2D Puzzle Platformer

[TheMonsterAtlas]

Did a bit of work on a 2D Puzzle Platformer and I did the first rough draft walk cycle, which is:


There are a couple of problems with the animation, one thing I can see is the feet never leave the ground...

[PypeBros]

cute and fresh.
and indeed, the feet not leaving the ground is odd for a walk cycle with such bounces.
the other thing could be that your character is spending more time in "passing" frames than in "extreme" frames (as far as I can tell). Physics dictates the opposite (pendulum effects): you decelerate your foot as its going to touch the ground

[Seiseki]

Yeah it looks like he's going through the ground, because of the bouncing and that the feet never leave the ground.
It's like he's walking behind an a short wall and the bottom part of his legs/feet are hidden behind it.

example:


It doesn't look like he's walking on top of the wall.

[TheMonsterAtlas]

Yeah it looks like he's going through the ground, because of the bouncing and that the feet never leave the ground.
It's like he's walking behind an a short wall and the bottom part of his legs/feet are hidden behind it.

example:


It doesn't look like he's walking on top of the wall.

Yeah, I was thinking about placing some 2-3 pixel high grass in the foreground, but I don't want to spam the foreground. It would be a simple fix for the feet, but fixing the feet now would be a lot easier.

@Pype: I see what you're saying about the passing frames, but I think I'm going to use this as sort of a leisurely walk and I kind of want to make him look goofy and adorable when walking. Anti-physics is the best way to look goofy I would say You should see what I've got planned for his run state lol. I'm just glad I got some of the walking done, I was in a statistics class and trying to think how I would move, but I couldn't just get up and work it through physically lmao.

Second Draft:

Feet come off the ground and the body matches with how a normal person would walk. (A lot less fluid as well as quicker)

[jams0988]

Danbooru-san? Are you a Yotsubato fan, by any chance?
I like the animation. Fluid and cute. =)
I actually like your first draft more than your second. It looks like he's shaking his head "no" in the new one to me.

[TheMonsterAtlas]

Danbooru-san? Are you a Yotsubato fan, by any chance?
I like the animation. Fluid and cute. =)
I actually like your first draft more than your second. It looks like he's shaking his head "no" in the new one to me.

Yeah, that's actually where I got the concept for him from X3

In the second one there are less frames and even less head turn frames. Everything is quicker so it's more like less detailed walk. It's being fixed though, Dusty actually did a nice edit and I will probably base the walking animation off of it, if not use it with some slight tweaks. He did a great job in making the walk cycle more dramatic and animated, which fits the character a lot better than what I originally had in mind. It also fits in with the platforming aspect that would be involved in the game. (Thinking Mario like platforming)

[Dusty]

I was talking to XLR8ED(is there a short/more natural name you go by? ) in IRC about this and ended up editing it so thought I'd post it here too.

I simply felt there were a few important things needed to be addressed that would help the piece greatly. However I'm not that great at animation, though I have picked up a few things over the years here.

> The most important is the way you treat the limbs. The way you're currently doing it you're not maintaining the shape of the arms/legs, you're skewing them which overall looks unnatural, and more importantly for the legs makes them look like they're stuck to the ground and looks like taffy being stretched. For example:



> He's a cute character, so he needs a cute walk. I find the typical exaggerated cartoon one would be the most fitting, where movement is emphasized and maybe even a hint of a jump/skip. However I feel it also needs to maintain a degree of smoothness; choppyness might not compliment design.

> As I said in IRC, idle frames tend to not benefit animations and were usually used merely because of limitations.

I implemented all these ideas as best I could into my edit. I know it ends up looking a little fast for a walk cycle, but I couldn't spare the time to add more frames to slow it down while keeping it smooth.



And the sprite sheet:

[Cyangmou]

The down position is usually the one when he spreads the legs. I just changed the idle a bit and edited the other frames very slightly. If he runs, frame 2 and 5 can also be the jumping frames (where no foot touches the ground), although it's also a bit low for this case.