Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Omenith on April 01, 2007, 08:03:23 pm
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(http://www.vindicategames.com/durwina/portfolio/gunguy.gif)
Just made this guy this afternoon to use as my animation practice (which I will update on this thread!). It was a quick process; just blobbed out his form in black then added colors.
I settled with 24 colors, let me know what you think. Feedback on the feet, hands and color usage would be greatly appreciated!
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nice work, I really like those colors. Im looking foreward seeing this animated. what looks a bit strange is the right leg (our right). I think it could use some selout. but maybe you want to first animate then do the fine-work..
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Thanks Philip, I added some selout to that area.
Heres the idle animation which I'm not too happy with mostly because I couldn't come up with a better idea and the lower torso doesn't move as much as I want it to...
(http://www.vindicategames.com/durwina/portfolio/gunguyidle.gif)
And heres something more exciting, unsheathing of the gun!
(http://www.vindicategames.com/durwina/portfolio/gunguyshootskit.gif)
Any CC would be appreciated. More to come! I want to do some uhh shooting and twisting next...
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very cool but extreme breathing and giant air flow when pulling out his gun seems very unrealistic as the sprite itself does not.
good luck.
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Interesting and challenging stuff you're trying to do here. Good luck with that! :)
The sprite looks nice, good palette, design and readibility. The forearm on the left is too long though. The hand looks strangely bent, maybe direct it forward instead of down.
The breathing anim is too fast and exagerated, and the rubber bending arm looks weird. I'd suggest making the breathing more subtle, using the colors to suggest subpixel movement.
On the weapon draw, you're trying to show a complex movement too quickly, skipping inbetween stages. You should be showing:
1. Hand reaches back, moves coat out of the way (maybe a slight coat grab and tug to throw the fabric back) to gain access to something on the back
2. Hand reaches behind back, inside coat
3. Slight struggle to remove (such a huge) gun from pants
4. Large arm movement (elbow making a large arc, whole body twists to the right/down to make way for the passing gun) to make the gun not hit neither the coat nor the leg.
5. Aim forward, other arm reaches the gun
The coat throw is too exagerated, making it look weightless, the coat shouldn't fly at light speed through the air.
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when he throws the coat, it becomes kinda static... great work though!
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Actually, if he were to fire that SMG pointing like that, he would hit his head with the recoil. It isn't a pistol, so it would me more realistic if he held it a bit closer to his torso.
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At the end of the animation the cape goes way too straight.
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Joseph: When it comes to art, nature or "real-life" is always just a guide. I know, it was kind of misleading for me to make a realistic sprite then make extremely exaggerated animations but this was the point! :lol:
Turbo: Its alittle too late for me to fix the original design at this point, hopefully the animations will clear up some of it. You can always make up form with movement. Also, skipping inbetween stages happen all the time in animation. The purpose of doing this is to avoid unnecessary actions and useless frames.. dragging things along just for the sake of compliance is always too tedious and often takes away from the focus of the action. I agree that the coat flies alittle too fast but the more force you apply to something the faster it will go, right? I tried to add more weight to the coat with extra frames in my new edit.
Wakka: I thought making him bring out a SMG would be more expressive toward his character (you can tell from his clothes that he is abit eccentric). He will only fire single rounds from this position; burst fire will be in another position holding the gun closer to the torso. The strength of an individual can also hamper recoil :P.
Icedemon: Hopefully the revision will have addressed some of the static issues.
Souly: Added 2 frames to alleviate this.
Thanks for all the comments.
(http://www.vindicategames.com/durwina/portfolio/gunguyidle2.gif)
Here I tried to fix the rubber arm and added some movement to the lower coat and hand. I know it is still over the top with the breaths but I'm gonna stick with it.
(http://www.vindicategames.com/durwina/portfolio/gunguyshootskit1a.gif)
Added 2 more frames to address the weight of the coat. Also seperates the coat animation from the swinging of the gun; this should make each action more distinct.
(http://www.vindicategames.com/durwina/portfolio/gunguyshoot.gif)
Just a semi-automatic single round shot...
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His legs really need to show some movement in that idle animation. It's so weird to see his upper body moving so much and his lower body completely stationary.
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I think that the shooting animation looks okay, perhaps some muzzle flare and lighting? The idle definitely needs leg movement, and the hand fixed to the hip seems fairly unnatural. The capes opposite side seems to flow up, so while you have improved the animation somewhat it still looks off.
I like what I'm seeing so far and can't wait to see it finished :y:
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Thanks for the comments guys,
(http://www.vindicategames.com/durwina/portfolio/gunguyidle3.gif)
I tried to address the issues with the hands and the pants with more cheap pixel moving stuff.
