GR#157 - Robot Character - Animations

[sevinkydink]

Looking for some guidance on improving my artwork.  Working on the main character for a mega-man esque style game.  Very new to pixel art so open to all suggestions.

Previous Incarnations:


Current Sprite:


Current Walk:

[jahasaja]

It looks cool. Mega man game with twin blades!

However, you have not decided where the light source is coming from. On the helmet the light seems to come from the top right while on the hands it seems to come from the left.

Decide where you have your light source and and make it more consistent. This will give your robot more depth.

[sevinkydink]

Good point - I updated the lighting a little, hopefully that works a little better.  I've also moved up his waist a pixel to fix some proportion issues.

[PixelPiledriver]

Some quick thoughts

[sevinkydink]

Wow - you really added a lot of depth to the character that wasn't there before...that's amazing thank you.

I tried to learn from what you had put together and give my take on it. 



Question - I noticed you removed the highlight from the center of the back blade? Was that to assist in the perspective to show that it's further?

[PixelPiledriver]

Lookin better.
The surfaces are much more interesting.
Try to push the clarity some more especially on the arms.
Then do a couple variations on him entirely to explore his design further.

I noticed you removed the highlight from the center of the back blade? Was that to assist in the perspective to show that it's further?

That is one way to rationalize it.
But really I erased that part while messing with the leg.
Then I drew it back in solid and thought it looked fine.
The contrast between the yellow and the almost white is rather light at that thickness so I figured it was fine to omit from part of it.

[sevinkydink]

Ok - quick edit on the front army to make it a little more clear and interesting.  Changed the helmet style to give it a little more pop.  As far as the rear arm - tried a new direction where the red armor plates are only covering the front.  Added an alternate as you suggested - definitely want to try to play around a bit more with the form.



Thanks again for the help and guidance!

[sevinkydink]

Ok - I've made a few different variants, as well as am playing with some alternate colors for the eyes/chest detail.  Any/all critiques would be awesome!



Also - does anyone have a thought of a good idle animation?  Would a full body bob look awkward on a robot?  Thanks!

[jahasaja]

Don't You know?

A robot is never idle

[cels]

Nice.

Or go the opposite route. Make a robot in terrible shape, who needs every bit of rest the player affords him.




But yeah, I would say that a body bob would make no sense and take away from the idea that it's a robot. A less silly version of jahasaja's animation would probably be better. Maybe include a tiny bit of torso rotation for the sake of making it dynamic and pretty.

[jahasaja]

What would be really awesome would be if the entire torso could spin with the head.

Perhaps that would make zero sense with the acctuall gameplay. But still.. Awesome

[sevinkydink]

Yea - good thoughts regarding the movement.  I think I have some ideas using the lights across...

I've made some pretty substantial changes (at least I think) trying to make him look more robotic and less of just a guy in a suit.  Also - there was a really unintended Iron Man thing going on so I tried to break away from that as well.

Around the head area I wanted to include a high collar but I'm not sure how well that translated - any thoughts there?

[sevinkydink]

Been working on animating the sword - rather than have it be a separate piece I thought it would be cooler to have him like manifest it.

old


new


It's 12 images with a .05s delay between them.  I added a longer pause at the end just so it wasn't looping through so fast.

Any advice on timing?  I really only tried to make the arms move, but I was hoping to get some pointers on making the movement seem more natural.  I know that he's a robot so human like motions can go out the window - I just want it to read well.

Update: Changed the highlighting a little as well as added a new frame.  I also sped up the timing between the lightning-esque frames at the end to 2x times. Any feedback would be great! Thanks!

[Facet]

I don't think the opposite arm needs to move in the weapon anim; seems like it's being pulled out, actually I think having the blade appear without any obvious effort might reinforce a deadly-cool-beam-of-energy feeling. The weapons are one long banding staircase atm which is kinda inevitable I guess, but you could try some alternate, less lightsabery effects like pulsing shades rather than the static neon/white/neon.

On looking less like a robot: I was thinking you could make clear that there's no-one inside by not giving them the room ; making it a little less proportionally humanoid. I also removed some colours I didn't think were adding much, and that might make animations more streamlined.

[sevinkydink]

Thanks for the feedback Facet!  Yea, I definitely agree about the neon/white/neon format but I haven't found a way to do it that I like yet.  I touched up the animation to make it more of a build up/appear mechanism similar to what you suggested and I like it a lot better.  One of my thoughts with the blade is having it continually pulsing with the lightning effect down the blade.  I'll try to whip up an idle to see how it reads.



