Stuff, stuff like sketches and the like

[Jarrod]

So here are some sketches

[Sajomir]

Hey Jarrod

The third picture is one of the better rooms you've posted. Aside from looking a little bare, I like it. The perspective is pretty good, too.

I like the style you have going for the rough guy in the second one! Reminds me a little of Popeye. The bunched hands look a little on the rough side, like you didn't give a lot of thought to the placement of the knuckles or thumbs.

First one looks... a lot like everything you've posted in the past.

[Nem]

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e306/azaroth21/sketch.jpg

I could pick out a variety of anatomy problems with these. The right knee, for instance, is in the wrong place for his hips to be turned forward - and if his hips aren't turned forward then he'd have to be putting a lot of torque in his upper body in order to get his shoulders into that position. Not that his knee wouldn't still be squify since the ankles appear to be on more or less the same depth....

However, that sort of thing's largely besides the point. The real problem, I suspect, is that you're trying to draw complex figures - from your imagination rather than any references - before you understand the underlying forms.

It may be that you're looking at the above and seeing a relatively clean drawing that just needs a few bits and bobs fixed here and there to be okay. And that's true enough - to an extent. But the knowledge you need to understand why something is wrong, and what you'd need to fix, doesn't tend to result from making those sorts of errors.

You'd improve greatly as an artist, I think, if you spent some time on gesture drawing poses. Getting a load of pictures of people in different positions, and a couple of sheets of A4, and trying to capture the impression of a particular stance with as few lines as possible.

Limit yourself to a certain number of lines, or a certain amount of time - and see what you can do with them. Try making big sweeping lines to capture the main forms of motion, using mostly arm movement rather than finger movement, and keep your pencil moving.

Sketch in the details only as you have time.

They should take maybe a couple of minutes each - you can run out twenty or thirty of them fairly quickly. If a pose doesn't work when you draw it as a gesture drawing - as just a handful of lines - then the underlying forms are wrong, and it doesn't matter how much fiddling with the details you do.

If one or ten go wrong and you get a bit in the wrong place - just chuck that drawing and start over - it only took you a few minutes.

Edit:

A site with loads of pictures of people in different poses linked to a timer that you might find useful.

http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php



This post has been edited by Nem on Feb 21 2012, 10:12 AM

[Jarrod]

Ok so I'll do some traditional drawing and post it up rather than all my imaginary stuff.
also thanks for the comments I'll try do something about the anatomy, in my pics.

wanted to post some pixel art


And some traditional stuff from said suggested website.





This post has been edited by Jarrod on Feb 27 2012, 10:48 PM

[Rocko'sModernLife]

I think from this point you should try out some quick gesture drawings. Just to familiarize yourself with the human body. Or you can apply your own designs and characters into the poses.

I also think that the room would be more dynamic if the background was darker, the parts where the beam of light does not pass through.

Keep up the good work

[Jarrod]

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/195105-rpggame

I just started the other day making a basic rpg game, I need a story now to really get the game going.

[Jarrod]

I want to work on a single player fighting game.
But I'm finding it hard to make cool sword strikes and neutral poses.

And my rpg game is not horrible by the way. And games on that site are virus scanned so that's one less excuse to waste some time playing the whole minute of gameplay you can get out of it.

[Jarrod]

here's my first attempt at an attack sprite.

and colored.



This post has been edited by Jarrod on Mar 20 2012, 07:01 AM

[Jarrod]

And an goatman enemy early sketches.


This post has been edited by Jarrod on Mar 21 2012, 05:57 AM

[Rocko'sModernLife]

It's Awesome that you are working on your project. If you want cool Sprite Animation reference, check out Fighters Generation

I think they do their animation on 12 frames a second. I havent animated in a while so i might be wrong

[Mr_E]

Good to see you are giving it a solid go, but I will say I see some room for improvement. I will say that animation is a pain in the butt. Hince why I usually steer clear as I don't have time to do frame by frames. It appears you are creating the animations by drawing a figure, erasing, and then adjusting. I would recommend a light box if you were serious about making hand drawn animations using pencil and paper. You can probably build one for something like $30. That way you can just drop a new sheet of paper over the original and start drawing.

