Celtic's Pixels Of Increasing Impressiveness

[Celtic]

Hey peeps. Guess who's making spritey things again.

Yeah, it's me.

Lets get one thing out in the open, right now. Yes, I do subpixelate my expressions. I feel it gives more character to the sprites. Deal with it.

Here's our old friend Cypher, with a beta test of a spiffy new design!


A few things as we get started. My skills have atrophied a bit, so yes, I am using bases again. To be frank, I prefer this, as it's letting me experiment with something I've been thinking about for a little while; emphasizing character traits with small details. I'm not good enough to really do this when scratch building stuff, so… there.

Lets take this new design of Cypher. For this standing pose, I've used a different base, a different posture, with a less heroic stance. This is because this pass at the character is as he starts, a highly intelligent lab tech recently turned Hunter. So obviously, less postured, less sure.

Another thing is his belt, which is the other biggest change. Character wise, he's Unit 42's Tech Officer, so he's expected to be able to analyze, fix, patch into, and basically figure out computer and technical systems in the field. This is why the belt is different, I tried to get it to look like a bunch of pouches or compartments, for him to carry various tools and such.

Last required note: The arm design is inspired by a design my old pal Metro did a few years ago.

Comments welcome, folks.

[Andrew]

Is that the custom X-base that Alpha-X used all the time? I kinda like it, but something about it just puts me off from actually using it myself.


I like the new design. It almost seems simpler than the previous version, which should make it much easier to create a full sheet off of it.

[Celtic]

Uh… It might be? It's a tweaked version of Oakies OTHER standing X sprite, the one that wasn't used by everyone and their mother. I did swap out the arms, though.

I think so too, the design is a LOT cleaner, even despite the chunky belt. I'm looking forward to doing some colour tests on it his special system that I'm thinking about renaming.

[Celtic]

I said there would be colour tests, and lo, there are colour tests.


^{From left to right: Default, Pyro Drive, Static Drive, Glacial Drive.}
Cypher signature gimmick has been renamed! Now known as the Variable Driver, or V-Driver System, it's still has the basic functionality: Three elemental effects, applied to any armour and weapon Cypher touches.

Pyro Drive: The original colour scheme was heavily based on the Phazon Suit from Metroid Prime (as was the whole concept, if we're being honest). This go 'round, I decided to put red as the primary colour, and bring in some orange. I'm quite pleased with the result.

Static Drive: I usually think of yellow, blue, and white when I think electricity, but seeing as white is a consistent colour (like his brown bangs) I decided that purple would make a nice accent colour.

Glacial Drive: Clean and icey, Just was I was going for.

Opinions?

[Andrew]

Why didn't this show up on the new messages.. Shit.

I like the update on Pyro. The colors work a lot much better this time around.

I now see why you asked me that question the other night and the neon purple works well with the other colors. Good choice there.

The slight palette change on Glacial looks very nice as well, I especially like the soft yellow(I think) colors used.

All around, good updates to an established idea. Is it going to stay at three, or will it ever be expanded? Cypher could be Captain Planet.