Errant's Thread O' Sprites: ~Evolution~

[ErrantDShepherd]

@deranger

Yeah, been referencing the Lords and Mercs mainly... but my WIP main sheet basically has almost every GBA Fire Emblem sprite on it for various references.

Good spot on the Hector leg reference. You are right the legs look off like I was noting earlier they looked not quite right flipping back and forth. Sometimes you don't flip a sprite and you miss things or things look unbalanced. My dual-dagger character Erwand has that problem I just noticed recently, looks unbalanced for the far hand.

I took note of what you were saying for the bow Lord and tweaked some of the placement and shading on the legs, hopefully it looks less unnatural now. Even gave the boy a bow! :D

...not quite sure how to avoid the lance through the cape phenomenon, any suggestions?

@X-Naut

Yep, deranger's right. Just capeless and caped t1 axe, t2 lance.

...I think I misunderstood what you meant earlier too. When talking about the lance you are saying that the prongs on the spear don't look right with the angle of the spear itself, correct? Not that the Spear head looks wrongly angled?

-Latest bow Lord, his original sprite and the tweaked version. Still not sure about the scarf, so tried adding another tail and included a scarf-less sprite as well.

The angle of the bow may change, originally had an unedited Nomad bow as a placeholder,(the purple bow) then I tried to make something a little more like Lyn's bow design... I think I prefer the Lyn-inspired bow, but what do you peoples think?

...Legs seem fixed?

Edited December 18, 2014 by TheErrantShepherd

[Klokinator]

Far left bow is my favorite by far! The bottom left one, I mean.

[Ansem]

have you tried animating any of these? these are all really good

[ErrantDShepherd]

@Klok

So... the no scarf bow Lord looks best to you?

@franku

Thanks! I haven't really done much animation... ever really.

Its something I would like to develop but typically have not had the patience for... but like I said, definitely something I want to try to develop.

-Think I may have fixed the spear shaft and head issues... The red box is the first attempt to fix, then as you can see I realized that the shaft itself wasn't perfectly straight all the way through. The blue box tried to fix that by realigning the shaft all the way through... but which looks better to you guys?

Choose the RED box... or the BLUE box... if you take the blue box, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe... (or something)

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

All thoughts, critiques, cookies and/or comments very much appreciated!

[Klokinator]

Yeah, that scarf looks a bit weird to me TBH. If it was angled better instead of sticking out like bad hair, I'd probably like it more.

[ErrantDShepherd]

Hmm... May have to just drop the scarf tail then... Maybe try it again with my as yet to be made female Lord.

...currently unsure whether to give her dual swords, axes or something else...any suggestions? ...wanting something not stereotypically given to female characters in Fire Emblem. :\

Edited December 18, 2014 by TheErrantShepherd

[Toa]

Fem axe lord would be pretty cool.

[Klokinator]

We need more female axe users. Echidna and paladin chicks ain't enough. I'd love to see female pirates, fighters, warriors, berserkers, etc. A female axe lord would be sick too, and I'm not opposed to a dual sword female. That could come out similar to this animation.

Made by Kilik64 I think? Idk.

[deranger]

I think it's just a matter of getting the scarf to look right. I like the idea of it, but there are quite few references. I guess you' could treat them as cape sections. Realistically though, scarves like Sothe's would be extremely poor combat uniform choices. I like the lyn bow, and was never a fan of coloured bows.

Bow lord's legs look better now.

Lance lord's lance still looks like it's going through his cape, rather than having his cape go around him.

[ErrantDShepherd]

@ deranger

Yeah, I like the concept of the scarf as well, even despite its complete impracticality. Makes me think of the "NO CAPES!" bit from 'The Incredibles' when thinking about how something like that could work against oneself on the battlefield.

Glad Bow Boy Lord seems better. Still not sure how to fix the cape issue with the lance without completely reworking the cape... and not sure I want to scrap an otherwise cool cape design? ...but may try to rework it, may come up with something better that way anyways...

@ Klok

I agree more female units for class types would be cool. Think I'm leaning most towards dual swords for the Female Lord, then her promote could still use Dual Axes as well!

...hmm, interesting concept by Kilik64... Trying to decide what would work best for the attacks at the moment. My current concept for the three Lords is the basic heavy, balanced and speed type distinction between them. Another way I am thinking for their attacks is Heavy striking, Balanced slashing or piercing and quick piercing or slashing attacks attacks.

Trying to decide whether to make the Bow Lord a balanced or speed type, as the Female Lord will be the other one, while Quinn I think makes the most sense as the Heavy Lord.

@ Toa

Yeah, Female Axe Lord would be cool... Only problem is I'm liking the poleaxe I gave Lord tier1 Quinn, making a Female Lord tier1 with axes repetitive. Thinking I can give her axes for her tier2 promotion though.

