to sprite some ideas I've had floating around in my head for awhile. I haven't started the shading on them, but just the base colors and lineart.