$12256 / $11500
Hello everyone at OGA,
I've been around for a little bit, found LPC and OGA about mid-last year and love all the resources available. While I'm still working on trying to get my game started, I'm also trying to work on some new sprites to go with my characters I've already created. I'm hoping to use as many existing hairstyles as possible, and recently I've helped out Joe White a bit in touching up the existing LPC hairstyles (there's still a couple of minor issues in the automation script that he's still working on).
So, first of all, I wanted to share some new hairstyles I'm currently working on. Unlike the "Shoulder" hairstyles I did before (http://opengameart.org/content/lpc-curly-hair-elven-ears-white-cape-with...), where I created them by combining existing hairstyles together, these ones are mostly from scratch.
I'm going to share what I'm working on, and it'd be helpful to have some feedback; I'm more of a programmer than an artist, and I'm not amazing with spriting either. Spriting is probably the best form of art I can do, though, but I can always use feedback.
I'd additionally like to know about proper names for the hairstyles; I'm trying to figure out good names but its difficult!
Any comments or suggestions on how to improve these hairstyles are appreciated! Also, feel free to offer suggestions for additional hairstyles, but PLEASE post a link to the style you'd like to see. I cannot guarantee I'll be able to get to it, as I only really have time on weekends right now to do anything.
I do not take commissions as I'm really just an amateur spriter. If you think my stuff is good enough for commissions, I'd be willing to consider it, but I cannot guarantee I'll be able to get it done in a decent amount of time. For these hairstyles, so far I've found them to take about 2-3 hours. As these are only about 6 full frames, that's definitely not as fast as a more professional spriter can do.
Also note: the layout I'm using is based on Joe White's script, where individual 128x128 images are parsed and positioned onto the full character spritesheets automatically via a script. I just took the eight unique hair animation sprites (four directions and falling sprites) and put them into one image so I could show them off easier. The fact them I'm using the female body sprites means nothing, either; its just so I could show how they look on a body.
"Jewfro":
I was really just going for a curly hairstyle like this: http://sta.sh/01pza7cfjzn7
It did not turn out the way I had in mind, but I liked how the front pose looked so I decided to finish it. The hairstyle is really intended to be made so I could create a sprite avatar for myself... when my hair grows out it gets really messy as I've got naturally curly hair. This isn't exactly what I had in mind, but I think it turned out well.
I was originally going to call it "Shortfro" and create a separate "Jewfro," until looking it over and this did in fact look like a Jewfro example (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewfro#Similar_styles_internationally). I actually hate afros (I think they look ridiculous), but I didn't realize that these shorter afro styles were considered afros, and I don't mind these so much. I don't plan to create a more traditional afro, but if requested I can probably do it. The "afro" design is suprisingly easy.
"Topknot":
This one is still a work-in-progress. Its based on my character, Relm Kisaragi's hairstyle she gets later on. The "Shoulder" hair I linked above? That's Relm's hairstyle at the start of my series, but later she styles her hair this way: http://jaidynreiman.deviantart.com/art/Relm-197635922 (artwork was commissioned by me).
What I planned to do at first is a basic topknot, then create several variations from the topnot; my plan was for a topknot without a ponytail, then have a short, long, and extra long ponytail, perhaps even some with the bangs not pulled up, and others with the bangs pulled up (such as in Relm's hairstyle). The basic Topknot I plan to be something like this in the end: http://manouvellemode.com/2013/03/22/messy-top-knot-for-short-hair/
Unfortunately I'm having some trouble with the shading. The "pull" effect from the hair being pulled up is just not sitting well with me. The front looks decent, but not great. The back I'm having even more troubles figuring it out (I didn't add the back because it looks so bad, I'm going to try and work on fixing it myself).
Other than two strands of the bangs all the hair is pulled up. Although it doesn't look like it, this started off as "bunches" without the pigtails.
Here's what I've got so far:
Future Plans/Ideas:
I plan to do a new hairstyle for all my characters that would not fit into the existing hairstyles. I don't have a list of all of them yet though I've created Gaia Online Dream Avatar sprites for basically every character and eventually I'll get them all with full concept arts.
I also want to do this "curly" style that I failed to do before:
Feel free to suggest additional ideas but I can't guarantee I'll get to them!
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So I've updated the Topknot now, finishing all four directions:
I definitely think the back of the hair looks way better than my original plan, though I still have mixed feelings on it. I think these are pretty decent for the base hairstyle now, though. I'm not going to do the fall animations yet, but I will work on finalizing the ponytail designs.
For the first two ponytail designs I'll just grab ponytails off of existing hairstyles, and then I'll create a longer one as well.
If anyone sees this, feedback would be appreciated! Thanks! I'd love to know how I'm doing here.
I notice you use a 5-colour colour ramp for your hairstyles.
I beg you to switch to a 6-colour one, such as dark-blonde (at least it is called that in my old copy of the universal sprite sheet). The reason is, it is easy to convert from 6-colour to 5-colour (or even 4-colour like raven), but not the other way around.
Besides, the dark-blonde ramp is a beautifully made natural hair ramp, so it is fun to work with anyway.
As for artistic feedback, your work looks fine to me. But that's just your fellow programmer talking.
I figured someone would comment on the palette. This is the "default" LPC palette, and actually, it IS six colors. Its just that in the default palette the lightest color isn't much lighter than the second-lightest so its hard to notice.
