climbing

[toaster]

Hey,

I'm working on this climb cycle:

Could you give me some advise about animating his torso? Right now, only his arms and legs are moving.
Any other critics would be appreciated too.

Toaster

[toaster]

[pistachio]

Torso is completely static, and it's bugging me. You seem to have helped it slightly in the second edit, but it isn't by much.

How about making the torso go up slightly every time his arm grasps the surface, to make it look like he's actually forcing himself up, and has some weight/is affected by gravity? Say, up by two pixels, then down slowly(-er) while his other arm reaches for the pull?

It would be like this:

Near arm makes contact, up, slowly down while far arm makes contact, up, slowly down while near arm makes contact, repeat.

I don't know honestly, I might as well be saying it backwards. Basically I'd just like to see some more up/down movement.

[toaster]

Thank you for your reply pistachio. His shoulders are moving up a bit when the arms are touching the wall. Is this what you meant.
Old:

New:

Any better?

[Cilein]

I don't think so, look at the hips and shoulders, or the green torso area in general, it never moves its whole self, shift the whole torso down as weight falls on it and up as the man stretches up for the next grapple by moving that whole green area

[Candy Man Criminal]

every time a leg pushes up and the arm reaches the entire torso should move, too
and when the foot finally lands it should move down

[toaster]

You're right. This looks a lot better.
I made a quick edit:

I'll contiue this tomorow.

Toaster

[Decroded]

Yeah better. try making torso and head move up one pixel for the first arm frame, then another pixel for the second frame to make it smoother (repeat for both arms obviously).

[toaster]

 

[Candy Man Criminal]

loads better

[pistachio]

 

Don't know; maybe it's just me but now the animation seems too fast. Is that going to be Spiderman? Only way it could make sense, after all.

[Candy Man Criminal]

really? i feel like its a good speed
the old one kinda feel like the climb isnt important, but at this speed its like he REALLY wants to be up there lol

[toaster]

I started on an animation for when he reaches the top of the ladder:

Here ar the individual frames:


Toaster
P.S. I'll finish the other animation soon.

[Decroded]

Looks good so far but animation is going spastic on my phone browser so can't comment further. I'm curious though, how will u communicate a ladder to the player at that angle? It seems directly side on so can u show an example tile? Or maybe u should angle the guy a bit unless u going for only ladders that has individual runs sticking out from the wall?

[toaster]

The angle is meant to be vertical because he's going to climb this kind of ladders:

[toaster]

I made a new version of my animation, but each time I want to save it as a gif file to animate it, the image turns into a big mess of colors. Because of that, I've no animated version for you. I'm sorry.

But there is a not animated version:

[Decroded]

The angle is meant to be vertical because he's going to climb this kind of ladders:

Its not the vertical angle I meant its just directly from the side so yeah I assumed one of those ladders. the angle of the ladder runs doesnt match the angle of the ground (unless they are spikes) which would look odd to me if I was playing but maybe im being pedantic?
I just wonder have u considered angling the wall so it faces more toward the player so we can see clearly that it is a ladder. Animation might not need to change much if it was just a slight angle...

[toaster]

I just wonder have u considered angling the wall so it faces more toward the player so we can see clearly that it is a ladder.

The ladder on the left is more easy to recognise as a ladder. It's difficult to make it more clear steps because they're so small.

I understand what you mean, but I wonder if it's necessary. Doesn't it OK?

Toaster
P.S. Don't worry about being pedant. I really appreciate your advices.

[Decroded]

I think that little bit of angle you have on the left side is what I meant, maybe just repeat that on the right side.
It would be one of those psuedo-perspective types that many retro games used...

[toaster]

For the ladders this is better, but I don't think it's a step forward for the perspective. I'm going to try out some things, maybe this perspective is good enough too.

Which perspective do you like?
Bytheway, I've already noticed the mistake in the yellow-black stripes. I'll fix it soon.

[yrizoud]

The perspective looks uncomfortable with this steep angle.
This reminds me of the shareware Xenno the rogue (link to screenshots page) which allows grabbing the edges of platforms that are too high : it uses a consistant North-East 45° angle, I don't remember if the character is partly hidden when he hugs a left ledge.

[PypeBros]

The perspective looks uncomfortable with this steep angle.
This reminds me of the shareware Xenno the rogue (link to screenshots page) which allows grabbing the edges of platforms that are too high : it uses a consistant North-East 45° angle, I don't remember if the character is partly hidden when he hugs a left ledge.

Commander Keen also had an isometric perspective, and it worked well, although it wasn't climbing any walls.
Donkey Kong Country had such a distorded perspective

I think one major problem with your picture is that your platform is shown almost from the top. It's nearly Zelda's eagle view with some perspective.
Flatten the floor, increase the angle, be consistent with your stripes. That should do most of the job.

[Candy Man Criminal]

adding to that for the amount of the top youre showing your walls are rather lacking in the perspective to go along with it, as in the second DK image