Help with MC styled sprites

[Icerapter]

Hey everyone I've been working on some of my own sprites for the Dark Link sprite comics i'm currently making. I made a custom character whose clothes I based off of Vaati's robes/cloak. Although i'm not new to spriting, I still have a lot to learn, and any tips or criticism is much appreciated \^o^/.



For number 1, I'm not sure exactly how to remove the sort of cape thing but keep the robes without making the back look too flat. Number 2 seems sort of blah, and i'm not exactly sure how to add more detail to the cape. Number 3, is probably my favorite, but if there is any way it can be improved feel free to let me know . Number 4 is his sword, I tried to go for a Rapier look, but wasn't sure how to go about that, other than making the blade longer and thinner. 5 and 6 are a bit strange. I wanted some poses where he could summon his sword, but 5 looks like he's wearing a fur coat of some kind, and 6 is supposed to have his eyes closed, but it still looks off. I might try and shrink his cape a little. 7 is just supposed to have his arm outstretched. Lastly, if anyone had tips on how to make an outstretched (90 degree angle) arm, I’d really appreciate it, it's been giving me a hard time. Thanks

[Bombshell93]

the cape should be mostly flat, maybe make it one pixel thinner towards the top.
adding more detail to the cape I think would require you to heighten the contrast on it as atm all I see is 1 dark colour. add a bit of light to the top of it as if its drooping over the characters back (as cloaks do)
I think number 3 will be improved via fixing the contrast, so by playing with number 2 you could probably improve 3 too.
to make a rapier look you want a thin long blade.

Spoiler (Click to View)

if you want him to summon his sword, I'm assuming in 5 and 6 his cloak is waving, you should animate the cloak for it to fly up, or you could have it wave in 1 direction which might avoid the shoulder pad looking sprites.
outstreched? like towards the screen? in that style you'd just raise the hand so its a pixel or 2 below the shoulder and if their meant to be reaching, try and make the character look as if their leaning forwards.

[Previous]

Looks like a link/vaati splice-edit.

As for the sideview cape, go for this shape: ٦

[Icerapter]

Thanks alot for the input guys .



I've cut off a bit on the side sprite (1) and he already looks a bit better imo. As for the sword, I tried making the hilt rounded and I added a couple designs since most of the pictures I saw of rapiers, were styled. I haven't really tried adding the hand guard because unless I used a more vibrant color for the sword, the guard wouldn't be that visible. Bombshell, I meant by outstretched more like lifting your arms up to make a T/cross like position, but with only one arm. As for a splice-edit, it pretty much is. I made the head sprites (8,9) from scratch using "link capless" as a guide for the basic shapes, I then took an already existing side sprite of links head and recolored it to make number 1, then combined it with Vaati's body. I made edits to an already existing Vaati so that I could place the head, but keep vaati's robes/cloak (The body i used for inspiration was ripped by GregarLink10 and SpriteTrooper). I'll keep trying for the "٦" shape, though I kind of like it as is. I'm still working on changing the contrast in number 2 and the waving cloak, though any tips on the waving cloak would be much appreciated ^^"

[Thumbtacks]

Now is he supposed to hold the sword?
It looks rather good other than the fact that its twice his size and it might pose some problems putting it in his hands

[Icerapter]

XD yes I did notice that the blade was incredibly tall. I've shortened the blade so that it's still long, but not too long. He is supposed to hold his sword, though mostly just in 5,6, and possibly 1,7 once I can get the basic rapier down.

[Cobalt Blue]

(05-27-2012 10:53 PM)Icerapter Wrote:  and any tips or criticism is much appreciated \^o^/.

dont do edits, dont do sprite comics with sprite edits.

[Icerapter]

Meta, I'd really appreciate it if you could elaborate on that comment. Thanks

[Cobalt Blue]

sure.

1) You claim you have a lot to learn from spriting and pixel art, yet you're here doing a terrible half assed spliced edit of a minish cap sprite wich goes hardly beyond a minor pixel touchups and a recolor. that shows absolutely no interest in "learning" but rather simply as to how you can quickly "get shit done" and looking like something else, just like any other sprite edit out there in the net. wich is an incredibly lazy and objetively useless thing to do in the long term.

2) You can't posibly expect people to positively suport a sprite comic based on sprite edits considering that 1: they are the most overdone and overused and overuglyfied media on the internet's history. you can't even desing an object on the style of the game you're trying to mimic wich leads me to believe you're not even close to be able to desing the rest of the enviroment and the characters(i wont be surprised if the rest of this cast are other spliced, half assed recolors of other minish cap sprites).

you really want to learn how to sprite? then start learning how to do so by actually spriting, and not using some shitty sprite diaper to save yourself from the process of actually learning and developing your own work. you want us to help you with a minish cap style sprite? then do yourself a favor and actually study the thing, how the sprites were designed from the oficial artwork and then come here so we can provide you with feedback that would actually help you when you feel you cant do it.

[Icerapter]

Thank you That's much better than the sort of vague comment before. You do have several good thought out points that i'll take into consideration.

[Koopaul]

Hey wasn't there a Minish Cap tutorial somewhere?

Anyway I love MC style and I wish people could do it better. Some people have done great things in that style:

http://spriters-resource.com/custom_edit...heet/17326

Others not so much...