Hi all, new member here and old deluxe paint hat (16 odd years gap), after a number of stabs at traditional and 3d art, I still  never got around to UV texturing one thing successfully (even after completing a related degree). Now Increasingly inspired by the still flickering light of the pixel art community round these parts, keepin it real basically. Desire to improve and enjoy every stage leaving mind numbing rendering, 3d art conventions and stereotypical game designs behind with software that doesnt require a driver bugged tablet or high powered 3d card. can anyone relate? Btw Another world pretty much summarises everything I love about games from the 80s 90s

So here I basically nudged a primitive pixel sketch into the walking concept here. So far main challenges have been adapting the design to a number of conventional leg types, and trying convey a sense of bulk without resorting to unecessarily detailed secondary motion. Would be great to get some feedback on the design and animation of the walk, much thanks in advance.

- flat shading/no dithering

-dithered shadows over outlines, contact (extreme) pose widened.

PS: some asymetry in the 'UP' frame as the foot comes forward, although it hardly registers in playback I'm still deciding which better mediates the passing and contact frames, though accelerating into that part of the motion seems to fit with a heavy  design. I tend to think its more an aesthetic issue with the overall silhouette rather than appropriateness of motion.

Goals

Concept: a 'walking tank' sort of design, with options for interchangeable sidearm( gattling default) somewhat more realistic than say, metal slug but with definite 'toon' aspect. The player is intended to climb into the mech via the head much like a tank and the intention is to have a jetpack- though some further hacking up/retro fitting to the design may be required. At this stage to have a walking and turning 'mach I' that we can use to test various level design elements and scope in the vein of a side scrolling multiplayer deathmatch platformer.

Animation: regular walk (12 frames /sec)- 8 frames, based on the traditional extreme, down, passing, up, extreme approach
Colours: 16 was the original goal, atm I'm learning how to remap palettes in pro motion, but mainly sticking with limiting the tonal range and cutting AA.

tonal breakdown: darks, mids, highlights:- 3-5 tones max, selective dithering/ shadows, no AA