• Welcome to Final Fantasy Hacktics. Please login or sign up.
 

Kaedre's sprites

Started by Kaedre, November 14, 2012, 12:37:06 pm

Kaedre

November 14, 2012, 12:37:06 pm Last Edit: January 29, 2013, 10:10:06 pm by Kaedre
Hello there. I want some criticism for these sprites.
Needs some frames corrections (especially water frames) and maybe improve the portraits.

Class: Hunter (conceptually a furtive hunter)

Job command name: How about "poach" for it? (my native language is spanish, so im not sure of the translations)

Parameters: Same like archer`s but equip knife instead of shield.

Innate: Poach (i have to rename it if i want to use "poach" for the job command name)
           Silent walk - It supose to provide inmunity to traps.
           Ignore weather - Negation of weather-related accuracy penalties to bows and crossbows
                                 - Walk easily over swamps, marshes, poison marshes regardless of climate (very appropiate for a hunter, i guess)

Abilities:
*Some hunter`s abilities requires especial arrows that can be obtained in the fur shop from poach monsters. These can do elemental damage and inflict statuses to enemies.
*Another ones do more damage againts monsters.

PD: The reason i included the class features is because the better understanding of the concept allows better criticism of its visual aspect.

Kagebunji

Welcome to the site, Kaedre.

These look like a solid start, but since you want some crits, I will try to provide some. Let's start with the male, overall design is nice, bu there is one thing that caught my eye, and it's the hood on back frames. I think you used Purple Mystery for it, it seems, but the hood on the back frames is flat and edgy(especially the rightmost part). Try looking at Rofel and see how to smooth it out, I am certain Rofel will give you ideas.

The portrait now, it has some flaws, the main one is hair being pillow shaded. Make sure you use a lot of references to help you out, since this is the only way to go with portraits at the beginning. I also checked the palette, and it seems you have one color left, use that to give some white to the eyes, cause currently it uses skin color and doesn't look well. Also the neck, somehow it seems to be shaded well and all, but I just can\t shake the feeling it will look good in FFT, perhaps it's the fact that it's very bright right under the chin(and that's part supposed to be darker). Well, just loking at references will be enough I bet, I strongly suggest checking these two pages:
http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=8536.0
http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=9180.0

Now the female. It has big boobs, and dat ass, heh. Not that it's bad, I kinda like it. What you need to fix though is the hood. It mainly consists of two colors, and cuase of this it's pretty flat. I also am not a fan of pointy haton Hunter, so I suggest changing the hood all together, there is Meliadoul, Orlandu, etc. left to try, so give it a go. Other than the hood, female is pretty damn solid.

As for her portrait, the boobs are pillow shaded, and so are the shoulders. Again, look at some references to get the idea(there are some "naked" portraits in the big reference sheet topic I posted earlier, try looking at those).

Hope this helps, and good luck with your further works.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Kaedre

Thank you for the quik response and suggestions, Kagebungi. I started with the male following your advice, but rofel hood don`t match very well with the front frame, so i make changes to correct it. Can you do some retouches if don´t like it? I only need this frame to correct the sprite.

PD: Somebody can response my question about Poach for the job command name?
(Maybe it is not the correct place to ask this).

Eternal

Silent Walk doesn't actually work, IIRC.
  • Modding version: PSX & WotL
"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"
  • Discord username: eternal248#1817

Kaedre

Quote from: Eternal on November 14, 2012, 05:06:59 pm
Silent Walk doesn't actually work, IIRC.


I feared it, but is a pity. Trap detection is very compatible with a hunter.
Thank you Eternal for the input.

Kagebunji

Your new version works better, yeah. I could help you with designing, but are you using any particular characters etc. as references? It could help me to get the idea of what you are going for.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Kaedre

I have not references about the visual concepts because i only want a hooded and repaleted archer. i know it is a minor modification of the original, but it works well for my purposes.
The main help that i need for this sprite is correct errors like that you mentioned about the hood:
Quote from: Kagebunji on November 14, 2012, 01:43:53 pm
...there is one thing that caught my eye, and it's the hood on back frames. I think you used Purple Mystery for it, it seems, but the hood on the back frames is flat and edgy(especially the rightmost part). Try looking at Rofel and see how to smooth it out, I am certain Rofel will give you ideas.


