What'd you think of my first character?

hamzeyyy

Hi, I'm making my first app.


1.Here's my character I have made, what'd you think of it?
2,Anyways to improve it so it looks more 3d and still cartoony?
3.Is it app quality?



It's only going to be small when it's on screen, I exported it to a medium quality RGB colour version, when it was in the standard settings the colours went weird and neon green.

Just incase the image isn't uploading properly here's the link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100815205@N05/9604290832/lightbox/

Looking forward to hearing your feedback

dimsdale

Looks Sweet

hamzeyyy

Looks Sweet

any bits i can improve on? pls answer the no 2. question - is it app quality?

VolontaArts

very nice. it is ap quality. many art is. everyone has there own style. Just make sure you note down the size of your stroke lines so that they can all look the same.

Asobu_Games

It looks nice, my only suggestion would be to make sure it works at the small size too. Especially if you are making a phone game (as opposed to tablet) you might want less detail, thicker lines etc. The detail in the mouth and legs might get a bit lost.

Purely from an art perspective though I'd say it looks 'app quality'

Good luck with your first game!

Btw you should always make your art in RGB colour mode to begin with. CMYK is for print.

KevinCross

Isn't the saying red and green should never be seen?

It's cool but I think the two colours are clashing and you will lose the detail in the eyes and mouth with the thin black lines like @Asobu_Games said, because the two colours are fighting each other. A pastally red or a yellow might still look menacing and should make the image more clearer.

Asobu_Games

It's true that certain colour 'rules' are there for a reason and should be considered, but once you know the rules sometimes you can break them too. Ever heard of Christmas? Plenty of red and green there!

I'd say it's more important to focus on contrast. If you remove all hue from your character you will see that the red and green tones/shades are almost identical, there is very little contrast. You could still use a green and red hue but it might be good to make one colour darker and one lighter to create some contrast if you want to make the eyes 'pop'. Also make sure to consider the contrast between the background and your characters. Generally it's a good idea to make your characters/objects/enemies etc stand out against the background by giving them some contrast.

Finally, another tip is to make sure your characters have a strong, easily recognisable silhouette. If you think of the best iconic characters such as Sonic, Mario, Mickey Mouse, Lara Croft, Master Chief etc, they all could be instantly recognized by silhouette alone. Just a thought.

Asobu_Games

Here's what I mean about the lack of contrast once you remove the hue.

lycettebros

I do not like using perfect shapes or consistent line widths for cartoon drawings...it looks too much like a 'too perfect' vector drawing from Flash/Illustrator.
I like to use brush strokes and slightly wobble the shape of the insect so it is not symmetrical (as it is through the horizontal).

This picky and many people do not see this kind of detail

hamzeyyy

very nice. it is ap quality. many art is. everyone has there own style. Just make sure you note down the size of your stroke lines so that they can all look the same.

Thank you, the lines going across the body were meant to be thinner than the outline of the body. I will try changing them and seeing what it looks like.

What are the benefits of using the same stroke size?

hamzeyyy

It looks nice, my only suggestion would be to make sure it works at the small size too. Especially if you are making a phone game (as opposed to tablet) you might want less detail, thicker lines etc. The detail in the mouth and legs might get a bit lost.

Purely from an art perspective though I'd say it looks 'app quality'

Good luck with your first game!

Btw you should always make your art in RGB colour mode to begin with. CMYK is for print.

Thanks, they will be fair small on a phone compared to a tablet, so I will definitely change the details around so it looks more obvious on a phone.

Yeah I'll work a bit on the legs, not really fussed about the '3d' effect in the mouth but I will give it a shot.

So when I import the image to game salad it should be in RGB mode too?

Btw, how long should I spent on graphics in terms of hours?

hamzeyyy

Isn't the saying red and green should never be seen?

It's cool but I think the two colours are clashing and you will lose the detail in the eyes and mouth with the thin black lines like @Asobu_Games said, because the two colours are fighting each other. A pastally red or a yellow might still look menacing and should make the image more clearer.

hmm, I have seen many company logos that are red and green and think it looks well.

Thanks I'll try using them colours then, I'm not really bothered if you cant see the black lines as it's only a minor detail but I agree it may look better if they can be seen

KevinCross

When I heard the saying red and green should never be seen it was in relation to fashion/clothes.

Some say blue and green should never be seen.

A google search will give you this saying "red and green should never be seen except on the dress of an Irish queen" and it's related to boats or something.

The red and green thing was just my opinion. Do with it as you choose

hamzeyyy

I do not like using perfect shapes or consistent line widths for cartoon drawings...it looks too much like a 'too perfect' vector drawing from Flash/Illustrator.
I like to use brush strokes and slightly wobble the shape of the insect so it is not symmetrical (as it is through the horizontal).

This picky and many people do not see this kind of detail

I'd rather have the main body using a shape, looks more neat I think.

Btw, just downloaded your app - Can of games... my AVG app on my android phone says it's intrusive behaviour. - just something i thought I'd let you know as many ppl would install it straight away because of this.

Also although I haven't made any games yet I think it would be good if you made the levels harder as they progressed in other ways than changing the time and adding more worms.

I think if you add 'good' worms that you are supposed to avoid then that'll make it harder, multikills where you can get bonus points from killing a certain ammount of worms in a certain time will make it good too.

It's just user advice, I'm far from a pro. The graphics are really nice and I like the way you have to peel the can to get to the difficulty bit and the levels.

hamzeyyy

It's true that certain colour 'rules' are there for a reason and should be considered, but once you know the rules sometimes you can break them too. Ever heard of Christmas? Plenty of red and green there!

