My First Sprite Base

[+ Kidd The Maniac 10]

For my first project, I decided that making my own custom sprite base might be a cool idea (especially since I prefer the look of XP-ish, three-head tall sprites). I don't really have any kind of background in drawing or any other type of visual art, so she came out looking a little...off.

 

I'd really appreciate some honest critique so that I can make a better base to build my sprites from.

 

EDIT: Here's the update sheet of WIPs, once again going from right to left (with a few attempts at making facial expressions because why not). I tried experimenting with some things, changing the position of the arms, the width of the hips etc, and it made for some interesting differences in figure. In the end, my current 'final' base ended up uncomfortably close to charlesthehurt's* edits, which is something I'm hoping to work on over the next day or two.

 

EDIT PART DEUX: Decided to lengthen the arms a bit as per everyone's suggestions, and yeah, it looks a lot better. I tried to tweak the shape of the hands to give the impression that her palms are facing slightly more inwards (so that you can kind of see the change in length from middle finger to ring to pinky), not too sure if it worked. I also messed with her feet a little bit, wanted to make it look more like her feet were pointed forwards. Finally, eyebrows! The one's that I'm using on my most recent tweaks are probably going to be my 'feminine' eyebrows, and then the ones on the far right top face are probably going to be used for more 'masculine' characters. 

 

(I'll probably bump this thread once I've gotten around to working on everyone's suggestions for clothing.)

 

EDIT THE THIRD: And here's my first attempt at a back view. I can tell that the shading on this one definitely needs some work, I just need some more time to figure out where and why.

 

EDIT THE NEXT: Aaaaand here're my first few attempts at a side view, which haven't really been all that successful thus far.

 

 

Working with the base as it is, though, I decided to dress it up as one of the main characters in my current project (minus the hair, because learning how to get that right'll be a whole nother' process. The tank top ended up being a near-recolor of the base's swimsuit, but when it came to the loose shirt and the coat, I tried to make them look a littler flatter and less skintight, to give the impression that maybe these clothes are a touch too big. Learning how to make clothes look good's probably something else I'll need critique with, so any advice about the clothes would also be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

*Just to clarify, the edit itself was awesome, I just feel compelled to try and give my base as much additional tweaking as I can, so it doesn't just seem like I'm ripping off his suggestions and not learning anything from them.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Kidd The Maniac

[charlesthehurst 691]

I like the way you've done the legs and torso.  But the torso's a bit squished in comparison.  Also, the eyes look weird and too high on the face.  And the arms look... noodle-y.

 

I went ahead and did an edit to give you ideas.

[+ Kidd The Maniac 10]

That really helps, thank you. I'd based the head almost entirely on the RTP one, which is a little too round and chibi-ish for a base this tall. I really like what you did with the face shape, and I'm gonna do my best to make mine more like it.

 

The arms did start out a little bulkier, but then I got worried that they might either look too muscular, or de-emphasize the hips etc. Overall, I wasn't really sure how to make the base obviously female without looking too caricatured, but hopefully that's something I'll be able to pick up on with practice. The way you did the shading also makes everything look a lot rounder and more natural; that's something else I need to work on.

 

I'm going to keep working on the base. There's a lot I need to fix, but at least now I have some inspiration as to what I'd like to do. So again, thanks a ton. I'll be updating this thread as and when I make new tweaks. 

[+ Kidd The Maniac 10]

Bumped to update on my progress. The improvements aren't exactly mindblowing, but I've been pretty busy with the holidays. 

 

I've spent a lot of time trying new things, then scrapping them, trying to figure out why doing things x way looks weird or how the sprite would look in actual 3D. Any further critique or advice people could give me would be hugely appreciated. 

[nash004 16]

First of all.. you're really great at pixel-shading. Something I despise in the craft.(I suck so bad at it..)

I like the sprite you made for your main character..

The arms are really jumping out to me, however. Make it somehow like this:

 

 

as you can see, I made the arms longer than your original, and it makes the sprite look a lot less awkward.

 

Sorry I can't give you tips on this stuff, as I could only get through trial and error(adjusting the arms, face, and legs repeatedly until I get a good product). Looking for references is good, too.

Keep it up!

Edited January 6, 2014 by nash004

[charlesthehurst 691]

 

Slight edit on the glasses.  They looked too round, but it's mostly preference on my part.

Changed the cleavage on the leftmost one.  Changed the legs to give a neat boot look.

 

Since you are working with larger sprite bases feel free to take advantage of extra room for detail.

