Project: Aura, sprites and more

[[Faint]]

So I am trying to get back into spriting after a good deal of time.

*NEW* Main Character for my game.Characters in my game have "Aura Abilities", and each one has its own "Overdrive" like mode called "Releases"(not final name).As the player continues through the game, the characters "Releases" get better and take on new forms....tell me what you think of this idea.

Character's name: Aisu
Aura ability: Ice
Fighting style: Fists-->Fists and Kicks-->Fists,Kicks,and Sword.


*NEW* Element icons for my game (*edit* toned down the gloss a bit.)


*NEW but not game related*
Hitsugaya Toushiro

Spoiler: ShowHide

Tell me what you think.

here is some older stuff I have done.

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[Subsonic_Noise]

Awesome. Besides the hair which needs sone shading work, I don't really see any other flaws. So don't worry, you are still allowed to sprite for endzeit :V

[ShadowPierce]

->Congratulations, you're hired! *hugs, levels up & adds to Team Wipe in the recruitment thread*


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[[Faint]]

 love how I am told what I am going to do lol

[ShadowPierce]

->Does that mean you're actually joining Team Wipe? *puppy eyes*


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[King Munkey]

Maybe if you asked him instead of telling him he may consider it.

[Dweller]

awesome work, congratulations.

[legacyblade]

The shape of your sprite is great. I love the proportions and how you drew the hair. Though one thing I see is that it really needs improved shading. You've done better shading in some past drawings, so I know you can. The hair is pillow shaded. I know the sprite is larger than a charset, but you should still put the same level of detail into the shading. Look at how RTP or HK hair is  shaded. It'll help. As far as I can see, his clothing is flat colors. You need more colors in there to add contrast and shape to the nice little pixel man.

Good job on this, it looks great. But since you're trying to get back into spriting, I thought you might appreciate some advice.

[[Faint]]

updated the sprite. tell me what you think. I know pillow shading is taking one color and going around the edge and then taking a lighter shade and repeating that a few times. I did not do that. the color contrast for white parts on sprites pisses me off....(the hair and layer of robe)

[legacyblade]

Pillow shading is when you have more or less a smooth gradient between parts. It doesn't look like that now (if you changed it), but the hair is flat. It needs more color in it. Shading for a sprite is a lot different than shading for an anime drawing. The pants look good now. But the white part of the clothing looks a tad bit flat. A good example of white clothing is the RTP angels. use a bit of gray for the darker colors (light gray). It'll add a lot more depth to the drawing.

[[Faint]]

A good example of white clothing is the RTP angels.

Thanks a lot for that tip. I tried it out, result in first post.

[legacyblade]

Wow. huge improvement there. I'm loving your shading on the clothes. They don't look flat anymore. Still not a fan of the hair, but if you like it that's all that matters, eh? Good job at returning to the wonderful world of spriting.

[[Faint]]

lol there is a lot of shading in the hair. used the same concept as the robe. I don't know why it looks different.

[legacyblade]

Hair shading is a LOT different than shading clothing. You have to use a lot of bits of overlapping shading to give the illusion of it being hair. If you shade it like cloth, it looks kinda like felt glued to their head, you know?

[[Faint]]

well I meant I used the same colors.

[legacyblade]

I just zoomed in to give you a critique. And wow, that's actually some pretty good shading. But the contrast is too low to see it. Try bumping up the contrast, and maybe add a touch of blue into the hair so that all that shading actually shows. That's some good work, but when you're zoomed out, it just looks like a flat color.

[[Faint]]

lol so you see it too. XD but yea I have to go to work so I will try to see what I can do tonight.


*edit* ok I added some blue swatches to the hair. looks better IMO.

[[Faint]]

So, is it better now?

[legacyblade]

It looks better. Something still looks off to me, but that's because I am beyond a perfectionist when it comes to sprites (I worry about detail no one will notice even remotely). I'd call it done.

[[Faint]]

lol what looks off to you?

[legacyblade]

The hair reminds me of a pill, and the hair spikes near his scalp on both ends remind me of playdough when you pull it and it has those little snakey things. Not sure how to fix it, those are just bugging me But I'd still consider it finished, unless you want to turn into the obsessive person I am.

[[Faint]]

lol yea I guess I can see how it might appear that way. Well anyways I updated another sprite. The main character for my game. I modified an old concept I had for him and I did a recolor. I tried to improve the color contrast.

[ShadowPierce]

->I don't wanna sound like a smartass, since I'm not exactly a spriter, but I can see that those wings need improvement... It should come from the shoulder blades, NOT THE NECK DOWN... And it should fold a bit lower, it doesn't seem to be very distinguishable as wings... It also looks rather big... Other than that, the design seems okay to me...

Maybe you can use these as bases:

Arctic Wings v1: ShowHide

Arctic Wings v2: ShowHide

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[[Faint]]

The wings come from the entire back. and the large size is due to the fact that they will beable to fold over and completly cover him as a shield when he is attacked. I based these wings off of  Hitsugaya Toushirou from Bleach. When he realeases his Bankai he gains large wings similar to this.

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[Dweller]

I like the wings but it seems that don´t match with the character itself.

The problem in my opinion is that the wings are simetrical and the character is in a side view (or at least not on a front view, like the wings), so the wings dont match. Put this wings on a front view of the character sprite and it probably look much better.

