I was just wondering what I could do to make this sprite feel more alive. I thought about having the beak turn slightly at his “down times” (you know what I mean right?) but I couldn’t figure it out how to do it while NOT looking weird. Any uh… pointers?
I think it’s very cute! And as for making it feel alive, it’s important to make sure that the silhouette is clear and easy to read, and then apply the animation principles. I’m a bit confused about the part above its head. Is it the other wing or a feather? It’s a bit hard to tell. Also, the tail looks oddly sharp. To improve the animation, you could add some secondary motion, like that beak tilt and/or use some squash and stretch. Although the eyes look great and cartoony, the limited color palette makes it difficult to tell where any highlight in the eyes could be placed. It appears too bright next to the eyes. This flushes out any detail or shading options you could have there.
Here are 2 mockups of a potentially different look:
Thanks for the feedback. I think you’re right about the tail and secondary motion especially. I’m just wondering, are the eyes a really bad thing? I kind of like them simple.
One concern is that the eyes match the outline colour, but it doesn’t mean they are bad. You might consider finding pixel art duck references to see how others did it.
