Hero Design

[marionline]

Hi!
I'm not happy with theses pictures.
I need help with the graphical design of those heros.
(Anatomy is an other case, i'd say.)


One is a stereo typ of beeing cool and famous in class.


The other one is rather an outsider.


Do you have suggestions how to improve the design?
Should I change their hair color or/and hair style, the style of clothes, ect?


Thanks for you help!

[Meowskivich]

I'm not skilled in the range of human-type creatures, but here's one of my hero sprites:

Basically, how I've gone improving myself over the years is continual practice. I draw by hand on paper, and I even draw for fun in the OHRRPGCE.

My advice, truly, is to develop your own style, and continually try to improve on it. Not straining yourself, of course, as one would easily get over-stressed and frustrated about lack of significant progress.

Take time, experiment with styles, and just have fun. This is my advice to you.

(...I can show you some hideous old things, you know, if you want to see how horrendous I used to be)

[Bob the Hamster]

Those aren't bad, actually.

You say you aren't happy with them, but maybe it would help if you can describe what you would like them to look like? Are you hoping to emulate the style of some other game's sprites? Do you want them to look more realistic? More cartoonish? More anime?

Are you happy or unhappy with the proportions?
Are you happy or unhappy with the flatness/depth?
Are you happy or unhappy with the color scheme?
Are you happy or unhappy with the contrast?
Are you happy or unhappy with the faces?
Are you happy or unhappy with the clothing?

Of the above, which are most important to you?

[marionline]

Thanks for your answers and questions.

I couldn't say what makes me unhappy with the sprites. I want the heros on the pictures to make an impression:
- The first one should look cool.
- The second shold look rather 'nerdy'.

For the first one it is the color scheme and also the clothing. In comaprison to the other hero the main hero lookes so very boring/characterless.

The second one, i'm just not sure, it the impression is like i want it to be.
I tried some diffrend versions but i came bach using the original graphic.
Shall I post the other versions for comparison?

After I know what clothes and colores to use, I'll try improing anatomy or redrawing the images, but before that I want to know what to draw.

[Meowskivich]

I go back to advising drawing ideas out on paper. This helps in heaps. The only creatures in my game AR-PUH-GUH! that I didn't really draw out on paper before adding to the game are Qwerty, Stumpsworth, and Tob. However, as far as I can remember, the rest were done on paper first. There may be a few exceptions, but I can't remember.

Advise on hand-drawings: Obviously, as with just about anything, find your own styles that suits you the best.

Next, I advise short strokes (OH! and I suggest you use pencil. I prefer mechanical pencils, as they don't smear as easily, and the erasers actually WORK).
Making short strokes with your drawing tool is a good way to adjust your drawing AS you draw it, to any idea you may have. A correcting tool is also advised to keep drawings in tact. For pencils of any variety, there is an eraser. For pens, white-out (if you're using white paper) can be used, though it will need drying time, but some pens will have erasable ink, in which special erasers are usually included, though you can sometimes find those half-pencil and half-pen erasers, though some would say the pen erasers erase the paper, so....use it on thicker sheets, and be extra careful.

However, if slow stroking is not of your styles, or even just too slow for you, you can just try random doodling. Just put the pen(cil) to the paper, and let your imagination take flight! I usually take this method to making random monsters, as slow-stroking is really what I use for more important things.
You can use quick-doodling for, perhaps, making quick ideas for individual parts of your characters?

This is what more the Meowskivich has had to say.

[msw188]

It sounds like you're asking about what your heroes SHOULD look like, as opposed to how to draw them. I think to answer this question, you need to ask yourself rather than us, "what precisely is the personality that I am trying to get across with this hero graphic?" What is it about heroA that makes him 'popular'? Is his hair more neatly combed/trimmed? Does he have tattoos? Is he more muscular? Is he a wise-cracking smartass? Is he 'stylish'? What does that mean, anyways? Perhaps his clothes should fit better, whereas the outsider can have baggy, ill-fitting clothes? Maybe his clothes should have a logo on them, which represents something popular within the world of the game, so appears in various maps, etc?

[marionline]

@ Meowskivich:
Some time ago I drew a lot on paper. But now I rather use a tablet and draw on PC. But for images so small like heros or walkabouts this is really hard here I drwa pixel by pixel in the OHR or a pixel dawing program.
Drawing on Paper is something I have to practice again, i fear...

