Aura's Sprite Realm - New 23/1/10, Amazon Spearwoman

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Aura
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Aura's Sprite Realm - New 23/1/10, Amazon Spearwoman

Post by Aura »

Hi,
I'm new to this forum, and I'm here to get critique on some sprites I have made in a similar style to Wesnoth's. I'm also not a great animator, but hopefully I'll attempt some and improve later on.

Anyway, here's my first sprite:
Image
A Northern Archer, with and without cloak. His bow is supposed to look like a deer antler. It's completely from scratch.

Image
I also attempted a bow-firing animation for him too.
Last edited by Aura on January 23rd, 2010, 1:32 pm, edited 14 times in total.
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melinath
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by melinath »

Commendations for making it from scratch! Not *too* shabby. There are significant stylistic differences between this and wesnoth-style sprites. For example, it's facing the screen directly.
What style are you aiming for?

General things: It's very flat (partly because it's facing the screen directly and partly because there's no shading) and the arms don't have elbows. For shading, have a look at the sprite-making tutorial. It's really helpful.
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Turuk
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by Turuk »

One thing I noticed is that there is no separation between the head and the neck, so it seems as if one just flows right into the other, which makes the face look odd.
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Aura
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by Aura »

Ok, I made some edits, is this any more like Wesnoth style ?

Image
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thespaceinvader
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by thespaceinvader »

ImageImage

Judge for yourself ;)

For a less facetious response: your proportions are a lot more realistic than those we use in Wesnoth - we have quite chibi/deformed proportions, with big heads and hands, broad arms and legs, and fairly short bodies. It allows more space to fill in details like faces and fingers. Beyond that, you need to integrate the outlines with the colours more, particularly where they are not external outlines - things like the skirt on your sprite would be better with much lighter outlines, if at all.

You could also do with more variation in your shading in general.
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Aura
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by Aura »

I meant the shading more than the shape.

Here, I edited the shading again on the skirt and boots, and added some lighter outline in places, and thickened the arms and also slightly the legs. I'd prefer my guy to have a smaller head even though the Wesnoth ones have bigger heads because I think it looks better personally.

Image
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A-Red
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by A-Red »

The shading is pretty good, though I think you need another color for the metal areas, somewhere between the very bright highlight and the base color. The main issues the sprite has are related to anatomy and perspective. The arms, and to a lesser extent the legs, don't look like they have a bone structure--you need to show elbows and knees, even if the bend is only slight. The arms are a bit too short--if he held his arms straight down at his side, the ends of his hands would reach mid-thigh, which on a sprite with Wesnoth proportions means almost to the knee--the current hands reach to the bottom of the hips. The cape should appear past his left side outline at least a pixel or two (even if it's blowing in the wind you'd see some of the upper cape on that side, because it's anchored by the shoulder armor and draped around the outside of the shoulder).

Units in Wesnoth are viewed from slightly above--which is one reason the heads are large--while yours is viewed straight on. Achieving the right perspective is mostly an intuitive effort, so it's hard for me to describe to you how to do it--the shoulders, knees, and feet are very important for getting it, as is the size of the head.
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Aura
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by Aura »

I have made this (an Oriental or Desert wanderer archer):

Image

Only an edit this time, I took the Elf Archer and recolored bits and created some new armour pieces for him, and extended the cloak out. I might replace his weapon with a spear/staff.
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Neoskel
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by Neoskel »

Aura wrote:I have made this (an Oriental or Desert wanderer archer):

<Larelf of Arabia>

Only an edit this time, I took the Elf Archer and recolored bits and created some new armour pieces for him, and extended the cloak out. I might replace his weapon with a spear/staff.
Ah yes, good old frankensteining/editing. I am also a practitioner of this style. Really great job so far. I'd go for switching the bow to a staff as it will help distinguish him even more from the original unit. And it looks like you've yet to understand the glory of teamcolor.
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Aura
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by Aura »

The turban/hat could be team color I suppose. I've given him a scimitar and shield and added some team color, but I might change it to a spear/staff and see how that looks.

Image

I also had a quick shot at a desert mage (based off the Javelineer) and a camel rider. Any comments ?

ImageImage
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xbriannova
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by xbriannova »

Whoa your sprites are starting to approach Wesnoth style :D Keep up the good work. Event though they are merely edits they are extremely good! Keep it up and I hope to see original art from you some day. I could only wish that I'm as good as you haha
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Aura
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by Aura »

I hope if I continue to practice editing, I should be able to make some convincing scratch sprites in time :)

Image

Level 2 Camel Rider. Did I change him enough to warrant an upgrade ?
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xbriannova
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by xbriannova »

Hmm... The only difference seems to be only the shield... Nope, not enough. He doesn't look anymore capable. I'd say beef him up :D
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Aura
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by Aura »

Well, I changed the spear to a halberd, added armour to the camel, changed the turban, added a bit of face armour, added armour to the foot, and changed the shield.

But I can make his camel bigger and add a helm over the top of the turban too.
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StDrake
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Re: Aura's Sprite Realm

Post by StDrake »

i think he was considering the differences between the two camel in the single post, not that of the armored camel and the one in previous posts, that one makes a pretty nice upgrade
hmm if i may suggest something i'd say the weapon is a bit too far to the front, the rider would have to have quite a long arm to hold it like that
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