Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Tuna Unleashed on April 28, 2009, 02:02:30 pm

Title: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on April 28, 2009, 02:02:30 pm
my old one was too squenix so I redid it.
old-(http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1020/zaneneatostyle.png)
new-1(http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/1020/zaneneatostyle.png)2(http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/1020/zaneneatostyle.png)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: hsn2555 on April 28, 2009, 02:33:16 pm
the old one's big character's jeans fit more .. see i've done :
(http://fc05.deviantart.com/fs43/f/2009/118/4/5/456456_by_uploadplz.png)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: 0renji on April 28, 2009, 06:49:03 pm
There are aspects of the old image that I prefer - the larger head looks better even though it's technically out of proportion and the character overall seems more distinctive, but the new one is well done too and the smaller sprite reads better.

A major problem with the new one is the front arm; the top half is way longer than the second half. The leg on the right also seems a bit off - it looks like the torso is facing more to the right than the legs are. As they are it looks alright though, it could do with a darker tone (or a bit of black) near the bottom of the legs perhaps. The rest looks good :)

I made two rather rubbish edits focusing on the arm and the leg, not at a pixel level but maybe it will help anyway... the second one probably looks better (original is on the far right, I had to take the edit because I couldn't be bothered to faff about with Photoshop to make the transparency not appear black, sorry >__>; ).

(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/keltaria/Image%20Spam/edt-1.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on April 28, 2009, 08:34:21 pm
(http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/1020/zaneneatostyle.png)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Mathias on April 29, 2009, 02:33:17 pm
This is good, but I like the former version better, a stronger sense of character, more unique. New one's right leg seems to jut too far away from body; feet are too far apart to look casually stanced. Right arm's elbow needs to be better centered in arm's length; upper and forearm now outa proportion. Needs more cowbell.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on April 30, 2009, 12:30:24 am
I agree the older one was more original, but the new one is more like me (marginally) and the old one was pretty weird. Nobody wears shoulderpads, furry hoodies, striped shirts, or metal gauntlets and few people wear bandannas anymore. Plus the new one is a LOT simpler and IMO more memorable. Anyway,
(http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6594/zaneneatostyle.gif)(http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7606/zaneidle.gif)(better than my last attempt at subpixeling :durr:)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on April 30, 2009, 02:03:00 am
(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6326/zanewalk.gif)
Trying to be a lot less lazy with this version (with the last one p. much all the poses were edits of the base pose in some form or another)
Also, in case anyone cares, here's the progress of this guy throughout the years. (the first few are edits of Vent from MMZX)
(http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/9059/zanetimeline.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: BlackTerror on April 30, 2009, 02:12:18 am
With the breathing animation: the subpixeling movement you have there is way too extreme. If you look at Metal Gear Solid sprites, they move only a few pixels at the edge of each region of colors, and definitely not several pixels in distance over the course of an animation unless they were trying to convey a lot of movement. That's not what you want in breathing; it's a subtle movement. The animation there looks more like the light source has shifted dramatically from his side to more above him.

But more importantly, that animation doesn't look like breathing, it's more like just standing taller for some reason. If you're going to the trouble of animating a character, ideally you'd want to use it to convey personality.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on April 30, 2009, 02:22:01 am
Metal Gear Solid sprites
whuuuuut?!

But yeah, I'll work on it
Edit: (http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9503/zaneidlep.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: hotnikkelz on April 30, 2009, 03:02:48 am
the lil graphic on his chest...don't alter it's size. Just move it up a few pixels in the inhale, and push it down some pixels on the exhale
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on April 30, 2009, 03:12:30 am
(http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/7606/zaneidle.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: JonathanOfDrain on April 30, 2009, 03:22:44 am
Maybe it's just me... but I think once you move the silhouette of the figure it looks silly and exaggerated. Try not moving the shape of the guy, might help the jerky movements.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on April 30, 2009, 03:39:31 am
(http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/7606/zaneidle.gif)  ehh, I don't know...
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Mathias on April 30, 2009, 04:21:09 am
Well, technically, there wouldn't be any noticable diaphram expansion/contraction if a person at that scale was calmy standing and breathing normally, right? So, this is a question of how much exaggeration you want so that the breathing is noticable. Something totally subjective. For instance, I prefer the 1 pixel movement, whereas Jonathon wags his nose at it. neener neener

