We need MOAR Monsters

[Durbs]

That's really neat, CONMAN. As for the dead sprites, most monsters this large don't just lay on the ground, which should actually make this easier for you. You could look at the Ultima Demon dead frames, the Maliboro dead frames, the Dragon dead frames, etc for inspiration on where to go in this case.

[RavenOfRazgriz]

I'm sorry, but I'm preferring the original Critical pose over trying the sword-lean thing.  That just looks unnatural and weird.  The original Critical pose is far too cluttered to see what the fuck is going on, but in spirit, it is the best pose.  I'd try to alter it to clarify what the hell is going on there and use that. Like I said, the new ones just look too weird, really.  Probably because he's standing up and not actually crouched, it just looks wrong.

[CONMAN]

I'm sorry, but I'm preferring the original Critical pose over trying the sword-lean thing.

LOL- I decided the same!  I tried to stretch out the abdomen a little bit and add like an extra pixel width to the back pose as well(to even it out to my own eye).  I never got very far with FFV so I have no idea if a tree of some sort would work as a dead pose or not(or whether I could pull it off).  I may just have to go with a traditional dead pose (shrug) oh well...  

[GeneralStrife]

Make the death pose a helmet left lying on the ground..

[Celdia]

Make the death pose a helmet left lying on the ground..

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Make the death pose a helmet left lying on the ground..

[Kagebunji]

You might consider adding some swing to the sword, kinda like you did with the hand on Ghost. This would definitly liven it up.

[CONMAN]

Here's what I've got for now.  The last back attack frame doesn't look very good, but I wanted it to match the front one... Dead poses are straight copy paste from the original.

[GeneralStrife]

Ahh see, death frame looks great!

[Kagebunji]

Have you tested this in-game yet? If so, I guess I can proceed with the clean up. It will take lots of time though, Since I'm woeking on couple different things atm too.

[CONMAN]

I haven't tried it out yet.  I am pretty sure that some of the frames don't sync up yet(like walking might look jumpy)  I tend to like to leave the box frames on the sprite sheet until completion for easy reference..
  Also, I know that atleast two portraits already exist   i believe it was Mike Mitchi(sp?) they looked good from what I remember.

[Kagebunji]

Yeah, Mike and Mav worked on a portrait for him, and it came out great. It should be in the same place you took the sprite from(Seushiro's topic).

Edit:Whoa, I just noticed a big thing that will make this look weird in-game. You see the second frame from the left, in the top row? The standing one? You used a walking frame for it, and you should use normal, forward sife-view frame. Point is that this will look weird in-game, since he will use this current walking frame for his standing animation, which should never, ever happen.

[CONMAN]

crap! I'll mess with this and give it a spin tonight.  Now that you mention it, I might not have put the back walking frames in the correct order (doh!)

[RavenOfRazgriz]

The bottomright-most attacking frame looks to have some stray pixels in it.  In the topright-most attacking frame, he looks like he's too far to the right of the frame, which I worry might make him look weird and jump around a bit when animated, so I'd definitely test whichever attack frames reference that frame to be sure they look OK.

This is looking to be pretty nice now, though.

[CONMAN]

I tested the 2 monster for a couple of battles and a couple of flaws stood out.  
     On the front Exodus has an arm looks like it sticks out/ or almost unattaches probably from the shading.

Edit:Whoa, I just noticed a big thing that will make this look weird in-game. You see the second frame from the left, in the top row? The standing one? You used a walking frame for it, and you should use normal, forward sife-view frame. Point is that this will look weird in-game, since he will use this current walking frame for his standing animation, which should never, ever happen.

I see exactly what you are saying now, that frame stood out sharply.  That shouldn't be hard to fix.

     On the Back it definately looks like one arm swings out too much to be natural at all.  I need to lower the helmet/sword for the dead pose.
     I didn't get too many good looks at the attack pose.  I suppose that I should just give it as many attacks as possible to get a good idea.  I should really get a good look at the monster animations in the wiki...  
    Also, the charge frame features both hands upraised like I would imagine someone casting a spell, but perhaps it should look like a tensed wth clinched fist image.

[Kagebunji]

I can't say much other than experimenting with it. Btw, I looked closely on it and tried to simlpify it, but damn, this just has soo many details and wrongly placed pixels that I don't know where to start.

Twinees suggested that I just post the Asmo crit he gave to Seushiro all that time ago, so here:

I'm going to give you the lowdown on this sprite: It ought to be scrapped and started over. FFT sprites, with good reason, are made from large, simple spaces of colour. This is useful because of how small they are. You can look at a sprite and, unless you are brain damaged, can tell what basically everything is. This sprite looks like ass because of the amount of shit crammed into it. You've got all these tiny areas demarcated by copious amount of gold trim and at this size it is not easy to tell what everything is actually supposed to be. I've said this time and time again: Sometimes you just can't render the source material properly in sprite form. You are going to have to make a few concessions to simplicity. You also have a major problem with those 2 horn things in every diagonal. They stick out at different angles. Oh, and the cape basically looks like a flat square and is sized inconsistently between the front and back views. My advice is to take another crack at it and this time don't try and represent every skin pore. Reduce the complexity of the sprite and make sure everything is lined up properly.

It's all true.

[CONMAN]

It definately seems chaotic and messy.  The shoulder pads seem all kinds of crazy-definately all kinds of details were intended.  The "crotch" area between the robe flaps is odd looking.  The torso/belt? is a little bit confusing i'm not sure the intention...  I was definately drawn to this sprite becuase it seemed so busy and clearly a lot of work was spent on it... It seemed sad for it to go to waste.

I think I'll have to agree about your simplicity is better remark.  What's the point of details I barely notice/ don't understand what they are supposed to be?

  I may mess with the mistakes of mine I pointed out in a previous post and then leave this on the back burner for a while.  I think front/back shoulder pads and the torso belt areas are the biggest issues in my mind. 

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

What element was Exodus in FFXII again?

[Durbs]

What element was Exodus in FFXII again?

He used primarily non-elemental moves (scathe especially).

[CONMAN]

So I decided to take a look at "esperella" today and chose to rip off the dead frames from the ultima demons.  I also tweeked the "charge" poses.  I need to tweek the capes on the flying poses, but keep putting it off because it's less fun than coming up with cool stuff for other poses.  Also feet on the back poses look more like boots than claws.  I can easily fix that but it's not a major concern at the moment.

I guess I am asking for suggestions on what to do with the blocking and level up poses.  i can't seem to get an energy shield type of thing to look how i want, and I'm not big on the aura look for the level up(although it looks sort of cool for an instant when pulled up for spells).  I'm trying to imagine something to work well for both, but also look good for casting/charging.  Now that I am thinking about it, maybe an aura hand would be good for the block...