Final Fantasy Hacktics

the vivi sprite is looking good, although the hat has been bothering me.the first frame the flap of the hat seems big compare to other flaps on the other sprites. the third frame, the flap seems smaller.

The eyes you have for Vivi are fine. If you wanna make them more glowy, that's ok.. but don't you dare darken them
Keep up the good work guys ^^

As far as Steiner goes, his middle frame has something that's bothering me: the shading on his legs (i.e. the skin, not the armor or boots, or anything) seems weird. The one light pixel (on both legs) seems outta place. Same with the fifth frame. Good work, keep it up, guys.

Try to do what all of them said and see how it will turn out, I'm eager to see it. Btw, my Garnet has all forward-looking walking frames

@Roly - Yeah, I'm not satisfied with that side view. The hat is big. Hmm...As for the front view, its actually Sir Cheetah's idea because if you look at the first post of Vivi, his hat for the front view seems to be a bit funny and if you look at the comparison from the second post (the one with two front views), they aren't really working. So, instead of removing a few pixel, I remove the whole line of the hat as they suggested, which is why it looks smaller.

@Sephirot - Hehe. Again, side view hat ^^ Don't worry, I'll try to fix that. Thanks. As for the glowy eyes, do you think I should sacrifice the teal from the pants for the glowy eyes? I still can't make decision on whether to keep the teal or give him glowy eyes. Hmm....

@mav - Ah, yes. Thanks mav. I notice it now. I didn't really notice it because I was too focus on his armor's shading. I'll fix that. Thanks ^^

@Kage - Don't worry, I will ^^

Thanks guys.

The eyes are fine as it is IMO. Just don't darken them. If making them more glowy means sacrificing detail on the striped pants then leave it as it is. Just my opinion though You can give it a try if you're not so sure, and convince us XD

Well, I can still make the striped pants, just not teal but gray ^^
I'll try to see if it looks good and post it, see what you guys think of it.

A few things I like to point out on the Steiner sprite. I think it needs to be wider a bit since Steiner has a large frame. Height is fine since he is an eye level higher than Zidane but is not taller by an inch.

@Jimmy: The Chest plate is inverted. . . it looks like a stomach with plated armor... you had the correct idea of layered armor but for breast plates the armor is over the stomach and not the stomach armor over the breastplate. That should fix you fat problem.

@Kage: The sash is a great addition I think it will make the sprite look more like him just make it look more like it is attached to the shoulder pads which his sash is. . . your parts need to be aligned and shaded correctly or it will look like a zombie with dislocated arms. compare the arms on Jimmy's and yours you will see what I mean in regards to the angle and the length.

@Both Jimmy and Kage: please customize the hat more. the sprite is basically done of custom edits already so continue with customizing it further. Here is what I mean. the band on the hat. Well the angle is not correct on how the band is going. it should be upward and not downward. The shoulder pads are overlapping the chest plate so kindly implement that as well. that is all

here is the reference pics I have for my crits to you guys on width, size, and hat band alignment (also with suggestions on the width of sprite).

* characters

This Steiner, Seu has far too much details, I cannot tell what's happening with legs, those two balls(?) on each side of his leg looks really weird. His hat isn't much better, it's way too bright when yo compare to armors greys. The belt on first frame looks weird, just like it was some kind of pixel ball. The third frame has this strange metal underwear shown

I am beggining work on Kuja now.

I think the hat on this one is an improvement (though it needs to be shaded better). The biggest problem with Seu's version is the sheer amount of details. What I would do is take a look back at Jimmy's version, incorporate Seu's hat, reshade the "underwear" to dark gray and whatnot, and basically work from there. Seu got the size down perfectly, it's just that he tried to incorporate every lasting detail from the art into the sprite--kinda like how the Japanese spriters do; great concepts ruined by far too many details that just don't translate to the limitations of the game.

Kuja will be interesting, I'm sure.

Alright, I understand what you're trying to do here, Seushiro.
Now, here are my crits on yours:

1 - Hat - The hat is looking flat and it is randomly pixelated; unless that's your roughly tryout or rush work. The feather is a little bit long. Also, the side edge of the hat is a little bit much. As you can see from the reference picture, its shorter. So, cut that a little bit shorter. In other words, just extend a little bit of the side edge from Red Mage hat.

2 - Shoulder Pad - I understand what you're saying about it being overlapping the armor. However, the shoulder pad is a little bit too big now. Maybe trim off a line of the side edge of the shoulder pad near his arm and smoothen it because it looks like a brick now.

3 - Belt - The belt is looking flat. Use the belt from Dycedarg, just like Beatrix and it should be fine.

4 - Glove - I see that you use the gauntlet from Warder. However, from the reference picture, to me, it looks more like gloves, which is why I gave him Zalbag's gloves. If it is gauntlet, then I guess its alright.

