First Attempt at spriting a soldier!

So, i have no experience with this kind of work, but i've read a few tutorials and i want to do new things with my actors.

I noticed there are sprites for arms, and both the left and the right arm are generally very similar, if not identical. So i want the arms to look splayed, like they're ready to pounce. sort of like a football player, but gangly. so i want specific, original sprites for each arm to give the illusion of a "hunting stance". the leg are always crouched,never fully extending the legs. these guys shall creep.

Is this a realistic vision to have? has it been attempted? what are some potential problems i will face?

Tear it apart, i want to learn.

EDIT: FSR: thanks a lot. I want this to have character to it, to be unique and darker than most of the mods i've seen (not in a goth way though). I haven't read the Crobo story (but i love the mod). I'd like to, but it was deleted or something. As per the comic, i don't wanna pimp it out here and it's in no way related to this mod or CC at large. Again, if i get bored with either project i might do something out of sequence like make a short strip about the conflict between these tribes. But probably not anytime soon.

For tribal guys these guys are really huge. I understand the whole skeletal bird look, but keep in mind the Coalition guys are around 2 meters tall for some strange reason (why have a large target for your clones?), and most tribal peoples of Earth are pretty small due to nutrition issues. So is this species around 3-4 meters tall on a scavenging diet? If so, I'd love to see a well-fed bunch tear up an MPAM.
But the stance thing is bothering me just on one point, 'where the head goes, the body follows'. So this hunched over thing indicates that these guys will topple over if pushed from behind, a no-no in crowded tunnels. Is their bone structure different, or is it just for the artistic effect?
However, the stance being always bent is not just good, it's realistic. Locking knees is good for standing or running, but for balance in a fight bent knees are better. I'm no doctor, but I play one on TV, so don't expect expertise from me, but that's basically true as far as I know.

Since you draw so awesome big how about you just draw it big then shrink down all the parts to sprite size.

Loss of detail much?
It will look ♥♥♥♥ up I guarantee. Smaller-scale sprites make up for detail with the illusion of detail; MS Paint knows no mercy. The swiftest tiger is a lame bubble gum mascot.

mac, believe me i tried that. Drawing and spriting seem to be very different games.

sand rat: the height/scale of these actors/weapons is going to be larger than the normal game. I don't want this mod to be an addition to Cortex Command, i want this to stand alone. So, if there are humans, i want to make them myself.

I'm not rationalizing or anything, or defending my arguably awful first run-thru. This was my plan from be beginning, to make a game with a different scale and style.

As far as their physiology/stance goes, it's an effect to make them sort of cro-magnon and under developed: sub-human. they don't make complete sense, i guess i meant does this make sense in a code way. Does the engine allow for someone with different proportions and a different stance? Will this work now, or in a future build with Lua?

I like the sprites. They are turning out very well. If you keep going the way you are the sprites will turn out fine.

I don't know if you are good at coding or not but there are a few members who are amazing at offsets and the like who i am sure would be willing to help you if you ask them. I'm looking forward to a release of this.

There is no reason why proportions and stance will effect the game, as long as your offsets and limbpaths are correct.

Also, I'm still interested in coding for this.

Here's a tip, don't save sprites as .jpegs. Rapes the quality terribly

First actor (which will look like those sprites) should be done by the end of the week, along with a few weapons. He'll be, compared to the vanilla actors, overpowered. Don't be surprised by this, because he's not meant to play with/against them. But it should be fun to watch it own other factions, and be taller than them and hopefully scary-looking.

Just a promo, nothing else new at the moment. I am thinking of releasing this actor with a boomstick, a melee weapon, and a projectile weapon. I shall see. And you shall see. And then we will all see.

Wut? No dice man.

*Goes making a giant scary mech of doom*









...

I'm serious. <.<

These concepts are pretty neat, mostly for their divergent design from regular CC stuff while still being decently innovative. I dunno how feasable the dropship is (Seeing as the landing is so complex.) But I like the actor concepts and weapons A LOT.

I may try and make these guys if I ever have free time (full time community college + job = death.) But yeah, someone who thinks they have a good idea of all the bizzare lines these guys would have should have a go if I don't.

Anyway, keep on plugging, these concepts are way cool!

Okay, so i asked someone to do an actor based on some sprites i did, which are completed. Anyway, this (for whatever reason) didn't end up happening. Time to go open-source.

This is what i want them to look like when finished.


Here's the sprite sheet


and here's the key


The actor should be powerful enough to be imposing but not an AAL marine or a DS Tech robot type of powerful. I'm thinking Heavy original Darklone, but a bit more frail. Post any problems with the sprites here so we can solve them together.

I've been away, enjoying the fruits of b21 while i can. I've been doing a lot with the comic project. if anyone's interested in that project, here's a snippit of he work i'm doing.

I'd love to help.

My first question is: are those sprites in the Cortex Command pallette? because if they're not, they'll get mucked up big time in game.

And to comment on your difference between drawing and spriting, spriting is the art of suggestion. Make it hint at a wire or a plug or a dead bird's head and people's brains will see a wire, plug or dead birds head. when I'm spriting, I go from 8 times zoom to actual size a lot to check what I'm doing.

Another tip is design these actors with legs further apart. It'll look more like the stance you want. If you're very lucky someone with a lot of skill and spare time may come and create a walk path for your soldiers. Then your soldiers will actually prowl. I'm an average coder, but I'll see what I can do to help your project, because it has potential. Lots of potential.

I may be a little late here, but it would be more of a feature if the Boomstick had a chance of harming the user, considering that you're detonating a frag grenade on a stick. (As long as it doesn't kill the user/harm the user every time it's used.)

Anyway, on the mod/conversion in general, your ideas are nothing short of amazing, (Not to mention actually fun to read!) and most of them are implementable in some way or another, but I'll leave that to the people who actually know how to sprite and code.

God speed.