MV Resource development

[Holder]

I've been looking into the style and workings of MVs resources, still haven't found the RTP yet but the battler was where I wanted to start.
I tend to do a lot of trial and error when I work and truthfully I bin a load of graphics I'm not happy with without showing any of it, anyway I'm blabbering.
I was surprised to see my battlers are actually smaller than the new MV style so I could actually go from there but I wanted to try a non pixel art style to get more detail into each character. This is just a quick test as I didn't want to put too much time into it.
Old - New - MV Default

All kinds of thoughts are welcome as well as C&C. Everything here is going to be work in progress and nothing final.

 

[HotfireLegend]

The RTP is in NewData :) (Or just make a new project and go into the data files of it)

The old one looks good, the new one seems to be a bit blurry.

 

[Holder]

I neglected to mention I don't have the software, I don't make games any more I just do resources.
The newer one is 'painted' rather than pixel work so that comes with the negative blurred effect but the positive additional detail (like the boot shape and clothing details) I can include.

 

[HotfireLegend]

I can't see any boot shape difference, and the clothing detail is negligible enough for me to just say stick with pixel as it is sharper.

 

[Lato]

I have a lot of mixed feelings about the new char RTP, on the one handle we FINALLY have sideview battlers again, however the very chibi style just doesn't do it for me. I like the new style of battlers you are doing and if they work with the default sideview battle system then I would be happy to make some myself.

Also glad to see you here, it has been far too long.

 

[Amysaurus]

It is just a wee bit blurry like @HotfireLegend said, but I think it's just that the battlers themselves are too small for those extra details to be appreciated by the eyes. It works so well on the default battlers simply because they have the body mass to work with.

I think you're definitely on the right track, though. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with :)

 

[Wize1]

Clearly right off the bat, your battlers don't have balloon heads. Which I'm liking that already. By using a better proportioned head/body you get a more realistic looking battler. With the enlarged heads you can see hairstyle/eye color in more detail. It seems to be a little less work for the artist with the chibi style because you can kind of skip the detail of the body and just focus on the eyes, hairstyle and head clothing piece to represent the character.

They are both functional, but two different styles. Personally, I like yours better if they were a bit larger. If you could get a good balance of body / head I think you would achieve the best results.

I like these sprites because you can see their body and their head in balanced proportion. Also I noticed in RPG Maker side view battle, the characters are much small in proportion to the enemies. Actually I do wonder if RPG Maker has to use different style so that it does not look too much like final fantasy.

 

[Lato]

Hmm I guess it is a bit blurry.... then again anything is better then those melon heads...I have no idea what they were thinking with that lol. Do you have a working template that will work with the default sideview system of MV?

 

[punchybot]

Old one looks better than the middle. However, I kind of like the current battlers... if only their heads were a taaaad smaller.

 

[Lato]

Old one looks better than the middle. However, I kind of like the current battlers... if only their heads were a taaaad smaller.

Well I guess it is less work to just edit the heads down instead of the whole body?

 

[Holder]

Hey nice seeing you once again @Lato :) it has been a really long time.

The proportions themselves I did years ago and was testing a faster way of doing things. When I was originally designing them I looked at many different games and needed movement firstly before anything @Wize1 I found that Final Fantasy ones were really horribly static and showed no personality in it battlers.
I did have larger ones at first but found that then problems arose when animating them, having a few frames made them very jumpy in movement. You'll see from graphics like early Fire Emblem they're fluid and flow really nice, and their sprites are super small, so it was a sort of middle ground.

I know some people might not know the ones I've made before so these are some examples as I'm not sure any sites still host them.

It would be easier to do them without weapons and use a separate weapon sheet.

 

[punchybot]

Ah yes I remember those.

I look forward to what you will create. The ability to no longer include the weapons should give you more freedom?

 

[Storytailor]

Clearly right off the bat, your battlers don't have balloon heads. Which I'm liking that already. By using a better proportioned head/body you get a more realistic looking battler. With the enlarged heads you can see hairstyle/eye color in more detail. It seems to be a little less work for the artist with the chibi style because you can kind of skip the detail of the body and just focus on the eyes, hairstyle and head clothing piece to represent the character.

They are both functional, but two different styles. Personally, I like yours better if they were a bit larger. If you could get a good balance of body / head I think you would achieve the best results.

I like these sprites because you can see their body and their head in balanced proportion. Also I noticed in RPG Maker side view battle, the characters are much small in proportion to the enemies. Actually I do wonder if RPG Maker has to use different style so that it does not look too much like final fantasy.

FFV is my ideal when it comes to character sprites; that game had such color and balance in proportion, that everything else in 2D RPGs seems to fall just short of my expectations. I always imagined my MV project looking like FFV did, but unfortunately that's just not how things work. :/ I'm not a great artist and I don't have much to offer to an artist, much less for one to make stuff for an entire game, so I guess I'm stuck with MV's default.
[doublepost=1446048439,1446048298][/doublepost]

Hey nice seeing you once again @Lato :) it has been a really long time.

The proportions themselves I did years ago and was testing a faster way of doing things. When I was originally designing them I looked at many different games and needed movement firstly before anything @Wize1 I found that Final Fantasy ones were really horribly static and showed no personality in it battlers.
I did have larger ones at first but found that then problems arose when animating them, having a few frames made them very jumpy in movement. You'll see from graphics like early Fire Emblem they're fluid and flow really nice, and their sprites are super small, so it was a sort of middle ground.

I know some people might not know the ones I've made before so these are some examples as I'm not sure any sites still host them.

It would be easier to do them without weapons and use a separate weapon sheet.

Those sprites are looking pretty awesome; I like the proportions, as well as the details. The swing motion looks nice and crisp, and the evade sprites are great; a little off-balance for the last one, but I suppose that's what it's supposed to look like. The dead sprite looks a little weird to me; what's that sticking out by the legs on the last set? Overall, nice work!

 

[Holder]

I normally made each battler hold a few different weapons, and sometimes I had to have a battler stand a certain way because of the weapon they're holding.
Now I've not seen an actual weapon graphic file (I've seen the blank template) but I would like it if anyone can share a few.
ALSO if there's any super nice people out there that would like to test this for me it would be brilliant. -Noticed there's no actual advance pose, some of them seem to be a waste to be honest. (Might see if anyone could write a alternative pose order)

Feedback and at best a video of it in action would be cool.
It's tough not having MV to test this :/

 

[LTN Games]

Do you have a png file of it?. For some reason my photoshop don't wanna open up the image for me to do it myself.

 

[Holder]

Oh gawd I didn't realise that the image host was doing that. Yeah, I've got it and it's also transparent.

At least it was transparent...

 

[HotfireLegend]

Can you not use the MV trial?

 

[LTN Games]

I like it it alot. Here is a video for you to see.

 

[Wize1]

Not bad.