Animation and design.

[buddy90]

Hey guys.

Past couple of days, I've been working on some animations. And like always, I start with a simple, flat color base. I've made three animations like this before, and they always felt too...."fat". Their limbs were comically oversized. So this time, I tried with a more simple anatomical proportions. Made running, jumping, and crouching, so far.

Here's those.



Thought it animated smoothly, so I went to try detailing the character. Here....is why I wanted to post. I'm totally stuck. He looks ugly with an outline, he looks ugly without....he just looks weird. This is the best I came up with....but it's so strange.



I'm stuck. Can you guys give me advice?

[WM]

I edited your guy a little around the shoulder to make it more readable, replaced the black with a nice dark desaturated purple, darkened the skin shadow, and played with a few pixels. I couldn't get the outline to work, but you're definitely going to need one.

EDIT: Worked on the arms a little more.

[buddy90]

Man, this is crazy....

I tried to play with it some more. I think his clothes look fine, but his skin still looks crap.



Tried this too..



I don't know, maybe it's just the base itself. Maybe it's too skinny or something.

EDIT:
OK, I tried something new. Bandanna animates, added two colors to the skin. It looks better, but I think something's still missing.