-------------

...and just so I have something to show, here's what I am working on at the moment!

-I often reference other Fire Emblem sprites when it comes to shading and proportions, or when designing a character I like to sketch out some ideas. Sometimes I find myself less confident or knowledgeable about something like cloth, armor or female proportions so I reference a bit more heavily.

I thought I'd share a little of my design process here. The obviously resized sprite in the top left corner is what I based the pose for the female Lord off of. That sprite was a splice of parts of a female Ninja called Izuna from a fighting game called Windy x Windam. Using that splice as reference for my pose and female proportions, along with referencing Lyn I came up with a basic body figure which I tweaked and slimmed to get the current WIP you see in the green.

The Lyn body is simply there to reference and as a place holder to try out different heads and hairstyles on.

...This sprite is her tier2 basic pose, as you can see its still a WIP as I need to decide what to do for the outfit and her hairstyle. Current thought is to have the hair be a long braid flowing behind her to make her look less like Lyn. Thinking it may make more sense for it to be hanging down rather than mysteriously blowing in the wind atm, but trying to get it to look right... I should probably see what I can find for long braided hair references.

...I'll probably either do her tier1 pose, or finish designing this tier2 look first and try simplifying the design to make the tier1.

...but yeah, any thoughts so far? I like how her proportions turned out, but what do you think? She look noticeably female enough? Even with the shorter hair?

All thoughts, comments, criticisms and cookies very much appreciated!

[Klokinator]

She looks almost like a different palette version of Samus Aran.

See: Bottom rightmost.

Looking good, keep it up!

[deranger]

The cap isn't as springy on its own/ gets pushed back so it wraps around him less. Idk, it's not essential. New lord's interesting.

[Kramy]

Gotta say, the new hair looks wonderful

[ErrantDShepherd]

@ Klok

Yeah, I had that thought myself. Though I wasn't quite trying for a Samus look.

...might change her pallette some more, not sure... I just know I'm trying to get some diversity in the Lord color schemes... Debating a platinum blonde and purple/indigo scheme... Might be cool, might be not.

@ deranged

...I'll keep looking at it. Thinking about the Quinn design did lead me to tweak the t1 look a little, think he looks a bit more consistent and tankish with the slight change which I will post once I get some more done on femLord.

Glad you're intrigued by the femLord. I'm enjoying the creation and design process... Almost makes me wish I was good at/had the patience for hacking with all the ideas these characters get me thinking about.

@ Kramy

Thanks! ...but out of curiosity, which style in particular did you mean? The short do by itself? One of the ponytail or longer ones?

...just asking to get a better sense of what works/looks good. :)

[Kramy]

I'd say the ones with the short hair and longer ponytail looks the best

[Klokinator]

This one is my favorite. The one to the left of it looks weird. The ponytail would be floating on the idle frame. Instead, make the ponytail hang down behind her back, then whip out and become visible when she attacks, because of her fast movements.

Also the only reason I drew the Samus comparison is because of the swimsuit. It actually looks like a cool sprite, but needs to be a bit more medieval.

Edited December 21, 2014 by Klokinator

[ErrantDShepherd]

@ kramy

Ah, cool. Thanks for the input! Yeah, I think that short hair of hers turned out pretty well. Guess I must be improving on drawing females with age.

@ klok

...but, swimsuits are totally medieval! :0

Just take a look at the awakening dlc... >.> <.<

Heh, anyways... Yeah the swimsuit look ATM is more an anatomy placeholder while I figure out a design. Did some sketching, think I figured out a cool look. Now just need to translate it to the sprite itself.

Think I have a design for the t1 femLord as well. Should be interesting seeing how it looks...ALSO, you are totally right about the ponytail. Will have to try that.

...will give an update once I can get to the actual computer. ;)

Edited December 21, 2014 by TheErrantShepherd

[ErrantDShepherd]

Double postage, 'cause I have an update!

-Here's the Fem Lord, in many colors! Not quite as tricked out as my sketch had her, but I feel it works for a look that I can tweak further... Think I like the color scheme of the one furthest right the best... but what do you guys think?

-...and here's Fem Lord with all the other Lord forms so far. Her torso was shortened a pixel to make more of a difference in height between her and Quinton, not sure if an improvement or not.

I personally want to try and make her design a bit more impressive but I think the current design works as a decent base design. I also like how her color scheme has a nice contrast to the other two Lords.

As for things I'm not quite happy with yet... Been trying to rework the angle of the lower sword, but couldn't get it to look quite right till I settled with the one I have there now... kinda ended up with the swords at the same angle... Does that look alright though? Better than what it was in the WIP?

Bow Lord scarf tweaked slightly again, following more the cape type shading, don't know that it looks better or not.