[ShadowPierce]

->Yeah, I think I've seen him.. He's one of the more popular characters of the anime... I think it should start from narrow (not too narrow though) then spreads wide & big. I think I've seen that somewhere, in the 'post your desktop' thread perhaps?

I'm just stating my opinion as someone average who sees it... Hope I don't sound too rude to you...

Also, what dweller said...


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[[Faint]]

yeah I noticed that I did that after I got into the wings a good deal. I had the character set to not visble and forgot what pose it was lol.I am thinking I might change my idea for what I want to do with this character when It goes into kind of like an "Overdrive" mode. The wings will take a long time to sprite for all the animation poses. I may go with something simpler such as Ice forming down the arms and maybe over part of the legs.

I don't know...give me your thoughts.

[ShadowPierce]

I like the wings but it seems that don´t match with the character itself.

The problem in my opinion is that the wings are simetrical and the character is in a side view (or at least not on a front view, like the wings), so the wings dont match. Put this wings on a front view of the character sprite and it probably look much better.

->I didn't notice those two things when I first saw the sprite, but now that you mention it...


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[Dweller]

The wings will take a long time to sprite for all the animation poses. I may go with something simpler such as Ice forming down the arms and maybe over part of the legs.

I´m on a similar dilemma with a 9 tentacles monster sprite to a Blizz-ABS game. To many sprites and to many tentacles...   (is now on my futured project folder). So I took the easy way, but at least is not forgotten.

[[Faint]]

yeah the wings were a good idea in theory but they are just not practical. let me know what you guys think of this new concept.

*updated first post*

[ShadowPierce]

->Haha,  yeah! Screw the rules! Though it suits the character pretty well, I think it doesn't have as much 'epic-ness potential' as the wing concept... But still looks good...


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[[Faint]]

I may pick the idea up again at a later time but right now it was more of a headache.

[King Munkey]

To throw my idea in on the sprite with the wing. I thought that the wing was too large and did not fit. I believe what you have now is much better than the wing idea. But then again I am the CP pet so what I say doesn't matter too much.

[[Faint]]

lol I care about what everyone thinks, except game_guy. j/k

[[Faint]]

Updated first post with element icons for my game. tell me what you think.

[ShadowPierce]

->They look pretty good, & good job on the 2 levels of "overdrive"! I might still invite you to be a spriter on Project Wipe in the future, but I'll support your game... I see some similarities with your project & mine that's why I seem to have taken notice of it...

Good luck!

P.S.
What element was the last icon?


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[Dweller]

I like those icons, actually I use similar ones on a personal project

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but I don´t like very much that gloss effect,  remove it and probably that will enhance the items.

[[Faint]]

I am thinking about lowering the opacity on the gloss just a little but I am keeping it since it matches my menus and with out it they look too flat and bland. and for the last element well I guess it wouldn't hurt to say it, it's metal(Steel).

[poxy]

Nice icons and great sprites. I would remove some of the icon gloss though, but they're cool overall.
In my experience, it's better not to try and force a sprite to look good through compulsive work. If you get bored or sick of working on a sprite, work on the game itself and when you're testing it you will more likely see if there's anything wrong with it, and better be able to fix it if it bugs you.

[[Faint]]

Thanks   nice to know people like my style of doing things

*edit* I toned down the gloss a little on the icons. I feel they look better now.

[King Munkey]

Icons look a lot better with the fixed gloss.

[[Faint]]

Thanks, I have been really busy with some other stuff in my life last day or two, but I am going to see if I can manage to get another sprite done.

[Shalaren]

your spriting is great , really like the style, though the hair looks kind of, short - ish..

[[Faint]]

  Short - ish

[[Faint]]

Hey guys (and girls), I need some help. I need some ideas as to what the 3rd release should possibly look like. Toss me some ideas.

I really dont want to take this really cheap and already made sprite idea. (recolor of Ragnarok Online's "Garm")

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[ShadowPierce]

->How about claws? Or make one arm covered in ice all the way to make a spike/sword?


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[[Faint]]

Hmm claws are kind of hard to really show in detail on a sprite. and the ice sword arm thing is cliche imo. But I did work with the idea of a sword and decided to have the final for look like the second but also for a nice ice sword for him to wield.

*UPDATED FIRST*

[ShadowPierce]

->Well, those are just the first things that popped into my mind...

IMO, the arm-sword isn't too cliche, but it's still your decision that counts... Hmmm... Then I'll just tell you some more of my opinions... I think that the ice element would look better on a katana than a broadsword, and maybe try making him give off some sort of aura... Also, adding ice to his other arm would probably look better... And I think the sword seems too square-ish...

I really like your graphical style... Hope your project doesn't get abandoned...


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[[Faint]]

take a look at Yu Yu Hakusho and look at Team Masho during the Dark Tournament  series. Touya the Ice Master uses the ice sword on the arm thing. Thats what it makes me think of. I was contemplating the Katana also, but the only problem is thats really cliche too. lots of "cool character that summon swords" use a katana lol. thats why I went with a slightly broader sword. as for square-ish....hmmm well the only part I can see that is really like that is the tip and that is because the outline is a dark color so it ends up blending with the shoes kind of. If I lighten the color then it is hard to see over the ice >_<

[King Munkey]

What about a hammer instead?