Castle Paradox

[Chaos Nyte]

***CONTEST IS OVER***

Well, the contest is over, and it's time to vote for your favorite guard! By the way artists, you're free to vote for your own. Congrats to everyone who joined in, either in making their own guard or helping critique them!

***CONTEST IS OVER***

Part of the purpose for the Art Forum was to help new artists and old artists alike develop new styles of drawing and work on their pixel art knowing they could get feedback.

So without further ado, here is the first Art Forum pixel contest!

The average castle guard-

Since this is Castle Paradox, lets start off with an easy walkabout of a castle guard. "But CN," you say, "that's too bland!" Oh really? Well, you'll need to take into account the climate of the castle, what state of alert the castle is in, and of course, what time period. Heck, is your guard lazy or overly alert? Is he the pimply faced new guy in armor to big for him, or is she the battle harden veteran? Is he a furry, human, or even alien? Let's go nuts here!

Needed-
1. Full walkabout, from every side, of your guard.

2. Your guard must have their weapon clearly shown, whether it be on their back, in their hands, sheathed.

That's it! If you need space to upload your work, contact IM. Contest will end Friday at midnight and judging, ahem, I mean constructive critiquing will begin Saturday morning.

Hope you all participate, I know I will!

[Aethereal]

Goody! I've been meaning to redraw my "generic guard" sprite in my game, and this is a great opportunity. I'll post it when it is finished.

[Edit]

Finished! Here are two versions of my guard. I drew him intending to put him in my game, as it needs a guard.

1x magnification:


2x magnification:


I had an animated gif as well, but after finishing it I realized something was wrong with one of his frames, and had to go back and fix it - I don't feel like remaking the gif right now I'll post the gif later.
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[Inferior Minion]

Um, CN, you might want to specify what "Midnight." Our community is rather diverse. Midnight for me is 2 in the morning for you, as you know.
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[Ssalamanderr]

Any size restrictions? Should we make as an OHR sprite (16x16) or like something from Chrono Trigger/insert game name here?
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Ssalamanderr's Journal!: http://www.livejournal.com/users/ssalamanderr/

Ukelele no good!

[MultiColoredWizard]

Hmm, off to work I shall go.

Edit: Can I use my sprite of Garland from Seclipse?

[Chaos Nyte]

1. The sprite must be in OHR walkabout size, but if you feel the need to make it bigger, then go ahead, just add it on to the walkabout one.

2. Multi, you've missed the point of the contest. It's not to reuse sprites because you hope they'll win, it's to create a unique, interesting guard sprite for the contest, to improve your skills.

[Squall]

How about this; I make the sprite then I use it in my game (to be released in about 3 years). Is that acceptable?
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You got film in my video game!
You got video game in my film!

[Chaos Nyte]

Sounds good Squall, but geez people...it's a walkabout of a castle guard. How long is it honestly going to take you?

[Squall]

I am the slowest working creature God has ever dropped on this planet. Expect mine to be riding the edge of the deadline. But hey, I'm glad you started the contest!

*goes to work on sprite*
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You got film in my video game!
You got video game in my film!

[Blazes Battles Inc.]

I'll join, because I crave defeat.


EDIT:

[Blazes Battles Inc.]

Never mind, doesn't matter. I finished and it only took me around an hour. Here it is (it's in bmp, so magnify it if you can't see it):

Overall this came out much better than I had hoped... in fact this is the best sprite I've ever designed. I'll probably use this in a later game, but not DC because it doesn't fit in with the (inferior) style of sprites I have going.
Race: Dwarf
Time Period: Medieval (obviously)
State of Castle: Alert (carrying around the axe, ready to fight)

EDIT: Yeah, so... crap. That came out much smaller than I expected. Here's a bigger version:
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Preserve OHR history! Do it for the children!

[Chaos Nyte]

Aeth- Eh...it's a standard guard. Your style is the same from your game, and he's got a pretty typical design overall. Can I suggest you start sketching your characters on paper, and then trying to put them into OHR, so they're more creative? Still, it's a solid design, and I wouldn't look twice if a troop of them walked by.

Blazes- I like the idea of a dwarven guard, and you've got the beard down pat, but come on; that guy is as big as a walkabout can be! I was under the impression most dwarfs were short fellows. And the legs aren't looking so hot in the front and back views. Watch how you walk, you'll get it soon enough.

I'd like to thank both of you for such quick entries, your work encourages others to join and improve their art skills. Sorry that I'm overcritical. ^_^;;
Come on people! Help your fellow OHRers improve their graphics! Comment!

[Chaos Nyte]

Whew. Only took me an hour too, all told.
I decided to take liberties with the idea of a guard. Myrtle the castle guard wears the a typical helmet, but is dressed in a blue gi with her shoulders covered by protective armor. Her weapon is a chain whip, which I included a walkabout of her attacking. I know they're hard to see, but she's also got little horns on her helmet. Comments are very welcome.

[Blazes Battles Inc.]

So how will the winner be decided? Do we have a judge or is going to be voting or something?

The Dwarf is big because we aren't building a game around them, so there weren't any humans or elves to be taller than him, so I had as much room to use as I wanted.

DOUBLE-EDIT: Why am I so forgetful? If you want to see what he looks like moving, I've put him in a walkaround map on a 'game' at:
http://www.angelfire.com/wizard/blazeinc/DWARF.zip
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Preserve OHR history! Do it for the children!

[Chaos Nyte]

"sigh" I should have organized the initial post better, but after the contest date is past, I'll start a new thread, with a poll with each person's walkabout. Most votes win!