Then I have to ask, what the crap are you so bent on making him breath for? I know it's a common sprite idle animation concept, but beyond that . . . I assume you just a want a way to make the sprite feel less static. Well, your forcing the act of breathing to fill this void, yet it's requiring you to exaggerate it. Can this even work? I like to think any idea can work with enough effort, but what if you thought more outside-the-box and totally changed his idle movement to something like brushing the hair out of his face every now and then, or just turning his head to look left, or switching his standing position, or, or, or . . .

Latest animation looks like he's clenching his stomache, and not really "breathing". Why is there leg movement at all? I typically don't use my legs to breath, hehe. This is a nice effort so far tunafish, keep it up. Knowing your perseverance, I you'll follow through until this thing looks really good.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on April 30, 2009, 04:29:58 am
The leg movement was because I wanted some subtle lighting changes on them as he breathed but I had to add some slight movement to keep it from looking weird. I guess that just further proves your point  :B

So I see your meaning, I was planning on having him crack his neck as a static pose, but I like the hair brush idea too. Well, s'not the first time somebody's had multiple static poses. Anyway, I'll try a couple more times and if I can't get it then I'll let the idea go. Anyway, got the walk cycle done.
(http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/6326/zanewalk.gif)
Turned out better than I expected in some ways, but worse in others.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on April 30, 2009, 12:51:08 pm
(http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/7606/zaneidle.gif) (http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/7606/zaneidle.gif) (http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6326/zanewalk.gif)
*holds breath*
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: infinity+1 on April 30, 2009, 02:13:18 pm
he looks noticeably shorter in the walk.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Mathias on April 30, 2009, 05:14:24 pm
If you haven't suffocated yet, I agree with infinity. It was the first thing I thought when I saw. He's not just shorter, he's proportionally smaller, period. You mipmapped him by accident didn't you? I hate it when that happens. Bloody untidy.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: willfaulds on April 30, 2009, 05:26:25 pm
Do you have an emotion you want the walk to convey? At the moment it reads quite moody - which isn't bad but what do you want it to read?
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Souly on April 30, 2009, 05:49:13 pm
His closest foot doesn't go far enough.
And he also lands flat on it rather then heel first.
Just a question, are you re-drawing each frame? Or just copying every thing over to a new frame and rotating and moving limbs?
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on April 30, 2009, 09:40:42 pm
The upper body I edited (for obvious reasons) but the legs were redrawn.
Edit: (http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/7606/zaneidle.gif)(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6326/zanewalk.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Atnas on April 30, 2009, 11:12:15 pm
Hey! Heel-strike! The new edit is better but let those legs extend all the way and bring the heel CRASHING DOWN.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 01, 2009, 02:08:20 am
(http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6326/zanewalk.gif)???
But anyway, jump time
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Dr D on May 01, 2009, 02:25:13 am
The walk still looks quite a bit shorter and smaller than the idle, to me.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 01, 2009, 02:54:50 am
Its one pixel shorter in the highest part, which is to compensate for bent knees.
Edit: (http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/8587/zanejump.gif) Heavily inspired by Ben2theedge's stuff
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Mathias on May 01, 2009, 06:05:00 am
The walk anim seems too fast. Wow, the jump animation is great. I think you nailed it. Looks like he's jumping down to a lower platform.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 01, 2009, 01:05:31 pm
It really sped up the walk when uploaded it. Is this better? (http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6326/zanewalk.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Helm on May 07, 2009, 12:41:22 pm
He's still shorter than the idle sprite and his legs deform as per the noodlearms/noodlelegs critique you recieved some time ago. You're treating arms as some sort of tube that can morph in whatever you think they should and although stylistically that might be fire it's not when you're lacking fundamental knowledge of how to draw the body and how motor function works. You're at that uneasy sub-space where you're trying to model not exactly reality but not exactly something invented in your brain and you're acheiving neither.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 07, 2009, 10:06:56 pm
(http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/6326/zanewalk.gif)
I think I fixed the legs but with the arms I'm not sure if you mean in general or the movement.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: 32 on May 08, 2009, 06:12:08 am
His arm kind of looks like its pulsing as he walks, no idea what you intended but there's a bump runs down from his shoulder to his hand. His jacket and chest move way to far to his right at one point and it looks like his leaning over, along with the fact that it doesn't turn to the left on the other end of the animation adds to that effect. On the jump animation, if you rotated the stripe of light closest to his body on his right sleeve it would make it look more like his shoulder is rotating and help eliminate the noodle arm, his elbow is to far down the arm also.