Regarding his roboty shape I agree - I think that will become more apparent with the animations I have planned out. My goal is for him to move in ways that removes any doubt some guy is inside. 

edit:

Added the second blade into the animation.  I'm still curious if the collar reads as a collar or just some red stuff.

[cels]

The animation is very well done. The collar looks like it's part of the helmet, to me.  But I like how you did the chicken legs, so it's more apparent that it's a robot.

I took the liberty of doing a quick edit myself. Mostly I focused on trying to give a bit more contrast, since it's such a tiny sprite. Also tried to do away with some of the pillow shading. And I made the thighs shorter, because I don't really understand how the legs would work on your model. They seem out of proportion.

I also took the liberty of suggesting another kind of sword, because even though I like your animation, I'm not thrilled about the idea of him holding a beam of energy like it was a rod. Being a huge fan of Soul Reaver, I think I would just copy the Soul Reaver sword 



I could work on this sprite for hours, it was a very fun challenge. Especially after reading the cluster study thread.

[sevinkydink]

@cels - amazing, thank for you the shading touches.  Great tips on the shading - definitely going to study on it for sure.

Regarding the sword - I agree with your assessment, I really wanted to try to create a cool way for him to hold it.  What I will try when I can do an edit is using your idea and maybe applying some vectoring.  I also thing you address one of facet's assessments that it was a banded beam of light - yours is much cooler!

Thanks for the feedback!

Edit:

Tried some of the shading that used and I think it turned out much better.  It also help me get close to my original vision of having the chest and waist pieces as clear separates.  Also, I pushed all of the grey and black into a reddish hue, not sure how well that reads on the model but I think it makes it a little more cohesive.



Edit Part Deux:

Added some animation for the weapon draw.  I tried continuing the lightning effect but it didn't work as well, so I went for a more flame/anime style.  I feel like there should be some more motion in the body of the robot.  Went for some small movement on the 2nd gif, but it just doesn't feel right. 

[sevinkydink]

Last Post was getting kinda cluttered, so I wanted to break it into to two pieces.

Working on walking, so far have the rough outline for the legs running.  Love to hear any critiques.  Realized I had messed up where the knee/ankle would be.



Updated walk:

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

The legs on the previous version were a lot better I think. A more dynamic feel to it.

[sevinkydink]

Thanks for the reply! Which version specifically?  I want the legs to be similar to the way a dog/cat's hind legs are, if that provides any context.

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

That version

[HezaKey]

I don't think the walk cycle has a lot of character to it.  Very high, very stiff.  The steps are also really small for such a big guy.
I think you could get weirder with the walk, since it is a robot.  I would try making the space between each leg longer, but I also think you can exaggerate a lot. 

I keep thinking of two things really:
The Big Dog Robot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww, too many legs though.
And the Slig from Oddworld: http://spritedatabase.net/file/13965

The slig has a walk and run cycle, and it's legs are pretty similar in shape.

[sevinkydink]

@Mr. F - Ahh, ok, I'll play around some more with the leg shape.

@Milo - great resource, and I love the slig. The steps could get bigger, I agree.  I'll keep trying some distances and see what looks best.

Here is a slightly updated version that hopefully isn't quite as stiff!



edit: More rotation and movement.  Added subpixeling on chest/torso for rotation.

[HezaKey]

This is looking much better.
Kind of a little thing, but the shoulders/arms need to be in opposite rotation of the hip/legs as seen in this Tutorial: http://www.angryanimator.com/word/2010/11/26/tutorial-2-walk-cycle/

This isn't just a human gait thing, it's actually needed to maintain balance.  It's one of the reasons Japan had such a heck of a time creating walking robots (the other being that we're always making microadjustments to balance as we walk, but I digress.)

[sevinkydink]

@milokey - Great Catch!  Stare at something too long and you miss the obvious things I suppose 

Updated with the arms reversed.  The motion feels a little off and snappy or just maybe the arms are swinging too far not sure.  Thanks for the input though!

[HarveyDentMustDie]

I looks off, because elbow is in the same place during whole animation. Personally I don't like arm swing. Try to imagine that this is humanoid robot, a perfect machine, and you don't have to apply all human characteristics (btw no human swings his arms like that ).

I still have the impression that robot walks diagonally, and it's definitely because his whole body (not just his torso) is in 3/4 perspective view. I agree that still animation should be in 3/4 view, but maybe he should walk more sideways, cause after all this is 2D.

[PixelPiledriver]

Some thoughts:



You've reversed the high and low point of the walk.
Not a bad thing, helps him be more unique.
Just be aware and make sure to control it and be consistent.