My, it's been a while.
Many criticisms observed:

Originals vs. Edits

-
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... 

next up:

-
It should be obvious.

More:

-
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.

- and subsequently
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.

I edited my post there to make the meaning a bit more clear.

Let's see the update, hm?

The thing is there doesn't seem (to my relatively untrained eye, at least) to be anything GLARINGLY wrong with it, but a whole lot of little niggling details.

another thing, and i'm not entirely sure why I didn't key into this while i was editing it, but the crouch seems rather a unneccesary gesture. It would work well as a crouch on it's own, or a lead in to a crouch attack, but the more i look at it, the more it seems out of place.

Here's another crappy little edit showing an alternative:


I'm going to go ahead and apologize for how badly i've butchered things...
I've *attempted* to give the impression of a lean. it's probabl noticable, but most noticably, i've removed the crouch, and put a couple of transitions between the view of the edge of the blade and the flat; the forward leg i tried to have it look like it was rearing up but because i'm too lazy to do a quality edit, it ends up looking like crap.

but I don't think i'd be terribly difficult to work these things in should youchoose to do so, this is, after all, just my 2 cents.

Overall, I like your redeisgn, but i think i like the original sword design better.

I haven't been too actively working on my own stuff lately; I'd like to, but it seems I mostly don't ahve the time...

anyways, a few things i've done here:
(yes, i know it's a crappy edit.)


The thing is going to be heavy. The best thing i can say, to get a better idea of  how a heavy swing should look and feel, swing a baseball bat in front of a mirror. try to stop yourself midswing (and please! don't break the mirror! i don't want to be held responsible if you damage any of your property!) you'll notice that you can't just stop it - there's a little bit of a rocking motion due to the momentum.. Now there won't be as much if you swing something light, like a stick or an empty can of pringles.
so whenever there's a break in the motion of the sing, i had it 'rock' a little bit on the swing preparation, and when it hits the ground.

I've also increased the timing on a few of the frames - specificaly when he reaches a full crouch, and inciden

I've also added a bit more 'blur' when there is a large motion. This is purely my opinion speaking here, but i think it makes the motion look a wee bit smoother.

further emphasizing the heft of the blade, and for increased dramatic effect i've icreased the size of the 'splash' when it hits the ground.

Other than that i don't have much i can offer :\
A couple things i would reccomend doing, which I didn't do here is have the blade land flat on the ground. This has no real life basis, i just think it would look cooler The other thing, i'd ahve his cape flare up a bit due to the impact, for increased dramatic effect.

one more thing - on the second frame of the part where his sword is behind him, i'd ahve his front leg lift off the ground a bit. not too much or it seems goofy, but i think it would make it look as if he were putting a little more 'juice' in the swing.

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:

and my personal favorite

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:


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,