Charas-Project
Off-Topic => Creative arts => Topic started by: Kilyle on July 11, 2006, 11:22:01 PM
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I gotta know, am I headed in the right direction with these? I don't want to make a whole sheet only to find out there's a major design flaw. So I ask for your comments.
General layout? Colors? Resemblance to original characters? Anything else you can think of to comment on?
Note: I desire and can handle criticism--and I admire Simon Cowell. But criticism and TACT are not mutually exclusive. So don't be kind, but don't be rude, either. :bend:
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They guys on the left look kinda like coneheads.
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They look good. You should make the space between the arms and the body a little more noticable. The ones without the sleeves on the shirt I can clearly tell, but it's a little harder with the others.
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Okay. Are the arms a little better with Kurama (top middle), or does that still need fixing too?
"Coneheads"? Huh? I'm not sure what you mean. The hair is taller on Kuwabara (bottom left) on purpose, because his head and hair naturally make a taller form than the other characters do. Should I post a picture of what they're supposed to look like?
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Originally posted by Kilyle
Okay. Are the arms a little better with Kurama (top middle), or does that still need fixing too?
Like I said, I can tell the space, but not as well as I'd like to. Just darken it a little and it'll look better. I don't really notice a difference between Kurama and the others.
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K, next question: The pics I'm working with show those white highlights in Hiei's hair, and green(ish) highlights in Yusuke's hair. Should I maintain this, or are the highlights distracting? Should I choose a different color (e.g. grey for Hiei, so the white isn't so strong of a contrast)?
Oh, and on Kurama's hair (both of his chars)...he has those strands hanging down in front of his ears, but they don't seem to show up well. Any suggestions on how I could make them more apparent, without having them draw too much focus? Should I increase the lighting, even though technically they're not supposed to be brighter than the rest of the hair?
Thanks for the feedback, btw! This is going to help me.
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Upgrade!
I wanted to increase their height a bit, which got me thinking about relative heights. I know that Hiei is shorter than the rest, so I left him a pixel shorter.
I'm reasonably sure that Kuwabara is taller than Yusuke, and, after thinking about it, I think that Kurama is taller in fox form. Perhaps he's taller than Yusuke normally (or Yusuke is just short?), but I don't think his height is much of an issue until he transforms, at which point he becomes lean and lanky. So I raised Kuwabara and Kurama's fox form two pixels, and the rest of the cast just one.
Anyway, I also shaded them in more, which makes their arms stand out a bit beyond what they were. I'm not sure I like the effect, but perhaps it'll work better. Anyway, here is Cast of YYH, Take Two:
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Lookin' good.
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Those look really nice. Keep up the good work.
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very nice work with these. Keep it up =)
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Yeah, I like the new height.
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Does this look right? I'm having trouble with the hair...won't seem to get unruly/strand-y.
(If anyone wants me to post a pic of the YYH cast, let me know.)
I'm wondering whether to change the length of the purple cloth...looks like it should be shorter, really.
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Okay, here's my first stab at a forward walk animation. I need feedback! :bend:
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Pretty good, but I think their skin is a tad bit dark.
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You know, I think you're right.
I usually prefer a slightly dark skintone, but in these characters, it's completely inappropriate. Thanks for the heads-up.
Anything else? Can you 'port the walk animation into an animator on your own and give me feedback on its effectiveness, or should I repost it in RPGMaker2k3 charaset format? (Me, I use GameMaker to check anims.)
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I think the skin is original, but that's just me.
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"Original" as in "that which the characters possess in the original material" or "original" as in "an interesting choice I haven't seen elsewhere"? Because I'm not making these characters from scratch...they're modeled after an anime, and I'd want to stay true to that as much as is possible in 24x32 pixels.
But yeah, if I were making my own characters, I'd tend to make the skin a bit darker than average, if there were no other factors to consider (such as a specified racial contrast, as in one of my stories, where this tribe of elves has two members with outsider blood, both of whom have darker skin (and are "the lookers" in the tribe)). Which may be a little odd, given that I am white, and from fairly Caucasian stock (Norwegian), and most of my kin (both friends and family) are white. Don't know why I consider a Mediteranian skintone to be better looking. (I'm not into tanning, either. Had enough sunburns in my early years to avoid that pursuit.)
