Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Level 1 on April 15, 2014, 11:57:54 pm
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Hello there embers of Pixelation, I am new here and I joined up to try and better myself as a pixel artists. Right now I am trying to learn animation.
My first project was creating an idle character stance, something basic.
(http://i.imgur.com/44mJWHQ.gif)
Here is the result. This was done in 4 frames.
Now I want to try and create a running animation for this sprite, but I have never attempted it. My goal is to make the running animation withing 4 frames as well.
(http://i.imgur.com/BRtP9RY.png)
Here is what I've got so far, the only problem with this, is I am not sure how to fit in the body, the arms and head in with what I've got so far.
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This looks brilliant already. The little feather / ear bounce is particularly charming.
I'm no expert on anatomy, but it seems to me that his left leg is pointing so much to our right that it would be impossible for him to bend the knee without moving his knee forward. But maybe the slight bounce is not enough to warrant the knee moving a full pixel to the right, I don't know.
I don't know how people tend to do idle animations, but my impression is that they're meant to look like heavy breathing and/or idle movements like stretching, flexing, etc. This guy seems to have a lot of vertical movement from the bending of the knees, while his arms are completely locked and are barely moving independently of his torso. It actually makes him look a bit like a boxer, who's keeping his arms tight on purpose (as a guard), while bouncing up and down. But then, you would expect him to stand on the balls of his feet. If this is for a game that is primarily about running and jumping instead of fighting, then perhaps you could loosen up his arm, shoulders and torso, like he's taking deep breaths. Hell, even in Street Fighter 2, many characters look like they're taking very deep breaths when idle.
In regards to the running animation, I don't quite understand what you want to know. Are you simply not sure how to start drawing a basic running animation? If that's the case, then just googling running animation is always a good first step. Beyond that, I'll leave any elaborate explanation to more educated artists. I've seen a lot of people say that it's very hard to do a nice running animation with only 4 frames though, so you may want to reconsider and go with 6 or 8.
Hope this helps, even though I don't really know much about animation. People with more knowledge will come along shortly, I'm sure.
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Thank you for the nice comments, well in way this is just practice, that is why this is restricted to 4 frames only, after that I want to go for much more complicated and advanced pieces of work.
The main purpose I started this was because over at the VG Resource's Forums there is a forum project in which users are allowed to create a fighter of their choice using a restricted palette and image size, also, most of the animations are usually 4 frames long.
So basically, yes the character is meant to have a fighting stance. Personally, I created this character to have a "relaxed" nature, his hands would be in his pockets, and he wouldn't move much. But since he will be fighting for his life, he must have some sort of visual representation of a defensive stance.
Now about the running, well I have never made a running/walking animation ever, I have a few references but I can't get it to quite look what I want it to, the torso and arms are what keeps bugging me whenever I try drawing them. That i why I drew the legs separately, because I have created pixel art that shows character as if they were running, but there is no animation in progress.
And finally, thank you for liking the character, the animation actually took me a while because it was my first animated character ever, so this is the latest version of him yet :)
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One thing that's getting me in the idle is the horizontal gray shading stripe in the middle of his jacket is moving in sync with his right hand, so it sort of looks like it's a gray thing held in his fist.
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Oh good point, I never noticed that, I will fixed that, thanks.
Edit: (http://i.imgur.com/S3uhFVn.gif)
I think I got it.
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Try not making the arms so stiff. Have the forearms kinda bounce around.
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(http://i.imgur.com/ZfQ8HmM.gif)
Is this better? I sorta made the arms move with the bouncing of the knees, but I am not too sure
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Looks like it's updated in your avatar, but you linked to an older version in the thread?
Anyway, looks better, but arms still seem stiff. When moving upwards, make the hands lag a pixel lower than the elbow, and vice versa. :y:
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Oh weird, must had been a misplacement of of links.
And I am not really sure what you mean. I am working with only 4 frames here so doing that would require at least another 2 frames in between the rising to the starting frame and another frame in between going down
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4 frames is fine, just have the hand follow a frame behind:
frame one: elbow up + hand up
frame two: elbow down + hand up
frame three: elbow down + hand down
frame four: elbow up + hand down
Sorry - I'll do an edit later if that's still not clear!
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Yeah an edit woudl work best, I keep trying it, and it just looks like he is moving his fists at a faster rate than he is jumping
Sorry for the double post
(http://i.imgur.com/tMTKv6d.gif)
Here is something new, see the character's main idea is that he is a relaxed guy that doesn't pay much attention, I wanted to display that in his animations, and well in the idle animation it was kinda had to do that, so I tried this, not sure if the feet are good or not, I might play around with them until I feel confident with them.
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Here is something new, see the character's main idea is that he is a relaxed guy that doesn't pay much attention, I wanted to display that in his animations
More relaxed then perhaps.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qNzWrcfRet4/U07Dhx43OkI/AAAAAAAAJRY/iU1uZOw_XBg/s1600/relaxedGuy_1.gif)
Well that might me a bit too relaxed.