I think helm means that you just to bend the arm at any point and not at the elbow/wrist, very noticeable in the jumping animation.

maybe get rid of the outline under his shoes, they seem to be a bit thick.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Helm on May 08, 2009, 07:11:37 am
Lower leg is short and deforms during the circle.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Chris2balls on May 08, 2009, 02:24:34 pm
I've added some frames quickly. I was focusing on the legs when doing this. I noticed that the feet stayed flat before contact, so I changed that. The feet also had little recoil when coming back up from behind, so I tried fixing that too. I made his arms move a bit more to get a bit of activity in the torso, and that line on the right would be the outline of his left arm. Hope this helps (must be my first attempt a realistic type of walk  :-[)!
(http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/4189/turefanied.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Mike on May 08, 2009, 11:43:35 pm
I think if you are going to rotate the hips the torso needs to rotate along with it. 

I just realized what I was saying.  The hips shouldn't rotate independent of the torso which is what is happening right now.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Jad on May 08, 2009, 11:51:54 pm
I think if you are going to rotate the hips the torso needs to rotate along with it.

Elaboration: Shoulders need to rotate opposite the hips O:
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 09, 2009, 05:14:06 am
They actually do slightly :P. Anyway, I'll get working on this eventually, haven't been in the pixelling mood the last week.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Emtch on May 09, 2009, 08:28:52 pm
I think the jump needs different arm movement. Now he's flapping his arms out sideways, when jumping most people swing their arms from the back and forward/upward to gain more momentum. This looks more like a getting down from a rock or something. Still great.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 10, 2009, 03:23:28 pm
(http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/6326/zanewalk.gif)
I'm still going to do your suggestion chris, I'm just trying to figure out how to do it more subtly. Anyway, I think I'm starting to get the hang of subpixeling a bit.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 10, 2009, 07:16:35 pm
(http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5163/zanewalkc.gif) those two frames helped a lot.
(http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8587/zanejump.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Souly on May 10, 2009, 07:32:21 pm
In your walk his front leg is doing more movement then his back leg.
And the subpixel isn't really working on the jacket, it's kind of pulsing and it looks weird.

