AuthorTopic: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle  (Read 7415 times)

Offline rydath

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[WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

on: March 12, 2007, 05:15:57 am
After procrastinating forever, I finally decided to get on my lazy butt today and make a south walkcycle for one of my sprites.

Before I clean up each frames' shading, I was wondering if someone could help pick out what's wrong with it for me? This is my first walkcycle I've made, so while I'm proud of it, I can't help but feel something about it looks a little off. :-\
« Last Edit: March 12, 2007, 08:51:38 pm by rydath »

Offline Generic

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #1 on: March 12, 2007, 05:39:04 am
Well I am no expert but maybe I can help. Right now it almost looks like he is dancing in place. I think the reason he looks still is because of how long his armor is. Maybe if the cloth folded, or moved up a bit it would look better. Sorry I could only offer such little advice but I'm not that great myself.

Offline DJ gman

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #2 on: March 12, 2007, 05:43:51 am
some more clearly defined arm movement would help. make his arms go more inward on his longest stride

Offline rydath

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #3 on: March 12, 2007, 06:30:21 am
Generic: Good point, I should make the cloth at the bottom flip up to the side a little or something when the leg goes forward.

DJ: Ah, yeah, that incorrect swing in the arm is totally screwing with it.

Thanks both of you. I'll do my best to fix it up.

Offline Serena

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #4 on: March 12, 2007, 06:41:20 am
I think you should make the guy's shoulders move more, tilting in left and right with his arms.  Right now it's kind of like his arms are just dangling from his shoulders.

Offline rydath

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #5 on: March 12, 2007, 06:49:59 am
Oh duh! Of course, shoulder rotation.  :blind: I should probably rotate his chest a little while I'm at it. Thanks, Serena.

Offline Ricco, the Pirate

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #6 on: March 12, 2007, 03:56:40 pm
Oh duh! Of course, shoulder rotation.  :blind: I should probably rotate his chest a little while I'm at it. Thanks, Serena.
Yes, that's it!
 But right now I can't help to think that he is in an "I feel good soundtrack" sort of moment :P

Offline rydath

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #7 on: March 12, 2007, 08:56:56 pm
Oh duh! Of course, shoulder rotation.  :blind: I should probably rotate his chest a little while I'm at it. Thanks, Serena.
Yes, that's it!
 But right now I can't help to think that he is in an "I feel good soundtrack" sort of moment :P

I have no such soundtrack, but yeah, good times.  :y: (Wonders if there's a joke at his expense hidden somewhere in there.  :-\)
Anyways, little update.

I think it looks slightly better, though of course needs cleaning, and probably a tiny bounce in the hair to make it a bit more fun. Anything else that really looks to need fixing?

Offline Fool

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #8 on: March 12, 2007, 09:53:19 pm
His handswing looks a bit off to legs cycle...
[quick edit]I  made a few might be unessesary changes along, just for idea..=) Colours a bit too burned for me, though, but that's an intimate zone.=))

Offline rydath

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #9 on: March 13, 2007, 08:23:38 am
Haha, awesome!  :lol: Thanks for taking the time out to edit and show me by example, I'm DEFINITELY gonna get alot out of looking at what you did with those arms and the hair with my edits to come. Not a fan of what you did to the feet, though; it looks like he's walking backwards somehow.

Anyhow, what's 'burned' mean in this context? My savvy with pixel-lingo is nul.  :-[

Offline Fool

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #10 on: March 13, 2007, 10:26:59 am
I dont think it's a pixel term, more like photoshop's tool "burn" action (didn't know how to say it=) - dark tones are very saturated in oposite to light tones. But I'm dumb palettewise and hardly good adviser in that. :)
I would go for something like that if keep existing hues.=)  Also shorten body lenth by two pixels to maintain proportions a bit, but that  just personal prefs.

