Dabbling in sprites
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Dabbling in sprites
I would be grateful for any advice and comment. It is my first sprite. What I aim for is a decent archer unit with belt quiver, recurve bow and not explicitly showing the bow string.
I am somewhat satisfied with the legs and the belt quiver, areas for which I lifted palettes from mainline sprites. Not so sure about the rest, the bow could be better, but I have trouble working with so few pixels. I am particularly clueless about the head. I don't like it, but I have no clear idea how to improve it. (I have some idea, how I can improve the gambeson with different palette and shading.)
I am somewhat satisfied with the legs and the belt quiver, areas for which I lifted palettes from mainline sprites. Not so sure about the rest, the bow could be better, but I have trouble working with so few pixels. I am particularly clueless about the head. I don't like it, but I have no clear idea how to improve it. (I have some idea, how I can improve the gambeson with different palette and shading.)
- Attachments
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- Huzzah for belt quivers!
- taptap_archer.png (23.55 KiB) Viewed 7002 times
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Re: Dabbling in sprites
Changed the blues, the gambeson and the left arm.
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- taptap_archer_0.2.png (23.57 KiB) Viewed 6947 times
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Re: Dabbling in sprites
Looks very nice. Two things though.
1) The lighting changes drastically between the places. The blue jumpsuit has North-East light that is very intensive. The shoes have same direction but less insensitivity. The helmet and underwear have like Camera-East direction for light. I would go with shoes light effect.
2) There are "thick" pixels in the outlines. Not necessary a bad thing but I would make them thinner. I included a sample pic with thinner lines and thicker lines. The wesnoth unit sprites are so small that the thick lines should be avoided in most cases
+) After getting the light coherent you might want to think of the shadows. For example, with the belt quiver.
For first sprite this looks very promising!
1) The lighting changes drastically between the places. The blue jumpsuit has North-East light that is very intensive. The shoes have same direction but less insensitivity. The helmet and underwear have like Camera-East direction for light. I would go with shoes light effect.
2) There are "thick" pixels in the outlines. Not necessary a bad thing but I would make them thinner. I included a sample pic with thinner lines and thicker lines. The wesnoth unit sprites are so small that the thick lines should be avoided in most cases
+) After getting the light coherent you might want to think of the shadows. For example, with the belt quiver.
For first sprite this looks very promising!
- Attachments
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- "thick" pixels
- sample.gif (349 Bytes) Viewed 6894 times
Re: Dabbling in sprites
Thanks sfault. Completely reworked the head, looks much less like a transplanted egg now, I believe. Did some work on the outlines, although the combination of anti-alias + lighting + diagonal vs. straight lines gives me headache. Tried to improve shadows + lighting.
I am still unhappy that the gambeson is mistaken for a jumpsuit, it kind of sticks out as the worst part in my opinion. Does the little trick with not showing but indicating the bow-string work?
I am still unhappy that the gambeson is mistaken for a jumpsuit, it kind of sticks out as the worst part in my opinion. Does the little trick with not showing but indicating the bow-string work?
- Attachments
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- Head replacement!
- taptap_archer_0.3.png (23.57 KiB) Viewed 6838 times
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Re: Dabbling in sprites
I would try a bowstring on there.
Also, concerning the gambeson, you might want to give it a couple of straps across the front, and to do that you may need to move the quiver out of the way a bit. Also, the gambeson lacks readability in form, you might want to considering having it quilted like this https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=htt ... 1_.png&f=1
Also, concerning the gambeson, you might want to give it a couple of straps across the front, and to do that you may need to move the quiver out of the way a bit. Also, the gambeson lacks readability in form, you might want to considering having it quilted like this https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=htt ... 1_.png&f=1
Re: Dabbling in sprites
Made a new gambeson with new palette and and more dramatic lighting, starts to look respectable. I imagined a look like this (http://www.reenactment.de/reenactment_s ... on_rus.jpg) but I can't give it texture without botching the lighting.
Would like to improve the bow without moving it to the vertical or explicitly drawing a bowstring.
Would like to improve the bow without moving it to the vertical or explicitly drawing a bowstring.
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- New gambeson with more dramatic lighting.
- taptap_archer_0.4.png (23.57 KiB) Viewed 6783 times
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- Midnight_Carnival
- Posts: 836
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Re: Dabbling in sprites
I think that your sprite, the gamberson, shading and bow all look great.
I'm not sure about the way he's standing or holding his quiver though, might look good as part of an idle animation, but I personally think you might like to consider redrawing the same guy in a different pose(?)
I'm not sure about the way he's standing or holding his quiver though, might look good as part of an idle animation, but I personally think you might like to consider redrawing the same guy in a different pose(?)
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
Re: Dabbling in sprites
Well, the quiver is supposed to be a belt quiver, attached to the belt not hold in the hand. If this isn't clear from the sprite, that would be bad. Otherwise the overall pose is pretty close to some mainline archers (in my opinion), who also awkwardly present the bow instead of carrying it in a more relaxed way (horizontally with hanging arm would be most natural I suppose, but only Megane's vampire archers have that).
I redrew the bow, and guess this is as far as I can go with this exercise sprite, unless I get some major advice how to improve it further.
I redrew the bow, and guess this is as far as I can go with this exercise sprite, unless I get some major advice how to improve it further.
