Criticism on sprites color please

[Dark_linis]

Well, I've been working on a original template for my game and I'm happy for the most part.

My only problem comes from this
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/ ... erskin.png[/imgzoom]

for the love of god, I cant form a good palette and my dark skinned characters look like crap to me.

How does she look?
Am I being over critical or something?


oh and about her feet, I know it looks weird. I might fix that one day but for now Im just trying to hurry up and pump out these sprites.... If only the skin wasn't so annoying. :dead:

thanks.


oh and if anyone cares, the name of the template is "Zero Love"

 

[The Panda]

Alrighty!
There's actually another problem besides the palette that you're missing. The template's shading is..odd... I don't even think it'd work with a top down tileset(unless you're not working with the typical top down view in which case completely ignore this post).
The palette has a few issues. For one there's not enough colors, I would never recommend using less than 4, an outline, a shadow, a fill color, and a highlight.
However when doing a template(that isn't in a simple style) I recommend you use at least 5(just an extra shadow to add more depth and make it look better and such).
Take a look at other templates up close, you'll notice they're all shaded in the same general manner, some just more detailed than others, use them as a guideline when making a top down template(don't copy the shading just use it like a reference). Also make sure that your colors aren't too far apart, or too close together, your previous palette was mostly just a light brown, a darker brown, and a really dark brown, which would be nice, except they were spaced out oddly which was causing it to look bad.
Here's a fixed up example:
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9301/critswn4.png[/imgzoom]
(I just fixed the head)
Use this and other templates as a guide to revamping your template to make it work and look great, it's got some potential you just gotta fix it up to fulfill it and make some amazing sprites.
I'll check back often to see how this goes and hopefully help a bit more ^_^

Edit: Oo one more thing I noticed, the head is a bit too squarish and narrow. That's not a BAD thing, it could be a style choice, I dunno, but it's just not normal.. if it wasn't specifically intended to be squarish I'd recommend making it a bit more round.

Edit2: I forgot to mention I fixed your eyes. The way they were before really didn't make much sense...

Edit3: Jeez, forgot to IMGZOOM. I'm being so forgetful today :dead:

 

[Dark_linis]

Cool! Thanks for the detailed reply.
oh and about the top down thing
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/ ... screen.png[/img]

note that this isn't how the game is going to look. Some of the sprites there are from the first gen of zero love.
I also borrowed the floor and wall from a different set. I'll change it eventually  :straightthumb:
the only problem so far is that auto tiles like in the screen shot look stupid.
maybe I made a really big mistake........

the head may look blocky but I think I've come to not see this as a problem seeing as most characters have hair and that should fix that issue.

Now about the color, I see what you mean. Im just a bit new to shading and my focus is primarily to avoid the ugly pillow effect.

I see some good points in your redesign her head just looks too defined. Thats the best way I can explain it.

Oh, and I just finished a recolor of her

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/ ... kin2-1.png[/imgzoom]

this is how I wanted her to look.

 

[The Panda]

No problem! Well the Palette's definitely better! But since you ARE working with top down sprites I still recommend you re-shade it. Don't try to avoid pillow shading, I've found that the more I try to ignore it, the worse my sprites look(and I still end up pillow shading XD). Rather you should learn proper spriting techniques and you'll naturally start to get away from it. Until then just keep practicing and if you end up pillow-shading something just edit it until it you get it to still look shaded but not so pillow-shaded. Until you get the shading right the perspective on all of your sprites is gonna look off, which is gonna cause them to not look as good as they could.
And the head looks too defined because it's the only thing I re-shaded XP If I were to do the whole thing it's less noticeable since the whole sprite is more detailed and not JUST the head. See?
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/5083/critscr7.png[/imgzoom]
(I also fixed up some other odd things on this, such as the noodle-like arms, a few outline issues, and an attempt to make better feet(though they're still screwed up, I suck at doing clothes without a template to work on. Hope it helps.)
^_^

Edit: Forgot to IMGZOOM again XD

 

[Dark_linis]

oh cool. Thanks a lot. I shall continue to practice!

oh and the redesign helps alot. I've been having a ton of problems with the templates arms. this fix looks best.

 

[Colormagix]

Yea your sprites look pretty flat, take the advice of the panda.