When making characters in a pixel art medium it’s important to keep in mind the limitations of such a small canvas, but it’s also important to recognize how to best utilise it’s strengths. When first making the design for our main character the concept designs, whilst beautiful, were incredibly cluttered especially for how small the player character was going to be on screen.  

(Concept art by Xin)
Based on the Concept Art and the teams input on direction, I tried to translate these designs in pixel art, trying to find the right shape and feel for our character and then messing with colours.
(Concept art by Grem)

And now our bunny stands out against the environment through both shape and colour. Look at him go!

Here’s the Walking Animation Sprite Sheet of the little guy.

 And Here he is Moving!

(Animation and art by Grem)
It’s subtle, but the spin of the gold detailing on his robe, then bouncing ears and the waving tail are legible movements even from afar.

One other thing to highlight, in making this character I decided that a good way to separate overlapping shapes was to make the furthest from the front a darker colour, to keep the simplicity whilst maintaining clarity. 

A bonus in using big shapes and a bright colour for our main character is that now the environment can go nuts; look how cluttered these chandeliers are! Yet, especially when animated, the bunny will always stand right out.
(Concept art by Grem)

To keep him as eye catching throughout the game, I will have to always keep him in account when making new assets and characters or directing the design of the environments, so any time I open a new canvas he’s always sitting there in the corner for me to grab and move him around.

- Grem