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- Now with a recurve bow +1.
- taptap_archer_0.5.png (23.57 KiB) Viewed 6696 times
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Re: Dabbling in sprites
A second sprite. A reimagination of the sea state regimenteer from the Era of Four Moons (http://units.wesnoth.org/1.12/Era_of_Fo ... nteer.html). Technical critique urgently required. (The axe blade looks much better in front of in game backgrounds.)
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- New version. With pattern on shirt similar to original and head transplanted to the left + a little on the shoulders. In front of a swampy background.
- regimenteer_taptap_0.2.png (12.52 KiB) Viewed 6537 times
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- My reimagination of the sea state regimenteer (Era of Four Moons).
- regimenteer_taptap.png (4.63 KiB) Viewed 6582 times
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Re: Dabbling in sprites
An attempt to produce a wolf zombie (by crude recoloring, flipping the whole color scheme to something unhealthy). The former contrasts now unduly stand out, but if it looks like lonely bushels of hair, this would be fine. Also removed the eye for extra-zombiness.
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- taptap_wolf_rc.png (2.51 KiB) Viewed 6217 times
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- Midnight_Carnival
- Posts: 836
- Joined: September 6th, 2008, 11:08 am
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Re: Dabbling in sprites
I think your colour scheme is great but the wolf still looks like a funny coloured wolf and not like a zombie.
Suggestions:
fur missing, dark patches, bones/teeth showing, red eyes, skin hanining down in ragged tatters, exagerated claws/fangs.
Suggestions:
fur missing, dark patches, bones/teeth showing, red eyes, skin hanining down in ragged tatters, exagerated claws/fangs.
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
Re: Dabbling in sprites
North(east)-facing dark adept:
Robe and hood look ok, I think. Not happy with the cloak. I find it hard to handle so large areas.
Now with a ragged cloak - as the SE sprite seems to have. A lot better already. It leaves no space for a belt though, and not much to see on the sprite, but the pose is somewhat uninspired in SE view as well.
Latest iteration: Widened team-coloured thing to make it look less like a shirt. Slight tweaks to arm and foot, shadow added. Probably as far as I get without further input.
I went through a catalogue of monk habits for inspiration, best way to interpret the teamcoloured thing is probably as a ragged sort of cape with a hood worn on top. This leaves no space for a belt, but alas. Imo this matches the original sprite best (magic-2 sprite). I don't think it can be viably interpreted as scarf. Scarves just don't combine well with this kind of monk-like habit. Alternatively, it could be a sort of scapula, but then weirdly the L1 only shows it on the back, while the L2 does so on the front (with dark-green on the back). Enough rambling.
Robe and hood look ok, I think. Not happy with the cloak. I find it hard to handle so large areas.
Now with a ragged cloak - as the SE sprite seems to have. A lot better already. It leaves no space for a belt though, and not much to see on the sprite, but the pose is somewhat uninspired in SE view as well.
Latest iteration: Widened team-coloured thing to make it look less like a shirt. Slight tweaks to arm and foot, shadow added. Probably as far as I get without further input.
I went through a catalogue of monk habits for inspiration, best way to interpret the teamcoloured thing is probably as a ragged sort of cape with a hood worn on top. This leaves no space for a belt, but alas. Imo this matches the original sprite best (magic-2 sprite). I don't think it can be viably interpreted as scarf. Scarves just don't combine well with this kind of monk-like habit. Alternatively, it could be a sort of scapula, but then weirdly the L1 only shows it on the back, while the L2 does so on the front (with dark-green on the back). Enough rambling.
I am a Saurian Skirmisher: I'm a real pest, especially at night.
Re: Dabbling in sprites
I played a little Salt Wars today, so finished my version of the sea state regimenteer. I can't fathom how people sprite whole factions incl. animations, it takes so long even for a single acceptable sprite.
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- Original regimenteer.
- regimenteer.png (2.87 KiB) Viewed 5600 times
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- Reimagined regimenteer. New with hair and shadow.
- regimenteer_taptap_0.4.png (5 KiB) Viewed 5628 times
I am a Saurian Skirmisher: I'm a real pest, especially at night.
Re: Dabbling in sprites
Another sea state sprite reimagination, substituting a mace for the oversized hammer. It is funny once on a troll, but in fact all impact melee weapons are so oversized they look like padded larp-weapons. I understand the need for exaggeration in sprites, but funny how an almost bardiche sized axe is actually one of the smallest featured in the game in case of the regimenteer sprite. Basically, I am trying to see how small I can draw a still readable details (belt quiver, hinted bow string in the archer, the axe in the regimenteer, here the mace) in exercise sprites. Don't think the mace is particularly brilliant, but ffs don't comment if you do not want to tell me how to improve the sprite.
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- Reimagined loyalist, with some small touch-ups.
- loyalist_taptap_0.3.png (1.95 KiB) Viewed 5496 times
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- Reimagined loyalist.
- loyalist_taptap_0.2.png (1.98 KiB) Viewed 5519 times
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- Original loyalist.
- loyalist.png (2.42 KiB) Viewed 5521 times
Last edited by taptap on August 11th, 2016, 1:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I am a Saurian Skirmisher: I'm a real pest, especially at night.