Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: breakfast on July 23, 2013, 08:01:50 am
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(http://i.imgur.com/66sXke6.gif)
I'm practicing animating & wanted to try to make a larger sprite with many frames of animation. I just have the basic outline here, I wanted to make sure everything looked ok before I moved on to shading! Is it smooth enough? Is the head bouncing at the right time?
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I noticed a few things looking at this.
Firstly with the head bounce. It looks kind of strange that the head would be bouncing but the shoulders stay still. The only reason the head should bob like that would be because the whole body is moving, and the head is following the spine.
This leads into my second comment, the whole thing looks very slidey, move that body some. The head should be connected to the movement of the shoulders, and maybe have a bit of delay as it adjusts to the bounce of the whole body.
The last thing is the hands. Its probably because the shoulders are so narrow compared to the hips, but it looks like his hands are just rubbing the sides of his hips instead of hanging freely. You have included some anatomy here that leads me to assume that this is a male figure, but the profile looks very feminine because of those wide hips and tiny shoulders.
Either way, the arms would probably look better going straight back and forward, with a little motion toward the inside at the apex of the arm swing.
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(http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/205/6/a/wip___forward_walk_animation_by_bbreakfast-d6eq25k.gif)
Is it looking better? Not sure how much muscle mass to show here, I don't want some big beefcake but I do want some muscles...
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Its definitely looking better. That muscle flash thing is kind of terrifying. I think the form needs a little more work before you go into muscle shading (also that muscle shading is a little too intense).
I think the legs could use more definition, especially around the calves and feet. He kind of has elephant feet at the moment. The line across his hips also doesn't need to be there.
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it look like ragnarok online characters
(http://images.wikia.com/ragnarok/pt/images/2/29/Rk_m_front_walk.gif)
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(http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/206/a/7/wip___forward_walk_animation_by_bbreakfast-d6eq25k.gif)
Wondering if I should add another shade of in-between skin tones for the shadows... Everything looking alright?
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You gotta have at least 3 shades. Right now, you lack a highlight.
(http://i.imgur.com/zX2jDUI.gif)
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(http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/206/a/7/wip___forward_walk_animation_by_bbreakfast-d6eq25k.gif)
He's still cat-walking a lot! Imho, it would work better if the feet would stay in their own line rather than trying to move towards the center.
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See here for an animated model (wireframe) of motion capture of people walking:
http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html
You'll notice that the leg-bones supporting the person's weight stay straight from hip to ankle, though not vertical, it's only when it's coming back forward that the knee shifts aside in a kind of circular motion to avoid the other leg.
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I think part of what adds to the "slidey" feel is a weird horizontal motion of the hips from side to side. If you walk yourself, or you check the mocap that yrizoud posted, the hips don't move horizontally at all, or at least no more than the rest of the spine does -- they just rotate in place slightly to shift the amount of weight put on either leg.
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(http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/206/9/7/wip___forward_walk_animation_by_bbreakfast-d6eq25k.gif)
Quick update! Does he look better or worse with a neck? I am not sure how realistic to take this, so I'm going to hold off on additional skin shadows for now... I can't help but think with the lack of a third skin tone he looks a little more like Final Fantasy Tactics' sprites, & I'm trying to go for that kind of look. Is his face too baby faced? I need a semi realistic, stylized face but everything I do makes him look too old and realistic.
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The neck helps but cut the head bob back some. The concept of rendering a nose seems to be an eternal challenge for pixel artists but its always going to have that babyface look without it. To get an implied nose try breaking up the symmetry of the shadow under his eyes, make it look more like shading and less like a crease in his face.
(http://ludopunk.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/wip___forward_walk_animation_by_bbreakfast-yngaredit.png)
Are you intending to make a template here or a character?
There is a lot of character to put on a face, for example I added the nose in that edit, and also widened the mouth a bit and that changed the character of it a lot.
If its a template I would just leave a space for a nose and not think about it too much. That way if you were to make characters out of it it kind of forces you to think about that space and make it distinct each time.
The legs still look a little chubby, especially around the calves on the back of the step. Taper those down, and make them get smaller on the back of the step to give it some depth. Also his right leg and foot seem to be pointing inward. I would point both of the feet away from the body a bit more and that should look a lot more natural.
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This has been mentioned before, but his walk is very feminine. If you want a more "masculine" walk (whatever that means):
- Decrease the lateral movement in the shoulders and hips
- Make his legs extend outwards instead of inwards during the forward phase (can't let his penis get squashed!)
- And make his arms bend at the elbows during the forward phase (as you have it now, the arms are just rotating around the body without actually bending at the elbows.)
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(http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/208/f/d/wip___forward_walk_animation_by_bbreakfast-d6eq25k.gif)
Thank you everyone for the critiques and helpful websites, they've helped me a ton. :] I've decided to leave the face alone for now. Still not sure if I want to add skin highlights..
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(http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/210/6/4/male_template_sprite___forward_walk_by_bbreakfast-d6fqo0b.gif)
Going to call this one done! Learned a lot, now it's time to move on and use what I've learned on new pieces.