What did you expect him to say? Dusty pretty much said what I was thinking, and most likely what many more people were too..
For a first animation I think you achieved what you set out to do, you made something move.... They may not be very realistic movements, but then again your sprite doesn't relate to reality too well, there's no getting round that and it's clear your not willing to take critique on the quality of your sprite.. You've got to understand that the graphics and animation go hand in hand, if the image doesn't make sense then it's going to be very hard to animate well, its especially difficult to critique without bringing up improving the sprite somewhat.
It doesn't look like you took much thought into the animation to be honest, even for a first atempt you should have taken a look at what your own body does whilst your walking, look for tutorials, study other sprites Instead of jumping straight into it and posting for critique.
Im not sure what more to say, without doing most the legwork for you, totally redesigning your sprite, and building a full tutorial on how to make a sprite walk..
What I was expecting was some pointers on shading certain ways in each frame, moving the arms a certain way - or making them appear to move a certain way, or something along those lines.
What I wasn't expecting was for people to be complete asses and be unhelpful. I thought one of the rules of these forums was something along the lines of "if you're going to critique someone's artwork, be constructive"... and another rule was to not be an ass?
Rule 1:
As it was and as it always shall be: Don't be an ass!
Rule 4: Stay on topic.
Off-topic respite from critiquing is catered for in the same-titled thread on the General forum. If a topic seems to be hampered and derailed consistently by OT discussion, users will be warned, topics split or even locked, depending on the degree of damage done.
When critiquing, remember:
To highlight both the good and the bad about the piece. Comments without actual points of how to make the piece better are near-useless for the purposes of this forum. Pixelation is not a Gallery Showcase forum. It strives on helping people get better. Even if something seems faultless, look closer. There's always at least minor nitpicks to offer. In contrast, a post full of critique and not a single word on the merits of the piece, while would be very useful to an artist, might also upset him or demotivate him. Therefore please remember to say what you like about a piece as well.
To be articulate. When possible, go into detail explaining the reasoning behind your observation. It's one thing to say 'that arm looks broken, lol' and another to explain how the underlying muscle structure would work and why it gives you the impression it's broken, and finally, which would be probable means of fixing it. Optimally, the latter is what we're going for.
Anyways... I HAVE been working on the sprite to make it look better, which is why I am not concerned with the way it looks, I mean, it is pretty obvious that the animations with the arms is completely horrible.
Terley, you are right that I didn't put too much thought into the animation, but really for me it is very difficult at the moment to even think of making any pixels move around in what may seem like a realistic fashion. I have been looking around for tutorials as well as other similar perspective sprite animations, found one that has helped out quite a bit. (which is another thing I was expecting, being pointed in the right direction to find good examples)
I don't expect anyone to do any edits, because usually I will end up doing them in my own style anyways, though edits are always welcome.
Adarias, your crits and comments are always welcome and very much appreciated.
Gil, that's hilarious. As a whole, not exactly what I was going for... lol But the arm and head movement there is pretty much almost exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.