golem sprites

[Simpleton]

I don't do much pixel art, but I decided to give it a shot recently. Right now I'm looking to improve the base frames for a lvl1 unit and its two lvl2 advancements, modified from the Archaic Era's statue/stone/armor line. These guys are supposed to be made of clay so I went with gray on the skin.

Please don't hold back - I know there are probably some serious flaws in these that I've overlooked...

[ForestDragon]

soldier's head looks very small compared to other sprites

[Simpleton]

Thanks for the reply

Do you think the longswordsman needs a bigger head too? I sort of intentionally made its head bigger than the lvl1 unit. Maybe the knight's head should be cut down a bit... I'll post some new sprites soon

[ForestDragon]

well, you make lvl1's head exactly like the current longswordsman, and make lvl2's a bit closer in size to knight's

[DeCoolest_Cat]

Just a few things to point out.

1. The soldier has an axe, but both of its upgrades have swords, which seems weird.
2. The axe is in full color, while the swords and the body of everything else are colored grey.
3. The eyes look to high up on the head.
4. The Knight's "skirt", if you will, looks flat compared to the longswordman's

[Simpleton]

I sized up the soldier's head a little and added some "craked clay" highlights to the skin that hopefully aren't too busy. I think it works better than a gray palette. Also tried to use some darker colors to make the clothing a little more believable.

All good points DeCoolest_Cat. I'll give the knight an axehead and try to deal with the skirt issue

[DeCoolest_Cat]

The head is a huge improvement. Although I'm unsure what to think about the skin. On the previous version it looks too clean and statue-like, but know the golem looks more like a zombie to me. Maybe if the cracked clay was a darker shade of grey, it would looks better.

Another minor thing I noticed: the boots look similar to the knight's skirt, as in they are dull. I would try and post something of my own, but I'm about to go to sleep, but maybe tomorrow.

[Simpleton]

I'm not sure if this is an improvement but I made the skin red (clay can be red) and made the cracks a dark color. Less zombie bulgy vein-like?

[ForestDragon]

well, i guess you overdid it a bit (the cracks are a too black, while in reality, cracks would be something between your first and second edits)

[DeCoolest_Cat]

That doesn't look half bad. The cracks seem a bit dark, try lightening them a little. It still bugs me how the axe isn't all grey, and how it clearly looks Frankensteined. I know it sounds hard, but you might want to draw in your own axe, or at least recolor it to fit with the rest of the sprite.

Keep up the work, these looks promising.

[Simpleton]

Okay, I redesigned the head of the axe, and I agree it looks a lot better with more neutral colors (the blue was a little too shiny now that I see the alternative). I also lightened up the cracks, fixed up the right shoulder because it looked too stocky, and also cleaned up the left knee. Thanks as always for the feedback.

Overall it seems to be "out of focus" somehow and I'm struggling to fix it without adding awkward black outlines to the axe shaft, etc.

[Xara]

Everybody says he doesn't do pixel art, and then does it pretty well.

[DeCoolest_Cat]

I'm liking this new version a lot more. Only 1 flaw I see, the cracks. They still seem too prominent. I don't think you should lighten them any more, but make then thinner and fewer, especially on the arms.

With the axe, it looks much better with the grey, but I see what you mean with the out of focus-ness. Making the outline of the axe a darker brown wouldn't make it as awkward as a black, but would still help the axe pop.

[doofus-01]

Hi,

The Despair Statues mostly get their "made-of-stone" vibe from their grey color and the folded-arms stance they sometimes have. If you want to get cracks and obviously rock-like texture, it would help if you had more room to work with. Can you make the golems stouter and bare-chested, like the things in Era of Myths? (I think there are better-drawn "rock-man" sprites, but I don't remember which era.)

[Simpleton]

Thanks for the suggestions, and the encouragement! I haven't edited the level 1 sprite, but here are my attempts at the level 2s... I think the longswordsman has what DeCoolest_Cat has in mind with the fewer cracks.

Can you make the golems stouter and bare-chested, like the things in Era of Myths?

Actually I am planning a different sprite within this faction that is bare-chested, so you will get to see one like that eventually if you follow this thread. I'm thinking of modeling it off of the cyclops in era of magic (which is the placeholder sprite right now in the MP add-on). It's slow going for me though, and I started out using GraphicsGale which may or may not be the ideal pixel art editor. I'm learning GIMP now, which seems to be what most Wesnoth artists use. I feel like I should redo some of the coloring because it looks smudgy, and not "true" pixel art as I understand it