Perhaps take one of his hands out of his pockets.
Your legs and arms all share the same tubular problem that helm had mentioned earlier.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 10, 2009, 07:43:06 pm
Look back a few posts and look at the walk without the subpixeling. It looked choppy and terrible. BTW, the tube statement meaning that I was curving the limbs independent of their joints, right?
Edit: (http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/1989/zanewalki.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: hsn2555 on May 10, 2009, 10:03:00 pm
i felt like editing/removing some frames ..
(http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/9038/zanewalki2.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 11, 2009, 04:02:25 pm
(http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2922/zanerunjump.gif)
dash, I think I'm gonna add a somersault at the end
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: TrevoriuS on May 11, 2009, 04:54:51 pm
no matter waht kind of extreme attitude you wish to give your character, it HAS to do something with those arms at this kind of ridiculously cartoony manouvres
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 11, 2009, 05:53:25 pm
he'll have to hold them over his head to do a somersault soo... yeah. Problem solved.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Dr D on May 11, 2009, 07:39:58 pm
Well, I think TrevoriuS was trying to imply that he shouldn't have them in his pocket all the time, at the least. It looks awfully strange to me that he's doing a dash with his hands in his pockets.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 11, 2009, 08:16:32 pm
But they're not in his pockets when he's actually dashing. Anyway,
(http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/2922/zanerunjump.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: TrevoriuS on May 11, 2009, 09:05:22 pm
Give him a few more anticipation frames, showing not just his legs bending, but his entire body preparing for a dodge, and some somersaults. Then at the sand up, make that also more convincing. You can't do a somersault and land perfectly on your legs ,physically impossible, and just looking like a lack of time spent on the perfectionizing on the animation (I'm not saying you did that, because I know you're working hard on this and making alot of edits to DO get it perfect, I'm just saying the current result lacks some time and polishing).
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 11, 2009, 09:08:03 pm
Will do. Its hard to find good references for this kind of thing :durr:
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: TrevoriuS on May 11, 2009, 09:44:09 pm
Go out and do as much as you can yourself, and imagine the rest :P As animator you're supposed to perform ridiculous poses, as well as learn funny dance moves.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 11, 2009, 10:34:38 pm
Yes but unfortunately you can't freeze frame yourself too easily  :P
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Ben2theEdge on May 12, 2009, 02:01:28 pm
If you can't find a reference sometimes you can just work it out in your head. If you were going to roll into a summersault your primary focus would be not smashing your face on the ground, so you'd use your hands to push your head away from the ground. The whole action would be too quick to compact yourself into a bowling ball-like shape so instead you'd leave your legs free so you can land on your feet. Animation always benefits from a little engineering and understanding the mechanics of the action.

Your keyframes should look something like this... probably some errors in there (especially with the extended leg) that you'd have to iron-out when you actually animated it, but this is the idea:
(http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f230/ben2theedge/duckandrollkeys.png)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 12, 2009, 02:25:13 pm
One of the practical reason's I added the roll was to extend the dash, which is why he rolls twice. Based on some references I got you actually do go into a ball for the main part of the roll. In fact the start of the roll is the only time the legs are extended, which I already have in my anim. Anyway, I made the end less fluid and the start more prepared.
(http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2922/zanerunjump.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Chris2balls on May 12, 2009, 08:05:23 pm
I think the arms should be more tense and closer to the body in that jump animation, it'll give less the the impression he's falling.
The "ball" part of the somersault looks very awkward (very tight, not very natural). I suggest you do one roll by following Ben's critique and use the recovering to go further...
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 12, 2009, 08:17:54 pm
Do you mean the jump in the dash or the actual jump?
Edit: (http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/2922/zanerunjump.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: willfaulds on May 13, 2009, 10:10:59 am
The way he pauses and shudders when he gets up makes it look like he shattered his knee. I know you were going for convey weight but it doesn't work atm.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Souly on May 13, 2009, 08:42:25 pm
Wow I just looked at all these frames individually and to be honest a lot, if not all of this seems like you have just rotated and repositioned each and every limb
Half if not 80% of these positions don't even seem plausible.

Lets start at the first row of frames, the crouch.
While he crouches his legs are shrinking, and you think this conveys crouching?
Where did his ass go?
Even if it's "supposed" to be behind him it looks like his hips and legs are just compressing it doesn't look like his legs are bending really to be honest.

Now onto the third row, because the second row is inconclusive.
When he lands on his hands what is up with his legs? they are quite deformed and like his knees are together.
His arms all of a sudden snap backwards breaking on impact.
He then flips him self over, and his tube like arms become real apparent here, I don't see a joint I see one tube that you are trying to portray as an arm.

While he rolls, he goes through the floor.
His head goes lower then his feet ever do on the image, so to me that looks weird, especially since it seems like a straight side scrolling view.

