Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Yes

29 (54.7%)

No

24 (45.3%)

Total Members Voted: 52

[GiglameshDespair]

Certainly the largest and fanciest piece of pixel art I've done.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

So, I'm thinking about putting together a little 2d side scroller demo for myself to use on a potential future project, but first I really need some help tackling 2d character spriting. I mean, I'm just not sure where to start. I really want to go the route of hand-drawn everything (mostly), but what are the right dimensions between too detailed for one person to do a lot of and too small to show depth and interesting facets of character design? etc. etc.

EDIT: @Giglamesh, very nice!

[GiglameshDespair]

EDIT: @Giglamesh, very nice!

Cheers!

[GiglameshDespair]

A scholar character.

[Parsely]

Basically crossposting from the Random Things thread. Got some good feedback from my friends on Discord on this one already.

Spoiler: Slightly NSFW? It's a girl in a bikini swimsuit. (click to show/hide)

A scholar character.

You're improving!

[Arx]

The line implications there are a bit odd. The solid black line says there's a deep crease, which suggests that the crotch chould end about where the image cuts out. But since the bikini only starts there and there's no visible pubic hair or genitalia, it kind of implies she has some strange conical projection downwards between her legs.

Probably fixed just by removing the black lines.

[Parsely]

[AzyWng]

What's she holding?

And is she wearing a striped sweater or something over her dress?

[Parsely]

What's she holding?

And is she wearing a striped sweater or something over her dress?

He's holding a tiny purse with a long thin strap. Sort of like this.

He's not wearing a shirt, but I suppose it's not clear since you can't see his belly button with this skirt. I should probably change that. He has on a band bra, a skirt with kind of a high belly band, and shoulder length arm socks (or whatever you call them). Not pictured, but suggested, are thigh high boots and stockings.

[Rose]

I guess these fit here.

[Parsely]

I guess these fit here.

It looks like care was taken in the individual placement of pixels, though I would expect a little anti-aliasing to clean up those jagged lines, so I'd say yeah it fits here. I'd say that's closer to oekaki than pixel art and in some communities they would not define it as pixel art.

[Doubloon-Seven]

Little army guy I made. Making a larger assortment of these, hoping to create a sprite sheet with poses, weapons, other units, etc. Still need to work to get better at this, but hey. Keep in mind, though, this was supposed to be viewed at a much smaller size, being like 23~ pixels tall originally.

[Doubloon-Seven]

Spoiler: Fairly Sizeable Image (click to show/hide)

New stuff, including showing some other stuff. The body template, weapons designs (Pistol, Rifle, Grenade), as well as their poses. Rifle one is currently idle, pistol one is interchangeable, and the grenade is a (maybe bad) throwing pose. The fancy green gun is a Plasma Gun, which goes along with the trooper in the firesuit and the bronze helmet emblem. Not sure about the firing pose for him. I'm hoping to make either an SMG, a machine gun, a medic, or a flamethrower trooper after I touch up some firing poses. Thoughts?

[Parsely]

This is a good start. My major issue with this is that you're not distinguishing your colors enough when you shaded the uniform. At a glance it looks like it's just one color, which is not what you want if you're trying to add detail to your sprites. If you can fix that then this is passable sprite work. All your shapes are readable and it's fairly clear what all these objects are (except for the thing on the rifleman's chest, it looks like a metal plate or something but I think it's supposed to be webbing?).

As for animation: At these sizes you have to exaggerate movements in order to communicate dynamic action to the viewer. People coil up, they lean back and bend their legs and torso, when they throw things in order to put more energy into it. Try experimenting with that a little. In a four frame grenade throwing animation I would have:
Frame 1: Getting ready, grenade held in both hands near chest to show he's prepping it to throw
Frame 2: Starting to throw, he leans back, back leg bends, front arm goes out in front of his body, throwing arm is extending
Frame 3: About to throw, he is fully leaned back, he is actually a pixel or two shorter because he is bent over, his throwing and off arms are fully extended
Frame 4: Post-throw, the grenade has left his hand, his right side has moved forward with his throwing arm

If you want to do a two-frame, just do frame 3 and 4.

Also, if that fireman is meant to be in direct combat and not a support role (as in rear echelon) I recommend you try a different design. Historically, combat flamethrower operators just wore the same clothes as everyone else, but I understand if you want flamethrower units to stand out.

[Doubloon-Seven]

Thanks! I wasn't sure what to do with the uniforms, so I just did some shading on the arm creases. Still trying to get a read on how the human body moves, it's a good bit of trial and error right now. Also, I get that an asbestos firesuit isn't exactly good combat dress, but I did want to make them stand out. They're not exactly operating flamethrowers, more like big plasma guns that have a good chance to explode.

Anyhow, the thing for the rifleman is a metal plate, supposed to be painted with an emblem.

I'll try out posing stuff more, right now the joints look janky to me.