Sprites: "In Motion" vs. "At Rest"

[noeinan]

For a long while I've been thinking about how to make character sprites in more interesting poses. It seems the standard few-- hands at side, hands on hip, arms crossed, etc.-- pop up again and again... and again. Nothing is wrong with these poses intrinsically, but I'd like to spice it up a bit.

However, when I started thinking of poses that really expressed a character's personality, most of them were actions. Like, a sporty character stretching her shoulders, or a laid back character walking with his hands in motion. I draw these, and I like how they look-- but I'm staring at a drawing, not playing the visual novel.

I wonder if having these "in motion" sprites for long periods of time in game would ruin the players immersion? Like, "you've been stretching your arm during this whole conversation." And some of the poses, being motions and not really "poses," don't look particularly comfortable to hold for that long.

So! My question is, what is the line with this? How long will the player tolerate an "in motion" pose? What are some good "middle ground" poses? And how do you express your character's personality through a pose?

[Sharm]

These high motion poses look a bit funny if used a lot but interspersed with the more mundane poses would look pretty cool I think.

When you think of personality in poses don't think "arm positions" and such, think more minor things like how much tension is in the shoulders or if they have a tendency to look down at the floor when they talk. You can get a huge range of emotion from a simple arms crossed pose. Is the chest thrust out proudly? Are they all hunched up and is the head turned away like they're afraid of something? Maybe everything is relaxed and the character is looking at he sky. The personality comes through in the little things like that.

[Fungii]

Agreeing with the above, basically. You could still feel free to have the arm stretching sprite, you'd just have to make sure at some point in the conversation they'd change to a more 'default' pose, even if they have a similar expression.
I guess the main thing to look out for is that not every characters expression is followed with the same pose? Say, a character whose angry sprite is arms crossed and another whose angry sprite is hands on hips, leaning forward. These are still 'default' poses, but one character is clearly showing a more "in your face" demeanor than the other.

[noeinan]

When you think of personality in poses don't think "arm positions" and such, think more minor things like how much tension is in the shoulders or if they have a tendency to look down at the floor when they talk.

Definitely! I didn't mention it before, but I do feel that you can draw the same pose for multiple characters but get totally different "feels." There are a lot of different ways to cross arms-- having the hands cup the elbows gives a more relaxed feel, or with hunched shoulders makes them look reclusive etc.

I guess it's not so much that I don't think I can express their personality with those poses, but rather the standard poses are just super overused and I want them to stand out? Look more original/different?

Say, a character whose angry sprite is arms crossed and another whose angry sprite is hands on hips, leaning forward. These are still 'default' poses, but one character is clearly showing a more "in your face" demeanor than the other.

That's definitely true! This brings up another great point about choosing poses. If you know you only get one or two poses for a character, you want to pick poses that can drastically change depending on the facial expression. If you have a position that is too specific to one emotion it won't be as versatile as you need it to be.

Another good thing to think about if you're including props... Does the sprite look good with the prop and without the prop? Can you use multiple props without changing the position too much? Sprite design is complex stuff, haha. I wish there was a book dedicated specifically to this kind of thing.

[Fungii]

Depends on the prop, I supposed. Plus, you'd have to take into account if there would ever be a moment in your VN where the prop would be cumbersome.
It works for fantasy/weapon props because then you can have your character reaching for it, and for say, a ball for a sporty character in a lighthearted VN, such as holding it under their arm, spinning it on their finger, or even threatening to throw it.
Then again, I'm my own artist so I can go nuts with stuff like that. When it comes to a budget, it probably is best to stick to those overused poses as say, crossed arms can be anger, or confidence, or sadness, all without sending mixed signals in terms of body language.

[noeinan]

Plus, you'd have to take into account if there would ever be a moment in your VN where the prop would be cumbersome.

Yeah, that's one reason the pose might need to look good both with and without the prop. Unless you're the artist and you can do whatever you want! I'm my own artist as well, though I just got signed onto my first commercial project so I figured I should think some more about good poses.

[akemicchi]

I don't actually notice when people are in awkward poses-- I kind of see them all the time in VNs so I've grown used to them lol. 9w9 I love different poses too, but 'at rest'/static poses can become dynamic too with the right changes, as Sharm and Fungii stated. Each person has their own unique way of expression an emotion. Even if it's a typical pose, that by itself is unique, you know? I personally don't think it's any better to make your character look like an illustration each time. They might end up looking like they're dramatizing everything they're hearing and saying. xD

As a sprite artist, what you should be focusing on is trying to cover as many emotions as you can in as minimal a number of poses as you can. I mean, if you have time to make a unique pose for each emotion (one for happy and another for enthusiastic, even if they're under the same umbrella of emotion), then by all means, do so. But there are a lot of emotions to cover, and there's nothing more awkward to me than a character saying something but looking like they're expressing something else (what's supposed to be rage just looks like annoyance). It just seems lazy and unpolished. :s

[Lesleigh63]

I was playing a game recently that used dynamic poses but I found if the sprite stayed on the screen too long they seemed 'frozen' to me and I really wanted them to relax. So I'd recommend relaxed poses but bring out the dynamic pose if you want some impact.

[noeinan]

But there are a lot of emotions to cover, and there's nothing more awkward to me than a character saying something but looking like they're expressing something else (what's supposed to be rage just looks like annoyance). It just seems lazy and unpolished. :s

For sure. The "in motion" poses I'm thinking of are pretty emotionally neutral, I suppose. I don't get to choose how many poses I'm doing for this project since it's based on how much my employer is willing to pay for. I know that they want a few different arm movements, and so I'm also picking poses that still look good with the arms in different positions. (And of course I always try for poses that vastly change "mood" depending on the facial expression.)

I've been given a lot of freedom with the poses, but I suppose if I'm thinking about it to this degree I could ask for clarification. I've been thinking about doing skeletons of different poses and having them choose between them.

I was playing a game recently that used dynamic poses but I found if the sprite stayed on the screen too long they seemed 'frozen' to me and I really wanted them to relax. So I'd recommend relaxed poses but bring out the dynamic pose if you want some impact.

Yes, the frozen look is what I'm trying to avoid for sure. Oh, I just thought of this but I'm not going to be the one programming the game so I won't be deciding how much time each pose gets. (For this project at least.)

[Sharm]

I think that in a VN the typical poses are a bit like using the word "said" when writing a novel. Some beginning writers pull out a thesaurus and try to never use the word said, and instead of making their prose more meaningful and poetic they've made it garrish and jarring. Seasoned authors know that the word said is barely read at all, and you only want to change the word if you want that moment to stand out from everything else. You could write an entire novel using nothing but "said" when people talk and wouldn't really detract from the novel at all.

The normal poses are heavily used and as such a little boring but that can actually be to your advantage. If you use an atypical pose too many times they start to detract from the story. Your audience will stop looking at the sprites as characters and start looking at them as sprites. You break immersion. The purpose of a VN isn't to look pretty (although that's a great secondary purpose) it's to tell a story. You need to ditch anything that would detract from that purpose, even if it's normally a really great thing.

[noeinan]

^ I like that analogy.