For 'Kim und Jose' I drew most of the monster with pencil in a skrech book before redrawing them in the OHR. That worked quite well.
I should start a new skeckbook, i think.

@ msw188:
Yes, the problem is that I can't decide what the hero's should look like, so i wanted to ask for help/impressions/opinions.
Hopefully this is not a bad way to get infos on graphical design of heros. If there was an article about hero design in Hamster Speak i'd read it, but I didn't find one.
For example, in my books about Manga-drawaing there are diffent hair styles or clothing styles presented with explainations what kind of impression they make.

I like your suggestion with the logo for the cool hero, that's something I didn't think about. This helps a lot!

For the nerdy hero, i'll try the baggy clothes. I hope I can handle to draw that. xD
I also tried long hair, but was told that long hair wouldn't be okay, because long hair is for girls. I'd say for a boy who says 'looks aren't everything' and who is to busy with studying instead to have his hair cut, long hair would be still fitting. But I just can't decide. >_<"

[BMR]

I also tried long hair, but was told that long hair wouldn't be okay, because long hair is for girls.

Being a long-haired male, I must say I resent that!

Hehe, but in all seriousness, I would agree with the logo. It's a good idea, and done right, could go a long way towards distinguishing the characters.

As for the long hair, it would really depend on what kind of "outsider" he is. Is he the geek/dweeb outsider? The hacker living-in-his-mother's-basement outsider? Perhaps the John Travolta greaser type? Long hair could fit the greaser, but perhaps not the geek. It would also significantly affect what other details are present in the sprite.

[shakeyair]

Here's my take:



2 versions of each. (second ones are lazy edits)

Lets call them:
"Prep," "Jock"
"Nerd," "Loner"


The first major change is that they are posed differently from each other, and have different postures.

"Prep" has the best posture, the kind that comes from confidence or cockyness, and he probably has both. "Jock" is more hunched over, and bigger. More threatening. Like a lineman. He knows he can do some damage. (His legs should be spread more apart and his butt should be a little more flung back but I got lazy, ok?)

"Nerd"s posture is a little slumped at his shoulders. He has a sort of awkward stance, back slightly hunched and pelvis a little forward. He is not in a fighting stance because he's a thinker, not a fighter. (That doesnt mean he won't fight if it comes down to it.) If you want more of a fighting stance, I'd recommend putting his hands closer to his face than the "Jock"s. Kind of in a protective way. "Loner" has a similar posture (and in fact I simply flipped "Nerd"s body around. He has turned his back on the world. (Because the world turned its back on him?) It is honestly an extremely silly stance to think someone would stand in, let alone fight in, but its pretty common in RPGs and lets be serious, it looks pretty cool.

The next thing is their shirts. I was reading this post and people suggested putting a brand on the popular kids shirt, but in my experience, popular kids wear clothes either with

• vague "beachy" graphics
  faded something or other
  Blahblahblah EST. 19XX
  shirts with little insignias

of those, the insignia is by far the easiest to represent in pixels.

I did decide, however, to give the nerd a shirt with a logo. Because we love our bands/videogames/tech companies/comics. Nerds pride themselves on their interests. Jock/Preps pride themselves on how much they can bench. (This is of course, a joke, and extremely oversimplified, but the point is valid)

Because it has to fit on a small amount of pixels, its just some vague boxy thing. Probably a tech company?

I kept the "Nerd"s hair how it was, but gave the "Prep" a haircut.

"Prep" has kind of sort of (hard to pixel) faded jeans, "Nerd" has some darker plainer (reasonably priced...) jeans.

"Nerd" has some wristbands. (Maybe they have skulls on them? )"Prep" could definitely use a belt. Ran out of colors. Whatever.

"Prep" has a darker skin tone from spending more time on the beach slammin brewskis with his brodogs... or whatever.

"Nerd" has a lighter skin tone from spending more time pwning n00bs at Little Big World of Minecraft with his l33t h4xxor skills... or whatever.

...

...

(oh man. how amazing would that game be?)

[BMR]

Hey, those are pretty spiffy!

And I agree, the "loner" stance does look pretty cool. Amazing what difference just a tiny shift in posture and perspective can do for a character.

[marionline]

@ shakeyair: The pictures are really cool! I like them!

Thanks for your explainations, they are a really helpfull analysy. That was what I was looking for. I'll use your thoughts as inspration.

I like your idea with the back turning towards the enemies face.