I think your problem is your doing all these crazy dynamic animations without really mastering even the simple ones.
And your also becoming too reliant on rotation for all your animating or at least it seems that you have put the sprite into,
the proper positions strictly from rotation and modifying the original sprite.

And the stand up takes up 5 frames?
That's more then it takes for him to crouch and leap that far and fast.

(http://i44.tinypic.com/29uxd9h.png)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Chris2balls on May 13, 2009, 10:22:35 pm
Do you mean the jump in the dash or the actual jump?
Edit: (http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/2922/zanerunjump.gif)

I meant he could use the momentum of the somersault to make a dive/jump in order to complete the dash. Good crits Souly.
I think even when the character recovers he should still be pulled forwards by momentum (just make him lean forward slightly).
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 13, 2009, 11:14:58 pm
There's maybe five frames that were edited, aside from the head.

Also, I don't get what you mean by "I rely on rotation too much", the only thing I've really rotated in any of my stuff with this guy is the somersault which is a rotation by definition
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Souly on May 14, 2009, 12:37:37 am
I hope that's not the only thing you picked up out of my post.

I think rotation was the wrong word to use, since I have noticed your proportions change in every frame.
And if you were actually rotating the size of the limbs wouldn't really change as drastically.
Which is also a problem I've noticed in almost all of your animations.

What I mean by rotation and modification is that you are starting with the sprite and then moving limbs on the body to try and make movement.
Basically every frame is just an edited version of the first frames sprite.
And because of this your restricting yourself to making frames of impossible poses and positions.

Your trying to animate straight from the original standing sprite you made.
Which means your jumping straight to trying to animate + making the sprite refined.
Rather then smoothing out the animation in it's rough form and getting the proportions and keyframes right on a stick figure
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 14, 2009, 04:08:53 am
Its not, I just had nothing to say about the rest. Also, I don't get what you mean by "rotating the limbs"? You clearly don't mean I'm literally editing everything from the first pose, because I'm not, but I can't really get any other meaning out of it.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Helm on May 14, 2009, 12:18:09 pm
In a nut-shell what Souly is saying and with which I concur is that you've learned to animate wrong. Well... not as drastic as that sounds, but give it some thought. You've learned to animate from looking at certain computer games and extrapolating the fancier animations from them while at the same time you're ignorant of the fundamentals of motion and how the human body motors around. This leads you to making fancy effect animations that your peer group elsewhere will commend you on, but the basic animations of your dudes are still jello and rotation.

By rotation I don't mean copy-paste, I mean you treat each limb independently and you fold the body like this, and you turn the leg like that. Whereas a human body that goes through a motion does so on the whole and the nuance conveys emotion. And by jello I mean that your dude has no spine or joints, or to be fair since you'be been getting better, he tries to have them but gives up on difficult frames.

You're not aware of how the human body works and you need to work on this, away from these small pixel art animations. Do fundamental studies. And as far as animation goes, I'm not an expert, but it seems to me you're winging it too much, you're not relying on solid keyframes. A good animation should work with just its keyframes if needed. From that duck and roll, what is keyframe and what is inbetween? What would I take out and what would I leave in? There's no strong identity to the purpose of the frames.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 14, 2009, 12:40:33 pm
Sooo... I think the gist of that was either stop pixeling or work on bigger stuff where the anatomy is more prominent for now?
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: hsn2555 on May 14, 2009, 01:03:38 pm
o.o i felt like editing some frames ..
(http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/9976/zanerunjump2.gif)
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 14, 2009, 01:12:27 pm
Ooh, nice edit.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Jad on May 14, 2009, 01:23:56 pm
Let's break it down

1.a More studies! Less jello-man. We need to feel that your character is constructed out of believable masses. You can learn that a million ways. One of them is to just keep at it the way you're doing it now, and let the brain do the rest subconsciously but that's a slooooooow and unreliable way to do it. Try different things, I'd say. Draw from life? Use simple building blocks to make this guy's body. Work on construction - not super advanced construction to make abstractions of muscles and whatnot (this is on another level and I'd encourage you to study that as well, heh. But on the other hand, so should I.) but just getting to know the building blocks and proportion of A MAN until you can do it WELL and RIGHT.