5 - Armor - I will explain why I did as such.

6 - Pants - The underwear is looking funny. As you can see from the reference picture, its more to pants, which is why I used Male Thief's pants.

7 - Waist Plates - The waist plates are looking a bit big, flat and pillowshaded. It looks bending, especially the front view. This is because the waist plates now is attached to the underwear. It should be attach to the hips/waists, just like Male Samurai or other existing sprites that have waist plates. Also, the length of the waist plates are long down until his feet, or ankle to be exact. It should be the same length with his pants where it ended (shorter by one line to be exact), as you can see from the reference picture.

8 - Shoes - The shoes you have there are from Warder. To me, it doesn't fit well based on the reference picture. It looks a bit dull. As you can see from the picture, his shoes have the feather/lace thingy (that white thing) cling upon. So, Female Geomancer or Male Thief's shoes fits better. If you want to use that shoe, add some extra details from Female Geomancer or Male Thief's shoes so that won't look dull.

Now, here are my answers to your crits about my Steiner:

1 - Hat - I copied directly and change a little bit the hat from Red Mage. However, if you want me to continue edit to fit the reference picture, I can do that. It is still a WIP, so I can edit from all the suggestions I get to make the sprite look better.

2 - Shoulder Pad - I know that from the reference picture, the shoulder pads are overlapping his armor. However, due to small scale, its not really worth it to do so as it'll ruin the sprite, which is why I just made it small. As we can see from your try, its a little bit big.

3 - Belt - I haven't add the belt yet. I actually like without it but with it, its more Steiner-like. So, I'll add that.

4 - Glove - As I already mentioned in above, I gave him Zalbag's glove because they look more like gloves to me.

5 - Armor - What you did there for his armor, looks good. I actually intended to make him fat. I know that from the reference picture, he is big size rather than fat. However, from what I see, he is a little bit wide in the bottom (from his stomach to his leg), due to his bottom armor and waist plates. I will post a screenshot in below. Also, to me, I feel that fat is more Steiner-ish-like rather than bit muscular, big size look from the reference picture.

6 - Pants - As I said, it is more to pants-like than underwear. So, Male Thief's pants fits perfectly. I actually wanted to add that "X" black thingy but it'll be too much details. Therefore, I leave it as it is.

7 - Waist Plates - As you can see from the reference picture, I gave him square waist plates and layers, with the lines splitting/distinguished the layers.

8 - Shoes - From the reference picture, Female Geomancer or Male Thief's shoes fits perfectly. The Warder's shoes looks good if add some extra details.

I did my research on all the existing sprites carefully on all the parts before making one. So, it'll have flaws but I think just a few because I chose according with reference carefully and ignore some if it can't be scale down. Anyway, these are the reasons why my Steiner is as such. I hope that my comment didn't hurt you, Seushiro but they are the facts. So, my apologies.

I like the middle one on the last picture, I think you should use that as a base to edit from.

I understood everything you made Seu, but it's too much detailed, as stated before. The hat looks great though, I think that's the one to go with. The crossed belt doesn't look bad either.. IDK what it'd look like pasted onto the other Steiner.

No Seph, the hat isn't good, it's bad shaded, the belt isn't good either, it is just one big ball of pixels.

The belt, I like your's more. And the hat DOES look more accurate IMO (the shape). It needs better shading, yes, but the shape of the hat is more accurate.

About shape I cannot arque cause it is better indeed, but as I said, shading isn't good

Aye, the hat shape is good. I don't think the shading is terrible, but it's really hard for me to tell. And if you look at the render of Steiner you'll see that the feather is actually supposed to be big--it's humorously gigantic.

Anyways, it looks like Steiner may have to be a combined effort--so keep that in mind when you're trying to work on it. Two or three spriters tackling on sprite isn't completely unheard of...

I'm not gonna make it I was just pointing out what I see is odd and offered a suggestion. . . and I did not say mine was better . . . well if you would pretty much combine your steiners it should be coming up fine. . . just emphasize on the WIDTH. . . ok? keep it up Kage you almost got your whole set. . . Hope you and Tweenees get your FFIX and FFX series done those are awesome customs. . .

@Jimmy: dont worry about it it was just my suggestion. . . I only played through FFIX once and never replayed it but actually have it in my PC backup. . .

Well, I didn't reject your suggestions, Seushiro. As I said before, I will accept whatever suggestions to make the sprite look perfect. I'll do the hat, and maybe extend the width of the waist plate a little.

yeah team work is always the best I think u and kage should just work on one Steiner like what the team did when we mixed up the ******* (whoa cant mention it out of ****** land out here) and work on it til it was agreed on by majority as a solid concept.