AuthorTopic: Help with walk cycle  (Read 4897 times)

Offline Armageddon

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Help with walk cycle

on: July 28, 2011, 10:04:41 pm
Okay so I am making a game. And I have this guy named Ben:



And I have tried all day to make a walk cycle but I've never really animated anything before. And this is a tiny sprite I can only add maybe 2 pixels in each direction. I tried to do a side view but it looks kinda strange:



I'd really like some help with this. I know there are those things that show walk cycles frame by frame. but they don't really work with something this small. ???

Offline ptoing

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Re: Help with walk cycle

Reply #1 on: July 29, 2011, 12:45:22 am
So what do you expect? People to just make an animation for you? That is not a good way to learn I am afraid.
There are rules to animation and they work at EVERY size, they do not just stop working because stuff is small.



Here is something I made a few years ago.


Here is the doubled sheet. Basically both steps are identical because it is just a silhouette and tiny. In a bigger silhouette you could offset bits a bit more on the 2nd step to reduce flicker.


If you look at the big image at the top and then at the little guy sheet you can see I did the contact and passing position, and then inbetweened them. That is all there is to it as far as animating goes.

But your base sprite has to have proportions which are animatable and such, unless you just want to shuffle his legs back and forth and that in most cases looks a bit rubbish.
Basically the simpler your sprite and the more removed from real human proportions the more extreme you kinda have to go to get something out of it. Break limbs and whatnot, whatever makes it look nice.

That said I think the far leg being 1 pixel thick and the near one 2 pixels thick will not really work in your favour.

Also you said you tried all day to do a walk cycle, why not post your failed efforts, then we could look at it and give you direct pointers of why they might have failed.

There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Armageddon

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Re: Help with walk cycle

Reply #2 on: July 29, 2011, 01:04:07 am
I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to ask people to do it for me. Here is my first effort, looks like he's kicking:



My second effort, slightly better but legs seem strange:



EDIT: Okay I tried again:

« Last Edit: July 29, 2011, 01:43:25 am by Armageddon »

Offline Voxxitronic

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Re: Help with walk cycle

Reply #3 on: July 30, 2011, 02:55:31 am
For help, carefully observe how you would walk normally. Steps are taken one at a time. one, two, one, two. Also, in the third attempt, both of the arms are swinging in unison.This is rarely the case when walking in real life. I hope this helps.  ;)

Offline Phlakes

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Re: Help with walk cycle

Reply #4 on: July 30, 2011, 07:36:30 am
First, I'm just curious, how new are you to pixel art? If you don't have much experience, it's probably not the best idea to bother yourself with animating yet. It's like trying to play ice hockey before you learn how to skate.

Second, I'd like to take those examples one by one.

On the first, I don't mean to be too blunt, but it look like he's humping the air, because you just have two pixels extend from his crotch area and his head and arm going back. The second looks the same except he swings his right leg and arm forward between the cycles. And then there's that other line that I'm guessing is supposed to be his other leg once it comes back to the ground, but it never moves, even when it's supposed to be taking a step in the other frames. Which just makes those two pixels look more like his wang.

The third is better, but he barely has legs. You could make it work, but right now he's just swinging his arms and legs back and forth, because you used the same motions in reverse. Get up and take a few steps. Do your legs move the exact same way forward and back? Well, no. One reaches forward, plants on the ground, then moves back as the other reaches forward, and picks up after the other plants. Only hitting and leaving the ground once in each cycle.

I also don't really know what angle it's supposed to be. If it's from the side, keep working with the sprite from the first two examples. Give him two separate legs and arms, and have the legs move in a cycle. They should also make the exact same movements.