Hey ho
Here we go with some of
Johnny's animations.
Initially i worked only with a silhouette:
But the desire for colors was strong.
I wasn't aware at that point that it double the frame count (for walk loops at least).
With a sprite that low resolution, the amount of details you can add, as well as the amount of shading is quite minimal so i decided to just shade the back-facing limbs minimally.
I keep getting back to slightly modify them from time to time, to move a pixel one more to the left or right.
It is quite challenging to make accurate animations if you can only have that much pixel estate to work with.
One thing i have briefly tried is using different shades to imply movement, but it turned out to be too subtle when compared to the pixel jumping off to the side.
I just did a little rework on the jump animation, and i can't quite get the landing right
Few days ago i created the climbing animation but i'm still not sure how i'll need to offset them in-game since the sprite would need to be anchored at the grab-position. Need to look into that.
Other than that:
Edit: Wow, the interpolation really looks horrible on these. No way to interpolate with nearest, eh?
I suppose i could upscale them, given the tiny resolutionSince nobody complained
I've been actually thinking about the technical approach of implementing the animation.
Games that used roto-scoped animations like flashback, blackhawk, prince of persia, and to a lesser degree heart of darkness and another world, just had such an interesting approach to animation and movement.
Instead of the velocity dictating the animation, the animation dictates the velocity and it is bound to that as well.
You can not jump at any time to cancel the movement cycle, you'll have to wait until the foot touches the ground in order to transition into the jump.
Traditionally those were grid bound. I'd intend to loosen that restriction and have the animations frames more free-flowing. if one walk cycle moves me 1 tile or 1 tile and 2 pixels is fairly unimportant i'd assume. Although it would alter jump distances (i.e. 6 pixels away from the edge vs exactly spot on). This could feel pretty arbitrary i suppose.
I realize this has some of pitfalls.
It would require a number of animations twice. When you jump and your left leg's down, raise the right one. Otherwise do it the other way around. and this would apply for stand-to-walk/walk-to-stand/walk-to-run/run-to-walk/run-to-stand and the list goes on.
I wouldn't want to wait for a specific frame (ie. left foot down) in order to transition into a jump. That would in most cases feel arbitrarily delayed, especially if it isn't grid bound.
I guess i should just go ahead and try it out instead of rambling on..
Whatever are your thoughts on this kind of animation/movement handling?