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That will be my victory animation, no doubt about it
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You you're right, didn't look great as I'd suggested, but any movement on the arms to stop them looking too stiff probably helps:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1534394/idle.gif)
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Alright well I took what you did and tried to edit it up with my own touch
(http://i.imgur.com/0QmqazJ.gif)
Thank you very much for the help.
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That's kinda what I was referring to, so that's good.
Maybe make his left (Our right) knee bend a bit rather than move up and down?
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(http://i.imgur.com/wVsOFuB.gif)
Better?
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He looks excited.
I don't think relaxed with hands in pockets suits running for his life either.
Can you explain this a bit better because right now it doesn't sound like it makes any sense?
I can't help with animation right now but I can edit later if no one else gets inb4.
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Well, I'm making a character sheet filled with sprites. The character is a relaxed guy that is calm and has his head in the clouds.
In the project, we are to make a character sheet with a certain color palette. Each animation should try and stay withing 4 frames, 6 at max.
(http://i.imgur.com/wVsOFuB.gif)
In this animation I want him to have a battle stance, something to show that he is ready to defend/attack. With it, I want to give him a running animation.
(http://i.imgur.com/xbshhQG.gif)
This here is another attempt to try and show the character having his relaxed nature, yet he is active, as if ready to dodge an upcoming attack, though with this one, I want him to walk instead of running.
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Any particular reason for restrictions or u just want to challenge urself?
More frames simply look better.
Relaxed stance bounces too fast makes him look on edge.
Since he is agile have u considered open hand defense suited to evasion and parry?
Just an idea.
His guard is also way too low.
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I already mentioned why I am restricted to the low number of frames.
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So basically "this is just practice, that is why this is restricted to 4 frames only, after that I want to go for much more complicated and advanced pieces of work"?
No other reason?
If its just this its my opinion that you shouldn't restrict yourself unnecessarily, especially if you're new to animation.
Regarding fighting stance I meant maybe you could raise his hands and dip his head a bit if he's serious about fighting.
Quick edit with closed fist:
(http://i.imgur.com/jjQfo7t.gif)
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you shouldn't restrict yourself unnecessarily
Isn't that what this whole forum is about... ?
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you shouldn't restrict yourself unnecessarily
Isn't that what this whole forum is about... ?
Umm...that might be a reason for some people but its a bit of a stretch to say its the whole point of this forum ???
My point is this kind of restriction is a lost opportunity to learn and going to severely limit us being able to help him.
More frames is going to look better and allow more opportunity to learn basic animation skills.
If someone is going for less frames for that specific look then that makes sense but IMO they should be above that level before coming back down.
From what I've read here though and the answers I've had it seems more like he just doesn't want to put in the work at this time.
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More frames is going to look better and allow more opportunity to learn basic animation skills.
really??
are you sure??
limiting yourself re: framecount forces you to stick to keyframes specifically most of the time, which forces you to understand how to make an animation really 'pop' and have the emphasis that it should. just because something looks smoother with more frames doesn't necessarily mean that it's better
self imposed limitations are a very nice method for learning
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More frames is going to look better and allow more opportunity to learn basic animation skills.
really??
are you sure??
limiting yourself re: framecount forces you to stick to keyframes specifically most of the time, which forces you to understand how to make an animation really 'pop' and have the emphasis that it should. just because something looks smoother with more frames doesn't necessarily mean that it's better
self imposed limitations are a very nice method for learning
Ok I guess I must be wrong ::)
I'm looking forward to learning from this run cycle that uses a total of 4 frames and still looks good :y:
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Well from the other forum that I am doing this for, many other talented pixel artists have created full character sheets that have almost every animation being made with a restriction of 4 frames, rarely do they use more. I am not saying that more frames is bad or by any means wrong. What I am saying is that I have a goal that I want to stick with. So far I am having lots of problems with the anatomy of the legs and waist, I decided to stick to making a slow, walk cycle first, then move on to a fast paced running animation. I can't actually find a good reference that can teach me how to change from an idle stance, to a sudden walking cycle.
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Right, that's some information we could have used earlier.
Perhaps u can post some examples of the other sprite sheets that you like.
If you're having trouble progressing maybe we can learn something from them.
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Those sheets are not my work, so I cannot post them here.
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Those sheets are not my work, so I cannot post them here.
Where did you get the idea you can't post a relevant link just because you didn't create it?
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Because well it's not my work, so I'd have to ask for permission to post it here. Secondly I don't think that I need to post their work to show what I am aiming for. All I am going for is a simple 4 frame running animation, and 4 frame walking animation. If you insist on my giving out a link, I will do it sure, though I don't necessarily think looking at their work would help because my character has different proportions, and different anatomy.
Edit: http://i.imgur.com/Bl6woVe.gif (http://i.imgur.com/Bl6woVe.gif)
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As I see here you are just talking about it but I didn't see any walking or running animation here.
Decroded wanted to see the reference so he can understand you better, and by posting a reference you don't discredit author nor endanger privacy of his work, if it's posted on forum it's not private any more.
You should post at least some WIP, if you want to hear constructive criticism.