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[Petethegoat]

Rather than spamming up the pixel art thread for feedback, I have this topic.

I'm looking for general criticism, but I'd specifically like feedback on the perspective.
I think the table sticks out, and I'm not sure if the shadow from the walls is enough of a cue, or if this perspective on the walls will be limiting.



And without the lighting, unscaled:


I'm roughly aiming for a neo-noir atmosphere (I finished Max Payne 1 & 2 a week ago).

Aside from that, proportions are supposed to be realistic, which will be more evident when I attempt to make a character sprite.
I know the bed is the wrong size, I'm going to leave it alone until I've got a character to compare it to.

[moi]

IMO there should be a little vertical line of the same colour than the walls (whitish) to separate the play area from the black void.
It would actually give volume to the walls, because they do have some volume IRL.

[Petethegoat]

Is this what you were thinking, or should I try something thicker?


Here it is with 2px, and some rough guesses at character scale.
The legs might be slightly too long, but otherwise I think it's okay.


Looking at that makes me think the table is too small, as well as the bed. :/

[moi]

yeah 2px or thicker is good

[Gabriel Verdon]

I would make it much thicker, like 6 or 8 pixels. You can also add direction shadows. The one in the pic is really sloppy, but something like that anyway.

[Petethegoat]

I'll try making it thicker, but I'm not sure about if those shadows will look right with the lighting system.


I took a break from spriting today to work on the CLI for the terminal.



The input is pretty ganky because gamemaker chokes on hashes and pound signs for some reason, but the text scrolls upwards correctly, and stuff automatically line wraps.
In the interests of not getting shouted at for turning this into a devlog, could I get some feedback on how to go about spriting large scale stuff, like the frame around the monitor?

For reference, here's the horrible placeholder I was using before: http://i.imgur.com/EI0uA.png

e:
Also, that last image is with lighting. Here it is unscaled, unlit.

[Kramlack]

I've been meaning to do an edit of your first image since made this thread, but alas, laziness won out. I finally buckled down to do it today, although some of my gripes have already been addressed by others, like the tops of the walls and the shadows the walls produce, both of which I agree are vital. My final gripe was the lack of contrasting shades, which made it hard to read the wall paper and floor boards. I've done my own edit which will hopefully show the need for more contrasting shades;

[Petethegoat]

That's really really useful! I've played around with the contrast a bit, and I got the left image below.

Wasn't really happy with the lack of contrast at the edges of the wall, so I copied your edit more closely (read: exactly).
Tbh I think it contrasts slightly too -much- now, especially in 2x. I'll probably play with it a bit more.




Went with 20% black again for the wall shadows, so it can go over furniture and stuff easily. I dunno if I should try and figure out a solution that doesn't involve overlapping shadows, or just leave them as they are.

[moi]

I don't know, I find the diagonal shadow on the wall a bit strange, shouldn't it be a straight rectangular patch of shadow rather than a diagonal?
And yes if you understand what I mean, you're good (can't be arsed to make a picture+host it).

[Medevenx]

if you're going to have some kind of programmed lighting and shadowing, then you don't really need that shadow you sprited along the walls

[Gabriel Verdon]

Yeah, in that picture you posted the cast shadow doesn't make sense because of where the light sources are. You'd probably be best to either go with the drawn shadows or the lighting system but not both.

[Petethegoat]

I'm gonna call these final and move on to the player sprite, unless anyone points out any glaring issues with them. I've removed the cast shadows as suggested.



And lit:


I'll try and get better lighting next time, I'm quite sure that the lighting in that image adheres to no safety standards at all.

Speaking of the player sprite, here's a hideous first attempt.
It's like a satyr touching himself or something.

[Medevenx]

I just noticed, remove the perspective on the computer's table it doesn't fit the rest. (unless it actually gets wider at one end)

[Petethegoat]

Another attempt at a player sprite. Started at 1, improved that to 2, and then 3 & 4 are playing with brightness and contrast.



Outlines are probably too strong, and I forgot to clean up the linework properly.
To be honest I spent more time on the shading than the outline.

I'll probably start from scratch on it, as I was planning to have basic four directional movement.
Thinking on it, I might have to change to eight directions, or it'll look funny at this scale.

[Petethegoat]

Tried to start from scratch, ended up with the terrifying otherthing second from the right, and then used my last attempt as a starting point.

At least he's now facing the right way, but he's way too slight. If I make him a pixel wider, it makes the crotch nightmarishly hard to sprite, and if I make him two pixels wider, he ends up looking entirely too wide.
Anyone know the best way to deal with this sort of thing?

And he's still in the boiler suit getup, fashionable as he is.


Also got the first half of a file system working.

e:
Updated the first image so the background is less outdated, and added some more directions, including a horrible skewed south-east sprite. I suppose I'll need some reference material for the diagonals.

e2!!:

I spent about ten minutes working on the south east facing before I was going to go to bed, and I think I have it looking fairly plausible.
Judging by the flipped version on the wall it's a bit off balance, (not to mention a little campy, pose-wise) but I reckon it'll do for a starting point.
It's not cleaned up at all at the moment, either.

Looking at all those together, I'd really appreciate some suggestions for the pose, I'm having trouble getting something that looks casual enough for an idle pose.
But yeah, I'm pretty pleased with how quickly I got it to this point.