Dev Diary - Pantheon - Pixel Art WIPs

RennJan

I'm working on a VR game that uses pixel art characters and started using some new software. 

I've started with Pyxel Edit which is doing a great job for animation, its really helping, I tried Sprite Illuminator recently too but realised its going to be difficult to get the right painted normals on an animated character (I just imagine the normals flickering and being inconsistent throughout the frames).

I've started this thread to show my progress with Pixel Art characters as of 24/03/2017 in the hopes that I can get some great critique and improve. I'll share the resources I'm using to learn and my progress below!

Cheers Polycounters!

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My First pixel art attempt.

I've noticed that the running shoulder animation looks disjointed, and also I'm not a fan of the rib cage on this guy.



Engine Rendering:


Next I'm going to create a warrior, a sword and shield guy with helmet and kinda thinking viking style for now rather than knightly.

I'll get back to making edits on existing WIPs once i've made more assets, had more practice, and maybe got some feedback here too!

Peace x

RennJan

This was my reference for the animation:



And this was my reference for the art:



after a bit more research I actually found the artist! 

https://twitter.com/jtangc/status/586234173624561666

RennJan

I spent today collecting reference images and eventually got this barbarian out, I'm going to make a female version tomorrow, and see what I can do about modular weaponry in engine. That or I just make unique dudes for each weapon, but, that would look odd considering there are huge hordes of em. Hmm.

RennJan

I made a crit of the barb from things I've noticed over the last few hours, I'll see where i get addressing these points and hopefully hell be way more badass for it!

lotet

ooh, another dev diary. interested to see where this is going for sure

RennJan

Cheers lotet, I noticed quite a few and thought it's a great way to show progression and build some buzz, I log my work with friends and co workers all the time but never on a forum, taking that leap!

Heres my iteration after the notes I made:

RennJan

I did a quick animation of the barb tonight. I had long problems with the arm, and opted to make it a little thinner for the anim, also, bracers and more shading! 

lotet

you should ad forward-backwards movement to the head and the axe.

RN

That attack anim tutorial image you posted mentions this:
"It's important that there's no anticipation frame or players will feel input lag."

For a different opinion, this GDC talk notes that anticipation can help make the sequence more fluid. Have a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw0h9WmBlsw

RennJan

Cheers RN I'll take a look at that now, just did some more work on the barb:

RennJan

RN That GDC talk is great, luckily these are not for the player ,they are going to be used for little minions so I can have some nice anticipation in those moves without the input lag feel. The terminology in this talk is great too, smear, overshoot, impact, holds, hitstops!!

That was great cheers, I always set these talks to 1.5 speed and enable subtitles, ingest the knowledge!

Currently working on his attack animation and will keep y'all updated!

RennJan

I've imported them into Unreal and all is good, had a few bleed issues but sorted them in pyxel edit for reimport. Pretty happy with this fella!

lotet

looking pretty solid. really liking how they all look next to each other.