[C+C][WIP]NES Style Character Animations and Effects

[heyguy]

Hello all! I'm creating a Metroidvania game on Android and PC with NES color limitations. Currently I'm creating the main characters run cycle and a bunch of other sprites (enemies, explosions, effects). Imagine the game taking place in a Star Wars/ Cowboy Bebop/ Metroid type universe. I'm aiming for a "realistic" NES art style, similar to Shatterhand, Batman, Ninja Gaiden and NES games. I've created a tumblr blog recording my game development process.

higherai.tumblr.com

Would appreciate any feedback and input. So the main character is a robot/android with a weapon for a hand, Metroid-style. 6 frames. I have a sketch of the character but this is my first attempt at recreating it in pixel form. It will have a face and the sprite will be red or purple. The player has to be able to shoot forward while moving. I might have drawn and animated him a bit too large/big boned. The orange animation flows more natural to me but the torso is too forward leaning I think. What does everyone think?




I've created one enemy so far. It's a non lethal vacuum cleaner robot. It just sucks up air and the character and moves around. I've created an idle/move animation (bouncing antenna), the mouth opening animation, open mouth and sucking animation and an "air sucking effect" animation but it that one is not done yet. I've also created a large explosion for repeat explosions on massive robot enemies.





All critique would be very helpful! Thanks everyone!

edit: slight update for the run

[MysteryMeat]

I'd say original-blue with the arm on the gun-arm for stability looks nicer, orange certainly has a better gait to it and I'd try to tweak the leg movements especially.
For the vacuum machine, I'm not sure how cartoonish you want to get but some distortion along the mouth of the vacuum could add some clearer suctiony looks to it. Would look silly though.
Explosion is too uniform and stable, try having it dissipate into puffs of smoke or something, study explosions from other games for ideas!

[heyguy]

Thanks as always MysteryMeat! So I decided to use to lower weapon stance since the game won't have a crouch. The problem with the lower weapon stance I think is that you can't really see the other arm stabilizing the weapon. Seems pointless to animate. Will experiment with it though.



I've made lots of changes to the legs . I've made the back arm a little more expressive too. I think the arm is swinging correctly in terms of the leg gate, right? I've tried to make all 6 poses as unique as possible. I'm feel I'm getting closer to the correct proportions.  I've created art for an idle stance now too. It's just an early WIP but it flows well with the run cycle animation in Construct 2. Is the overall animation too fast?

[MysteryMeat]

Sorry for the late response, school is crayballs! I'd say that second one looks excellent, work from that one for the default and have him grip the cannon like he was in the first for charge shots!

EDIT: Here, a reference!

[heyguy]

Glad you like the run cycle! Some sort of exaggerated pose is definitely on the agenda. Small updates to run cycle. Haven't been working on this that much but I've been trying to slowly detail the character. I made the character a few pixels shorter to better fit the tilemap and environment. The difficult thing is getting the proportions of my character right and consistent throughout the animation. I'm also going to outline the character black and I'm not sure whether to outline the outside of the character or the inside.



I'm also working on another enemy sprite animations. This is a flying security drone with a multipurpose weapon. The design is done and I have 3 animations: grenade blast with a small knock back, machine gun fire loop and turning. Turning animation is a heavy WIP and the grenade blast could use some more frames I think but I like the auto fire loop. I want to have some eye-catching and exaggerated with the grenade blast animation but I'm not sure I can do it with just 6 frames. Will experiment some more though.



Would appreciate any feedback on the work.

[MysteryMeat]

Try going for a nice grenade launcher animation. Gun angled up slightly, a nice phoont noise, and a smoketrail arc. And of course, the recoil frame.

[heyguy]

This has been reallllly difficult. I feel the character still looks a little stumpy, proportion wise. But I really don't want to work on the run cycle that much longer. The run cycle is almost close to being final. What does everyone think? The red/orange gives the character a Samus Aran feel which was not intended. I can't decide on a good color palette.




Also, not sure about the face/head area. Maybe I've gone with an uninteresting design. I wonder if I can't just slap on a big ole goofy head to add some more personality to character. Or maybe I shouldn't have gone for a "realistic" style using NES restrictions.

[MysteryMeat]

I'm not spying any stumpyness, I'd say that's just your imagination.
HOWEVER, I am noticing a pretty big error on the run sprite where the arm seems to shrink into the gun. Remember to keep the whole thing a solid form, and for clarity I'd reccomend keeping the gun bit more stable.
If you must move it, remember to  factor that movement into the upper arm as well!

[heyguy]

Got some feedback on how to make the character look less flat so I made changes to the outline. I think this might require more time but I like the look. What does everyone think about messing around the outline? Lots of NES games (Megaman, Shatterhand, Batman) have the character outlined entirely in black. I broke up the outline a bit, sellout outline I think it's called.



