The Wanderer - WIP / CC / Animation & Sprites

[Neirda]

Hello dear community !

I'm currently working on " The Wanderer ", a game tribute to " The Road " with a FTL like gameplay made by Endgame Studio

Here the first background I've make some weeks ago :




My new piece will be the opener of the kickstarter video, the main character will walk under a rainy post apocalyptic landscape

The Step by step of the character ( WIP ) :

 

I try to be the most realistic as possible with my pixel art, I've follow the 7 heads/body rules as you can see, but many aspect still clumsy
I will appreciate a lot if you have any feedbacks about the morphology, perspective, his legs who looks uncorrect,  the colors tones, patterns , the lighting etc etc..

The last one at 400 % -> ( the backpack is horrible if you have any idea how to make look it better )


 
By the way if you any realistic walking animations sprites to share I'm not agaisnt ; )

Thanks WayofthePixel and sorry for my foreigner english

Best regards.

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

The arms should reach down about halfway down his thigh. Remember his feet should have heels and extend back from the ankle a little bit.

Looking pretty good so far! 

[Neirda]

Thank a lot Mr.fahrenheit !

Here an edit following your pipes :

 

And a squeletton rig of animation : ( EDIT : He need to look kinda exhausted, not a classic citizen walking animation )

* Red : Closer elements of the sprites
* Dark Red : Back members  in " shadow "
* Pink Grey : Things hidden behind the body
* Light Blue : First frame of looping



This is the first time a try to animate a walking dude, the loop don't work really well, and the arms movement seem uncorrect too.

I was wondering if the first cycle is okay to loop because I start with a 45* rotation and while watching myself in the mirror my right arm naturally follow the right leg when I turn on myself, but when I walk that totally the opposite U_u ...

Any advice ?

[Gil]

I was wondering if the first cycle is okay to loop because I start with a 45* rotation and while watching myself in the mirror my right arm naturally follow the right leg when I turn on myself, but when I walk that totally the opposite U_u ...

You can't loop it like that. People don't walk like that. What you need is two animations, one that goes from idle to walking and a walking animation.

[Neirda]

Yeah I understand better why I wasn't satisfied, Thanks Gil ! After thinking a bit the rotation is not essential, I will start with the animation you are right.

Animation is a real job, the better way for a realistic animation is following the master's tutorials and copy it I guess, I've discover this great website :

http://bestanimationbooks.com/animation/the-passing-motion

I have a few questions dear community :

- Do you think start with the 4 main keyframe is a good workflow for pixel art animation ?
- Do you advice me to make an other rig based on the exemple or animate directly my character without highlights  ?
- Any tips for make look the character exhausted while walking ?
- Something still wrong about my character ?

Latest Version :



EDIT : animated with 4 keyframe latest animation ->



Thanks everyone !

[Gil]

- Do you think start with the 4 main keyframe is a good workflow for pixel art animation ?

For a sprite this big, yes. Start with keyframes, then make tweens. Basically, your sprite is big enough that you need to apply all traditional 2D animation techniques.

- Do you advice me to make an other rig based on the exemple or animate directly my character without highlights  ?

I don't get this question, can you rephrase it?

- Any tips for make look the character exhausted while walking ?

Yeah, main things seem to be 1) Minimal to almost no arm movement. The more the arms hang limp, the more exhausted a character seems. 2) Hunch him over. The head goes down, the back is arched.
Here's a good example:

For the walk itself, turn it into a shamble, this is hard to explain, so maybe look up some examples (not sure, Animator's Survival Kit might have some).

- Something still wrong about my character ?

I'm not a super fan of how you shaded him, but it works. If you're going to animate him all the way, we really can't fret over the shading in each frame, so I'd say it's more than good enough right now.

[dustinaux]

Your background looks amazing.

For your 4-frame walk animation what stands out to me is when he sets his left foot down, his entire body is lower than when his right foot is down (I'm watching the top of the head).  For a side angle, these heights should be the same, otherwise it kind of looks like he is limping on an injured left leg.

[Neirda]

- Do you advice me to make an other rig based on the exemple or animate directly my character without highlights  ?

I don't get this question, can you rephrase it?

Sorry, I was meaning " The better way is doing this 4 keyframes with a skeleton again or directly with the character ( but I have choose the second option as you can see and even add highlights )

Anyway Thanks a lot @Gil

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@Dustinaux, Thanks for compliments, actually I've follow the exemple, the head is lower in this frame that maybe to much for a pixel art animation ( need subpixel ? )

If the left leg look injured that not bad at all, He must need to be tired of walking everyday searching stuffs in desolated city.

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- I will animate the entire cycle with 12 frames  1 + ( 2,3 ) + 4 + (5,6 ) + 7 + ( 8,9 ) + 10 + ( 11,12 ) ... the numbers without ( ) are the actual keyframes

- My biggest question now is " do I need to think about how make him tired now with armless movements and everything " or  " make a correct entire animation cycle with the twelves frames based on the master's exemple for being sure to not do mistake ? "

[astraldata]

I would suggest going with what you've got, though I would suggest if your animation program has layers, definitely use those for the limbs!

For a sprite this big, I'd use Graphics Gale + rotation/touchup for animations and stick with a side view like this for most animations to transition into and out of. It always helps to have a base pose that all your other animations will be based around, and usually this tends to be the most complex pose of all -- the walk -- which transitions easily to the stand, which transitions to all other animations while keeping in mind the walk (assuming you're going to use this walk for most of the game of course).