First hand-made sprite, tips? Options

[Snowstorm]

Hey. Today was my first venture into frankenspriting, recoloring, and spriting. All at once. So that was fun.

Anyways. I went ahead and made this out of Elmer and Ralph.



I really like it, and decided to try my hand at making a full animated sprite sheet (For a battle system) for the character.

I didn't use a template, I tried to freehand it, and I think it turned out pretty well for my first try.



My only problem is that I cannot for the life of me get the face/hair to look anything like the sprite or acceptable. If anyone has any tips, that would be great, and also general feedback on the body, because I don't want to start making a full sheet if it's flawed already.

Oh, and since I already have a thread that's almost related, can anyone give me tips on recoloring the RTP Elmer face to match the character I created?

Thanks.

This post has been edited by Snowstorm: Feb 22 2012, 05:46 PM

[Holder]

Just as a tip I know you've said there that you didn't use a template but if you use some colours from an existing palette then you need to know about why those colours were used within that palette, because as you've added some in there those do clash.

Always remember that character sprites have a large amount of detail removed due to their size, so when you come to increase the overall sprite size there's certain parts need to be included. It could also be a case where details have been exaggerated upon (most cases the hair) and wouldn't need to be that dramatic on a larger sprite.

I don't want to start making a full sheet if it's flawed already.

Trial and error is what it takes, don't expect to be able to just open a program and sprite an animated battler without trying and finding where you've gone wrong. What I'd recommend you do first is create a few single frame battlers and then try a few different poses of that character and see how they look together. After that there's the task of actually getting the animation frames done then linking them to the other poses.