game sprites

[Adam]

They're sort of done, but they will be getting lots more animations added over the next couple of days, plus it didn't seem right to post these little guys next to foster's finished work, or sparth's, or most people's work on here for that matter :P anyways, this is my first try at game sprites - these are for a Joust meets Arkanoid style game i'm doing for class here at U of M. C&C very much welcomed, as i said, these are my first sprites and the first time i've done pixel art in ages! Thanks!

Idle/Hover/Turnaround
http://bombshelter.ghostopsmod.com/pics/eecs494/idle_anim_blue.gif http://bombshelter.ghostopsmod.com/pics/eecs494/idle_anim_red.gif

Move Forward
http://bombshelter.ghostopsmod.com/pics/eecs494/forward_anim_blue.gif http://bombshelter.ghostopsmod.com/pics/eecs494/forward_anim_red.gif

[Groover McNab]

looks pretty cool so far. the one thing that bothers me is that the left leg doesn't move, it should probably bob up and down along with the figure and that'll make it look more like they're hovering.

[Adam]

agreed - my first inclination was to just wait and see if it wasn't too noticeable in-game, but i think i will change it to move as well - the problem is that leg comes up as the figure bobs downward :P so they were canceling out - i'll add a little auxiliary movement in there to spice it up. I was thinking about having the lights blink as well - thanks for the responses so far!

EDIT - also, there's a total of just 16 colors used between the two, whatever that's worth :-P

EDIT 2 - new sprites posted, more leg motion this time, cleaned up a little problem with the right arm as well...

[bustabustu]

looks good.. but it doesn't look like they're hovering. To me it looks more like they're jumping up and down. Maybe if you add a drop shadow that moved with their assent and descent motions.

[Adam]

busta - not a bad idea - i'm going to try a couple different things once they're in-game to help them look more "hovery" - right now they look a little "dancey" :P Not sure what to do about it though - i want them to definitely LOOK animated, just so they're fun to look at....i'm hoping that once i have some little smoke particles and the movement anims are done that in-game it will look alright. I'm not opposed to re-doing the whole animation, I'm just not sure how to emphasize the "hoverness" and de-emphasize the ah "danciness." Yay lack of experience...

iffy - I made them in photoshop and Imageready. The original image is 48x48 pixels - i used the pencil tool and a pre-picked palette, as well as the pencil-mode eraser, and the non-contiguous, non-anti-aliased (so aliased, i guess :P) paint bucket tool. These guys were seriously the most fun in the whole world to make - it's interesting how much a single pixel can matter on dudes this small!

Thanks again all for feedback and suggestions!

[Groover McNab]

they do look a little "dancey" as you said. I think the leg and arm movements is a little excessive, but maybe I'm just imagining people hovering with jetpacks on where arm and leg movement is minimal.

[enigma]

well when i first saw them i immediately thought they were hovering, theres no way they could be jumping they just didnt seem to have the weight to them for that....but u confused me on something....are those silver things on their legs not shin gaurds? u said they were hoverboards?...i just thought they were hovering by themselves

[Adam]

Hey guys, thanks for feedback - i'm going to just roll with it and try and get them in-game this weekend to see how they look. Enigma, i'm glad YOU think they're hovering :D cuz they're sposed to be! They have sort of big-ass boots with small jets on them - instead of having one big jetpack, they have lots of little jets all over their outfits to help them maneuver. One on each shoulder, three on each leg, a large-ish one on the back, and one on each shoulder-blade.

New animations today: the turn around! Woot!

[Adam]

new anim up - "move forward" - yay!

[Chiba]

hey i like 'em!
I'm with iffy, i love old school game graphics...they looked like they were hovering to me but, once i read the posts suggesting they were jumping I looked again...they're standing on hot asphalt in the middle of summer!
that's a common hazard where I come from.

I would imagine that reducing the amount of leg movement as well as adding more 'bobbing' would give more of a hovery look but as I said, when I first looked they seemed to be hovering to me!

Chiba