As for the content. The characters have very little action to them frame to frame. The only thing the character moves is his arm. When a person strikes something with a punch or sword...it is usually an entire body motion. I did this in like 20 min just to show what i mean:



To throw a punch a person would rotate his shoulders and waist. Even if the feet are firmly planted the legs will have to move some to follow the twist of the upper body. I actually wanted to move the upper body more than I did. Just try to think of an attack as a very powerful gesture. The more the action in the animation the more intense it will appear. I would say put on some kung fu movies and just watch them. See how the body moves during an attack. This is also why it makes animation so hard, because you will pretty much have to redraw the character every time to get that level of motion. Fluid and appealing animations are very important, especially if it is a sprite for a game. That was a corner stone for the old games like price of persia.

Also, try to make the pose more intense. He almost looks bored with fighting.



Give the character some soul and depth. He just doesn't seem that into fighting for his life.

Also, what method are you using to edit? Seems like you are doing scans then tracing in a program. What software are you using? I would at least recommend gimp or photoshop. I would then Also recommend the purchase of a wacom tablet. Those tools have really got me through when it comes to digital art. If you have one of those software packages, make sure to use layers to line and color. You have a lot of random flying sketch marks that make it look very rough.

Hope this helped some. I'm not trying to rain on your parade, just trying to point out some areas that could use a little reinforcement. Good luck with the game.

E

[Jarrod]

Thx fr the replies I broke out the lightbox and cut some paper to size.
And did a walking animation and another attack but I have to scan the attack one in yet.

[Jarrod]

a background, abused the clone tool but I think it looks good.

This post has been edited by Jarrod on Apr 6 2012, 03:50 AM

[Jarrod]

So I'm toying with the idea of using claymation for the fighting game because I can, and because it'd be more enjoyable for me than trying to draw absolutely everythiing.

I'm just waiting on some sculpting tools I ordered to arrive should be soon.

Also Mr_E Prince of Persia was rotoscoped not sure on the spelling on that but he took film of his younger brother doing things and converted it into game sprites.

Which brings me back to thinking claymation will be a happy medium for me. I'll post something when I have it done.

[Rocko'sModernLife]

Have you ever heard of ClayFighter? It might give you Idea's on your claymation Fighting Game.

[Sajomir]

Hey Jarrod, I have some comments on what you posted.

With the attack sprites, make sure you have his whole body move. Look at any video of someone swinging a sword, they don't just stand still and wave one arm. It's just like drawing a dynamic punch - your entire body will move. Mr_E gave you a great example.

With the running animation, try to make both the left and right steps have the same amount of frames. You're on the right track making his upper body twist as he runs, but it feels like he's limping or lopsided at the moment.

This is a really simple attempt at a walk I did a while ago, made of 6 frames. See how 1-3 and 4-6 are the same, except for which leg is in front? Try to divide your run animation in half, and make the legs look similar in each half.



I'm also curious - you posted a background, but what is it going to be? Is it a menu background screen?

[Jarrod]

There's going to be a cave level, so there will be a foreground put in and maybe some torches or something. And that will be that. I gave claymation a go, but sadly the clay was too droopy to work properly.

thx for the examples so far.

I can only hope I find the time, to fix things.

To be honest the engine for the game is a bit average atm so I'm looking for a finished engine that someone might let me use or purchase.

[Jarrod]

So I hired an animator for two weeks and got a couple of characters done. But as far as programming goes I did a ok job, but I can't get all the glitches out.

[Jarrod]

http://www.mediafire.com/?wcp41u0v652wm16

there's a version of the game here, and d is attack.
There's still a lot of stuff to add tho, the basic elements are there.'
walking, attacking, jump attack, crouch attack.
I'm happy tho the jump could be better.

[Mr_E]

The animations are better, but quite basic and don't seem fully timed with the move speed of the sprites. The sword swing looks like 3 pieces. Lift the sword to the sky, the entire swing with a blue ghost, and then the final resting place. However that simple combination works fine. The walk however almost looks like a weird shuffle. The jump also is not very dynamic. That is all the nit-picking. Aside from that it is a noticeable improvement.

I realize the game is in development, but one thing that it needs is like penalty for being hit. IE, if you strick the bull he gets a very short stun time, at least in his forward momentum. If it doesn't, then the fight ends up with both characters fighting while rubbing up against each other. However, this could be applied many different ways, like by giving the enemy an AI where it fights, but at the range of its weapon.

Well, keep up the good work. Its all about learning and as long as you continue to improve you are doing fine.

E

[Jarrod]

This game is pretty much ending up in my too hard basket. I have a fun little racing game I made here, I think I might work on improving it instead.

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/171565-speedway-crashers#