« Last Edit: March 13, 2007, 11:57:53 am by Fool »

Offline ndchristie

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #11 on: March 13, 2007, 12:49:43 pm
lovely animation, i would enjoy some more motion in the head unles there are restrictions.  Fool's edits show really good ideas (who'da thunk?) both for recoloring and motion.  I highly reccomend you study them close.
A mistake is a mistake.
The same mistake twice is a bad habit.
The same mistake three or more times is a motif.

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #12 on: March 13, 2007, 03:36:54 pm
Well, I simply have a few suggestions in this matter. The chest/armor throughout the animation just looks like it's slate armor, almost as it a rivetless steel blanket. The body in general should get wider in posture, and the armor shading should be done in different department sections. You should have the main, "base", armor slating, then stomach plating, upper chest/breast plating, and then finally the shoulder plating. Also, if you were to think around realistic terms no one would be wearing a steel plate with typical cloth clothing. So I would suggest a heavier material such as chain mesh/mail, etc., that would have complimenting accents with the armor or completely ditch the steel plating and go with a dark leather/clothe substitute in accordance with the other leather armor and accessories. Next is the hair, in any form of movement you need to have animation to the hair, or else it seems like your character is from one from like Final Fantasy 8 (Zell), who's hair is miraculiously held up by an unknown amount of hair gel that refrains it from ever moving throughout the entire game. Following this, if you ever plan to even have this in a game, you're going to come across a great deal of problems, because you shaded it, it means that there is a light directional in which the side is henseforth shaded, but if you don't copy this entire shading technique throughout the entire game for every single peice in the same 2-tone shaded manner, you will inevitably end up with a horribly perception in light vs. dark/shadow vs. apparent. So what I would suggest is that you lose all shadowing for your game, and use an in-game module to do angular shading/sun immitancy. Now in-regards to some facial detail, you need to reformat the face because the nose streaks from the off-center of the characters hair, all the way down to his chin because of the lack of accent you put on the lips and the edge of the character's nose. So in other words, I would suggest using a lighter tone for the lips, or a more natural skin tone that isn't a noticable derivative of orange. Then in regards to the whole animation, the arms in no matter should be jousting forward like they do unless the character is in a world national sprint. Usually when walking character's or just people in general never bend there elbows at such a degree as expressed in this image. In addition the legs shouldn't make the pixel body stretch so back, it should be a walk animation like the following:
  © L.P. Project
Lastly I suggest for such a wide head even for a chibi, that you make the body at least a two pixel width change on the body to make it look even in the slightest sense, able to support the immense head.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2007, 03:42:18 pm by Hawk »

Offline rydath

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #13 on: March 13, 2007, 05:10:31 pm
Ahhh! Feedback overload! Thanks for taking notice everyone, lessee if I can organise my thoughts on the comments I'm getting.
I dont think it's a pixel term, more like photoshop's tool "burn" action (didn't know how to say it=) - dark tones are very saturated in oposite to light tones. But I'm dumb palettewise and hardly good adviser in that. :)
I would go for something like that if keep existing hues.=)  Also shorten body lenth by two pixels to maintain proportions a bit, but that  just personal prefs.


Ah, gotchya, didn't know that was exactly what the burn tool did (*Isn't terribly savvy with Photoshop, either =P*). I'll bring the proportions-perspective-proposition up with my co-developer. I'm not entirely sold on it myself, since I'm proud of my cutle mutant style, but it might indeed be more accurate. I'll also look into the color modifications, because mine really do need some work. Oh, but the dark side of the nose is already supposed to be the shadow, so the one you added really throws it even more off center than it is, but I will do corrective work on it since it did bring some confusion. Thanks again, fool.  :y:

lovely animation, i would enjoy some more motion in the head unles there are restrictions.  Fool's edits show really good ideas (who'da thunk?) both for recoloring and motion.  I highly reccomend you study them close.

