Pixel Practice - Terrorverse

[Bombshell93]

Hello ladies and gentlebutts!

original post

I've not been here in a while but I return with purpose, after a hodge podge while of crappy jobs I have got in to University for a Game Design course! My pixel skills have kind of turned to slop recently, I figure some training could help out a lot! That said, I am following a theme with my University work, the Terrorverse! a comic-book inspired world where people and animals are horror archetypes.
Just to give you a taste of the junk I've thrown together recently,
EDIT: I'd probably do better to explain what these are meant to be, the character to the left, was meant to be a humanoid candle... didn't pull it off to well, the character to the right, was mildly inspired by Momodora

So not all that impressive, while I enjoy working within limitations I'm not looking to make graphics which I have to scale up to be visible, my goals are something along the lines of Shantae Pirates Curse by Wayforward, and believe me, I understand how much of a ridiculous improvement goal that is for 2 months, but I figure, go for gold or go home.

EDIT:
So here is a retry of the Candle lady idea, "Wick, the candle witch", as you can see I'm also trying some color theory / shading practice too, but I don't think its going all that well.


trying to break the rut I'm in,

<< this turned out a lot more mobile than I realized, it was meant to be an idle pose wiggle
Any and all Comments and or Crits of the work I've posted (as admitedly a little amount it is) is greatly appreciated,

Current progress, I'm gunning for a run animation, I'm quite enjoying the idle though

EDIT: so more of a try on the Sadie character, I've grown fond of the design and have started plotting out gameplay and story, a good warm up project for Uni,

large images

I don't really like this sprite though, I want to go a bit smaller and... well it just looks ugly as is
EDIT:

I am definitely enjoying this sprite a lot more, I can work better with animating it and it reads comfortably from normal res and up close
EDIT:

the way the hair flick is, is intentional, I'm aware it would turn with the head but I'm holding it more as an icon of the character
Thank you for reading,
Scott H "Bombshell"

[Gors]

the body twists way too much on this one, try keeping it facing forward mostly. The hand getting shaded when going on her back further emphasizes the twist.

the ambient lighting (the yellow light around the outline, after the shade blob) is too harsh both in this image and the next one, even with the edit. Use a darker color.

Also, design idea, her design should emphasize the fact that she is a candle, e.g:



waxy white skin and 'molten' hairstyle. You can further improve the design by making her scatter wax drops as she does some actions, too.

[Bombshell93]

more difficult than I'm thinking it should be, I might try a different approach on living candle, maybe more candle than humanoid, but I still want the character to be clearly female.

EDIT: when all else fails do something simple!
so all this time I've been trying to make wax melt hair, which while the idea sounds like it'd work, in pixel form it means out of place curves and awkward asymmetry, someone better could probably make it work, but I figured I'd take something simpler, CUTE CANDLE HAT!!

[SageHarpuiaJDJ]

Oh! I remember you!

Nice stuff so far! I really like this style.

[Bombshell93]

thanks, its nice to be back
NOW GET FUNKY!


jokes aside ~ I'm doing the in between frames of this now, give a bounce to the funky moves
EDIT: ANIMATING IS HARD! I got it working, but I didn't but I did, but it was crap, but it was the best I could do, but I asdfqwerty!
cutting a long story short, what was a meh animation, I quickly overdid and turned into flop and pop and wiggly wobbly floop!
trying again with a different shape for the body

[TheShyGuy]

I don't see much problem with this animation. Although there are only 2 frames, it reads exactly as it should. There's no need for inbetweens.

-When you upload animations, it would be easier to criticize if it was at the appropriate game scale and not blown up.

[Bombshell93]

to be honest I posted that up as a joke, I've scrapped it since because I wound up with 8 frames of animation, which looked lovely and smooth and boring as hell
here is where I am at now, 8 frames of animation, it used to be a lot more boring, but it turns out making the move frames a bit more exadurated gave some life tot he animation,


EDIT: happy with the animation, sick of the character, I need a design jam or something because my designs have gotten stale, boring proportions, worthless head, no pop to speak of, hot damn I used to like my designs better than this, but I'm not content, I'll be posting again soon with a splash of designs, see what sticks
EDIT EDIT:
so I tried, failed, tried again, failed again, had a kip, a whole bottle of chocolate milk and blasted by brain to bits with electro poppy bouncy stuff and now I have 2 candidates... only 2... I'm not proud that theres only 2, but I do like both designs

EDITEDITEDIT:
lets give this a try

[Bombshell93]

trying to make a start on a run animation

ofc plenty of details missing, like the arms, the adorable bounce... oh yeah, and the head
I figure legs are always a pain in the rounder meat, so I'd give them a try first, see if I can get a coherent run cycle, I dont think I'm far off, but its certainly not as smooth as the jiggle above

[Bombshell93]

okay so after plenty of fiddling, I think I need some halp :'C
I tried a run animation and figured "I'm going for a shantae kind of feel, so I should probably start with a walk and base the run on that"
so I gave the walk a try and followed a typical if unimaginative walk cycle.
the cycle is smooth but something about it doesn't seem right, ofc I set it to animate slowly so the frames are observable
EDIT: thought I was making good progress there now I've hit a wall, actually not getting anywhere

[Bombshell93]

trying out some fiddling with colors
This character is Sadie, within the Terrorverse, one of the oldest races are the Weren, who are part beast part man, the most infamous for their unmet speed and frightful howl is the Lycanthrope (Werewolf), but Weren also commonly include Swinen (pig men), Gerrowen (amphibious men, typically frog), Aerocan (Harpies / Sirens / Bird men), those 4 are the most common, but others are intended to exist.

[Bombshell93]

so more of a try on the Sadie character, I've grown fond of the design and have started plotting out gameplay and story, a good warm up project for Uni,



I don't really like this sprite though, I want to go a bit smaller and... well it just looks ugly as is

[Bombshell93]

I keep trying but I'm not liking these sprites at all :C (I've tried about 20 times, most of them scrapped)

[Gors]

I think you should, on top of fixing the sprite, fix the character design too. Even though this character is supposed to transform into a wolf, no other features match with the wolf version, and vice versa. This makes the transformation seem like an afterthought.

Try making both forms slightly more similar to each other, not just in clothing. You could add that red hair bang on the wolf form, for example. That would also differ the character from other eventual wolf characters.

And I for one don't really like that long nose that much, the way it's made hurts readability with the eyes. Try using colored outlines for that, or using a smaller nose design.

[Bombshell93]

okay so this may be the other extreme of them looking too similar, but short of poofing away the clothes I think its got an alright effect, Lore wise I've not got a full explanation on how human transformable Weren are differentiated from pureblood Weren so I have some breathing room as to the human similarities.

EDIT:

I am definitely enjoying this sprite a lot more, I can work better with animating it and it reads comfortably from normal res and up close

[Gors]

I didn't mean cartoonifying the wolf to match the cuteness of the human form. The wolf form can be stronger and more menacing-looking, in a beastly way, but still retaining the character's key features. However if you feel satisfied with this design, then it's okay!