I'd say it's more important to focus on contrast. If you remove all hue from your character you will see that the red and green tones/shades are almost identical, there is very little contrast. You could still use a green and red hue but it might be good to make one colour darker and one lighter to create some contrast if you want to make the eyes 'pop'. Also make sure to consider the contrast between the background and your characters. Generally it's a good idea to make your characters/objects/enemies etc stand out against the background by giving them some contrast.

Finally, another tip is to make sure your characters have a strong, easily recognisable silhouette. If you think of the best iconic characters such as Sonic, Mario, Mickey Mouse, Lara Croft, Master Chief etc, they all could be instantly recognized by silhouette alone. Just a thought.

Thanks I'll make the eyes a lighter or darker colour to get some contrast.
Any other tips how to get more contrast?

I'm going to make the background a light colour with bits of dark bits so hopefully it'll stand out well.

I agree with making a recognisable silhouette, it's kind of like company logos - everyone knows the Nike swoosh. I don't really think it can be applied to this bug though as it is kind of complex to remember. But I will try it for other characters and hopefully future apps.

VolontaArts

very nice. it is ap quality. many art is. everyone has there own style. Just make sure you note down the size of your stroke lines so that they can all look the same.

Thank you, the lines going across the body were meant to be thinner than the outline of the body. I will try changing them and seeing what it looks like.

What are the benefits of using the same stroke size?

no i didnt mean on the one character. i just meant for all your art work. lets say your going to make another bug. you want its strokes to be the same as this bugs. this bug looks great. i was just giving you a heads up because i ran into this problem where i forgot what stroke i did my character in and they look a bit different now haha.

VolontaArts

and the time that should be spent on art work is all the time you need! if you want it to be great then spend your time.

hamzeyyy

no i didnt mean on the one character. i just meant for all your art work. lets say your going to make another bug. you want its strokes to be the same as this bugs. this bug looks great. i was just giving you a heads up because i ran into this problem where i forgot what stroke i did my character in and they look a bit different now haha.

ah right, thanks for the heads up I'll remember that!

I wanna get the graphics finished with asap tbh, only have a month left to make the app. Going to start full time now and get a lot of hours done on this project!

hamzeyyy

Here's what I mean about the lack of contrast once you remove the hue.

I'm new to this world so I don't know what you mean by when you remove the hue? I removed the hue and it changed the colours about to green blue etc, when I remove the saturation it looks like this
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqf4ciatwcwr38c/iPhone 4 bug no saturation.jpg

When I convert it to grayscale it looks like this


https://www.dropbox.com/s/y3qhil4oipftddg/iPhone 4 bug.jpg

hamzeyyy

I've decided to change the game from landscape to portrait. Will be uploading a portrait version soon.

BTW, when I made the first character I used a iphone 4 screen resolution size, when I import it into GameSalad the size is all weird and a bit fuzzy when I scale it down to the right size. Any help?

Asobu_Games

Hey, make sure that you make your artwork files at the correct size before importing to GS. Resizing them in GS will make them blurry. Make them at double the size you need so they are the correct size for retina screens and if you click 'resolution independence' they will automatically resize to the correct dimensions. Also make sure your full res images are divisible by 4 pixels. This will mean they aren't blurry.

luayidriss

Wooooow awesome artwork but if you wanna publish your app make sure all your artwork is in .png form..

hamzeyyy

When I import an image into GameSalad it's a bit blurry. I exported it as a 72ppi (same as 72dpi) PNG file. Resolution interdependance is on too in GS. It was blurry so I re exported it as the same 72 ppi but clicked Anti Alaising - Art Optimized. It was slightly less blurry in GS but still a bit blurry.

The image size is 200x200pt , even when i tried 200x240 pixels it didn't make a difference.
Any help?

VolontaArts

what program are you using to make your artwork?

and check the size of the image in game salad and make sure it is 200x200

-Timo-

I like your character
I'm not sure but I think he is using inkscape ^^
(very good program in my opinion)

hamzeyyy

what program are you using to make your artwork?

and check the size of the image in game salad and make sure it is 200x200

I'm using Adobe illustrator

hamzeyyy

I like your character
I'm not sure but I think he is using inkscape ^^
(very good program in my opinion)

thanks, i've made some adjustments to it so it looks better

hamzeyyy

Here's two pics of the images when it's on gamesalad.

This one looks better - The 2nd and 3rd bugs (going down) are the ones that I exported and clicked Anti Alaising - Art Optimized.

It is 200x200pt
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dsga7rijevxjsmz/Initial Scene.png



This next one is 200x200 pixels. Didn't seem to make a difference, the lines across the body still look blurry


https://www.dropbox.com/s/i9j4vojzdjisfpl/Screen Shot 2013-08-31 at 23.26.43.png

I have heard about saving it as 24/32 bit? How do I do this? I clicked Image transparency btw

VolontaArts

when i export on illustrator i dont touch any of the settings. hmm what Software are you running? mac or windows?

because i had problems with images when i was running on os x lion... then upgraded and it started working good after that.

hamzeyyy

when i export on illustrator i dont touch any of the settings. hmm what Software are you running? mac or windows?

because i had problems with images when i was running on os x lion... then upgraded and it started working good after that.

I'm using Mac- illustartor CC...
Check my comment above yours

VolontaArts

im not to sure because when i export them as png... they come out fine.