Cutesy Character [heavy WIP]

[StaticSails]

I think he's kind of a cutesy character at least.

(Sorry for the annoying levels of zoom, but I've been showing friends who don't like opening Paint.)
Was hoping to create a knight with boyish good looks and a knack for chopping goblins in half and winning the hearts of maids oh so fair. Think this achieves that effect? I'm kind of worried if the armor reads well, I think it does but I know it's armor.

I like the colors and think they still work relatively well atop of more vibrant colors
I'm sort of torn with losing that brightest color on the armor or using in place of the pink nose. 13 colors might be fine though. I don't have an hardware restrictions. Would prefer not to, but I could drop the black.

I'm feeling more comfortable with run cycles but still see some choppiness to it, even when you ignore my attempts at swinging arms. I've been lurking on the site for a while and have been lucky to see a lot of great examples and very helpful tips. Upon typing that I'm wondering if I should make our valiant knight lean into the run a bit more. I just remembered I should make the animation start with bringing the far leg forward. Or do we start with the front leg? I need to go search the forum for that post again. Something about martial arts.

All pixel art is going to be viewed 2x in-game.
Huge improvement, no? Leans forward and bobs 1 pixel.

I'm looking for help with the animation more than anything. I feel okay about the look of the hero and don't feel okay about animating things just yet.

Smooth enough animation?
EDIT:
Yes?
EDIT AGAIN:

[PypeBros]

the bop indeed gives more dynamism. I'm not convinced by the lack of hip-twisting, but I admit I have no idea how to handle it in that style, with legs so far away from each other.

Btw, you needn't to post zoomed pictures: the forum automagically zoom posted pictures when one click them and un-zooms when you CTRL-click them.

[StaticSails]

(Sorry for the annoying levels of zoom, but I've been showing friends who don't like opening Paint.)

When I was working on the run cycle I wasn't sure if I even needed any hip twisting. Guy doesn't even have hips really. Implied hips maybe.
Think it'd be able to work without the hip twisting?
The bob. I can't think of how to really do anything more than just that. Think he should lean forward more when his foot makes contact? Maybe I should look into hip twisting and twisting in general. Know of any good examples?

[Quake]

hey, i did an edit with the colours.

Not sure if i made it any better, but i guess it looks more like armour now. (I hope

[Martyr]

Not sure if it's in the style you're aiming for, but I think making the character more bold and... "smug" would help some

Quick edit, but only because I'm stuck with GIMP on this computer 

[thepezman]

Right now you have 2 frames jumping up a pixel, I would argue for it to be the reverse of that.  Try moving frame 1 and 4 up a pixel, putting more emphasis on the step down moment.  I hope that makes sense.

Are the black lines just the working animation base or are you going for a cyanide & happiness style character here?

[PypeBros]

When I was working on the run cycle I wasn't sure if I even needed any hip twisting. Guy doesn't even have hips really. Implied hips maybe.
Think it'd be able to work without the hip twisting?

Here's a template run cycle hanging around on pixelation for a while that I'll use to illustrate my point:


Compare frame #1 and #7 and observe the joint between the fore leg and the body. It is has moved from the front to the back of the body. This is fundamental from a run and the only way you can actually do that is to twist your hips along your spine axis. Note that shoulders twist the other way meanwhile.

You instead present us a front-facing character with one leg dancing while staying at the left and one leg dancing while staying on the right. Knights armour would have one piece protecting the chest and another piece protecting the waist and hips so that such a twisting is possible. Infantry soldiers typically avoid large knight-like armour because it's uneasy to run with them: they better fit horse-mounted fighters. I'd suggest you crawl for more armour reference on flickr/wikipedia and refine your hero so that he can do the moves you want him to do.

[Decroded]

I think he's kind of a cutesy character at least...

I think it looks funny and cool and just needs some touches.
I can't really do an edit but I think try instead of jut bobbing up quickly, try making him bob down quickly like he is mostly in the air to give it a floaty feeling.
Also rotate the head and or torso a little.