Angel Wings

[coyotecraft]

This isn't for the contest. I'm not a judge but I already agreed to contribute to the prizes and I offer help regardless.
I want to see what the majority thinks about wings.

Right now I'm just making them as an accessory to the walking template. I may do a flying version if I finish.
I'm going for BIG wings. They will probably be so big that you'll have to adjust the size of the sprite frames; unless I some how made them tucked in close and wraped around in front. 

My question to all of you is what style you like better. There's the curvy version on the right that could look like a cape and then there's the style on the left which could be worn in differently: semi-expanded and contracted. Or would you prefer wings that warp around the person?

 

[DeathLock]

Usually the wings warp around are when they're standing. When the wings expand, they are read to take flight.

 

[Grathea]

Well, I'm a big fan of the wings you've got on the left - they're more versatile, but honestly I'll go with the ones on the right for realistic reasons and the ones on the left for awesomeness reasons. The stereotypical 'angel wings' would look very nice, but they're effectively the same thing as the other ones, except with a longer wingspan. They'd be far more cumbersome, but more likely to be able to actually get off the ground, though if that's your goal you'd also have to slim down the bones and trim excess body fat... birdpeople would look quite ascetic and sparse.

So honestly, I'm conflicted - the ones on the left LOOK much cooler, but the ones on the right would BE much cooler, realistically.
And wings would generally wrap around while standing - imagine the drag on those things!

 

[Despain]

go even birrger. they need to be even bigger than that for them to be plausible.

something more like this imo:
http://bb.xieke.com/files/wingz.PNG[/img]
the "open" one should actually be like twice as long horizontally but this was like 5 seconds in paint

 

[Despain]

actually looking at it more, the one you have on the right looks more like it's more or less the same size as mine, just more compacted, so i'm for that. when fully etended though the wings should really be HUMONGOUS in order for them to be functional at all.

 

[Venetia]

yeah wings (generally) should be roughly equal in length from shoulder to tip of phalanges as twice the main body length (not necessarily including the legs, but since human legs are heavy, then probably from knee to head).

so length from knee to head x 2 = wing length from shoulder to phalanges tip
(of course the primary wing feathers will appear longer than that, but they spawn from the "elbow" joint, so don't use that as a size ref)

any smaller than that, and they'd only be suitable for gliding. much larger, and their bodies would probably crumple from the sheer weight.

and yeah, wings at rest would likely encircle the person, unless they were jointed to point more outwards, away from the body (which would make flight more difficult).

 

[coyotecraft]

Big enough to make flight believable but not so big that the person will be tripping over them. 
http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r134 ... design.png[/IMGzoom]
Personally I don't want the wings to hide the entire body. Hiding the side views I could live with, but I don't want the only thing you see in the front view to be the head. It looks cool on Gargoyles the way the wings make a cape
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff21 ... 601098.jpg[/img]
but I was imagining it more out to the side. But I'll go with whatever you guys think.

 

[ElChristo]

I much prefer the two wings on the left in your first picture, Cyote.

In my opinion, if the wings are too big, they will detract/distract from the character itself.
Seraphim and Cherubim from XP are good examples of good wings.

 

[Despain]

yes do it like gargoyles

the cool factor is through the roof

 

[Showkaizer]

GUYS! this is a sprite! ^_^; I strongly suggest against making them bigger. It's a huge mistake of spriters to try to make things in "plausible" proportion. It's a sprite, size is extremely relative. Look at Breath of Fire 2's princess Nina. Her wings are small on the sprite . To actually fly they would have to be at least double the size. But you know what? it works. Well I might add

http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/8040/ninaqu6.png[/imgzoom]

So ,I think you should worry only about balancing the sprite "mass" itself, not making flight believable. The size you have them on the left- in my opinion- is just fine. (In fact you could even shorten the height a little , really) Make them bigger and they may be Realistic in terms of physics, but ultimately they'll be bulky and cumbersome on the screen, and will wind up dominating the sprite.

 

[Venetia]

hmmm ... sk has a point

 

[Skyla Doragono]

Some wing and angel wing tutorials.

I used these to help improve how I draw wings.  Granted they're geared toward DRAWING and not PIXELS, but they should still be helpful.

 

[Despain]

i disagree with showkaizer. the matter of realism is a small part of it. i mean if an entire game had angels, or if it was a party member, i would agree that smaller would be more practical, but if there's like one character, i find giant wings to be pure badass in terms of style

 

[coyotecraft]

@Atemu: Thanks. I caught some of those tutorials while browsing Deviantart for ideas.

I'm not really worried about the size of the wings since I already stated that I was going to make them big. I'm trying to decide how they will be worn.
I pulled these images off photobucket when I did a search on angels and wings. The wings are all relatively the same size but some are worn behind, at the side, or wrap around.

Spoiler

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee91/Gypsy48/Angels/gardenangel.jpg[/img]
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a214/ ... Angels.jpg[/img]
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t182 ... gel057.jpg[/img]
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj16 ... /Angel.jpg[/img]

All angel men are gay or naked. Seriously.