Hey guys,
I'm currently learning how to make 3/4 perspective characters. I'm trying to build some characters that lookalike Secret of Mana characters or others of the 16bit SNEs era.



I changed Gragas a bit ( less head hair ).
I'm not really after how accurate those characters are ( that's why I don't put references in here ), but how the art is in general and if it is readable

Hope for some tipps!
Cheers,
Daniel

Not sure how to start this one ...

I'm looking for some opinions, experiences and ideas of people who know the struggle of either
 - to start drawing
 - finish drawing
 - give up and start to do some distraction

I really love pixel art. I love to see what I can achieve, what happens when I have an idea or when I just start to scribble around. I had nearly to no passion for a hobby with my 30 years, but when I startetd a few weeks ago I just had a hell of fun!
But now problems start to occur ... . Sometimes I'm reading tutorials and see beautiful art and always think something is wrong with mine.
Here are some examples of my beginner work :




It's not like I'm a genius, but it's fine for a beginner.
But I'm never satisfied. Sometimes I just start, have no idea and give up in minutes. Or I want to start but, just can't and start to distract myself with gaming. Don't get me wrong, I love to play games from time to time, but in these cases it's more like running away and get my mind onto something besides PixelArt.
I have an idea for a game ( kind of Dynasty Warriors in space ) and I guess it will never be finished ( or in 5 years or so ), but everytime I start it's like I'm afraid, I have no idea or I just feel like everything I draw has a fault. One pixel here, some shadow there, a proportion here, something I can figure there ...

Has anybody experienced the same ?
Does anybody have some "tactics" or "strategies" against those behaviors or mindsets :/ ?

Cheers
Daniel

Generally speaking with something like a sword you want to keep each "step" of the pixel the same length. So ideally completely straight or 45 degrees like you have now. But you can also do something like 2,3,4... pixels per step. These positions are generally where you want the animation to "rest" however once you're in motion it isn't so important. Generally you just want to keep the line relatively straight (or not, depending on the animation style)

Use the line tool If you're using graphicsgale hold Alt to lock the line to a even step. Other pixel software may have a similar function.

In regard to your animation in general, add an anticipation frame. This is a frame before the animation where the character moves in the opposite direction, like "winding up"

Just can say you are right.
Tried to use the line tool instead of doing the lines manually and it works wonders.
Thanks for the hint
Btw., I use Aseprite, it has this function too.

For the animation, CFKaligula made an anticipation frame and it looks really better

Edit:

Here are some ideas to give the animation a bit more bang. The main way to show that an attack has a lot of force is to add anticipation, the longer the build up, the stronger the attack. From your animation this seemed like quite a fast attack, so i tried not to add too much anticipation.

Moreover, I made the frame where he releases the bolt have more impact by adding the big flash. I also removed 1 frame and added it in this release frame as a smear. If you download the edit you can see that for yourself.

I think your 2 frame idle animation looks fine, if you were to add more frames, you should look into adding secondary motion, like with the cloth between his legs and his hair.

Thanks for your edit !
I see what you mean and the animation has a littlebit more "bang" and is way more fluid
I looked at every frame, but the best edit is your change of the starting hand. It makes the animation more readable.
The idle animation is fine currently for me, since I'm still learning and try not to be too much of a perfectionist, as I'm often too critical to myself and my pictures :/

Btw., this shouldn't be a dude, it was supposed to be a female ^^
Any ideas how I can change that with shadows :/ ?

//EDIT:
Played a littlebit with the shadows and colors
Hope it is more readable in this image that she is a woman ?

Hey everyone,

I'm working on a 3/4 perspektive action adventure.
As I'm still new I'm trying to find my style, I learned that I like a more "realistic" approach.



1. Self made women
1. Self made women ( more busty )
2. Self made child
3. unfinished berserker in comparision ( size )
4. template out of "Dungeon of endless"
5. turning the template to compare her to my characters

It' fine for me currently, that my characters arent as "busty" as the template.
But I would like to know some thoughts on the design, shading etc.

Cheers
Daniel

you can change the speed of a frame by right clicking and then going to properties or just double left-clicking.

Thank you
Tried it and it works !

Anyway here's my edit:

something very important that your animation is missing is anticipation, unless he's doing a stab, which uses a very light weapon. you're gonna need anticipation frames to show that he's actually thrusting something heavy.

After the anticipation comes the actual thrust: To really "sell" the motion of the thrust, I added a smear frame.

After this one I have your original frame that shows the audience what is actually going on. I usually have this frame on a lower speed, which makes it give more impact.

For the last frame I added a small remainder of the shield(?) so it doesn't look like it's not immediately erased from existence.

If I were you, I would leave the tail from the animation, its very distracting and doesn't add any good secondary motion. If you really wanna keep it, at least make it shorter so it isn't as confusing.

Wow, thank you for the tipps!
It looks much better, a littlebit bouncy, but now I see what I'm missing. I wanted the second frame to be the anticipation, but I missed that totally I guess.
Btw., Valeera is a women with two daggers ^^
I tried to make a lightweight double swing motion.

The total motion I wanted to be:
 - standing
 - kneeing
 - thrust forward ( this frame is missing as anticipation frame I guess )
 - swing ( flashy lights
 - step back
 - REPEAT

Here is an original standing picture :


One more question, how long did it take you to make the changes ?
Just want to know how fast such things can be in the future to build ( at least in one year or so ^^ )