Interesting story to pass on:
I was babysitting for a friend of mine, couple years ago, babysitting her daughters. Now, my friend is Hispanic, and a single mother; I don't know what color the kids' dad is (I think he's white), but I know that it's the same father for both kids. The oldest daughter is as Hispanic as her mother (almost a look-alike), whereas the youngest you wouldn't think to have any Hispanic blood in the slightest (Caucasian, scraggly brown hair, freckles, typical "white kid").
Anyway, I had brought over my puppets (cardboard on a stick, basically) from Brite Music, which have a variety of characters for the stories on the twelve Standin' Tall tapes. And my very favorite puppet is this little black girl. She's gorgeous. Not like any of the puppets aren't fairly nice, but this girl is the most beautiful little darling, and I've always loved her.
So I got these puppets out to play with the girl (the younger sister). And she pretty quickly spotted my favorite puppet, and what comes out of her mouth?
"Oh, man, she's ugly."
"What?"
"She's ugly."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, just look at her. She's black."
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I could not believe this comment, coming from this girl, who (at the time) was all of seven or eight years old and came from a Hispanic family!
I didn't stop to figure out what she thought of Hispanic skintone; I hope at least she doesn't think her relatives are "ugly" for having dark skin. (The puppet is a lot darker, so perhaps she means truly "dark" as opposed to what I initially took it for ("not white like me").)
The incident was disturbing, to say the least. All the more because I honestly have never run into skintone-based prejudice in my life. Makes me wonder where she picked up this idea--her family? school? kids at school?
Anyway...there's my anecdote for the day.
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Isay these are rather original in the sense i dont see much of this style esle where. And fi I do it dies rather quickly. Interesting concepts. Do you work by parts or make the sprites starting from a whole?
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Its a good style for an RPG, but its not my type of style if you get what I mean. Very nice though.
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I started with the head and face, moved on to the arms. The legs are last, but I have the right placement for the feet from the get-go. So I don't work with a template--but once the first character is done, he becomes the base for the rest, so there's a sense of cohesion, similarity.
Yeah, I haven't seen many in anything like this style. That means that, unless I craft my own cast entirely, I won't be able to populate an entire game. These certainly don't fit with RTP types.
I prefer the feel of an odd width, with a single-pixel center. Just wish it centered on the frame itself...feels kinda odd to have it off to one side.
I did find my inspiration in a set I found back when I was in college. Luckily, I downloaded the entire set back then, because I can't find the page again no matter how hard I search. It's the type I've attached. I desperately want to find this page again, so if anyone knows the homepage for these originals, please let me know! (I've seen 'em in other collections...I want to find the original crafter's page and contact info.)
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I may lack some technician eyes, so I wonīt be able to give you a good feedback thatīll help you improve your skills. But to me they look beautiful!
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Yeah you seem to have developed some interesting style there. Interesting being good.
The natives look pretty good. Alot better then most of the native charsets ive seen so far. Probably the bests. lol.
Oh btw Nice Yu Yu H Characters, Kuwabara, Hei, Kurama, and Yusuke. Its fairly easy to tell who they are. Though Yoko Kurama didnt really flash out at me when i saw it, I couldnt tell who it was at first.
I really like your style, you have a good use of highlights. And dont seem to use the boring template that everyone else does. Including me. lol. I also like how your outline of the characters are not just one solid color, it makes it look more 3D-ish.
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Those indians aren't mine--they're one of the set I downloaded from that site I can't find anymore. Probably one of the best collections I have ever seen. I want to find the site again and see if they have new stuff, or at least figure out who to credit should I decide to use them.
Yeah, the non-boring outline thing I learned from some site...I remember the demonstration was the outline of Chun-Li. Apparently the darkest color is only needed at the tips of the lines. And I may have made up the idea of using a lighter outline around lighter areas (e.g., using three colors, Light Green gets outlined with Medium Green, and Medium Green gets outlined with Dark Green...since it's the contrast, not the absolute value, that matters).
Working with colors is very interesting. I'm just now working on palette files...well, PNGs that have colorsets on them. I'll probably be posting my work as an update to my color tutorial on the tutorial forums, eventually. I've worked out the following idea, which might be useful to someone:
A general area of a sprite (e.g., his hair or shirt) needs probably seven graduations of the same color.
Nine graduations is probably the most you'll need on any single-color area of a sprite.
Five graduations[b/] is good for accents or small areas (such as the RTP boy's shirt).
...also, given the tiny space to work with, using graduations that are virtually indistinguishable is only useful on inorganic substances. Using shadows that are visually the same as the main color just doesn't work on a face/shirt/whatever.