AuthorTopic: [WIP] 3/4 Top Down View Sprites  (Read 4529 times)

Offline BrightBit

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[WIP] 3/4 Top Down View Sprites

on: July 10, 2013, 03:41:13 pm
Hello Pixelation community,

I would like to know what you think about the following sprites:



My main interests regarding C&C are aiming at:

* Do the silhouettes and animations read well?
* Do the views fit to each other?

Edit: I was inspired by the sprites of Serious Sam: Random Encounter.


Greetings
BrightBit
« Last Edit: July 10, 2013, 05:54:28 pm by BrightBit »

Offline BrightBit

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Re: [WIP] 3/4 Top Down View Sprites

Reply #1 on: July 10, 2013, 06:10:47 pm
There are some additional information I would like to share:

1. I already posted an entry on the forums of pixeljoint.com. Pixeljoint is great but by what I've seen so far this forum here seems to be more active (i.e. more frequently visited by skilled pixel artists), so I just had to look for C&C here, too.

2. I made a small gameplay prototype with Stencyl that is inspired by the mechanics of Zelda - A Link to the past. That way you can analyse the animations even better. You can walk with the arrow keys and the bushes can be picked up and thrown by pressing 'A'.

Edit: By downloading the flash file to your computer and running it from there, the game will start in a better looking fullscreen mode without pixel distortion.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2013, 06:13:28 pm by BrightBit »

Offline PypeBros

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Re: [WIP] 3/4 Top Down View Sprites

Reply #2 on: July 10, 2013, 08:26:51 pm
funny and well-crafted dude. There may be something to tweak in the side view. The legs seem to go too close to the horizontal

I have the feeling that he could use less homogeneous timing (although a delta frame instead of doubling the exposition for one frame would do a better job) and that this muscular dude could use some feet.

Gameplay-wise, he seems to move slightly too slow on the playfield.

Offline YellowLime

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Re: [WIP] 3/4 Top Down View Sprites

Reply #3 on: July 11, 2013, 03:09:30 pm
Seems OK with me, actually... Pype, I think he hovers too much in your edit
I don't know about the feet, I guess he should have some, but don't mind that he doesn't have them either

I agree that he moves too slowly in the example.
(And downloading it didn't remove the pixel distortion for me :-\)

Offline BrightBit

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Re: [WIP] 3/4 Top Down View Sprites

Reply #4 on: July 11, 2013, 04:02:42 pm
@YellowLime: Did you open it with the flash player: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\FlashPlayerPlugin_<???>.exe or in the browser? It just works when you use the flash player directly.

@both: Thank you so far for your C&C. To be honest I don't like the feet version since it breaks the Serisous Sam style and I really like this style but I agree that the player is walking to slow and I am already trying to fix it. Last but not least I somehow like PypeBros' edit of the animation. I am also experimenting with it but right now it seems to feel a bit akward in my gameplay prototype but you'll be able to see it for yourself. I will upload an update soon.

@PypeBros: What do you mean by delta frame? An extra frame that shows the inbetween of the first and second frame?

Offline PypeBros

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Re: [WIP] 3/4 Top Down View Sprites

Reply #5 on: July 11, 2013, 04:46:08 pm
@PypeBros: What do you mean by delta frame? An extra frame that shows the inbetween of the first and second frame?
Well 'delta frame' is a term I made up, where instead of making one frame last twice as long (like I did in my edit), you copy the frame and change just a slight delta to keep the pendulum effect, but also a smooth animation, and avoid annoying effects like the bandana stopping its move while the dude keeps the legs up.

edit: here's the edit with a delta frame.
delta frame --> -- (delta on arms) - vs - <-- slowed-down frame.

Quote
I think he hovers too much in your edit
It might be too much for a walk, but the hovering is intentional. The trick is that you can't make a character walk faster than its feet contact time. So to speed the move up, you also need to speed the animation, but that doesn't stretch well. I found it to work better with a hovering frame so that you can keep a coherent run cycle frequency and increase the character be faster because the leaps are longer.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2013, 03:42:26 pm by PypeBros »

Offline rikfuzz

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Re: [WIP] 3/4 Top Down View Sprites

Reply #6 on: July 12, 2013, 11:27:56 am
The arms look great - the feet don't quite look as good, but I think a small edit of the duplicated frame will fix all as PypeBros says. (Usually I have the 'contact' frame with the foot up, and then again pulled in only very slightly with the foot down). 

edit:  That obviously only applies to PypeBros rework, rather than the original.  Original looks okay already, tbh, but I think would benefit a little from the direction PypeBros was taking once the extra frame's in.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2013, 11:33:13 am by rikfuzz »

Offline BrightBit

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Re: [WIP] 3/4 Top Down View Sprites

Reply #7 on: July 14, 2013, 11:52:57 am
Okay, I guess the improvements for the walk animation will take some time. I made a separate gif file to analyse the movement more acurately (I am concentrating on the legs first):



I also updated the flash prototype. Now you can test for yourself how PypeBros' suggestions feel, although I have to emphasize that it's just a rough update since I really need to tweek the animation more.

@PypeBros: Now I understand what you mean by delta frame. Nice edit! I like your version of the bandana movement even more than my one.

Note: You no longer need to download the flash file on you computer. The app should run without distortions in the browser now.

Offline Mush

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Re: [WIP] 3/4 Top Down View Sprites

Reply #8 on: July 14, 2013, 09:01:17 pm
The prototype looks pretty good  :y:

The way each frame is timed adds a feeling of weight to the character. Though, on the side view animations, I wonder if the legs goes too far back?