[WIP] Hunter run animation C&C

[Durandal]

Hi!

I've been kicking around a concept for a run'n'gun/platformer for a while now, something along the lines of "Metal Gear meets Abuse". However, while I've got plenty of coding experience, and even a little pixel experience, I've never tried doing a full motion character animation before. I decided it was time to fix that  

I originally sketched thumbnails from looking at SFA3 Sakura sprites to get an idea of what I was doing. The whole thing is extremely rough around the edges, and there's a bunch of stuff that obviously needs fixing; the near arm varies wildly in thickness, the butt of the rifle just can't decide what shape it's supposed to be, and various bits that should be animated are either static of barely moving  

General C&C totally welcome, but the main reason I'm posting this in its current state is for advice on the rifle. It currently passes through five unique angles in six frames (frames 1 and 5 share). At the time I felt like it was necessary to achieve a smooth motion, given how far it swings, but at the same time, it meant I had to abandon 'nice' angles and just throw down pixels to make the best straight lines I could. Any thoughts on this trade-off between smooth motion and smooth lines?

Update:

-Reduced far arm swing range a little, probably still needs some more, possibly some off the back-swing too.
-Various fixes to coat movement
-Vastly improved consistency on near arm
-Made a start on rifle shape consistency
-Removed hunchback

Torso is still twisted away slightly...I've been too chicken to do the major edit required to fix that 

[pistachio]

For some reason, I suppose the thickness of the sprite, I get the impression that the body, while leaning over quite a bit, is not at a head-on angle whereas the head and legs are. It's more like he has his torso rotated away from us. His far arm also seems to be incredibly fast in rotating.

Perhaps tone this down just a bit, so that where the arm currently appears to the right of his head and rifle, it rotates to only about the lower-left of the rifle. Because, honestly, if he were really that fast I'd expect him to be a lot thinner, to the point of being stylized. On that note what's the style of the game as of now, or what do you have planned for that?

[Hawk]

I agree with pistachio on his arms and movements. One second, his arm is showing behind his back, and the other, it's already near his head.

By the way, great animation!

The rifle is looking really smooth, just as his right arm animation.
Some frames are still off, like his right elbow, on a frame, sticks out, and the handle of the rifle too.

About the walking animation, I saw on another topic the following link, that has great tips: http://www.idleworm.com/how/anm/02w/walk1.shtml

Keep up the great work!

[Ichigo Jam]

General C&C totally welcome, but the main reason I'm posting this in its current state is for advice on the rifle. It currently passes through five unique angles in six frames (frames 1 and 5 share). At the time I felt like it was necessary to achieve a smooth motion, given how far it swings, but at the same time, it meant I had to abandon 'nice' angles and just throw down pixels to make the best straight lines I could. Any thoughts on this trade-off between smooth motion and smooth lines?

I think with animation it's far more important that the overall shapes are in the right places than whether the lines are a bit jaggy.
In fact, any pixel-level technique is generally less important when the object is moving quickly - the viewer doesn't have time to focus on the details of one frame.

On your sprite, I would suggest you try sketching a quick stick figure over each frame of your animation to see how he moves without that big coat - I think this should make it clear why there are problems with the far arm.

In fact, starting planning animations with a stick figure is quite a good idea, since it's easier to see if you're keeping the limbs the same length and is very quick to edit.

[Durandal]

Ah, my thread exploded lol Thanks for all the feedback.

pistachio:

It's more like he has his torso rotated away from us.

Hmm, yeah. Think it's the combination of too much of a hump leading up to the spine, and the fact that the near shoulder doesn't move that much. I'll take another shot at the shoulders when I get a chance, see if I can improve matters.

And that arm probably is a little too 'flaily' Gameplay is a mix of stealth and shooting; this animation is the absolute fastest movement option, for when you've really screwed up and just need to get the heck out of Dodge, it's intended to be a headlong dash, but even so.

Style-wise...hmm. Dark fairytale? I got the idea from a German legend, Freischutz, about marksmen who made deals with a devil in exchange for magical bullets. Shadowy, low-light to match the stealth aspects (Shadowy-ness currently MIA, awaiting actual shading). My general art style is very manga-oriented, and I'm a terribly limited artist, so... there will likely be a noticeable manga bent to designs...

Hawk:
Thanks! I found that tut yesterday, but appreciate the sentiment.

Ichigo:
I'll give that a go. I did start with very simple sketches, sans-coat, but I was perhaps too focused on angles and not enough on other scales.

I haven't the energy to do a major rework tonight, but maybe I'll get those stick figures blocked in and see what needs to be done. Will report back with results tomorrow