The Sprite Ensemble

[Flynt]

While I'm not very good at it, I do sprite on occasion. Nothing is scratched, and I barely ever actually sprite humans, but I suppose I'll show what I've done. At the very least, it'll get me some pointers on how to improve.
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/3758/birkinspritev2.png
First, we have Resident Evil 2's Dr. William Birkin.
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1913/kirkv3r.png
Second is this guy. He's a character of mine, so I won't bore anyone with details.
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/840/hazamav1h.png
Third is probably my oldest sprite I haven't updated. Yuuki Terumi, also known as Captain Hazama, from BlazBlue: Continuum Shift.
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/5889/drakespritev1.png
Fourth is Drake, Hoenn's fourth Elite Four member. This is a simple revamp, of course.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/2316/roxannev1.png
Finally we have Roxanne, another revamp. She looks older then she should, to me...

Ah well, constructive criticism is welcome. I need to get better somehow, right?

[Sev]

The head doesn't match the body on the second one.

[Flynt]

It doesn't?

Sorry, you're going to have to give me a little bit more then that. How and why doesn't it match?

[ImmunityBow]

It has to do with the neckline. The torso suggests a large neck, but then the neck has a diametre nearly as large as the head, thus the head should be larger than it already is.

Sorry if I refrain to comment on much other than pointing out flaws, because over time I've grown less and less fond of sprite splices, even with edits.

[Flynt]

It has to do with the neckline. The torso suggests a large neck, but then the neck has a diametre nearly as large as the head, thus the head should be larger than it already is.

Sorry if I refrain to comment on much other than pointing out flaws, because over time I've grown less and less fond of sprite splices, even with edits.

No no, that's fine. Every time you point something out you help me get better. Actually, I don't think any of those are splices, I took a base and edited it, but I get your point anyway. Thanks for explaining, and when I look closely, I guess I get the point Infinity was trying to make. I tried to make it smaller to then the original was, hoping to make it look more realistic, but it seems in the process I might have gone and made it too small. Thanks for taking the time to explain, and I'll keep that in mind for future sprites.

[Sev]

No no, that's fine. Every time you point something out you help me get better. Actually, I don't think any of those are splices, I took a base and edited it, but I get your point anyway. Thanks for explaining, and when I look closely, I guess I get the point Infinity was trying to make. I tried to make it smaller to then the original was, hoping to make it look more realistic, but it seems in the process I might have gone and made it too small. Thanks for taking the time to explain, and I'll keep that in mind for future sprites.

I don't think it was with the size but the fact that it seemed like he had no neck that you could see so consider adding something there.

[ImmunityBow]

(It was the size)

I'm never entirely sure what to do with male necks on Pokemon sprites since most of the official ones don't seem to show much neck either. You just have to imagine it's there, covered up, and sprite accordingly. Women are a little easier, but sometimes also difficult.

[zeroality]

I've been away, so a bit late. You did well on them.

Have you ever tried custom spriting?

[Flynt]

To a minor extent on one sprite, which I think turned out really weird because of. I've never done a completely custom sprite though.

[Flynt]

So I'm back, with a new sprite.

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/3449/maxiev1.png
Anyone recognize this guy?

Yeah, his head is pretty small, but I was going for more of a size that would look realistic in real life, instead of your usually slightly large default head. After messing with it numerous times and pestering a friend about it, we've come to the consensus that it looks most realistic like this. I'll put him here for some more opinions, though.

[ImmunityBow]

He looks okay, but one fault that bugs me is that he looks unbalanced, as if he's falling backwards. His centre of mass is just really far up and back, with the exception of his head, which since it's not tilted with the rest of the body seems a bit over-crooked. As for the head size, it probably is more realistic though I don't think that's what Gamefreak goes for in Pokemon sprites.

[Flynt]

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/4292/archiev1.png
To go with Maxie, we have Archie. I'm a lot more pleased with how he looks.

And, I don't really see the balance issue with Maxie. I'll see if there is something I can do to improve it, but I don't know if I can fix something I don't see myself.

[ImmunityBow]

Another thing about Maxie is that he is extremely bottom heavy proportionally. In the end I think there's a good reason for why the Pokemon sprite heads are so big, or at least that the spriting is aimed towards balancing the sprite around this large head size aesthetically. Don't you miss the greater level of detail you can place with a larger head?

Archie does look better. His facial features and symbol on his hat/bandana are a little hard to make out though, and where does his right hand go?

[Flynt]

I have no idea where Archie's right hand is. To be perfectly honest, I never noted Drayden, the base, as having a visible one. Then again, Drayden has thicker arms then Archie, so I probably should put a few pixels in for the other hand, huh? I practically fought with his face forever though, I guess it's still to light. As for the symbols, I'll see if there's something I can do.

I don't see Maxie as being bottom heavy at all. In fact, you're the only person who's really seen that, out of all the places I've put the sprite on. And, to be perfectly honest, I actually don't miss the extra detail a larger head gathers. It forces me to make the body look better to compensate, which, to me, helps bring out details in both the head and the body.