Jon's Sprites

[Jon]

So should I stay with the original shades then, the ones that I consider better anyways? Off topic, I finished a FF4-like Dark Knight without the reds and yellows, its not 100% done, but this would probably make a great base for Dark Knights. It needs a portrait. Just to note, I did not do a simple head swap, I repainted each head of Ramza with a helmet, took like 3 or 4 hours or something:

[Smash]

You have the viewing angle way off. Right now it looks like it could fit a Mario platformer.

Iso view example: (Ugly sketch to show proper pose)
[attachment=0:qd31bsm4]Ref.png[/attachment:qd31bsm4]

[Jon]

You're ugly sketch as you called it is actually a very nice base, Smash. This helps a ton, thanks a lot man!

Edit: Actually, now that I think about it, Cactuar only has about 6 frames...Smash if you want to you could do the cactuar, you are way more experienced and it would probably outshine anyone elses attempt. If not, thats cool too, I think I can come out with something half decent, I hope. I wish I had more spriting skills, I practice everyday...

Edit edit: Smash, can I just use this as a base? Looking at it inspired me to do something from "almost" scratch, but I want to use what you drew as a base, because yes its coloring is terrible but the shape seems so perfect...I'll give you credit for the base.

[Smash]

Sure, no need for credit.

[mav]

Ramza's looking neat; the Cactuar looks like it's gonna get a good revamp.

Thanks for the tip Zozma, but I don't know where to find the pallettes to begin with xD

If you open up the .BMP in Zodiac's palette editor, you'll see the palettes laid out in a row. If you're using GraphicsGale you'll see them in a similar fashion.

[Jon]

Lol at myself, now I see the palettes (in GG). I think there is something wrong with my version of Zodiac's pallette editor. I'll just use GG from now on. The cactuar is very difficult, but I'm making progress. Oh yeah, I got the green Bomb by making a screenshot of my whole desktop and pasting it in Photoshop, it keeps the colors exact, then I just cropped it. Thats another way of getting the pallettes I suppose...

[Jon]

Okay, hopefully the coloring isn't too ugly, and the pose is based on Smash's, I don't wanna let you all down, so tell me what I should fix please:

[Jon]

Haha, this is kinda cool, the cactuar with 2 poses now:

[Jon]

Dark Knight with Smash's Cavalier's blues:



Use for whatever you want.

[Jon]

<-- My first real portrait, Gaffgarion helmet but all the rest is custom, like the shoulders with spikes and face. I looked at Smash's Cavalier when doing the shoulder armor. I also used some of the blues from it. I think the shoulder pads are a bit pillow shaded, but I have no idea how to fix something like that- I like sprites ten times better.

[SilvasRuin]

The lower end of the cactuar looks like it could use some cleaning up and for some strange reason you've made it chubbier down there.  The arms look too skinny and flipping them like that looks horrible.  Try to make the second pose consistent with the first for light source.

On second glance, you aren't flipping the back arm like you are the front, but it still looks bad and could use some work.

I like your Dark Knight.  There seems to be some stray pixels near between the first two poses.  The portrait spikes are outlined too heavily and look like something I'd expect for Megaman.  Make the outline less bold and fix the lighting for the shoulder to match the rest of the helmet.

[GeneralStrife]

The shoulder spikes in the portrait dont look half bad! His face looks like it just came out of a can opener though. steal gaffys head from his port

[Lijj]

I agree the spikes look good. I'd  lighten the darkest color a bit to sudden. And change the face or at least the mouth.
Cactaur!! running...

[Jon]

You like the cactuar, eh? Legs are too big, gotcha, I'll work on that. Arms too skinny? Okay, no problem, also I noticed 2 dark colors on the second frame which I don't like. I coulda sworn I erased those 2 Ramza reds (from his pants, I wanted to incorporate some red in there somewhere but got lazy). I loled at SilvasRuin: "...and look like something I'd expect for Megaman." So true! I gotta fix that. My original had a mouth that looks exactly like Mav's portrait, I think I'll use that one. I'll post it soon. Gonna fix it now. Thanks for the feedback, I was starting to worry about the Cactuar, now I know what needs to be fixed.

[Jon]

Finished:



Hopefully this portrait that I have now is better...?

[SilvasRuin]

Looking at the smaller version in the sheet makes it look both better and worse to me.  The shine looks more metallic zoomed out, but it still seems flat to me when zoomed in, and zoomed in or out it doesn't really mach the rest of the helmet.  The spikes are actually hurt by zooming out as they look like little blobs.  The spike that is farther back just looks like it is a malformation or something that is right beside the other spike.  The forward spike could probably be helped by making it bigger and therefore easier to notice without overly outlining.
Really, it's just that shoulder bothering me.

[Zozma]

okay, the dark knight looks great. the port needs rework tho. its easy but would look sim to gaffy unles u manage to convince smash to make a new one...

[SilvasRuin]

I took another look at the actual face and I'm not sure why I hadn't noticed before.    The eye does not look like the FFT style, the nose appears to be too far on the right side of his face (his right), and the mouth does not match up with the angle of the face at all.  you might have been a bit overzealous with the shading too, considering he is facing an upward angle.

[Jon]

Okay, thanks a lot for the info, I am gonna try to fix the shoulder and spikes. The reason why the spikes had a dark outline was precisely what you said Silvas, they look like blobs now. Also, its not supposed to have a nose, but I see what you mean, the shape of the head (right-side) seems a bit strange fitting in the helmet. I thought the eyes looked okay, but I'll play around with that if you guys aren't happy. The problem there mainly is that 2 shades of brown are near identical, I'll fix this mess. I just noticed too that the shoulder armor itself doesn't have the right colors (plus what you said Silvas about the metallicness of it). I don't really want to bother Smash because he seems busy with school and also because I wanted to try my hand at portraits, after all this is my first completed one. Okay, I've jabbered on enough, back to work.
The Cactuar is getting worked out too for all who want to know

[Jon]

Before I continue work on the Cactuar, I should really just get this done, its so close to finished:



Smash or anyone with skills, could you please fix the spikes and the shoulder in general? Also the shape of the head, to me it looks a bit strange... Much appreciation!