AuthorTopic: help animating game character  (Read 10339 times)

Offline JoaoSeabra

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help animating game character

on: January 26, 2013, 12:37:07 am
Guys...first of all let me say that i'm new to this and this is my first ever try at pixel art...

i'm making a 2D side-scrolling game...and this (more or less) is going to be the main character...


photo sharing

so i need help with two things...

first please tell me anything that you think would improve the character itself...

second...i'm having a really tough time making a running animation!
i want the coat to fluently move and i can't seem to make that work...

thanks in advance!

Offline Lachie Dazdarian

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #1 on: January 26, 2013, 12:48:42 am
Interesting design. Do you have some concept art or environment done? It's hard to tell if you are going in the right direction if we are not aware of the style you are trying to convey.

Also, can you show the frames you got so far?

Offline JoaoSeabra

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #2 on: January 26, 2013, 11:20:02 am
i don't really have anything else to show...but i really minimalist graphic styles like the one in superbrothers swords and sworcery so you can see where i'm going!

environment wise...thins character will be running across some ruins but i haven't done any sketches of that yet...

right now i'm trying to draw one of the running animation's frames but since it's such a low res image i can't seem to make it work...


pic upload

this is my first try at a side-view and some running...but it's really awful...

Offline Lachie Dazdarian

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #3 on: January 26, 2013, 11:34:06 am
Much earlier I was dealing with animating a character, perhaps my progress can be of educational value:

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=14359.msg133582#msg133582

I think this was the final version of side view:

Offline JoaoSeabra

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #4 on: January 26, 2013, 11:57:06 am
thanks!...that will help making the arms and legs movement!

any ideas as to make the jacket?

Offline Lachie Dazdarian

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #5 on: January 26, 2013, 12:21:43 pm
Here are all the frames:



My suggestion is that you animate him without the jacket, as as stickman, and since the game style matches with the look of a stickman, you won't even have to edit this basic animation much. Once you get the basic animation right, adding clothes/details will/should be much easier. Final step is adding some extra animation to spice it up, like the hair on my character. You need to break it into steps. Then again, I never tried to animate a character with such "baggy" clothing item, but I really think you can't make much useful progress until you animate the basic shape first (without clothes).

Offline JoaoSeabra

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #6 on: January 26, 2013, 12:35:02 pm
thanks for all the advice...don't really know when i'll get the time to do this but i'll certainly post it when it's done...

Offline JoaoSeabra

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #7 on: January 26, 2013, 05:24:23 pm

photo sharing websites

this is my take on a walking cycle superbrothers' style...

i'm making this with aseprite...any way to easily export a gif file instead of the sprite sheet?

Offline Gorkil

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #8 on: January 26, 2013, 06:14:38 pm
I use gamemaker to import strips and export it to gifs.
I'm also making a sidescroller with superbrother's inspired sprites. I did a running animation so if you want you can have a look at it, because our legs look the same: http://imgur.com/1YH4L2i

Offline JoaoSeabra

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #9 on: January 26, 2013, 07:48:23 pm

image upload

how it looks right now...what do you think?

Gorkil...i actually had already seen you sprite since i made some research...xP
but yours is more of a running animation than walking...which i also need but it's not the point at this stage...

Offline HardcoreBadger

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #10 on: January 26, 2013, 08:08:00 pm
the leg goes too fast and too horizontally

but it could  be a style

i think this character is pretty cool for now


BUT there is a problem, the 2 legs when they are bending (in the air) are exactly the same lenght

the left leg should be shorter coz of perspective (otherwise it looks like it's a 2 frames animation and he is bending the right leg all the time)

Offline JoaoSeabra

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #11 on: January 27, 2013, 12:36:43 am
since i'm getting inspiration from styles such as the one on superbrothers swords and sworcery and animations like this:

http://media.pyweek.org/dl/8/csl-2/char_walk.gif

that is definitely the point!xP

but you may be right about the length of the leg...i'll get that fixed tomorrow!
please check it out later and tell me if you think it's better!

and thank you both for the tips!

Offline JoaoSeabra

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #12 on: January 27, 2013, 05:41:43 pm


added some details to give the idea of rotation to the torso...

made left leg a little shorter...

some changes to the arms...

did it help?

Offline Deux_Schnozzle

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #13 on: January 27, 2013, 07:20:37 pm
You're getting a lot closer! You've got a nice "bounce" to the walk and what you have already done is a nice improvement.
I did a quick edit, it's not perfect but I just wanted to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.



Notes:

* the trailing leg will never go exactly horizontal while "walking".
* the arms swing fairly quickly and almost "linger" for a while at the ends of their respective arcs.

Regards.

Offline JoaoSeabra

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #14 on: January 27, 2013, 09:29:46 pm
thank you so much!it really is a lot better!
i especially like the way the arms move now...

any ideas on how to make te torso rotate a little more?or you think that's not needed at all?

Offline JoaoSeabra

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #15 on: January 27, 2013, 10:09:00 pm
did a number of improvements...

actually i duplicated the number of frames and added some subtleties to the movement...


image sharing

Offline halffish

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Re: help animating game character

Reply #16 on: January 28, 2013, 08:58:18 am
This is your first time? It looks good so far! Your last animation had some very smooth parts like the arms. I like the hair bounce. You may still need to keep tweaking the legs though!

For beginning, I'd suggest to really try to master that walk cycle and not use a stylization. It will really improve your skill as an artist. Get those 4 very distinctly placed key frames!