Enchlore's new adventures

[Enchlore]

Hey there! It's been a long long time, hasn't it?

I had a sprite thread but I kinda disappeared from the forum and it sank to the bottom of the forum, so I thought it would be better to make a new thread since what I'm doing now is pretty disconnected to what I was doing before.

So, the reason I disappeared is simply that I lost interest in spriting and video games in general because I was off music-ing. But recently I got an itch to be productive again, so I started a new and less ambition project. Specifically, a Super Mario Bros. X episode because that's simple enough for me.

I want to take advantage of the upcoming new version, since it allows for smaller file size for graphics as it revamps the graphic systems. So I intend to change every graphic because that's fun to me.

I started out trying to transform the default Super Mario Bros. 3 Mario into a more modern looking version:


Does it look too weird? I'm trying to stay within the same size of the original sprite, and I plan on changing the palette later (I'm using the SMB3 palette as a placeholder), as that would be slightly troublesome because I'm colorblind.

[Red Haired Bastard]

he looks alittle too chubby for a guy who runs and can jump really high.
his nose seems alittle too droopy too.
marios gettin old.

[Enchlore]

But Mario's supposed to be chubby... I guess I could make him slightly less so. I see what you mean with the nose, I'll try to revamp it.

Here I made the nose less pointy and attempted to make a decent palette. Does it look better with a black outline or a colored outline?

[miyabi95_]

Spoiler

I think most of the chub is in his belly. And maybe those curves in his face. Otherwise, his design is quite aerodynamic these days, especially in Smash Bros. 

Spoiler

But back then he was pretty stocky/heavyset. 

Spoiler

If you're trying to fuse the two styles together, then I say you're headed in a good direction. c: I personally think it looks better with the SMB3 palette, but it's up to you.

[Enchlore]

I modified the sprite a little bit and changed the palette. Personally I'm a bit sick of the SMB3 colors and I'd like to put an unique identity in the sprites.


Changed his position slightly and made him a bit slimmer.

[Enchlore]

I further modified the face, mainly the nose, and consequently had to change the body. I think the result looks better. I also changed the palette once again and did away with the black outline version.


Also working on a rocky mountain tileset. I'm not that experienced on making tilesets so I'll need all the advice I can get on how to improve this one. Please tell me if the palette is looking right - the rocks are supposed to be gray, but when choosing the colors I often got shades that looked a bit like brown to me.

[Enchlore]

Major revamp of the Mario sprite.

[Joxon]

The perspective for the Mario Sprite is really off. The feet are facing forwards while the rest of Mario's body is 3/4ths angle. I feel like the colours could overall use some hue shifting. Right now it looks fairly bland, overall. Also, it feels more like the hand/glove is right in front of the arm, unless that was your intention. The grass on the tile set could use some more contrast, too. Looks pretty good, though. The Mario revamp is definitely an improvement.

[Enchlore]

The feet are facing forwards while the rest of Mario's body is 3/4ths angle.

Ohh I see what you mean. I moved a few pixels to make it look more in line, does it still look odd? The hand is supposed to be in front of the arm.

I had made some other modifications before getting back here, by the way.

I'll try to make the grass colors contrast more, meanwhile I have expanded the tileset.

[Enchlore]

Started a walking animation. I'm not very confident on it, his right foot looks too small on the third frame but when I made it bigger it didn't look like it was moving.




Edit: Made it more smooth.

[Enchlore]

After many failed attempts to make a decent star shape, I've settled on what I thought was my best try.

[Kelvin]

The eyes on this version look better than the last one, but the latest nose looks better than this one. As for the body, it looks like his torso is at a 3/4 angle, but his legs are at a perfect 0° when standing. His background leg and hand should be visible from that angle as well. Look at how I did mine:

[Enchlore]

Yours looks odd to me actually. It's more like a "ready to fight" pose than the neutral pose I was aiming for, so having the background limbs visible in mine would look off. And I opted for larger eyes because Mario is supposed to have big eyes.

[Joxon]

The ready-to-fight pose isn't a result of making all limbs visible.

Here, in Super Mario World, Mario faces at a 3/4ths view most of the time. The back foot is visible in the idle sprite, and anywhere else it would make sense to show it. The back arm isn't showing in the idle sprite, but it is everywhere else. Any other sprite with a 3/4ths view would look the same, as well.
As with the eyes, your eyes make Mario look bug-eyed. The reason most eyes tend to be 2x3 pixels instead of a larger variant to follow Mario's art, is (I think) because Mario's face can't have fit that amount of detail, with his large nose and moustache. There's not enough room to put detail into the eye to avoid the wide-eye look without opting for a bigger head-size.
Also, IMO, the colours still need work. The blue is bland and unappealing to look at, as is the red.

[Enchlore]

Better?

Making colors is a shot in the dark for me but I tried making them more vibrant and eye-catching.