Bit by Bit. Part 4. I made this animation test (NOTE: ANIMATION IS NOT FINAL. Seriously. I don’t even like this.) to get a feel for how some elements of Samus’ helmet will enter the frame. I didn’t want them just coming in from the frame’s edge, and I didn’t want any mechanical arms placing them on Samus. Instead, I took a note from the Matrix’s Construct and had the elements appear out of thin air. I like the effect, but the animation, as it stands now, is a mess.

Right now, there’s no focal point. A line appears at the top, a piece emerges, a line appears at the bottom, a piece emerges. They’re not even attaching to her head at the same time. The top piece is a tad slower in its adhesion. This is why it’s a test. The final animation will, hopefully, do a better job of pacing itself and leading the viewer’s eye around the canvas during the helmet’s construction. Stay tuned.

Bit by Bit. Part 3. At this point, I’ve completed the final state of Samus’ helmet and Samus’ head. I built them in tandem to make sure her eyes align with the visor, her jawline doesn’t extend beyond the bottom of the helmet and that the scale of the helmet in relation to her head was both appropriate and impressive. For now, I’m only going to show the helmet, as I have to leave something to reveal for the final gif. I’ve also sketched out all the animation stages, starting with Samus’ exposed head and ending with the above helmet.

The lines in the helmet are not for ornamentation; they actually mark all the points of articulation. These lines are where pieces of armor will meet or fold out to form the whole. This pixel portrait is more dense than my normal pieces. Each “pixel” is 8x8, as opposed to my standard 10x10. Primarily, this allows for more subtle curves and angles that weren’t possible on a grid with 10x10 pixels. Another consideration was that Samus’ head is smaller than the usual portrait, but still needed a comparable amount of detail, which a denser grid allows for.

I may post a Bit by Bit Part 4 with some animation tests, or I may just churn through the rest and come back with the final animated gif. It’ll be a doozy.

Bit by Bit Part 1 / Bit by Bit Part 2

Bit by Bit. Samus Aran, Part 2. Since Part 1, I’ve been focusing on finalizing Samus’ helmet and working out how the helmet will function - how it will animate, come together, and envelope Samus.



Here’s a rough idea what the helmet will look like. Keep in mind that the translation from drawing to pixels isn’t perfect, and some elements may have to be altered as the pieces come together.

To get an idea of how the helmet constructs itself around Samus, I looked to other suits/helmets that have already made some great headway in this area. With the success of the Iron Man films and, more recently, The Avengers, most people are probably pretty familiar with Tony Stark’s amazing Iron Man suit:



Another great piece of inspiration comes from Isaac Clarke’s various helmets in Dead Space 2. Here’s a nice slow motion compilation of said helmets:



So those should give you a good idea of look I’m shooting for in the fluidity and slickness of Samus’ helmet. The pixel art for Samus and her helmet could be great, but if the animation doesn’t work, the whole thing will be for naught. To make the transformation from Samus (sans helmet) to armored Samus a little smoother, I wanted to add a few elements that would make the transition less sudden; think of these elements as a helmet under armor. They include a set of tactical goggles, an advanced respirator, and an underlying support structure for the heavy armor of the  helmet.



So what’s next? I still have to figure out how the helmet will unfold from the transitional under structure. The next post will probably include some pixel art of Samus and the beginnings of her helmet. Stay tuned.

Bit by Bit. Samus Aran, Part 1. Per the suggestion of Richard Perez, my next animated pixel gif is going to be of Samus Aran and her helmet, made famous by the Metroid franchise. Instead of waiting until the gif is completed and posting a process recap or a time lapse video, I’m going to write multiple process posts until the gif is done. Not too many - probably around 4 or 5.



Before sketching, I dug around and gathered art from previous Metroid games in order to get a feel for what makes Samus’ helmet unique. Once I got a good feel for the general shapes, I started sketching out some different takes on the helmet. I tried to imagine the helmet as though it were made of different materials, like flat pieces or iron or super sleek metal, à la Iron Man. What if her green visor isn’t solid, what if it’s a kind of cool digital overlay? What if Samus has all kinds of under helmet gear, like high-tech goggles and space respirator? There are lots of fun possibilities that may or may not come to pass.



I don’t sketch the people in my pixel portraits very much; I like to let them take shape when I start working in the computer. That being said, I like to have an idea of who the person resembles or the attitude they embody. For Samus reference, I gathered some photos of Sigourney Weaver from Aliens and Linda Hamilton from Terminator. I imagine Samus to be a badass, not some pervert’s idealized pin up girl.



Next up, I need to finalize the helmet design and figure out how to animate it all. Much like my Deadpool gif, it’s going to be a pretty complex affair and will require a lot of planning and work. Stay tuned, buckaroos.

TL;DR: I’m making an animated pixel gif of Metroid’s Samus Aran and her iconic helmet. I’ll be blogging about the process of making it. This is part 1, which covers how I start a pixel gif.