(http://www.vindicategames.com/durwina/portfolio/gunguyshootsmack.gif)
Twisting and smacking! Heres the burst fire position. I tired to make sure the feet were moving correctly; especially during the twist. The coat might feel neglected.. I'll take a look at it tomorrow...
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In your new anim, looks like he moves up a few pixels by the end. Am I crazy?
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Yes, the ending position is higher, but he is also more erect.
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Hmm, actually that was intended but I can see how it would be a problem if he were put into a game. ILL LOOK INTO IT!
Edit: Problem solved.. with the quickness...
(http://www.vindicategames.com/durwina/portfolio/gunguyshootsmack2.gif)
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I don't like how the trenchcoat is always at a perfectly (or at least close to perfectly) 1/2 slope on the back. It doesn't seem like it drapes. You got the animations pretty good, but the stills...they just seem wierd to me. Like, see in the anim where he takes out his gun...? Yeah, see where the trenchcoat goes forward a bit due to momentum and all that jazz? Then it just snaps back into position. Your new animation fixes this but...I dunno, it just seemed odd to me. I mean, when he's holding his gun straight out, the coat doesn't drape down the contour of his back, it just goes "/". I hope I'm not being redundant. You get me?
I also find it odd how the arm has much brighter hilights than the jacket.
But other than that, this is looking very nice and reminding me that I need to animate cloth.
I tried to address the issues with the hands and the pants with more cheap pixel moving stuff.
Not cheap. It gives i t much more motion and gets rid of the odd stillness. Not cheap. Purposeful. And it sho' 'nuff worked.
I just noticed this, but I really like the face.
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I dont like his right feet standing in the air.. And in the new move, when he holds the gun with two hands, the right foot is lowered a bit, not as high as it was earlier.. Which doesnt make sense :o. Anyway the total animation is very smooth and nice, but there is something wrong with the coat..
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Nice animation=)
The only problem notable right away - figure pose is out of balance (except shooting).=) Coat has a heavy rubber feel - otherwise it would catch the air. Last animation not quite readable (to me, i looked for a minute on 2x to figure it out=). if thats a spin with a kick I would add a bit of anticipation to give viewer a clue what's going to happen - revolving itself just lost. Idle animation is a little strange, but that's probably me.=)
And the one where he get his gun from his back - his body don't show if a gun weight anything. I guess shoulders would lean forward, then go a bit back before settles to balance the move with a (considerably) heavy object.
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Alright, thanks again guys. I think most of the comments were directed at the unsheathing animation so I focused my attention on that one today. I took a look at the base sprite and Fool was right about the balance so I moved his leg over a few pixels. On the way, I rethought my palette and tried to make it more versatile; blended in the highlights to make it look more natural. Also reworked abit of the coat draping down per Xion's review and tried to put more weight in that jerk frame I have.
(http://www.vindicategames.com/durwina/portfolio/gunguyshootskit4.gif)
Lemme know if I'm on the right track.
Oh.. I forgot to mention earlier that I'm working in "twos", I believe its called in classical animation texts. This comes out to 0.08 seconds per frame (1/12 frames per sec round down). Generally the principles are to work in "twos" or half of a two which is a "one" (1/24 or 0.04 rounded down). Some animators like to work in twos, ones or a combination of both (combination is recommended); usually ones for fast animations like mine which of course would solve alot of the confusion and make it smoother. But I wanted to hone my techniques toward "twos" because this is the most efficient frame per second, interms of human perception and I think this is the limit as far as most game animations go. ((MOST OF THIS INFO IS FROM "THE ANIMATOR'S SURVIVAL KIT" GO GET IT)) So in essence, I am missing alot of inbetweens in the fast areas.
This information might be out of date but I deem it good for a general guide or else you will end up with a horrendous amount of frames and an unorganized mess of framerates. If you want to discuss this in my thread, you may. (((Surprisingly alot of professional animations are done in terms of 0.08 and 0.04 aswell [sometimes rounded up to 0.09 and 0.05].. atleast from the fighting games I've dissected.)))
Having said that, this is not my excuse; I just want you to know what I'm working with. I just want to make sure the animations are "readable", not excessively smooth. All of the critique have been great so far, thanks.
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(http://www.vindicategames.com/durwina/portfolio/gunguyshootsmack2.gif)
I think that the characters foot movement looks a bit fishy. In the first frame the right foot is one pixel above the green line and the left one is quite many pixels above. In the last frame the right foot is on the green line and the right foot is quite closer to the line than in the first frame. It'll looks kinda weird. Beyond that, great stuff.