Like expected it took me all the day, but now we have Tails HD'ed (It is not completed, need more time to define shapes,eyes,gloves and a better color scheme)
It's good, but there's something about the face that seems a little off. I'm no artist so I can;t be more specifc, sorry.
I know it's still being worked on, but I don't think that constructive criticism can hurt the development. The white bits of fur on Tails (the ends of his tails, his belly and his muzzle) are a bit too groomed at the moment. On the title screen you can see they are relatively messy. His head is also a little too wide, his eyes are too round (they need to be a little more narrow), the shape of the muzzle seems a little off, and his hands are quite large. I recommend bringing up some large images of Tails from the games (ending poses, the Sonic CD picture, S2 title screen, etc.) to help perfect the look. The image is good, but there are a few subtleties that need to be worked out before he looks like Sonic 2-era Tails.
<!--quoteo(post=184565:date=Mar 20 2008, 04:26 PM:name=Vincent)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Vincent @ Mar 20 2008, 04:26 PM) [/quote] They say an image is worth a thousand words, so here's... two thousand words, I guess: Also, the final title screen shows a nice (even though sligthly girlish) higher res example of his face and tails. But I'm sure you already knew that. =P There's also good on-model Tails drawings in the screensaver, and there's that great hidden pic from Sonic CD.
My take on the subject. Don't expect me to do this for a living, I specialize mostly in sprite art, not large scale graphics.
tl;dr :D But seriously, I think handmaking the sprites, though it's significantly slower, will result in higher-quality art when you consider we're not working in a 3D or 3D-esque environment here. DKC got away with prerendered sprites because that was the art style and it worked well enough for them (although in my personal opinion not terribly well - I dislike the Donkey Kong Country series) but in this case handmade sprites will have a more personal feel to them.
I'd recommend drawing the tails seperately to 'Tails', as it's the way it works in-game. Also, we now know that the people here are capable enough to make this happen, so I look forward to seeing more progress =P
Another minor issue is that Tails' head looks too far off his torso. On the original sprite it looks more connected.
Aircraft is late everyday, I'm working extra hours also on Easter, BUT as promised I'll continue working on Tails's frame, tomorrow after work I'll go on fixing it, so please continue help me improving it! I intend to plan a schedule to my frames, for an instance, I believe Sonic frames comes first. If I have spare time I can work onto Tails and Knuckles. About Sonic, are we sure we want to begin with Sonic 2? Or shall we start with Sonic 1? (less frames and level art) Speaking of which I'd also like to try sketching a zone with the same art I'm doing frames, but of course If I have more people helping me out we'd be faster. We will of course. It is just an example of how it will look ingame.
I personally would give priority to the main characters, and in the meantime just put upscaled, filtered versions of the backgrounds as placeholders. Just an idea.
This one is great except two things. First, his expression. Tails is supposed to be cute, why would you put such evil expression on him is beyond me. Try to work a bit on his eyes and mouth (make pupils bigger and put his mouth more forward, maybe it would look good a bit opened, for extra cuteness). The second thing I want to point out is clear to see in comparison with the original sprite: his sneakers are clearly much flatter/lower.
<!--quoteo(post=185306:date=Mar 25 2008, 09:55 AM:name=Vincent)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Vincent @ Mar 25 2008, 09:55 AM) [/quote] Man, those eyes look quite creepy... I'd honestly change many of those proportions and shapes. His eyes just don't look like Tails', his head, arms, right hand and legs look too fat, and his tails look a bit more squirrely than they should. Also, his shoes just lack the proper perspective, and the ears look like he covered them in chocolate. I'd change it to something more like this: If you want a higher quality version of the separate body and tails, I'll post them as well.
Not to be a bitch, ICEknight, but I'll use your own argument against you: that last sprite you posted doesn't look anything like the original sprite anymore. And it's not a change for the better, either, Tails looks REALLY weird the way you portrayed him. While I believe the ears do need work and I like the shape of your shoes better, the rest of the sprite just looks really odd, especially the tails. You're trying to base yourself too much on the large illustrations, while the sprites in the games actually look quite different. They're just two distinct art styles which shouldn't be mixed.
<!--quoteo(post=185332:date=Mar 25 2008, 02:17 PM:name=Neo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Neo @ Mar 25 2008, 02:17 PM) Oh well, I tried. =\