Oh, I surely am, and plan on it for a good ammount of time to come as I make this character.   :)

Well, I simply have a few suggestions in this matter. The chest/armor throughout the animation just looks like it's slate armor, almost as it a rivetless steel blanket...
I'll stop ya right there. It seems I have a long way to go in cloth since the Seradin Hall school tabard-shirt (yes, a tabard/shirt) is making alot of confusion. I'll put some folds and ridges on the cloth as the body twists with the walkcycle for my next edit to be sure.
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The body in general should get wider in posture...
Good point, I'll work on that too for next time.
Quote
And the armor shading should be done in different department sections. You should have the main, "base", armor slating, then stomach plating, upper chest/breast plating, and then finally the shoulder plating. Also, if you were to think around realistic terms no one would be wearing a steel plate with typical cloth clothing. So I would suggest a heavier material such as chain mesh/mail, etc., that would have complimenting accents with the armor or completely ditch the steel plating and go with a dark leather/clothe substitute in accordance with the other leather armor and accessories.
ady brought up that Ward isn't suppost to be wearing plate or real armor, but will keep this in mind for the many characters I have who do wear such.
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Next is the hair, in any form of movement you need to have animation to the hair, or else it seems like your character is from one from like Final Fantasy 8 (Zell), who's hair is miraculiously held up by an unknown amount of hair gel that refrains it from ever moving throughout the entire game.
Oh man, Zell bugged me. But, yeah, I had always intended to put movement in the hair before it was finished.
Quote
Following this, if you ever plan to even have this in a game, you're going to come across a great deal of problems, because you shaded it, it means that there is a light directional in which the side is henseforth shaded, but if you don't copy this entire shading technique throughout the entire game for every single peice in the same 2-tone shaded manner, you will inevitably end up with a horribly perception in light vs. dark/shadow vs. apparent. So what I would suggest is that you lose all shadowing for your game, and use an in-game module to do angular shading/sun immitancy.
We do plan on putting this char in a game (An Rpg, if you didn't guess  :P), but neither of us knows much programming. I put the other guy in charge of learning enough coding to get things functional, but expecting him to do anything so extreme as a realistic pixel object lighting program is just not reasonable. So, I'll have to deal with all of the complications and restrictions of the shading method I'm using.
Quote
Now in-regards to some facial detail, you need to reformat the face because the nose streaks from the off-center of the characters hair, all the way down to his chin because of the lack of accent you put on the lips and the edge of the character's nose. So in other words, I would suggest using a lighter tone for the lips, or a more natural skin tone that isn't a noticable derivative of orange.
I'll try it out and see how I like the various changes.
Quote
Then in regards to the whole animation, the arms in no matter should be jousting forward like they do unless the character is in a world national sprint. Usually when walking character's or just people in general never bend there elbows at such a degree as expressed in this image. In addition the legs shouldn't make the pixel body stretch so back, it should be a walk animation like the following:
  © L.P. Project
Of course you're going to prefer your style, and of course I'm going to prefer mine. You're right about the bending elbows, though. As exagerated as my style is, it might be too much.

Quote
Lastly I suggest for such a wide head even for a chibi, that you make the body at least a two pixel width change on the body to make it look even in the slightest sense, able to support the immense head.
I'll try it out, but I'm fond of my deformed little munchkin  :lol:. Thanks for writing such a detailed criticism, Hawk. You've given me alot to think about.

Now, let's see if I can get this animation on to it's final phase! *Wooshes away*

Offline Fool

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Re: [WIP] RPG south Walkcycle

Reply #14 on: March 13, 2007, 07:03:00 pm
Oh, but the dark side of the nose is already supposed to be the shadow, so the one you added really throws it even more off center than it is,

It is off (since i use a single frame to make a point),  but intentionally - in animation cycle playing with shadows within shape you could make an illusion of moving. Thus darken and lighten shadowed part of the face in it's extreme positions  might make it  look  moving from side to side accordingly to the walk cycle.=)