Buttons on a shirt, cuffs, collars on a coat...

 

My best pieces of advice:

 

1. Experiment like a mad scientist.  Try different things to find what looks good in your eyes.
2. References, real life and pixel art.  See how others do things.  Try their way.  Try you own way after.
3. Practice.  You definitely have potential.  Just need to keep with it.

 

 

[+ Titanhex 284]

Nash is right, that is a far more accurate arm length. Arms typically reach lower-thigh.

Edited January 2, 2014 by Titanhex

[Elder71 14]

I made my own sprite base too. I found the hardest part was in animating them once the initial poses were done. I like the look of these a lot, interested to see how the full sprite sheet looks.

[charlesthehurst 691]

Chins create a dividing line between head and torso.  Necks flow naturally into the back of the head.  Sprite art makes this painfully clear.

Be careful how you shade.  Too much depth and you distort the look of whatever you are working on. Since her outfit is hugging her skin, it should look like that from all views.

 

Yes, I did a naked back view just to show you a better idea. (Hooray for butts!)

[+ Kidd The Maniac 10]

Caught me before I could even bump the thread.

 

And yeah, what you're're saying makes a lot of sense. I was using a 3D-rendered model as a reference, and trying to cram all the details in there makes the base look really lumpy and weird.

 

As for the awesome clothing advice that you gave me, I'll be doing my best to get on that sometime later today. I couldn't figure out how to 'draw' a collar and buttons, so your edits are a huge help. As for the goggles, they're supposed to look a touch cartoonish and goofy in the case of this particular character, but the way you shaped those shades looks awesome and I'll probably go for something close when I work on my first main male character. 

 

By the way, thanks again for all the help you're giving me. Your patience is much appreciated, and your advice is really helping me figure out where I'm going wrong and giving me a ton of ideas for things to do differently.

[+ Kidd The Maniac 10]

Been kinda busy this past week or so, but I managed to start working on my right-facing side view of the sprite. Had no idea to start, so I looked at a few different bases from different styles, and I noticed that a lot of side views tend to show half of what the front view shows and half of what the back view shows, so that's where I started out. 

 

Unfortunately, I can't find many tutorials besides FinalBossBlues based around how to draw a sprite from the side, and so my first few attempts (sans arms) are pretty grim. About the one thing I'm actually proud of here is the feet.

 

 (Right to left as usual because apparently that's somehow unconsciously become my 'thing')

 

I know that a lot of the people posting in this thread (especially charlesthehurst)  have gone way out of their way to help me figure all this out, but this is probably the biggest hurdle I've come up against yet, and I'm really pretty clueless as to how to take it on. 

 

I'm probably gonna spend whatever free time I can over the next few days looking up how to just draw people from the side and try to figure out how I can twist that to fit spriting, but as always, if any of you talented people could give me a couple of pointers, it'd be better than great.

[charlesthehurst 691]

Side view is so hard X_X  But I tried my best to throw together an example.

[+ Kidd The Maniac 10]

Alright, here's what I managed to come up with today:

 

(The side sprites still need some shading, and their chest areas could definitely use some work, plus I need to finish outlining their faces.)

 

My current crack at it's ended up a wee bit bulkier than how you suggested, but I actually kinda like the look. As for the arms and legs, I looked at a lot of different sprite templates out there and I found that I really liked the ones with a somewhat more 'aggressive' stance, so I decided to try my hand at something similar. There's actually a lot about this sprite that I thought "Eh, I wanna do it different" (like the face outline), and in most cases, I ended up learning why it would've been a better idea to do it more like your example. So, yeah, I'm still messing up a lot, but at least it's helping me figure out a few things. 

 

Hopefully sometime tomorrow I can post a revised version of this turnaround with better shading, some reshaping, and a few other tweaks. And when I'm finally satisfied, I can move onto animation, woo! (Although TBH I might spend a few days dressing her up as a quick break before I take on that particular area.)

[charlesthehurst 691]

You're right, it does look bulky.  But meh, still a WIP.

 

(Animation is a toughie, but you can do it!) XD

[Tsarmina 2,612]

I think the side views in particular look a little hunched. Almost like she's tilting up on her toes and might fall over if she's not careful...if you can curve the leg shape through the thigh and calf to move the foot forward a little bit, she'll look more stable. (I don't mean mentally.)

[Skysagi 219]

This sprite base looks really good, but, compared to the other ones, the sideview sprite base looks a little... weird.