Quinn if you have noticed has had his body widened a bit in t1, think he now matches the beefier t2 a little bit better. Less like two separate characters. Also got some trim to the chest plate, which I feel helps make him look a little more distinct from the Bow and Fem Lord chest designs.

...anywho's, comments, cookies, criticisms or thoughts are all very much appreciated and welcomed! :D

[Klokinator]

For her lower sword, it seems a tad long. Maybe shrink the length a pixel or two? Her overall design is fantastic though... hope we get to see these bad boys animated :D

Axe/Lance lord is badass too. Can I recommend making the bow lord a magic/bow lord though? Anima+Bows would be a unique not-yet-done yet lord.

[ErrantDShepherd]

@ Klok

Hmm... True Bows and Magic hasn't been done, I dunno though... two mainly ranged attack weapons... Could be redundant? Was thinking more since the Bow Lord is a cocky royal who has been forced to learn the Bow to stay out of direct combat, his tier2 would be him finally having proved himself and able to fight on the front lines as well.

For that the only logical choice to me would be a sword, as a lance would be impractically long for someone carrying a bow, and an axe would be overly heavy... Plus a piercing type sword would go along with his piercing attack schtick.

Then Quinn would be mainly strike based attacks, Bow Lord pierce types, and Fem Lord slashing types.

...anyways, did some tweaks to the sword length. 1st big sprite is the current shorter torso t2 FemLord with swords shortened, 2nd is the original sprite from the colors batch, and third is the original with shortened swords just for comparison sake...

...I still kinda prefer the shorter torso, but others have said they like the longer torso look... (amazing the difference a pixel can make...) Dunno, what do you people prefer?

Edited December 22, 2014 by TheErrantShepherd

[deranger]

Both Torsos are passable. You have yourself a nice team there. Nice work on the scarf.

[Fateborn]

I like the middle female lord the best. #darkforever

[Klokinator]

Shorter torso does look better to me as well as the shorter sword length.

Hmm... True Bows and Magic hasn't been done, I dunno though... two mainly ranged attack weapons... Could be redundant? Was thinking more since the Bow Lord is a cocky royal who has been forced to learn the Bow to stay out of direct combat, his tier2 would be him finally having proved himself and able to fight on the front lines as well.

And Lances+Axe isn't redundant? If a character fits a niche, there's no such thing as redundancy.

Edited December 22, 2014 by Klokinator

[ErrantDShepherd]

@ Klok

Fair enough, I do like the idea of magic Lord, but don't know if that fits with the characters currently in my head...

Still thinking the Bow Lord as a physical based fighter who wants to be on the front lines.

...maybe another Lord could be a magic based Lord who learns to use bows? ...I dunno how well that mixes though, then you either have a Lord with high magic and low atk suddenly gaining an atk based weapon that is not as good, or if you flip it the opposite situation occurs, unless they just recieve roughly equal magic and attack stats while levelling... But it just seems like a balance issue in my mind.

Whereas, with lances+axes, its been done, but it makes use of the atk stat and gives a weapon triangle advantage they previously did not hold.

...Some magic based Lord would be cool though. May have to start designing one now.

Thanks for the idea for shorter swords too, think it did make it look better. =)

@Fateborn

...more popularity for the longer torso, eh? Yeah, I guess it works since it is tier2 Lord.

@deranger

Thanks! Aha! Scarf looks a little better at least...Yeah, I like the look of the team! May be adding a magic based Lord for giggles now... I guess the color scheme of the current FemLord works best though.

...or did anyone have any thoughts on the other potential color schemes?

--------------------

You venture into a dark chasm and find a locked treasure chest. You pick the lock and open the chest to find: UPDATE!

-We have... A lazy tier1 FemLord, and tier2 FemLord got a bit of an upgrade to the look! Think I may just give the tier1 its own unique pose, but hey its a start!

-As you can see, I was trying to replicate the kinda cool waistcoat/cape thing that the WindyxWindam splice sprite had... I think it looks kinda cool, hopefully not too dopey, or bad on the shading.

Original FemLord design there to show the difference/upgrades to the design.

-...and because I am indecisive, the tier1 FemLord her basic look and a possible variation for the bottom sword that doesn't really look as good at the moment in my opinion... With 5 variants: 1 being hilt on top sword showing(I almost feel like one of these looks like she is putting a sword through her

head but can't figure out which one!), 2 the base shading of sword chosen with black, 3 opposite black, 4 all black, 5 no black!

What do you guys prefer?

As always, all thoughts, comments, criticisms or cookies are very much appreciated! Thanks for all the great feedback so far! :D

Edited December 22, 2014 by TheErrantShepherd

[Kramy]

I just noticed how you use the same grass green background when you work your sprites ><

Personally, I like first row because of the more unique and badass pose with the third variant of the bottom sword outline.