I think some time ago, the various colors in the palette got mixed up. Joe White and I were working on trying to correct this and I found a mid-palette color that looked decent, but he ended up using a different one because it was used more often in the palettes. So I went with using the same palette he did instead.
Either way, it doesn't matter much. The "default" LPC palette won't be used often really. Joe White's script will take these basic sprites and recolor it into all the other palettes. I think there's still a couple of minor bugs he's working out, but that's just about done.
Now, I will note that for the "Jewfro" style, its only using six colors. The reason is that the colors are constantly switching around so rapidly that I couldn't really find any place to do the lightest colors. Not all hairstyles need all six colors in the palette, and that's one I found difficult to include the lightest color. I can try and include it if you really want me to.
Thanks for the feedback!
Ah I see.
I did some hairstyle maintenance for the universal sprite sheet a long time ago and at that time I was annoyed that the "default" palette had only 5 colours. So when I saw your work I suspected you repeat the mistake. And I only checked the jewfro style, not the topknot one. Sorry for that.
No need to change anything. It is fine to use only 5 colour where it makes sense and the jewfro looks fine in dark-blonde without the lightest colour.
I was making that mistake before. I was trying to do new recolors but most of the default hairstyle's palettes were missing the lightest color. I went through and fixed every single existing hairstyle so the lightest color was there (where appropriate, of course), and added the "fall" animations.
I've now finished up Shortknot and Longknot (Short Topknot and Long Topknot), respectively. I'm going to go and finish up XLongknot and then post all three of them up.
I'm not going to add these new hairstyles as new art entries until the positioning/recolor script is fixed, though. Until then additional feedback is welcome and I'll tweak the hairstyles if I get any suggestions.
Alright, I got them done now! I decided to use three separate palettes for these three variations.
"Shortknot":
Or "Short Topknot." I made this Dark Blonde. The ponytail was copied directly from Ponytail and Ponytail2. I tried creating my own custom ponytail but it was too symetrical and didn't look very good, so I used the Ponytail from those two to make a better looking one.
"Longknot":
Or "Long Topknot." This one is a longer ponytail, about mid-back. Most "long" hairstyles are about mid-back, so I kept up the style. Technically its only down to the shoulders; however, if this wasn't put up it would be about mid-back. I'm trying to keep it consistent.
For this one, I used "Light Blonde 2." Light Blonde just didn't quite work for one of my characters, so I used "Light Blonde 2" to fit my character Maya.
"Xlongknot":
Or "Extra Long Topknot." Personally I'd have preferred renaming the "Long" hairstyles to "Medium," but I'm going with what's already set in stone, so I decided to name ankle-length hairstyles "Xlong" or "Extra Long."
This one specifically is the topknot I really wanted to make, as its the style used for my character Relm. Naturally, I used the "Ruby Red" palette, which was picked off directly from her artwork I commissioned.
I love the first two, and sadly, I don't love the third one. I think its decent, but I also think it needs touching up a bit. But, I'm putting this up for now.
If possible I'm going to try and do a new "Curly" hairstyle later, based on my own hairstyle (because, again, I wanted to create an LPC sprite of me that I could use as an avatar). Can't guarantee I'll get it done today, though.
As per usual, suggestions/feedback/critiques are welcome.
These hair styles are pretty awesome. Any plans for more after these?
Yeah, I've got tons planned. I've got a lot of characters I'm going to be creating, many of whom cannot be created using the existing hairstyles. I was also going to create another curly hairstyle based on my own hair, too (this was what I was trying to do with Jewfro at first but it didn't turn out right; I finished it because I liked it, but not for me):
http://sta.sh/01pza7cfjzn7
(Does this link work? I think it should; I believe Sta.sh is publicly viewable but the links aren't provided publicly.)
I've got a short list of characters here (haven't added everyone yet): https://charahub.com/user/jaidynreiman
Of the ones listed here, I think I've got all the hairstyles covered. Kasuto can use existing hairstyles easy enough, and Lijuona (I only have a Gaia Online artwork for her atm) will use Pixie.
Katryhn... its possible I may need to create an updated one of her, but only very slight changes are needed. Dalton I think will be fine with the "long" hairstyle and of course Relm's hairstyle I just created.
I'll also be designing this hairstyle: https://charahub.com/character/175093/Zephyr-Daividh
And this one: https://charahub.com/character/187486/Xhia-Lorehl (currently there's no zoomed out version of her yet, but it does exist)
These two characters are my wife's but they're from the same universe as my characters (she's got several universes, I've only got one :P).
These are just ones I plan to do in the near-near future. Again, I won't post them as full art until I can auto-generate the positions. I'm also not going to do any new hairstyles until I get a very basic game engine up and running, and I think I've almost got it.
And when I say "very basic" game engine, I basically just mean connecting Tiled (http://www.mapeditor.org/) to RPG-JS (http://rpgjs.com/). I can't do it without editing the core files, but I'll do a pull request and see if they accept my update once its finished.
No new hairstyles yet, although I did finally get Tiled linked up to RPG-JS and I even wrote a Passability Map script for it. I'm going to be sharing that soon but I need to create a demo to show off how it works, first.
As I got past that hurdle, I also went in and finalized all the "hurt" animations for these Topknot Hairstyles. I'm still working on trying to get them finalized and having the male/female variants fully generated for the Universal LPC Tileset, but once that's done I'll post up these hairstyles as a new Art submission, and I'll try and do one new hairstyle a week.
Here's the updated Topknot Hairstyles: