People are saying you need some wavey-type-action for your wings.

Take a piece of paper, right now, and "flap" it downward. The part of the paper that you're actively gripping will get pushed the furthest, and every other bit of the paper will follow the action of where you're gripping. The further the distance from the origin of force (grip point), the "slower" it will trail the main force.

The same goes for a bat (or ball)'s wing's. When a bat flaps its wings, most of the force is applied through the shoulder (or seems to be! I could be mistaken ) and as such, the bits of the wing furthest from the origin of force (in this case the shoulder) will move down at a slower rate, and thus appear to be higher.

In doing this, things form "C-curves" that instantly tell us where the force is, how much force there is, and where it is going.

The biggest problem with your ball, at the moment, is that its wings are always in a C-curve that suggests they're moving UP, and never acheive a C-curve that suggests they're moving DOWN. Confused?

C    <---- that would be a C-curve suggesting force being applied leftwardly
)     <---- that would be a C-curve suggesting force being applied toward the right.

The top curve is suggesting more force is being applied to it than the bottom curve, because of its more extreme... curve. There aren't up and down brackets, far as I know, so I hope that's clear enough! Your wing's C-curves are always suggesting UPWARD motion, and you need to imply DOWNWARD force in order to show that the body of the beast is being held UP by this DOWNWARD pressure. IF the only pressure ever seen is UPWARD, it'll sooner be seen as flying/swimming downward, rather than flying upward.

If that's not enough, I suggest you do some researchy bits on "Anticipation, Action, and Reaction" and "overlapping action / wave action" for a couple core things on animation and animating.

Perhaps, yeah.

I got, summed up,

"Pixelation is better than PixelJoint because we're more free with our acceptance of pixel art"

"Pixeljoint is screwing themselves because of their irrational standards"

"Pixeljoint is going to die because it refuses to adapt to change"

"Pixeljoint is struggling"

I don't believe a single one of those statements are true.

Also, "we" and "they" statements I read as hurtful and alienating, as I personally view it as the pixel art community, not exclusively pixeljoint and exlcusively pixelation.

I don't believe pixelation has the right to discuss on pixelation what should happen with pixeljoint. If the community as a whole has a problem with pixeljoint, then bring it to pixeljoint's doorstep, because this right here feels more like behind-the-back talking and creating or attempting to create a rift between the two sites.

I also believe convincing pixeljoint to change its standards is a bad move. As it is now, pixeljoint appreciates pixel art as a clean medium and offers a place for artists and viewers interested in exactly that to show or view artwork. There is none other of that kind, and it will not kill the site to stay that way, it will just push away people that aren't doing exactly that kind of artwork.

Iono, I'm probably paranoid or irrationally defensive for some reason (I don't go to pixeljoint often anymore, so I'd doubt it's loyalty) and gil, if I'm just being an ass I'm truly sorry

Super awesome question:

Why are you not using that darkest hue I see so clearly to help contrastify and further threedeealise your rocks? Hmm? HMM?

Okay that was three questions, but two weren't nearly as awesome as the first, despite gratuitous use of the shift key.

I think what confuses me most about the gun-arm is that he seems to have no reason for pointing it anywhere, let alone straight at the camera.

If the character were aiming at something, he'd be looking at what he's aiming at. If he's not aiming at something, he's prolly gonna have that big chunk of metal hanging out in some sort of relaxed position, not holding it up aimlessly at nowhere.