Chipp Zanuff posted:

This sort of looks like a hybrid of a platformer and Tetris. Also reminds me of Mr Driller! I like how clear everything is, even with the limited palette. How many colours is it by the way?

quote:

Update (Sorry for posting such small incremental changes, apologies!):

Supernorn posted:

Supernorn posted:

Supernorn posted:

Humboldt Squid posted:

I used photoshop's kuler tool to pick a triadic color scheme, but I think I think it's a little barf - I might just stick to eyeballing it.

systran posted:

looks sick, did you notice that two black left and right arrows appear on one frame?

Party Alarm posted:

The second image got a little wonky when I blew it up (like the outlines of the icons - those are only one pixel thick in the 16x16 image)

Heavy Lobster posted:

Just draw some fan art or other original characters or something, play around with the medium, and don't feel constrained to making assets for an RTS, because lord knows single-man game development is a special burden.

systran posted:

looks sick, did you notice that two black left and right arrows appear on one frame?

rinski posted:

I think he's rolling out of the way of an arrow projectile that's moving super fast.

The talent in this thread is kind of intimidating, but I figured I'd post a thing I'm working on anyway.

I just started teaching myself Unity with a 2D platformer, so I've also been learning pixel art out of necessity and latent interest. I don't really have much experience with pixel art, so I've basically been brute-forcing images by slowly changing pixels until things started to look ok. I was originally going to go with a really limited palette to mimic NES games, but I had a lot of trouble trying to make something decent-looking with a four-color palette.

So the game's art style initially looked like this:



But then after another pass at it I wound up at this:



Honestly, I'm not sure which looks better. I kinda like the original, because it has that weird, flat-looking, NES-style abstraction with lots of repeated tiles and nothing really looks like what it's supposed to, but that might just be me rationalizing my artistic limitations. Also, I think I went overboard hue-shifting the monster's shadows in the second image, so maybe that's why I don't really like it.

Edit: a few more images here in the old style, if anyone's interested.

rinski posted:

So the game's art style initially looked like this:



But then after another pass at it I wound up at this:

rinski posted:

I think he's rolling out of the way of an arrow projectile that's moving super fast.

The talent in this thread is kind of intimidating, but I figured I'd post a thing I'm working on anyway.

I just started teaching myself Unity with a 2D platformer, so I've also been learning pixel art out of necessity and latent interest. I don't really have much experience with pixel art, so I've basically been brute-forcing images by slowly changing pixels until things started to look ok. I was originally going to go with a really limited palette to mimic NES games, but I had a lot of trouble trying to make something decent-looking with a four-color palette.

So the game's art style initially looked like this:



But then after another pass at it I wound up at this:



Honestly, I'm not sure which looks better. I kinda like the original, because it has that weird, flat-looking, NES-style abstraction with lots of repeated tiles and nothing really looks like what it's supposed to, but that might just be me rationalizing my artistic limitations. Also, I think I went overboard hue-shifting the monster's shadows in the second image, so maybe that's why I don't really like it.

Edit: a few more images here in the old style, if anyone's interested.

rinski posted:

I think he's rolling out of the way of an arrow projectile that's moving super fast.

The talent in this thread is kind of intimidating, but I figured I'd post a thing I'm working on anyway.

I just started teaching myself Unity with a 2D platformer, so I've also been learning pixel art out of necessity and latent interest. I don't really have much experience with pixel art, so I've basically been brute-forcing images by slowly changing pixels until things started to look ok. I was originally going to go with a really limited palette to mimic NES games, but I had a lot of trouble trying to make something decent-looking with a four-color palette.

So the game's art style initially looked like this:



But then after another pass at it I wound up at this:



Honestly, I'm not sure which looks better. I kinda like the original, because it has that weird, flat-looking, NES-style abstraction with lots of repeated tiles and nothing really looks like what it's supposed to, but that might just be me rationalizing my artistic limitations. Also, I think I went overboard hue-shifting the monster's shadows in the second image, so maybe that's why I don't really like it.

Edit: a few more images here in the old style, if anyone's interested.

Raenir Salazar posted:

Isn't that the boss from Broken Age?

Chipp Zanuff posted:

I hope this is an improvement over my recent attack animations (Specifically the spear-thrusting knight):

Forer posted:

I don't know poo poo about art or animation, but it looks like your guys attacks don't have any actual power behind them vs what I think you're trying to go for with a source. I guess it's because they go directly from putting their weapon in the position to attack to attacking with no hesitation, which I don't think has any tension for the player to make them feel the attack is powerful. All fire emblem stuff LOOKS like it falls under

[Spectacle][Priming][Delay][Initiation][Contact][Reset]

As before though, I don't know poo poo so these are just some dumb ramblings, and it also might look better with a contact frame screen flash and screenshake which the reference has so ehh.

the chaos engine posted:

Forer: Good point! I was looking at Pietepiet and Konjak animations today and realised (I think) that a lot of it really comes from timing. You don't go from 1 to 2 to 3 and they're all 0.25 seconds or whatever; Your backswing goes into position really fast, then stays there for a second. The attack goes fast as gently caress- omit some frames even- and then the impact lasts p long, too.

