Thanks for the tip!
I tried removing a frame, and played with the timing, so the attack starts slow, and accelerates (this will work especially well in game, because the player is meant to be able to fake out their opponent by tapping various attacks without holding down long enough to make the full attack)
Here is an updated kick:


I'm fairly happy with it now, and I am keeping the punch as is, because it is meant to be a quick, weak attack, and doesn't need to look as forceful. I've also started a katana attack though, which needs a lot of work:

First, idle with katana(which I'm already happy with):


And here's the attack


I know it's a bit awkward to have the sword swing up from the bottom- but i've tried some other attack angles and they came out worse. Any advice on how to improve this animation would be quite appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Have the swing terminate higher, you can do this by changing the last frame of the swing to it's bent diagonally upwards instead of straight forwards.
Also, post the original resolution images here! The website has an automatic zoom feature, we can do illustrative edits to show off what we mean!

Quote from: MysteryMeat on August 08, 2016, 07:04:17 am

No, not really. Try to tweak the motion trail, it's still following the same path as the previous one and it's confusing to the eye.

I think I finally see it! I was trying for a long time to actually figure out what the problem was because I could not see it at all. The issue is that the arc of the second slash continues the arc of the first and makes it look like the Link sword spin, I gettcha! I tried to change it a bit in a couple of ways, do any of them help?

1.

I thought that maybe an intermediate frame in the second slash was causing it so I took it out

2.

3.

EXCELLENT work! #2 & 3 fix the problem, though there's a slight judder between the frames you removed now I think it adds to it, makes swing 2 feel faster and more forceful! 10/10

No, not really. Try to tweak the motion trail, it's still following the same path as the previous one and it's confusing to the eye.

The arms are very short and very thin. Same for the legs.
The character also doesnt seem to have hips, progressing straight from belly into thighs. Don't forget to draw the pelvis, it's an important dividing area between the legs.

Took from Piledriver's post a bit for this. Smoothed out the connection between the neck, added a nostril, tweaked some of the shading, and repositioned/reshaped the mouth slightly to be more centered. I also messed with the chin outline a bit, gave it a bit of a dropshadow just under the right bit by making parts black.