[WIP] Chibi Platform Game Character [UPDATE - 29 March 2010]

[CodeCriminal]

Hi all, just joined the forums after browsing for a few days  
Im working on some sprites for a platform game i have to do for college. So far so good, but i would like, I guess, some C+C.
pretty much any advice you can give to help me improve them. Also, i would appreciate it very much if someone could povide advice on how to change the orientation of the head and still keep it looking 'nice'. for example I would like the head in the standing animation to face the viewer slightly instead staring straight to the right.. ehhh... yeah so here they are, animations and a part of the sheet.

Originals:



Also, i want to simulate breathing with the stationary animation but I am finding it really difficult to pull it off. Any advice?
About the pony tail being all static and stuff in the running animation, yeah i tried to animate it but failed, unfortunatly I erased that so I cannot post it here.

Thanks Lots

PS: Working solely in MS paint if that means anything, however im using a program called gamemaker to view animations (I dont know of any other program that is as easy to create and view animations with)

UPDATE (25 - 26 March 2010):
Breathing -
v1 (look closely if you cant see it )
Eh... yeah i dont like it..

Ok so ive been working on for the past hour or so a new animation that features my character (currently doesnt have a name) holding his sword in a stationary pose (avoiding working on my other animations   ), could i get some C+C please, any changes I can make to make it look even better?


Anyone got any ideas for a jumping/falling pose/animation? because im stumped.. Well, I know how i want the legs to behave during the jump/fall. I want him to kind of leap from one foot and as he approaches the climax of the jump he would have gradually reached a tuck and then as he falls his leaping leg will lower back down to land. But as far as the arms go, i have no idea what to do with them, i tried spanning them out but it just did not look right..

UPDATE - (29 March 2010)

Ok, so after hours of struggling to animate the running and idle animations one of them finally pulled through, beefmo's edit was an immense help and for that I thank you.
Ive also changed the skin palette ever so slightly (now the shadows are slightly pink, trying to achieve a more fleshy feel). The eye has been moved 1 pixel to the left and had its shading changed slightly, you can see it better if you zoom in.

Yeah, i know its not much of an update, but i wanted to let you guys know im still here im pretty slow at this, still learning quite alot (especially animation), but for a programmer i think im doing pretty well.

Very similar to how beefmo did his edit, except the right knee does not move to the left and the foot stays as is (i felt as though on beefmo's edit that this was quite a "dainty" way for the sprite to bend its legs).
I decided to keep the hair "static" and have only the pony tail move because it felt to much like sonic's spines from the sonic advance games (however I might try to move it slightly in an attempt to cover up the 1 pixel up/down motion), I want to keep the cuteness level at a distance with this sprite, even though he is chibi . Another thing I noticed with beefmo's edit was that the arm seemed to just hang "limpley" (is that even a word?   ) and I had to do something about that although im not to happy with my version of the arm now (I think it moves to drastically).

Thats it I think, The idle animation is deffinatly coming along but probably still needs work. So yeah, C+C please Thanks!

PS: Those of you who have commented on my running animation, please do not think I am ignoring your advice, infact I am taking it in whole-heartedly. Only im struggling with the animation itself so I havent been able to post any updates on it, sorry.  

EDIT: Here is the idle animation with, what is my attempt at a suttle hair animation

I actually prefer the non-moving hair, but yeah, im guessing most everyone here doesnt..

[jbeave]

That looks nice. =)

Though I'd say the the arms look a little stiff. On the frames where his arm is swinging, I think if you made it go back/forward just a bit more would work wonders.

I like the little tail wag, btw. I don't know how to tell you to have it breathe+tail wag and still have it look presentable.  I'm sure someone else here can help you with that. But I think this tutorial will help you out with breathing:

http://gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/sywtbapa_breathing_life_into_sprites.php

[CodeCriminal]

That looks nice. =)

Though I'd say the the arms look a little stiff. On the frames where his arm is swinging, I think if you made it go back/forward just a bit more would work wonders.

I like the little tail wag, btw. I don't know how to tell you to have it breathe+tail wag and still have it look presentable.  I'm sure someone else here can help you with that. But I think this tutorial will help you out with breathing:

http://gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/sywtbapa_breathing_life_into_sprites.php

Thanks I will be sure to rearrange the arms and see how it looks, I agree with you in the 'stiffness' of them I just couldnt identify the problem.
Checking out this web page thanks again.

[TheSilentRoomate]

I'm really liking the colors of your character!
I do think the running animation looks really stiff though. When doing the running animation for my character i found this image to be a really good reference and I think it'd fit well with your character! http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/43480.htm
Hope it helps: )

[CodeCriminal]

I'm really liking the colors of your character!
I do think the running animation looks really stiff though. When doing the running animation for my character i found this image to be a really good reference and I think it'd fit well with your character! http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/43480.htm
Hope it helps: )

Thanks
Yeah, trying to fix that now, I made the arms  swing a little higher but no good, I think i need to insert another couple frames as said before.. easier said than done. Usually i have 8+ frames of animation where as here i only have 6 (it just turned out that way for some reason) to be honest i was hoping it wouldnt become a problem

[TheSilentRoomate]

I don't think your problem is the amount of frames you are using, my character only uses 6 and I think it works pretty well, you can check him out in my topic "minimalist platform characters" for some more refrence images if you want.
I think your character needs to lean more into his run and move his whole body where as now he is only really moving his arms and legs. Shoulders need to move back and forth as well as his head.

[CodeCriminal]

I don't think your problem is the amount of frames you are using, my character only uses 6 and I think it works pretty well, you can check him out in my topic "minimalist platform characters" for some more refrence images if you want.
I think your character needs to lean more into his run and move his whole body where as now he is only really moving his arms and legs. Shoulders need to move back and forth as well as his head.

  heh yeah, so he does and yet it looks so smooth. Rotating the upper body around and leaning into the run is do-able I think, however rotating the head+hair around is not as easy for me (I think I asked if anyone could give me some tips/advice on doing so in the first post i made). Ill give it a shot though

[TheSilentRoomate]

haha thanks! Really? I'd find the shoulders and body way harder to animate than the hair haha maybe because my characters hair is just a yellow blob. I would try an edit on the hair for you but I'm not that good at pixel art so it'd take me a while and I really need to get to bed soon! All i do when I animate mine is move the hair a couple pixels forward and cut off the pixels too far forward and fill in the ones that are in back? That probably doesn't make any sense and I doubt it's too helpful haha

[Gil]

Ponytail edit

[CodeCriminal]

Ponytail edit

Thanks Gil, I dont mean to be rude and i appreciate your effort but the pony tail animation is a little off  
It seems as though it 'waggles' with respect to some completely different force than the one that is applied to the hair and tail if you get me (in other words it waggles to much to slowly).

Thanks again.

Heres my first real attempt at breathing, obviously its a little off because the rest of the upper body doesnt move (I tried but the move isnt suttle enough). Any thoughts, suggestions, possible motivation for editing?



Thanks