Spark's Sprites v2.0

[SparkMouse]

Been a while since I've been here, so I guess I've got a thread to remake. Just gonna post stuff that I've made since my last update since there's not much of a point to reposting the old stuff.

All custom, dates noted are when I made the sprites.

Matoi Ryuko and Senketsu (Kill la Kill - Dec. 2013)

UPDATED (Dec. 2014):


Kiryuin Satsuki (Kill la Kill - Dec. 2014)


Mankanshoku Mako (Kill la Kill - May 2014)

UPDATED (Jan. 2015):


Nonon Jakuzure (Kill la Kill - July 2014)

UPDATED (Dec. 2014):


Kuriyama Mirai (Kyoukai no Kanata - July 2014)

[one with glasses and one without - she's supposed to be wearing glasses but i couldn't find a way to fit them on her face without it looking too busy]

Princess of the Crystal (Mawaru Penguindrum - Aug. 2014)


Tanukitsune concept sprites (game idea - June 2014)


Feedback appreciated, although I probably won't go back and fix things I made already but rather will apply them to future sprites.

[Iocus]

Hey there, I have some pointers to give:

-I think your faces are generally too crammed. Yes, they're anime girls so they have large eyes and all that, but the shape you use for their heads is all circular-like, and ignores all bone structure (cheeks, chin.) Try practicing faces a little more, keep a closer eye to the angles on the outline and all that. It's fine to start with just drawing a circle, but you're supposed to give it some shape afterwards.

-Your colors, especially skin colors, lack contrast. It gets tiresome to explain it every time since it's a recurring issue in pixel art, but basically, you should make the hues be more different from each other, so they don't blend so much. Also, some of the objects have dark outlines and the skin doesn't, so that looks very inconsistent.

-Some of your lines also look a tad gritty and sloppy. You should try taking some time to explore sel-out and anti-alias, and keep in mind that pixel art can only convey so much detail while keeping things readable.

-Be mindful of your lightsource. For the Penguindrum girl, the lightsource seems to be both left and right, judging by how the objects are shaded. Anime have very simplistic shading, but it's still something to keep in mind.


An edit of your Ryuko. Notice how the outline for the face is much darker, making it seem more solid.
I revamped the eyes; just because the left one should be the furthermost, doesn't mean you need to foreshorten it to that degree-- she is almost facing frontward, so it's too excessive.
Also, I did away with a lot of the detail in that eye since it was unnecessary. I also cleaned up the hair, because with all those tufts, it looked way too gritty. I gave the red streak an outline too, to keep it consistent.
Finally, used some anti-aliasing here and there, and tah-dah~

I believe StarSock64 gave a pretty good explanation of this in someone else's thread a while ago, but it feels like you're relying on your references a little too much (at least as far as the anime characters go.) You should try to understand why shapes and objects behave the way they do on whatever lighting or angle, as opposed to just drawing exactly what you think you see. Planning ahead a little might help, too, instead of just drawing outlines from the getgo.


Err, this got a little out of hand, but hope the message got across. Good luck, keep at it!

EDIT: almost forgot, terms like contrast and anti-aliasing can be found in the local Spriting Dictionary, in case you are confused by any of them.

[SparkMouse]

figuredddddd i'd update here i guess since i feel like i'm making some progress


Wyra, from a cute comic called Battle Dog

game idea thing

welp, i get a kind of solid idea for a new game every like 8ish months, so it's about that time

idk about names or anything and obviously designs arent final, but the general idea is you play as a little ufo and have to collect stuff for your creator so he can build things and escape a post-apocalyptic world.

meet U.O.F.-002. the acronym stands for Unknown Object Finder. design is super basic right now, somewhat based on the Kirby UFO power. you have several utilities at your disposal - a tractor beam for moving and collecting objects, a laser for damaging potential enemies or breaking through obstacles (current plan is to control laser aiming and firing with the mouse and movement/tractor beam stuff with keyboard), questionably mobile landing gear that allows a low-power option for movement (and is also the only way you can recharge), and solar panels for recharging your battery (important!!!).

since its creator had limited resources, U.O.F.-002 is solar powered with a decent battery; an upgrade will probably be hidden somewhere in the game that makes utilities more efficient. upon a full charge, you also store 5 seconds of reserve power, which hopefully is enough to get to the ground and pop out the solar panels if you run out of battery.
but don't assume you can always charge up, as some levels might require you to go indoors or into caves, where light will be limited. you can charge off any decent light source though.

(HUD preview, will be in top left corner)


every action you perform, even idling, takes up some percent of your battery. it lasts about 5 minutes if you're using your landing gear for grounded movement, a little over a minute and a half hovering, laser usage takes 3% flat, tractor beam takes 10% over a five second interval.

you can also take damage. after taking certain amounts, starting at 50%, you begin to lose functionality.


first you lose your aiming retical, causing you to only fire lasers forward. at 65% you lose your tractor beam, which is a pretty big deal since you kind of need it to complete tasks. at 80 you lose your hovering capabilities, requiring you to traverse the level on your landing gear until you can get repaired (it will also start failing in the air if you take the damage while already hovering, so you might take extra damage during the landing).

aaaaand that's what i've got so far.

Zinnia, from the Delta Episode of Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. Made an edit of it so she was wearing her Team Magma outfit but it's kinda lazy and bad so I'm not posting it.
Process.


Stitch


Koto, from Kyousougiga.
Process.

probably need to work on shading/contrast the most overall i guess, but i feel like i've been getting better at lineart and detailing since my ghibli sprites and stuff

[SparkMouse]

bumping with a new sprite


Kiryuin Satsuki, from Kill la Kill.

Process.

[Kelvin]

Something seems off about Stitch. I think his eyes might be a bit too small. He kind of looks like he's got bags under his eyes, too; maybe remove the lines under them.

[SparkMouse]

Something seems off about Stitch. I think his eyes might be a bit too small. He kind of looks like he's got bags under his eyes, too; maybe remove the lines under them.

Made the eyes a tad bigger and lightened the color of the lines beneath his eyes. It might look like he has bags under his eyes... probably because he kind of does.

[Kelvin]

Was thinking something more like this.

[SparkMouse]

Matoi Ryuko, from Kill la Kill. Updated my old sprite from just over a year ago so it fit better with my new stuff.

[SparkMouse]

Quickie Nonon update because her head in general has been bothering me literally since I made the sprite and I needed something to do for an hour and a half.

Also changed the palette a bit to better match my other sprites in terms of skintones and because the contrast was super low overall.

Might update Mako soonish... and maybe make some other KLK chars.

[SparkMouse]

Updated Mako as well.



Updated head, arms, skintones, etc.
(For those who couldn't guess or didn't watch the show, the japanese text is Mako's name.)

No text version.

[SparkMouse]

Harime Nui, from Kill la Kill.

[SparkMouse]

Kuriyama Mirai, from Kyoukai no Kanata - v2.

Had some time to kill bc my computer was being eaten up by dropbox syncing, and since I watched a bunch of KNK today with friends I figured I’d update this one.

Newish upper body pose, fixed issues I had with face, minor palette things, and some lines.

[SparkMouse]

Kuroi Mato, from Black★Rock Shooter. Part 1 of 10 of my B★RS project.

[SparkMouse]

Takanashi Yomi and Koutari Yuu, from Black★Rock Shooter. Parts 2 and 3 of 10 of my B★RS project.

[SparkMouse]

Izuriha Kagari and Irino Saya added.
Had some trouble with Saya's hands overall; tried to do the hand-on-hip kind of thing with her right hand, and having her hold a mug in the other hand proved difficult as well. Idk.