Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Misuzu on February 24, 2018, 03:18:29 pm

Title: Beginner at sprites looking for help (WIP sprite)
Post by: Misuzu on February 24, 2018, 03:18:29 pm
Hello, I have just recently started toying with pixel art and tried creating a sprite. The sprite in question is my first ever (worth mentioning) sprite and I am aware that it is very basic and lacks many things. Nevertheless, I have encountered a problem whilst trying to make my character walk. No matter what I try, the transition from when his right leg passes over his left always look weird and unnatural. I have reached a point where I honestly do not know what to do. I have tried looking for a solution online, but all of the examples of walking have characters with their shoulders facing towards the viewer and looking east or westwards, whilst mine is placed diagonally eastwards. I am very thankful to anyone who can give me a tip on how to finish my characters walking cycle.
(https://i.imgur.com/sl8dh0Z.gif)

Title: Re: Beginner at sprites looking for help (
Post by: eishiya on February 24, 2018, 07:04:01 pm
It looks like you never finished the legs' motions, which makes it hard to give feedback. Try leaving the awkwardness in for now and finishing each leg's arc back and forth. That'll make it easier to tell what's wrong in the weird parts, since half-finished motion always looks weird. I also recommend not worrying about the tween frames for now, start with the key parts of the motion (usually the ones pointed out in those side-view walk animation guides). The frame you're struggling with is probably the "pass" frame, so leave that for last.
Title: Re: Beginner at sprites looking for help (
Post by: Misuzu on February 25, 2018, 08:31:20 pm
Hi, sorry for replying late. Thanks for taking out your time to give me feedback. Since I don't have a lot of time to devote to sprites I will try to add more frames where his leg has already passed the other one and I'll post it when I'm finished. I'd be very thankful if you could give me more feedback or tips then.  :)
Title: Re: Beginner at sprites looking for help (
Post by: eishiya on February 25, 2018, 10:07:26 pm
If you skip the tweens, it shouldn't take terribly long :] You should only need about 6-8 frames to convey the important parts.
Title: Re: Beginner at sprites looking for help (
Post by: Misuzu on February 27, 2018, 09:49:35 am
If you skip the tweens, it shouldn't take terribly long :] You should only need about 6-8 frames to convey the important parts.
   

Once again, I have failed with creating key frames, but I did come up with a sprite that's a little better than the previous one. At this point he looks like he is sliding his feet, but I might be able to fix it by merging some of the frames so there isn't such a big gap between the steps.

(https://i.imgur.com/lZ1vept.gif)
Title: Re: Beginner at sprites looking for help (WIP sprite)
Post by: eishiya on February 27, 2018, 02:32:35 pm
The legs aren't going back far enough, which is making the walk look funny.

Have you animated a walk from the side? Even though it's not what you want, I recommend doing that for practice, so that you understand the motion that happens more clearly. It's much easier to mentally rotate your walker once you understand the motion as it looks from the side than it is to try to learn it in a more difficult perspective.

If you'd rather keep pushing on with this, I have one suggestion that could make things easier: Draw the character's footsteps on the ground, and animate the character following those footsteps, moving across the canvas for at least 2, preferably 3 or 4 steps. You can always centre the frames after you're done. This'll give you a guide to where each foot goes, so you'll just need to worry about connecting them.
In general, I recommend animating motion in motion instead of in place, as it's easier to spot mistakes that way, and things like sliding feet become less of an issue since you can see whether they're actually sliding, or just correctly pushing off the ground while the rest of the body moves.
Title: Re: Beginner at sprites looking for help (WIP sprite)
Post by: Odovedesign on April 13, 2018, 12:47:15 pm
look, I can't comment if you aren't going to try and provide a sprite where you at least attempted the necessary number of frames, you say you tried to create the essential pass over animation, but you haven't posted that here, not being funny (well kinda) but you have to give us something to go on to help you improve!

SO, to help you I need to see the appropriate attempts, and you also need to have a real crack at the legs, I would suggest having a brighter shade for the front leg and a darker shade for the behind leg, that is an essential with most perspective run cycles.