Welcome to my Pixel Art Tutorial - New female character - part 1 post!
Hi everyone!
I've got some ideas of a couple of things I want to animate and I would love a couple of new characters for those projects.
If I was good at art I'd just create some characters using my imagination... but, ah, I still find it really hard to both think of original concepts and also translate what's in my brain onto a screen.
I'm sure lots of people are in the same boat... so we're going to find some inspiration and then tweak it to suit.
I need a character that can walk and point at things, but still has some kind of expression... and I'm thinking a female character to start.
Something like this would be super expressive... but might be quite hard to animate... I don't think I'm quite at this level yet...
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I really like this inspiration...
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It's clearly made for a game and the animations are super helpful in figuring out how each limb might move... but I think I'm looking for something with a little more character...
This is all ridiculously cute... but not really what I'm after at all.
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I can't promise I won't play with a similar style in the future... look at them run, haha...
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The 2nd character above in the purple hair is kind of close to what I was thinking... but for the moment I'm going to use the below as inspiration...
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These characters are from a game from 2017 called Omega Strike (still available on Steam for $5).
These characters are designed in a way where they can be easy to animate, but I think can also be pretty expressive... and if I like this style there seems to be unlimited potential in creating new characters and settings... I really like the black outline on the characters in the foreground and no outline on the buildings in the background.
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The developer/animator also has so many animations on Twitter to refer back to... like this one...
Lots to play with here... and lots to refer back to if I get stuck.
I'm using Aseprite to play with all this... but you can literally use any art tool, pixel art tool or pixel art site to do the same. Here is a guide to a free online pixel art tool pixilart.com.
I like to start with the legs... there is more chance that I count each pixel correctly if I go from the bottom up...
We're looking at this character straight on... so our eyes are directly inline with the character (as opposed to a top down view, or a 45 downwards view. The characters are all turned slightly away from us towards their left... so their right side is more prominent.
This character's left foot (they are facing us so it's on the right side of our image) is in profile while their right foot is facing us... so it appears smaller... a little like a peg-leg but not really.
Add in the torso and arms...
The light source comes from the character's left side (the right side of our screen).
I think part of the reason these characters are potentially easier to animate, but remain expressive is because the body is 16 pixels tall and the head itself is 16 pixels tall. That's not true of really any of the other characters, but by having a big face it can still be very expressive.
Obviously I can't use this character because that would infringe on the copyright owned by Woblyware Oy.
What I do want to do is figure out the animation movements and proportions and then create my own characters.
The way I'm going to do this is to basically create a silhouette with each limb coloured differently and then figure out how to animate each part seperately...
Like this incredible tutorial by Slynyrd... who might be the best pixel art teacher in the world...
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So I'm about halfway through the walking animation cycle so far... I've had to change the proportions of the legs and arms a little, but once I've finished I'll be about to create the look of each limb to suit the silhouette and go from there.
Once I've finished all of that... I'll create a follow up post to show you how I've gone.
Thanks for reading my Pixel Art Tutorial - New female character - part 1 post!
Posted from my blog with Exxp : https://lifebe.com.au/artistic/pixel-art-tutorial-new-female-character-part-1/
Your pixelarts are great, I really like them because they show the mobility part and they are not only static drawings, they also have a good style, most of the skins have a good variety of clothes and they look well set.
Thank you! That's really kind of you to say.
they are literally too cute. they looks even more cute walking :P You are right, Concept is really an important thing and it's very hard to think about a new concept and work on it.
Yeah, I think honestly that getting good at creating new concepts is something that takes a lot of practice. You basically have to become competent with an art style first, usually from doing lots of copying, which helps you train to get down what's in your head onto the page/screen, and then you can start to create characters and scenarios.
Hopefully though that process is somewhat enjoyable... because it does take a lot of time.
That's amazing
I'm waiting for the next post to see how far you have gone
I wish you well
Thanks!
That works seem really great and much suitable for any pixel-compatible projects.
I think that minimal graphics can sometimes enhance the perception of all the rest of the game/project without focusing too much on the graphic side.
Let's say "story-telling" above "graphic effects"
Absolutely agree! I think I'd rather play a game with minimal graphics that is really fun, over a game that looks stunning but is kind of a grind.
During the university time I played countless hours to "Frets on fire", zero graphics but a lot of fun following the songs (it was the free version of Guitar Hero) AND Unreal Tournament. Even if it was definitely not the latest, it was suitable for all of our laptops, it was fast and fun! So we could organize 12-people LANs in the common area :D
Oh man... I had the same experience with Doom2 with everyone on LAN at my school at it was honestly one of the most fun things ever.
I think I will download this app. I love animated app
Maybe start with https://www.pixilart.com/ first? It's free and online so you don't have to download anything.
Wow! That is very cool!
Yeah the chibis are too cute hahahaha!
Looking forward to what you do next!
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Whoa... look at this:
I like this a lot!
I've got a lot of things to learn before I get up to this level:
https://imgur.com/gallery/9AJD0q5
OMG yes! Imagine games with this kind of artwork!
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All of them are so cute. I will also download this app.