Pixelation
Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Corsair on February 19, 2008, 06:26:33 pm
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Going for smoother motion/less detail...
I'm happy with what i'm capable of but not satisfied with the overal lresults. whle tehy're mostly smooth enough, they al have a certain stiffness about them that i'd like to rid myself of.
here's some examples of the better ones i've made; trust me, you don't want to see the crappier ones:
(http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/7095/speard3bh7.gif)(http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/5199/wizard1ph9.gif/[img][img]http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/7817/clericwc5.gif)(http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/1654/runut2.gif) (http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5760/crouchattackgi9.gif) and my personal favorite (http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/7817/clericwc5.gif)(http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3073/slimeyeus6.gif)
Now, i've actually never attempted any kind of background before this, and i've never had any instruction on the matter (and it certainly shows) but the whole thing comes off as lookin very flat, andi'd like to know how i can make it look more substantial:
(http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/3052/backgroundqp3.gif)
Not doing these for any specific purpose, really, but i figure it's a good way to improve my overall abilityl, but i've reached something of an impasse on my own, so, i come here looking for external help.
(also did a screenshot mockup of an earlier take on the scene here,
(http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/3421/victax7.png)
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the animations looks awesome, really good job.
1º sprite: the attack animation should be faster when goes forward, but its ok when he comes back.
Try adding more voluminous effects when the light covers the spear.
2º sprite: Looks really nice, but as the first sprite, try retouching the effect over his staff.
3º sprite: his extremities looks very fat. Study human movements. I don't think he should move so much his arms while running. Retouch his pants.
4º sprite: The same as the 3rd. He should open more his legs while crouched. When he is attacking with his sword on the front he should show his back towards the camera.
5º sprite: I kinda know why its your favorite, though it can be improved. I don't like very much that motion effect. It's ok when he is attacking, but when he moves backwards his spear... it shouldn't be any effect there. Try moving yourself to check how a human attacks.
6º sprite: It looks nice, but i dont like the shading and the dropping effect.
Overall it's ok but should be refined.
Cheers! ^^
edits: (http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/9962/48171975oh2.png)
(http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/8444/54734114lg5.png)
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I think your attack animations have too many frames (or atleast too high frame times) making them have less oomph then they should.
(http://lorne.lastchancemedia.com/Images/two/Tricksandcrits/2.gif)
removed 2 or 3 frames and halved the time of one.
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Great work!
I like that you use a lot of frames making for smooth animation but you need to consider timing and impact.
I think you are over exaggerating the anticipation part of every action.
The blue spear guy us OK but the guys with sword and mace look more like they are playing charades than fighting.
Why kneel for a low strike? Why move your shield back where it's of no use when when you're about to strike with a mace?
Instead make the attack almost instant and follow up with a shield block or other defensive stance.
Look for ways to string attacks together: High strike, low strike, shield bash!
Bonus points for mustaches! :)
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This is some good stuff. This reminds me of flashback and Castlevania:Symphony of the Night in a weird way. I can see there's work and thought put into this so I apreciate it (on the purple mage guy's anim the way the text fades out is pretty interesting...though if you're supposed to actually read "atk+5" you should hold that for a little longer). The main problem is you work under the assumption smooth=good.
Each action has a rythm of it's own so there isnt a single feature (like smoothness) you can just add to every single one of your animations to make them look good. Each action has a subtleties and rythms of their own depending on the phisics at work, and the personality itself of the character.To make an animation of any action look truly impressive you must learn very intimately the subtleties of it's movement.
THIS is that stiffness you feel about your animation, when you make everything so smooth you're just standarizing every action and taking all the rythm and contrast out of the movement, making everything look as if the guy is getting an hernia trying to move under a waterpool.
I'm of the type of thinking that you should just look at the motions you want to create very closely and make an abstraction about what type of rythm belongs for that motion and then try and put that in your animation (try to do analyze real life actions, if you look at someone else's animation you're most likely watering down what they do instead of doing your own thing) look at a fireplace, and watch the fire...the fire is NOT smooth, nor is a bolt of lightning...same for human actions, every little thing has a timing of it's own.
I think if you should study the movmement on your own because if you have to be told how to animate everything you probably shouldnt be animating at all.However, of course learning from absolutley nothing is absurd. So I think I'll link you to some of the better posts of JohnK's blog http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/Cartoon%20College the guy isnt some kind of god spouting out a decree you should follow blindly, but he says some very true things and he's in general a very good guide.
PM me if you need some help with something in particular....try to tell me what you're trying to do with it what the character is like and what the motion should feel like and so on and so forth.
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I really like 'em.
The first one makes me think of Prince of Persia.
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(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b344/pixelarooo/mock.png)
Basically just making the contrast between foreground background more visible. I meant to put in dark dots between all of the rocks i the background but i got lazy. still i think its pretty clear what i mean.. The menu border was screeming for attention so i changed it. I would probably pick another colortheme if i redid this but meh. else its just lightning/shading. oh and the area marked with the good looking green square doesnt read well. Unsure if it was supposed to be stones or some different material. Ye.. animations are better than anything i can do so no crits there
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everyone, thanks for the criticism and advice. be sure i am taking them quite seriously and am currently working on more than a couple of the given advisions. i should post a couple of the mprovements some time tomorrow.
