The VG Resource

Hello all.
So me and my buddies are making a game and are doing sprite art for the very first time.
I've dabbled in revamps and such but this is the first time any of us have tried to draw ANYTHING sprite related.

So we've decided to use this board and you lovely people to help us :3
Be hard when criticizing and crush us if need be.
We want our art to look good in the end!

Style:
The style we're going for is more simplistic, since it's our first endeavor. We have some starting idea that involves having a black outline for each sprite and a single pixel wide darker border (with exceptions on a per sprite basis), but we're open to suggestions; we ourselves still aren't 100% on anything.

Enemies:

Sluggy:


THINGS I ALREADY KNOW NEED FIXING: I'm having issues with the shading on his side. I know it needs to be "curved" and "there,", but I can't quite figure it out, as you can see in the second half of the image :/

Batz:


THINGS I ALREADY KNOW NEED FIXING: The wings and shading are a little wonky. In the second one, I copy pasta'd the wings where as in the first one, I tried to draw each wing individually. Halp :/

Thanks for your help :D
We'll be constantly updating this thread with our progress/fixes/changes/modifications/etc.

Srsly, thanks again :3

I am glad for you trying something from scratch. This alone is a huge step from making edits. Now, I have some questions:

question 1: what is that supposed to be? A yellow assassin plus sign? A piece of cheese? A random colored shape? I don't know what's that supposed to be, so this is certainly not going to help giving C+C at all.

question 2: Where is light coming from? The character is shaded from all sides (a thing called pillowshading). Avoid that at all costs, since it doesn't show depth, and that's the whole point of shading: to give depth in 2D images.

question 3: Why are you using MS Paint default colors? Unless you're purposely limiting yourself in those colors, there's no reason to use them. They're too saturated (eye-burning, too bright) and plain ugly if used wrongly. Edit the colors, pick more eye-friendly colors and interesting shades instead of sliding the brightness lower.

question 4: Why are you using black outlines? Be sure that pure black is not advised for spriting because it 'eats' space available on the sprite. The limbs also overlaps with other body parts, so that will make the character a mess.

question 5: Isn't it too early to attempt an animation yet? Animation is usually made after you gathered enough knowledge to make a good single sprite. If you continue making sprites as you are, you'll end up getting a bunch of bad-looking sprites with terrible animations.

---

I suggest yo to work on something a little simpler; make one sprite from a simple character, then we'll help you shading it/choosing the right colors. Then we can talk about animating stuff. It might sound boring or overwhelming, but there is no easier process, sadly. On the bright side, you'll develop artistically and be making good sprites with some time and dedication.

(02-07-2012, 02:00 PM)Gors Wrote: [ -> ]I am glad for you trying something from scratch. This alone is a huge step from making edits. Now, I have some questions:

question 1: what is that supposed to be? A yellow assassin plus sign? A piece of cheese? A random colored shape? I don't know what's that supposed to be, so this is certainly not going to help giving C+C at all.

question 2: Where is light coming from? The character is shaded from all sides (a thing called pillowshading). Avoid that at all costs, since it doesn't show depth, and that's the whole point of shading: to give depth in 2D images.

question 3: Why are you using MS Paint default colors? Unless you're purposely limiting yourself in those colors, there's no reason to use them. They're too saturated (eye-burning, too bright) and plain ugly if used wrongly. Edit the colors, pick more eye-friendly colors and interesting shades instead of sliding the brightness lower.

question 4: Why are you using black outlines? Be sure that pure black is not advised for spriting because it 'eats' space available on the sprite. The limbs also overlaps with other body parts, so that will make the character a mess.

question 5: Isn't it too early to attempt an animation yet? Animation is usually made after you gathered enough knowledge to make a good single sprite. If you continue making sprites as you are, you'll end up getting a bunch of bad-looking sprites with terrible animations.

---

I suggest yo to work on something a little simpler; make one sprite from a simple character, then we'll help you shading it/choosing the right colors. Then we can talk about animating stuff. It might sound boring or overwhelming, but there is no easier process, sadly. On the bright side, you'll develop artistically and be making good sprites with some time and dedication.

All excellent points.
This is why I came here :P
Taking all that into consideration, I'm just gonna start a new sprite and come back for more help then.
I also just read the Spriting Dictionary, so I've got a better grasp of where to start (I think...).

Thanks a bunch Gors; I'll be back with (hopefully) better work :3

I like you, why can't more beginner spriters be like you?

EDIT: Removed that last "sprite" and added the newer one in the first post as well as adding a new enemy.

might as well move this to the regular spriting forum.

Alright, let's start this (cracks neck and fingers).

Your little sluggy-man has some pretty jagged lines going on there, especially on the back end of it (ie, the tail). When using MS Paint (a personal favorite of mine), I tend to use the "curved-line" tool on non-linear shapes. When you make the curved line, go back over it with the pencil tool, adjusting the curve. The beginning of the curve will have more pixels-per-line, and this will decrease as the curve progresses.

Try to make the sprites look as smooth as possible, avoid sharp angles and try to make the outline blend into the fill. Use shades between the fill and the black, but don't get too excited or else you will accomplish nothing save for "pillow-shading." Determine where your light source is, you may want to look online on how to draw 3D objects. Although sprites are 2D, you still want to know where the light is hitting your object and where the shadows are being cast.

For this sprite, you would want the light source to be above and to the left of its face. Accentuate the face by creating some lighter shades along its most dominate features, only to contrast it with some dark shades as you go further to the right of the sprite.

Just keep working on it, never lose hope, and always remember: knowing, is half the battle. ( O v 0)