Warhammer 40k - Side Scroller

[mr_cartoon]

Hello,

I am new to pixel art and want to do a side scrolling game set in the Warhammer 40k universe.

Below is what I've done so far and I'd love any feedback for this endeavour.

Ultramarine - Player Sprite:


basic pose *updated*


shooting


reloading *updated*


Orc Heavy Gunner - NPC


basic pose *updated*

Thank you dpixel for your help. I love your suggestions. I am just thinking for this one of doing things without an outline, but again thank you for your help.

With regards to the shooting animation being more appropriate for a single shot, powerful weapon, I always figured the bolt gun to be a hand held shotgun. But it does jump up quite a bit.. I'll play around some more and see what I get.

[dpixel]

These are nice.  I'm working on a sidescroller/platform zombie game myself and my sprites are about this size.
Just an idea to up the contrast and readability:

Maybe too busy?   

[Haze01]

I also found the details you had included in the sprite to be difficult to read.  On my monitor, I actually just saw it as a solid-blue sprite with only the white star, gold band, and brown gun as other details.  It wasn't until I zoomed in that I saw there were highlights and details to the blue armor.  dpixel's edit adds detail and the increased contrast makes it more readable.

The animations are looking fairly good.  I don't know much about it but I wonder if the shooting animation is correct for this type of weapon.  It feels more appropriate for some type of single-shot gun.  There are sure to be references available online.