Probably would have had them done already but i keep getting distracted by othe ideas i keep working on.
one of which is this big feller here, which i'm thinking of using a giant boss sprite, but given the sheer amount of crap, the idea of animating any of this is rather intimidating:
(http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/6403/17985989pu8.png)
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If I had to animate that I wold do this:
Separate each part of the sprite. That means: head, shoulders, arms, hand, thorax, etc. Then I'd rotate each part to make it look like it's moving. It may look a bit weird so I'd make one or two variations of some parts like arm and hand so I have more freedom.
It's like in GBA & DS castlevanias. Check them out and you'll see.
Cheers!
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About the background:
The crescent moon should probably only have a glow around the crescent part. E.g. http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/sfgate/?ptp_photo_id=159292 (http://pictopia.com/perl/ptp/sfgate/?ptp_photo_id=159292)
You could try making some of the stars different brightnesses; currently they are entirely uniform.
(http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5878/dungeonry8.gif)
I fiddled with join between the floor and the bricks below it, and the 3rd torch (as well as the sky).
Edit: Whoops: I just noticed those saturated purple pixels in the bottom row of bricks have become quite obnoxious in my edit.
And the boss character:
I'd say the big guy needs more contrast all round. Here's a very quick palette edit as an example:
(http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/809/monsteroo7.gif)
I'd also suggest that it would be easier to work with fewer colours - you seem to have a lot of shades of grey on there at present (some of which are very close together). You can always add buffer shades later if you need to.
Oh, and please don't work on a white background - use a more neutral colour like mid-grey. Using white just makes it harder to judge colours.
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My, it's been a while.
Many criticisms observed:
Originals vs. Edits
(http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7495/testbz3.gif) - (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Greatmahoo/walk2-1.gif)
I don't think I posted the original here originally. but seeing as it was pretty much crap, Ii started over from scratch, recycling only the head. just about everything I could have done wrong, was done wrong. but after lurking here for a little while... :crazy:
next up:
(http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/1831/runjm9.gif) - (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Greatmahoo/run.gif)
It should be obvious.
More:
(http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5760/crouchattackgi9.gif) - (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Greatmahoo/crouchattack.gif)
shows a little bit of back. crouching position still needs a bit of tweaking, but i show more of the back, move the shield arm.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Greatmahoo/swing.gif) - (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Greatmahoo/swing2-1.gif) and subsequently (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v404/Greatmahoo/pswing.gif)
too many to name. I'm aware of the legwork that needs to be done in the second one.
I know there's still room for improvement, C&C to your hearts content, pleeeez.
For whatever reason theyy only time properly (for me at least) in firefox. in opera and IE they animate very slowly and uniformly, killing the rhythm outright.
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Those look alot better in firefox - well done :y: With his running animation, his right arm seems a bit strange - like it has three bones instead of two. What I mean is there should be a straight line from the wrist to the elbow. Its pretty tiny so I could be interpreting it wrong but just make sure you are okay with how it looks.
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The edits are all very good and just on the right track.
for the attacks:
-I think on the ducking one you made a little too much smoothing on his stabbing, make the movement more sudden (so that the motion blur is justified), and leave a frame that reaches further than the final pose, it gives a sense of power and reality to the movement.
-on the one where he steps forward, let him complete the step before he makes the slash. were you to make a slash in the middle of your step you'd be a lot more likely to lose balance and flail around without force.
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Dicked around with a few things in the crouching attack.
You suggested, that i add an extra frame after the swing finishes -So I did and i like what that did to it. I also changed the "build up" frames significantly. and a few other minor details (the more pronounced hair flippage, made his head bob on different frames so it's better synced.)
(http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/5009/crouchattackkn8.gif)
I might have one more major revision of that one before i'll be mostly satisfied with it.
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I really really like your cut trough the bullshit aproach. You decided to just design the sprites in an animateable way so you could animate them to your best capacity and you are doing a top notch job, I think you didnt exactly get my meaning with the attack tho, I intented to say you cut out some motion blur frames to make room for that extra frame, I didnt mean for you to actually extend the time of the attack.
it should be easy enough to illustrate it so wait until I post an edit (you can use it if you want)
Keep working on those animation skills, and take yourself seriously artistically! go and learn from the best available to you in all other aspects of art
This post was uncharacteristically somber for an encouraging post so now allow me to flip out.
OMGWTFBBQ THIS IZ LIEK T3H SHIZNIT.
kthxbye ;D
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Sorry! couldn't wait!
well here's another go at it that makes more sense, i knew there was something off about the way he was moving the blade.
So i thought about it and it'd only make sense if he were going to swing, rather than jab -
(http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/7981/crouchattackdz0.gif)
Or if he brought the weapon to a position from which it would make sense to jab.
(http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/7628/crouchattackacs2.gif)
Tried to make the "attack' of the attack a little bit more fierce on both.
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You got exactly what I meant! hahahah.
hmm. the hair movement on the new made me realize you make it look a little uhm...forced.
Think of the hair as something that follows the movement of the body, or rather moves with the same impulses of the body only it has a sort of lag to it....
to be concrete, in your stab the hair moves to soon.
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The animation for the crouch attack looks much better, but doesn't seem realistic in terms of what one would really do to attack near the ground.
It seems like he should attack WHILE he is crouching.
What you have would work great for an "I'm already crouching and now I stab your ankles" animation