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

[Aura]

I have done both (although the dark colors may need to be a little more visible, and I'm going to make that really dark patch on the bottom of her robe lighter). Are there any more problems with her ?

[Blarumyrran]

Her breasts looks much better now.

The shoulders are too wide - and she still hasn't got hips.

Use the brightest color of your palette less - eg reserve the brightest color for the top of the breasts and maybe for a small part of the dress.

The contrast should be still higher. Gradient-like color transitions are bad, especially in pixel art; you could use only some 4 colors with a lot higher contrast between them, and it would look better.

Also, the ponytail looks like it's flowing upwards from her head - I imagine it's meant to be behind her head falling downwards; the ponytail should be (almost) completely covered by her head/shoulders.

And her right hand (HER right) should still be a lot darker, with no significant highlights.

And her belt should be higher up - belt is the visible hint for the connection of hips & belly; and in wesnoth sprites, the belly should be much shortened compared to the rest of the body.

[lostnumber]

Her face is also a little odd, it looks like her left eye is a few pixels higher then her right one, and I'm not sure what that red line is? Is she wearing war paint? Did she try to do her makeup while riding her horse to work? You might want to make her eyes a bit bigger as well so they are easier to see

I'd probably shrink the fire in her left hand down just a tad and move it closer to her fingertips, right now it looks kind of like her arm is on fire. Speaking of arms, it might just be me, but it seems like her left arm is a little too short. If you look at her hand you can see that it is almost the size of the rest of her arm combined, which I think is too exaggerated even for this kind of spriting.

More then her shoulders being too wide I think it might be her waist being too narrow and the lack of hips, which makes her shoulders look too broad in comparision. Try fixing that and see if her shoulders still look too big

I like the general posing of the left arm with the fire in it, but the fire in her right hand looks a little weird. I would consider adding a wizards staff or wand of some kind instead, or even just leaving it empty.

I would get rid of the pixel that you have representing her mouth (at least I think thats what it is) because you are working on a scale that is too small to show that kind of detail (I think thats why her face looks weird to me, you tried putting in all the normal features of a face without the room to do so).

Hope some of this helps

[lostnumber]

I would disagree about the belt needing to be higher up, although I guess it depends on her body proportions. Firstly I would try to give her hips and then adjust it if needed.

[fmunoz]

Of all adviced given, Blarumyrran's really could help you to improve. (Horse riding make up comments really doesnt give hints about how to fix things)
I did a quick edit to help you.

MagiV5vsV6.png (3.78 KiB) Viewed 4046 times

1 . You need a ligth source. Most if not all units have it in the upper rigth side (yellow point)
3. You need to change a bit your perspective, a bit more of the top of the head should be visible. Units are not standing sideways to us.
2. You need to check your unit with other ones in the game. Your unit is tall. Too tall with a long neck. My edit is still taller than most units.
(yes, I swapped 2&3)
4. Units are small so shapes sometimes need some exagertion. Give the girl hips.
5. Add more range of colours and get rid of the black outlines (use a darker shade of the colour) I added one brigther blue and 1 or 2 darkers.
6. Leave the xfs (flames and stuff) outside the unit images, it's better to add them later as halos from other png files.

7. Use a proper painting program with transparency and layers and stuff. Try http://www.gimp.org, it's free and really helps even if takes sometime to start working.

[Aura]

I made changes in line with most of that, although it doesn't look as good as the example. Do I need to make the dress bottom wider (I need to tweak the dresse's shading too) ?



I'm going to put a staff in our right hand, and change the hair some too.

[Cloud]

I would say it needs more contrast, and possibly a touch more saturation. Make the darks darker and see what happens.

[Frogger5]

I don't think the ripples in her dress are right to be truthful. There seem to be too many, and they don't really 'flow'. Good job though .

[lostnumber]

I made changes in line with most of that, although it doesn't look as good as the example. Do I need to make the dress bottom wider (I need to tweak the dresse's shading too) ?



I'm going to put a staff in our right hand, and change the hair some too.

She is still too skinny, try to make the hips a little bigger like in fmuonz example

[Aura]

Wider hips/dress, and I played around with the dark shades and made them darker.

[Frogger5]

Good, but seeing as her hips are wider, so should be the dress at the bottom where it hangs down.

[Aura]

I tried, but I think that looks worse. Just got to give her a staff and she's done.

Meanwhile, Amazon Spearwoman. Scratch but I used a reference. I seem to work much better that way.



I may or may not try my first go at animation with her.

EDIT : She looked a little short. Have fixed (and detailed the boots a little more). On a side note, are there any plans to ever give the Loyalist units (Spearman etc) female versions ? I know it'd be a lot of work but if so, I might try some.

[doofus-01]

The wizardess looks a bit skinny and awkward. If you don't want to do what fmunoz suggested, maybe widening the dress would help. The ponytail is also a bit odd with that gap between it and her head. Move it in closer like fmunoz did.

The spearwoman looks better, but her arms are too short. If you gave her an elbow on her right, you could probably lengthen her arm without the need to redraw the hand & spear.

On a side note, are there any plans to ever give the Loyalist units (Spearman etc) female versions ?

I doubt it. Some units don't have female units simply because it is a lot of work for not much affect, but I think the Loyalists are supposed to more closely follow historical precedent (of Europe) than something like the Elves do.
EDIT: Never mind, I didn't see your other thread on this subject.