Thread by @LetItMelo

I love how low-res graphics force artists and designers to think critically about shapes and colors, and how working with limitations can create strong character designs. So here's a thread about that!

I'm pretty sure everyone and their dog knows this, but Mario's mustache and overalls were added to differentiate Mario's nose from his face and his arms from his body, respectively. I think the hat was because the hair looked weird? Every pixel matters when a sprite is that small

Sonic's design is kinda harmonious. The spikey ball design is not just cause he's a hedgehog, but also because the ball physics are a core game mechanic. Some artists get tripped on his turnarounds, but Tyson Hesse borrows a trick from Mickey Mouse and "turns" the silhouette.

(I don't know if he specifically cited Mickey for solving the "spikes turnaround" issue, but lots of 2D characters use this "cheat")

Also, Sonic's arms should never be blue because blue arms on a blue body make the pose harder to read, especially when the character is small.

So Amano's a legend and all, but his art would never in a millions years work on the PS1.

It's ironic that Nomura is known for overdesigning characters these days, because I think these characters have good shapes going on. Anime swordboys are a dime a dozen, but Cloud's iconic

Akihiko Yoshida's known for patterned clothing, heavy use of hatched pencil marks, and beautifully washed colors. You'd think he'd be as difficult of a fit as Amano, but he tweaks his style for the 3DS. Plus, the costume designers come up with some really fab outfits for each job

The cool thing about classic Mega Man is that his body parts are segmented off exactly where they need to be, and his poses are always really wide

Swapping weapon colors is really simple in comparison to, say, any of X's armors, and his squat poses make his hitboxes easy to read

Half Minute Hero, a wonderful RPG parody that doesn't get talked about enough, does something really funny, where characters are introduced as simple, barely animated sprites in-game, but are comically overdesigned in the art gallery. It's a really funny subversion.

Overarching themes:

- strong silhouettes/shapes
- clear poses
- smart use of color palette, (~2 key colors, additional colors used sparingly)
- unique silhouettes/palettes for each character

Design at a smaller size is a great way to see how recognizable you character is.

Not to make this thread about ME, but something I get hung up on is lines and finer details, hampering my work.

I'm trying to focus on shapes/colors now, so when designing my own ensemble, I tried saving the finished lines for last. Some designs improved a lot in the process!

Sometimes it's as simple as zooming out, squinting, and asking yourself:

"what's my palette?"
"does this convey anything about the character?"
"how legible is this?"
"how much of this design has a functional, visual purpose?"
"Does he need giant quarters in his pants?"

/thread

If I've convinced even one person to check out Half Minute Hero, my procrastination twitter thread was worth it.

Stray thoughts:

I picked FF7 and BD because I wanted to show bold character designs aren't necessarily mascots, and to give low-poly graphics some love

It's a miracle Game Freak got 151 good designs using 4 shades of grey

It's okay to break realism in favor of visual appeal