Mega Man 9: Official Thread

[Frogacuda]

You got that much from three extra colors for each main model? There's a digital art history class out there waiting for your keynote.

There's a technique to pixel art. I'm by no means an authority, but just for the sake of demonstration, I submit the following:

Here's the original Mega Man 7 sprite:

Inafune doesn't really understand shading. The light source is not completely consistent (i.e. keeping highlights in the top left for example) and thus is unable to really properly suggest the form of the sprite. He also doesn't shade his outline, which makes it appear heavy, coarse, and clumsy. When you're working in resolutions this low, solid black outlines are not attractive.

Now, I have done a quick edit of the same sprite:

I haven't changed the form (same goofy big head, alas), and I have kept roughly the same palette and added no colors (it still using 15 colors). I've shaded the outlines and redone the light sourcing. See how much of a difference that makes? Again, I'm not doing this as well as someone with artistic talent, just trying to demonstrate basic pixel technique.

[Frogacuda]

Ahhhh comeon, the smoking pig looks better. *-neo

[Cheebs]

I only see one MM7 sprite. Where's the Frog edit?

[Frogacuda]

Sorry, fixed now.

[cigsthecat]

Sorry Frog but that looks really bad.

[Frogacuda]

Well I'm not an artist and I'm not spending a lot of time on it, nor am I trying to improve the shaky artwork (though I do think it's a clear improvement)

But the Mega Man 8 sprite is not much bigger and uses the same size palette size and it looks worlds better than MM7 in part because it does the things I described (better than I can).

EDIT: Or did you mean the piggy? Because that's just something I did years ago that I threw up there for a goof.

[EvilMog]

Seriously? Complaining about pixel shading in a Mega Man game? Punch yourself in the sack for me.

[Frogacuda]

Seriously? Complaining about pixel shading in a Mega Man game? Punch yourself in the sack for me.

Look, we're all agreed that MM7 looked like shit, and I'm just trying to explain why it looked like shit without resorting to silliness like "8-bit>16-bit".

[EvilMog]

Frog, I'm serious. Punch the nuts.

[cigsthecat]

Well I'm not an artist and I'm not spending a lot of time on it, nor am I trying to improve the shaky artwork (though I do think it's a clear improvement)

It's not. You're changing and removing things without understanding why they're there in the first place. Black outlines work REALLY well on 8bit sprites, and the near black outlines here work too. At a resolution this small simply removing an outline or part of it radically changes the width and proportions. The highlights are also being used largely to break up and define forms rather than portray an accurate light source.

Here's a simple edit, mostly I just got rid of the dirty shading and tweaked a few little things. The highlights, especially on the boots and screen left glove need some work but I don't feel like spending the evening on it. At any rate I think it's far more appealing while still retaining the original form.

The Mega Man NES sprites are more appealing largely because of the great proportions. As time went on he got more and more human. It's a good thing the NES had the limitations it did or we may never have gotten those great designs.