1.b Now that I'm at it - Learn to draw good 3d things in 2d space. The things you produce feel flat - like you don't really get how perspective and foreshortening changes the appearance of something 3d conveyed on a flat surface. So yet again with the simple construction advice - Learn how to build up believable forms (both human and object) that look 3d in 2d, JUST SO YOU CAN ABANDON IT LATER. See what I mean? I learned how a human face is constructed through stupid how-to-draw-manga excercises - they gave me the tools to make abstractions of complex 3d forms and taught my brain how to break complexity down into simple shapes that are easy to draw and understand, and to detail it from there. So. I suggest you do the same.

2. KEY FRAMES. I want to see some frames that convey his actions here. Single frames. If you could - please post a sequence of frames that best convey this motion. No more than 4 or 5. Do that and I'll try to help you from there. You have a knack for animating stuff, (YOU DO. Ass-patting for the win, getting critique shouldn't ALWAYS feel like having a plank smacked into your face, although sometimes it totally should. Oh, and also I'm sincere, of course, I like your animatey stuff : D)  so I'd like to help you get better.

Anyways, yeah. Regarding effects and pewpew you've more or less got it down. So let's get cracking on the rest!
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Mike on May 14, 2009, 02:45:09 pm
I would just like to say that I think it's good that the standing frame takes time for recovery.  That way you can't dodge repeatedly and have to endure some punishment if you end up dodging when you shouldn't.

As for critique, I'm guessing that you straight ahead animate all of your stuff instead of making sure key frames look good before going into inbetweens.  Also I've noticed you get a lot of inspiration from Shonen Jump Super/Ultimate Stars which I can tell is really helping making your animations look particularly bad ass and flashy, but all the flash in the world won't cover up missed fundamentals and principals of animation though it is capable of making me blind from your flaws I can tell that the others aren't so easily swayed.

I'm thinking that maybe this will help you

http://www.frankanollie.com/PhysicalAnimation.html

Unfortunately it isn't as easy as to just read from a list, you need to know what it means.

I just want to say that you are doing a great job so far and you have major ambition and that is one of the most important things for a person.  You can be a great animator but if you don't have the ambition to keep nurturing it, it will all go to crap.  Use it or lose it as they say.

Oh and one more thing you can't get great over night and if you really want to finish your game I think it might be best if you take critique up until it's past your skill level.  I'm not saying it's bad to take critique not at all I'm just saying know your limits.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Tuna Unleashed on May 14, 2009, 09:36:05 pm
I actually haven't used any JUS references for this sheet but I have for older ones. I
m trying to steer clear of that. Anyway, thanks.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Shrike on May 15, 2009, 05:34:02 pm
You've already gotten mucho critique, but I'm a gymnast so I thought I'd help.

What your character is doing right now is impossible.  The way he lands, I mean.  When he appears out of mid air, instead of those two clumsy frames where he crouches and sticks his leg out, have him go right to the roll.  Also, the roll is wrong.  If I'm doing a dive-roll, which is more or less what he's doing, my arms are stretched out to the maximum; then, the minute they hit, I tuck my head and my feet and legs just tuck and follow.  After one or two rolls I simply stand up, as my momentum is lost in the roll.

All I can say ATM.  Nice animations.
Shrike
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Emtch on May 15, 2009, 08:59:35 pm
One thing that would be much more practical for the character would be if he used the momentum of the somersault to stand up, instade of first stopping and then rising up.
It's a basic move that I'm sure you've done in gym class.
Title: Re: New ref
Post by: Shrike on May 15, 2009, 09:13:19 pm
That's more or less what I meant.  Sorry if not clear.  We do it both ways, ackshully... it depends on how much we roll.