Ideas for designing are welcome, of course, but not essentially required.

PD: If you really like the new version of the hood, i can fix the sprite an re post it.
If you don`t like for a definitive version (of the sprite, not the portrait), please correct it (i mind, post a graphic example) or comment for new errors.

Kaedre

I forgot to say that the hood is based on Purple mistery (like you mentioned before) and some colors are extracted from Demetrius palette.

Lijj

Welcome to FFH Kaedre. Those sprites are looking pretty nice! And it's great to see some new spriting happening here.
  I agree with Kagebunji's critiques though about the female, and the portraits. The singing frames should be completed too.
I think the portraits are borrowing too heavily in an obvious way. The sources are too easy to identify and the custom parts don't look smooth enough. The female's portrait for example the upper breast area is pillow-shaded and a little rough around the edges and the actual breasts are too high up on the rib cage.
I can try to help you with the portraits if you'd like but I think you should try to make them more of their own first.
  • Modding version: PSX

Celdia

From a non-spriter point of view [be quiet Twinees, I don't do sprites and yes I know you're thinking it anyways] I would worry less about the poor girl's breasts being pillow-shaded and more about how she's so stacked that her back would snap like a twig under boobs of that size. XD Certainly no mistaking her sex though. A nice start on both for a new spriter. You definitely show a lot more promise than some folk who've passed through here. Looking forward to updates on these. ^_^
  • Modding version: PSX
  • Discord username: Celdia#0

Kaedre

Thank you for the welcome and the encouraging comments.
Of course i want (and need) help. Especially with the portraits: These are my weak point.
I am especially clumsy selecting the pallete. I have all the references; and read the tutorials on this forum, but i still sucks.
For sure i can improve with time and practice, but i will be grateful if somebody can contribute with a better pallete for Hunter M portrait.

I want to finish the male first (because is the easy one), so i attach the fixed version based on Kagebunji suggestions.

PD: Forget about the singing frames, i am thinking in another performing technic to replace bard`s songs. So i will change this frames for something different.

Kaedre

New Portrait version. Maybe the pallete can works after all.
Waiting for feedback.

jimmyjw88

Other than pillowshade on his hair and a little around his neck, interesting concept. I'll see if I can show some examples.
Kindly upload the images to other image hosting sites. I can't view imageshack. Thanks.

Kaedre

Examples are definitely welcome. i will be glad if you can retouch the hair. For me, it's the hardest part for any portrait.

jimmyjw88

Alright, here's roughly example of what I did.

C & C
Kindly upload the images to other image hosting sites. I can't view imageshack. Thanks.

Kaedre

Very good work!         (^_^)        (* o *)        \' 0 '/

The lighting is more credible and correct; the contrast beetwen hair-face is more gradual and the eyes looks better too.
Only needs (but this is my opinion) a few pixels of shading in strategic locations for darken some parts. I repeat: Only a FEW pixels. Maybe by the neck and the hair.

I thank you so much for this valuable contribution. I will try to improve it (if i can) for a definitive version.

P.S: No time for spriting right now.

Kaedre

Ok, i couldn't resit the wish. I put my hands on the portrait that Jimmy makes and gave it a closer look.
I conclude it is awesome! Especially the lighting that almost reaches the perfection.
Even so, i tried to change some pixels; But i don't know if this is a improve, a worsening or an insignificant changing.
Please comment.
I do not care if you say that completely ruined the work of Jimmy: can be rough with me, but be honest.

Mobius

Here's my take. Most of it felt like touching up and refining details.



I feel rusted.
Now everyone sit down, relax and have a good damned cup of tea.
Then go out into the forest and see the stars.

Then come back and realize it's pointless to be so worked up over what's meant to be our hobby.
That should be my motto here, holy s

jimmyjw88

Ah, I knew something was wrong with the hair, just not too sure what. Hah. As for the neck, missed out that part. As usual, great take.
Kindly upload the images to other image hosting sites. I can't view imageshack. Thanks.

Kaedre

YOU GUYS ROCK !!!
I have to declare this versión as the definitive.
I have nothing more to say. You have all my gratitude and respect.

((... I can't shake the feeling that Jimmy and Smash actually did the real job ... well ... I guess at least i proposed the concept. ))  LOL (^-^)