Ancient Roman Medic Sprite (C+C please)

[sirneif]

Hi all, I'm new here so please correct me if I'm doing anything out of protocol.  I'm currently developing an RTS sidescroller with a friend of mine, but neither of us are artists.  Until we commission one, it's just us.  Anyway, here's a medic I'm working on -- as I mentioned he's supposed to fit in an Ancient Rome setting.  It's an RTS so he's meant to just loop this walk cycle as he goes from point A to point B. 



I'm looking for feedback on two things:

Palette: I'm trying not to give him a black outline as it seems kind of passe, but now I think he looks a little flat.  Perhaps  my contrast is off, or there's not enough unique hues? 
Animation: For the animation, I think he looks a bit stiff, so I tried to make some more moving parts on him (the pony tail, the shoulder), and now he still looks stiff, but also spasming kind of.  Hopefully that makes sense.

He's inspired by this fellow btw:



Appreciate your help, all.  Thanks.

[DARK-SPIRIT]

Looks great to me I'm a noob...

Good luck with your kickstarter project.

[Charlieton]

I don't think the thing he's carrying should align with movement of his right leg. When I try walking while carrying something modestly heavy in my right hand, I intuitively swing it slightly in the same direction as my left leg (and the opposite of the right one). I think that's how you'd normally retain the balance when extra weight is shifted to one side.

[Johasu]

Some of that flatness comes from the palette choices.  Brown on brown on another brown. If you look in your reference image, the character has red tones in his skin, and the toga has a lot of green contrast as it moves from shadow to the light. I'm just learning, myself, but thought this might help some.

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

Unless your rts is a sidescroller, your medic is way out of perspective. Pretty good walkcycle though.

Whups! I must've missed that word.    Thanks Seiseki,

[Seiseki]

Unless your rts is a sidescroller, your medic is way out of perspective. Pretty good walkcycle though.

Well it specifically says RTS Sidescroller

But isn't there already a game like this on kickstarter?

[Decroded]

good motion 
i think it would look alright with a few tweaks.

bit more contrast overall and optional hue in the grey hair.
single light pixel in grey hair reads like a specular highlight tho.
also top of hair is too square and has weird unnecesary line across his forehead.
subpixel animation on top right of head is distracting.

seems like body and feet should rotate towards us a bit to match his head perspective, rotating a touch as he walks would probably do the trick.

u could try separating the body pieces and delaying their motions so everything is not so in sync as has been pointed out with the bag/foot already.
this can include a 1 frame delay on the head dropping after body as already dropped etc. or if it just looks like too much then dont use it...