Also, Chipp: Your sprites move further than their actions and limbs suggest they should, making them look like drawings that move across the screen instead of people doing physical activities

rinski posted:

I agree with what the chaos engine said: the limbs appear to grow as he moves because you go from having his leg lpixels stacked orthogonally to stretched diagonally, which gives them length. Honestly, I think your original animations are cool and have a certain charm as they are. I guess it really depends on what your end goal is here: get better at pixel art, or get serviceable art for a solo project.

Chipp Zanuff posted:

Chipp Zanuff posted:

Besesoth posted:

The problem is that the spear is going too far (or your spearman's not going far enough). You've got it sliding through his grip, which will definitely increase its range but will diminish the force behind the blow immensely. You want to be getting the body's mass behind the spear thrust instead of letting it slide around.

(Also, looking at it more closely, he's bringing the spear between his body and his shield. Keep it on the far side of his body.)

Here's an example of what I mean:



Bonus: this is what folks are talking about when they mention a more stylized slash for the sword (this is quick and dirty):



As far as sprite movement, I know the gameplay you're focusing on doesn't work this way, but try putting an opponent sprite on the same platform as your hero sprites, positioned appropriately for the range of your hero sprite's weapon. That'll help you get a gauge on how far your sprites should be moving during their attacks.

Red Mike posted:

The legs are still really weird. You should practice some leg movements a bit. What I'd suggest (which is what helped me understand footing in general) is finding some sequence of martial arts movements (or whatever along the lines) and looking at it frame by frame, and then imitate the leg positions and movements. Just the lower body, if you're focusing on that. Right now your feet are either gliding, or simply moving too quickly and then moving back. It looks like some sort of shuffle rather than a grounded stance followed by a forward thrust, then back to a grounded stance.

Chipp Zanuff posted:

Also, sorry guys for asking for so much help on what is essentially a very small piece. I really appreciate the patience you guys have for me!

Chipp Zanuff posted:

Red Mike posted:

Better in that I can intuit what the spearman is doing (lunge forwards), but there's still a lot of gliding, and the movement isn't very natural. I tried editing your gif with what I had in mind, but free GraphicsGale won't work with it, and no other tool I tried would let me edit. Basically, figure out what foot your character is leaning on, and make that foot stationary. If he moves back, then he pushes into that foot, and leans back. If he lunges forward, he starts with the back leg stationary, then at the middle-ish of the movement, the front leg becomes stationary as he starts leaning on it. Moving back to neutral, he leans back on the back leg, and that becomes stationary until he's back to neutral. Your current edit looks like it'd be good enough (albeit the back leg should be on the floor when he starts lunging) if it remained stationary, as a pivot.

Chipp Zanuff posted:

Here's another rough edit, i was worried about the gliding you mentioned Red Mike so i tried making him step forwards:

Chipp Zanuff posted:

Hopefully this edit solves the issue of gliding and the unnatural movement:

Chipp Zanuff posted:

Thanks again for the advice, i really appreciate it.

Hopefully this edit solves the issue of gliding and the unnatural movement:



I tried following your advice you said, but i am not sure if i got it all correct. I'm still trying to find references, hopefully there's one applicable to this sort of movement.

In regards to the edit:

I removed the swinging around of the spear as it distracted me from the main issue at hand; movement. I reduced the gliding as i realised there wouldn't be as much movement as there was in the previous edit. I'm hoping it looks more natural this time, although im worried it's a step-back.

Apologies for posting so much recently and sorry if it seems like im ignoring advice, im definitely taking it all in and as usual i appreciate all of the critique and advice given! Hopefully i can begin to improve on this piece and my animation in general.

Count Uvula posted:

The animation is improving but think about feet and how they move, man. Even in this latest one the feet move randomly a lot; one or both of your legs has pressure placed on them under normal conditions, legs with pressure on them don't move. As long as you have both legs moving at once and he's not jumping, running, or falling over, it will look all wrong.

Here's some example images:




Red indicates both feet move in that frame, blue indicates a stationary foot, green indicates a singular moving foot or both feet being airborne. I cheated and kept 1 bad (red) frame in mine so I didn't have to significantly redraw anything, but ideally you'd have 0 frames where feet slide.

Chipp Zanuff posted:

Here's a quick update:



Further update:

Chipp Zanuff posted:

Red Mike posted:

Much better, but still gliding just before he does his little backwards jump, as well as his legs looking really weird during the jump itself. There's also the problem that he seems to be...switching front legs during the stab. Looking at the frames, at frame 5 he starts to bring his back leg forwards, but from 6 on, it looks like that leg is now support and the other leg is the one that's being brought forwards.

Neowyrm posted:

Pixel-Art Megathread? Nah. This is the Chipp Zanuff thread. It's really cool to see you progressing in real time, I gotta say.

Mezzanine posted:

I am terrible with pixel art, so I usually read this thread to see how you guys do it, but I just want to say that second one is fantastic.

Chipp Zanuff posted:

Apologies for posting too much, i'll reduce my posting, i don't want this thread to be all about me, or just helping me (but i do immensely appreciate all the help I've been given, as well as all comments)