I fixed the arm shrinking into the gun...I think. Originally I was trying to make it seem like the gun arm was slightly moving back and forth naturally due to the run. It did look weird though. How does it look now? Still looks off to me actually. It looks like the forearm/gun is extending/growing out from the elbow instead of naturally moving how it might in real life. I also moved the character up 1 pixel on the 3rd and 6th frame so the character is off the ground for an instant. Back arm and shading is still a WIP.

[rocifier]

I think the outline looked fine, but the gun is still shrinking into the arm. There should always be a fixed distance from the elbow to the gun casing at the wrist.

[MysteryMeat]

I think the outline looked fine, but the gun is still shrinking into the arm. There should always be a fixed distance from the elbow to the gun casing at the wrist.

What he said, you're still not moving the upper arm (shoulder to elbow) to facilitate that movement.

[heyguy]

Thanks for the comments guys. Here's another attempt at fixing gun arm. What does everyone think? I've also updated the shading and sell out outline. I'm using PyxelEdit and using layers so thankfully it's easy to switch out between all the outline types. Third image is the character with an outline outside instead of actually within or incorporating it into the design. Unfortunately I threw my character in-game with the black backgrounds and the outlines make the character look skinnier than it should. Here's how they would look with a black background. My favorite is the sel-out version but it doesn't look good in a primarily black background.

[MysteryMeat]

I'd say don't worry too much unless you're planning on using a lot of black backgrounds. The gun is looking WAY better, there's a slight pause at the apex of the forward swimg you might want to tweak but as-is it is perfectly serviceable!

[heyguy]

Thanks a lot Mystery! I'm glad you think it's looking better!  By "theres a slight pause at the apex of the forward swing", do you mean the gun is in the same spot for more than one frame? Well, I did want every frame of animation unique so I'll fix that. Same thing is happening with the head. Anyway, I think I'm finally getting very close to finishing this run cycle! Thanks so much for everyone's help!

So most of the backgrounds are going to be all black or use a lot of black. Exactly like Shatterhand and Batman: Return of the Joker. It kind of reminds me of a chiaroscuro effect. Here's a WIP of a small lab type environment I've been working on. I would appreciate any critique! I like it but it's a bit simple right now. Had an idea of making the right side a higher level with stairs and different textures. The computer consoles are supposed to look more like they're in the background. I thought about making a new thread with NES level artwork but I figured there's probably no need.



The character will mostly be running through environments like that and this.

[heyguy]

Hey all! Fresh batch of new animations! I'm totally done with the run cycle! That's it I think! I made another version with a different outline, all red if I don't change my black backgrounds. I want to add another frame or two in the charge blast. I need a damage pose also. I also want to do that Sonic thing where the character balances on the edge, I think that would be a fun detail. The gun would still have to be balanced looking forward. Would appreciate any and all critique.


jump
dash(missing the arm in the some frames)
charge blast/vacuum
running holding object above head - WIP
crouch - WIP



edit: here's a quick test of the animations in games. Right now I just have simple poses, no extra animation frames. I need to do a bit of recoding to get the animations to play in-engine.

[heyguy]

Would appreciate some feedback on the knockback animation. Created the second one because feedback about the first was it was too unrealistic/painful of a pose.

[MysteryMeat]

What kind of knockback? Recoil, hitstun, other..?

[heyguy]

I'm imagining  this  is  a powerful knock back effect. So the player is taking a melee hit by a larger creature, a punch or overhead axe attack. Or a large,powerful projectile hits him. I plan on creating another smaller knock back animation  for basic attacks using the first pose in this animation. I'm going for a castlevania type knock back.

[MysteryMeat]

Aight! Try bending him back a bit like he got hit in the face. Alternatively, clutching his gut like he got gutpunched. Castlevania uses a single-frame cringe from what I recall!

[heyguy]

Thanks Mystery! The original Castlevanias on NES definitely have one frame. I'm just having some fin and trying to push myself. Even though I'm got NES graphics, I'd like to have nicer animations. I had a bit of the head bobbing back and tried to make it more noticeable. I've also changed the color palette, differentiated the characters top and bottom pieces.



I actually still like my original animation (the one with the extended leg) since it looks more dynamic and action packed, in my opinion. Anyone, I'd appreciate any feedback on this close to final animation. I'm taking waaay longer on this specific animation than I would like. I really need to start working on the shorter distance knock back animation and entirely new animations now. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to create a new thread in the animation sub board? It might get some more feedback. Anyway, thanks for checking out my post!

[MysteryMeat]

Looks good to me!
If I'd change anything I might make the arm fly up a bit more, to really sell the knockback-hurting a bit more.
The crouched version of the gun looks a bit off though, doesn't have the kind of ovalish shape the normal one has. Try lightening the edges around the middle of it to imply the bulge?