Standing animation for potential ISO game [WIP]

[Love_Tank]

Hey guys! So it's been years since I've touched pixel art, animation, and art in general. So this past week I've been getting into pixel art (I havn't ever been really serious about it, just dabbled here and there). This is two fold, one - I'm quitting smoking, and one of the suggestions was to find a hobby that you could do in place of smoking. For me this will mean lots of pixel art (if school and work don't get in the way). I find that the monotony of it somehow keeps my mind focused, and I enjoy it, it also offers it's own highs so who needs smoking? Two, I miss art! So that's what I'm doing, producing art.

So I've been pixeling all week, with the end goal of getting towards an iso strategy game, and I've developed this golem enemy creature. He's the first sprite I've been working on because his forms are generally easy, and I thought he would be amazingly fun to animate. Essentially he's a mindless golem created by some wizard, there are lots of different kinds of golems in the game, the defining difference between them will be how they are animated and what they are wearing (in terms of looks). But meh, this is my first attempt at a simple standing animation for one. 2 frames.


I feel like the arms might be swinging too much. I wanted him to look slightly energetic, but maybe if his arms are going to swing that much I might need a third frame? His head looks like it's bouncing a bit from side to side right? Meh, well here's the attempt, sorry for the long introduction-


(I've posted two so that way you guys can look at one in it's small size and enlarge the other... Is there a way to shrink the picture once you've enlarged it on this forum that I don't know about?)

P.S. can anyone recommend any good animation software for me? It doesn't have to be free (though free isn't bad).

update-  colored the standing frame -

Think the darkest color is needed at all? In the game, not sure if this makes a difference, but I plan on the world being seen at 200%, so you will be able to see the pixel details finely.

update- So here is the way over exagerated breath animation, I kinda like it -

[Love_Tank]

Just an update, I've decided the current standing animation is a little too much, and I think all my standing animations will need at least three frames, so I'm going to work on something a little more subtle. I'm trying to think about how a mindless golem would move, any suggestions?

hmm... upon more research and further observation (two things that should always be done in advance  ) it appears this sprite is likely not at an apropriate angle for an ISO tactic game. I still like him though, and as we speek I'm working on continuing to animate him as he is. I'll fix the angle and make him better as I go, no sense in rushing this. I still have a long way to go in learning so I'll post an update with a standing animation at this angle and still want crits.

[Love_Tank]

300 views no replies... well at least people are looking at it I suppose.

Either way, just did a quick, very low level mage design to take a break from the walk cycle I was doing with this guy.

[Mabelma]

I like it shading and all but what's bothering me is that if the sprite is a 3/4 sprite why can we only see one leg? That's all for now.

[Love_Tank]

I like it shading and all but what's bothering me is that if the sprite is a 3/4 sprite why can we only see one leg? That's all for now.

Well I did mention after I posted it that I realized it was the wrong angle, but what bothers me now is I intended you to be able to barely be able to see the other leg, it's about one pixel worth of visibility. The sprite and universe will be seen at 200%, and I'm hoping the animation might make it be more claified, so I dunno, is there something I did wrong or didn't take into account with the far leg, or was it just a bad angle to consider?

[Joel]

Even at 200% it doesn't read properly. You will need to include more of the leg that's further away from us. It's not the angle that's a problem, just the leg - besides that, it looks like the rest of the sprite is aligned well. Right now, the mage looks like he is leaning forward very far, probably far enough that he wouldn't be able to even balance.

[Love_Tank]

Even at 200% it doesn't read properly. You will need to include more of the leg that's further away from us. It's not the angle that's a problem, just the leg - besides that, it looks like the rest of the sprite is aligned well. Right now, the mage looks like he is leaning forward very far, probably far enough that he wouldn't be able to even balance.

Hmm, yea now that you mention it... It's the bulky scarf, I may be able to just decrease the scarf's size to fix it.

EDIT- thanks for the help so far, I think I'm actually going to go ahead and scratch this character for now, he's really not interesting enough and I'm kind of tired of looking at him. I'm going to re-work his design, angle, and all of that jazz and post back later. This was a great guy to work on though for comming back into pixel art, I guess not getting too many crits means he wasn't really all that bad just bland? I'm also going to be working on re-designing the game idea, a tactics game is a bit over-ambitious. I'll be most likely going for a side-scroller to boot.

One question though - for a side scroller, what is the usual size tile? I've never really done much work with tiles, but meh, I guess we'll see.