__________________
You're trying to understand, I told you your brother had been killed,
Yet here he stands in the very shadow of the man you came here to destroy.
You came here to avenge His death, you came here to save mankind...
Can you see now, you cannot do both?
I can't believe they went back retro-style for this. I was hoping for something awesome after the artwork/design in Mega Man 8.
Oh well.
I feel ya, brother.
__________________
Dolemite, the Bad-Ass King of all Pimps and Hustlers Gymkata: I mean look at da lil playah woblin his way into our hearts in the sig awwwwwww
VOTE FOR MY T-SHIRT DESIGN: http://6dollarshirts.com/submit_a_de...&id=1256701907
Frog, I think the biggest problem with your revamp of the sprite is that it lacks the iconic nature of the original. By adding in extra highlights into the sprite, you reduced the contrast between the light and dark blues of his outfit, which basically just white-washed the sprite as a whole.
You're right that black lines can be jarring and make a sprite feel clumsy or heavy in certain cases, and perhaps they are implemented unneccesarily in the original sprite, but the touch up you did feels rather flimsy in comparison to the original, due partly to the lack of a strong outline.
You're also right that the original has an inconsistent light source that doesnt accurately create three dimensional forms on the sprite, but I think maybe you're missing the point. The original wasn't really meant to try to make the character feel 3 dimensional, as you tried to do in your touch-up. Your version feels overtly bulbous because the shading is actually a bit TOO strong, and the 3dimensional form starts to interfere with the 2 dimensional reading of the character's design.
I have to agree that the original sprite doesn't look that great to begin with, but I think the right look is probably somewhere between yours and the original.
And one thing I've noticed is that people who are not artists tend to over-rationalize art. They make too many rules without really thinking about the end effects. The thing about art is that its very circumstantial, and what may work in one case may look horrible in another. There aren't really many rules in art, the only real guidelines to keep in mind are that certain techniques will result in a certain effect or feel, and what makes an artist great is his ability to determine what technique is most effective in a certain situation to give the desired effect. Anyone can learn to draw "realistically", but that doesn't make him a good artist.
Sorry if this was a bit of a rant, but it seems Cigs wasn't being too specific on why your sprite may not look as good as the original, so I felt I'd pitch my own two cents in.
Frog, I think the biggest problem with your revamp of the sprite is that it lacks the iconic nature of the original. By adding in extra highlights into the sprite, you reduced the contrast between the light and dark blues of his outfit, which basically just white-washed the sprite as a whole.
That's fine, I was honestly just trying to imitate Mega Man 8's shading with that sprite, and there are a lot of other ways to interpret it, but I was more describing a process and technique. What about the alternate version I made:
Which still has strong outlines and minimalist shading, but still anti-aliases its lines rather than just filling in line-art like an 8-bit sprite? I get that there are a lot of stylistic choices you can make, but barelling through with a black and white line art and just coloring it in like a coloring book is probably not the best way to realize that vision.
__________________
Last edited by Frogacuda; 06-29-2008 at 02:41 AM..
Which still has strong outlines and minimalist shading, but still anti-aliases its lines rather than just filling in line-art like an 8-bit sprite? I get that there are a lot of stylistic choices you can make, but barelling through with a black and white line art and just coloring it in like a coloring book is probably not the best way to realize that vision.
Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with this. Granted, sometimes it can work (I for one don't mind the heavy outlines in say, A Link to the Past), but in this case I can see why it isn't very appealing.
And yes, your 2nd one is definitely a big improvement on the first, though he still feels a bit too frail to me. I personally really like when Mega Man's proportions are really stylized and he has very large hands and feet. To me thats one of the defining elements of the character. That gets kind of lost in both versions of your sprite (particularly in the hands). But thats more a personal preference than "X sprite is technically better than Y sprite."
You actually did a pretty good job for someone who doesn't think he has any artistic talent, and for just trying to demonstrate a point rather than to create a functional sprite. Yet, I can still see why Cigs would prefer how effective the original is over your versions, and I just wanted to explain why I shared his sentiments (though his reasons may be different than mine).
Be Seeing You!
