I made a proper mock-up of what I have of the character sprites, with some Doric and Ionic pillars I set up to test perspective.



And here's another version I did by messing around in Photoshop to make a shadow. More of a technical test than anything. Looks a bit crap - I was just experimenting. Eventually, we're going to have an engine that will dynamically scale and skew a shadow map according to time of day, and render that at the feet of any game object.



I'm open to any and all critique. However, the main sort of criticism I need is on perspective of these sprites compared to the pillars, and I also really need help converting the back frames to the new perspective. I really don't know how to do that. A quick edit, if someone could spare the time, would be a godsend. If not, just some advice would go a long way. I can't figure out how the arms and legs should translate. In my original, full-frontal animation, the pixel placement for the arms and legs were exactly the same, in an attempt to keep consistency. However, any attempt to do that at this perspective seems wrong. Am I right in needing to discard that rule? How much of the bottom of the foot should be visible when his leg kicks up in the back animation?

Help with stuff like that is vital. I'm kind of lost.

I like what you have so far.

I would recommend that in the gaps between the rocks, choose a darker color, and maybe shade those areas too, so it looks less like you drew random rocks and filled in the small spaces.

I also think the bush could use some shaping. It's a near perfect circle. Try giving it a little bit of root to the ground, and make leaves in groups. This will break the circular edge and make the bush look more bushy.

I really like the vines and the flower. Those are very well done.

These aren't bad.

However, in the walking animation, you should try to give him some "bounce". At the high point of his step, he should probably be at least 3 pixels higher than at the recoil stage of his step. Make his leg extend as he goes forward, and crunch as his foot hits the ground.

You might also want to make him lean forward a little bit, as this lends towards a more believable stride. Each step one takes, one is essentially allowing themselves to fall forward, only to catch themselves with their feet.

I think the arm movement is a little weird, but there's nothing technically wrong with it, and it's hard to critique without knowing what kind of personality you're trying to convey.

The punch looks a little weak, you might try twisting his torso a bit as he punches, otherwise it looks like a little rabbit punch.

The kick isn't bad honestly, though more frames might do it better justice. You should also change the timings on the frames. The frames as he is striking should be fairly quick, maybe a 70ms delay at most, and the ones where he retracts his foot back to the ground can probably keep their current speed. The idea is the actual strike is fast, otherwise it conveys no power. Post strike, speed is of less importance, and can afford to be slow to conserve energy.

These are pretty good rough drafts, and I can see them being great with the appropriate tweaking and finishing touches.

I have this so far, for my male walking animations. This is the template that will be used for male characters walking in a game I'm developing with friends. The game is a traditional J-RPG type thing, and should use the perspective typical of that genre. I'm not sure what the word is for that perspective, but think any SNES RPG, like the Final Fantasy or Secret of Mana series.

I designed these walking animations with that perspective in mind, but I had a lot of trouble figuring out walking animation, and I used a lot of references that were probably meant for side-scrollers. (You may notice a lot of the frames in the side animation are actually inspired heavily by Ptoing's awesome tutorial) I worry I may have tainted my perspective, and if you believe I have, could you please recommend how I could make these animations better fit my desired perspective?



I'm also open to general critique such as animation quirks that should be corrected, shading errors, and palette choice.

I realise this animation probably looks a bit soulless or generic, but this is somewhat intentional - it's a blank template, and individual characters that have any sort of personality will probably have a modified stride derived from this sterile template. Also, for the sake of shading critique, the desired light source is supposed to be top-down, straight down.

Thank you in advance for your input.