AuthorTopic: [WIP] Character Animations (Need Critiques)  (Read 9672 times)

Offline Akhirat

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 12
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Dreamer
    • View Profile

[WIP] Character Animations (Need Critiques)

on: April 20, 2014, 09:26:20 am
Hello again, everyone.
I had another topic about a fountain in a forest to see if there were any critiques to it, and then i'd put it into my game.
But the thing is, I needed animations for my character before everything. So I stopped making the scenary and I started making the character animations
Now, I need critiques on it. I'm really new to this animation thing, and I really need critiques to get to understand it better, and to make the animation better, too.

Before everything, this is a "2D Up-To-Down" graphics game. I really don't know how to call it, but it's basically RPG Maker's perspective, and it has 8 direction movement with sprites for only 4 directions (I think thats enough sprites)

So, here are my animations:

Ryan Attack Combo [WIP]
This one has 14 frames. 7 for one attack, and 7 for the second combo one.


Ryan Walk To the Right (Sorry for the background. I made this GIF in a program and the opacity was bugging the gif, so I just added a pink background)
Here I used 13 frames. I wanted a smooth walking animation, so I just did this.


Sorry if my english is bad. I'm not a native speaker. And thanks for reading
« Last Edit: April 21, 2014, 02:13:05 am by Akhirat »
- "Dreams are what keeps us awake"

Offline jams0988

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 346
  • Karma: +0/-1
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Character Animations (Need Critiques)

Reply #1 on: April 20, 2014, 11:48:38 pm
Quote
I really don't know how to call it, but it's basically RPG Maker's Hyper Light Drifter's graphics, and it has 8 direction movement with sprites for only 4 directions (I think thats enough sprites)
Fixed. X'D
Not that being inspired by something is a bad thing, but it might be a little too obvious in this case...
For the attack animation, I can't tell what it is he's doing, sadly. Is that his head down near his stomach? That's what it's reading as, but his sword is above where his head should normally be, so it must be his stomach that's showing, right? You have a blue head with a white headband, and a blue stomach with a white belt, so it's a little hard to tell what's going on with such fast movement. Maybe try a different color for his tunic to fix that? =)

For the walking animation, it looks like his feet are just teleporting around, instead of him walking. I can't get my walk cycle to look correct, either, but a good reference is the Animator's Survival Kit. It has a bunch of basic walk cycles in it. For now, maybe making his back leg darker would make it easier to spot the problems?

Offline Decroded

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1285
  • Karma: +3/-0
  • Oh hai
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Character Animations (Need Critiques)

Reply #2 on: April 21, 2014, 01:05:46 am
Timed close to similar thread http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=16527.0

Anyway the perspective is wrong it looks more like a sidescroller.
Refer to more rpg sprite and see what they do with the feet.

Its weird how he ends the sword animation with sword right up in the air.
Try animating the walk in blocks of colour with no detail (to free you up) and get a good motion before you build up all these details.

Offline Akhirat

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 12
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Dreamer
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Character Animations (Need Critiques)

Reply #3 on: April 21, 2014, 02:08:24 am
Quote
I really don't know how to call it, but it's basically RPG Maker's Hyper Light Drifter's graphics, and it has 8 direction movement with sprites for only 4 directions (I think thats enough sprites)
Fixed. X'D
Not that being inspired by something is a bad thing, but it might be a little too obvious in this case...
For the attack animation, I can't tell what it is he's doing, sadly. Is that his head down near his stomach? That's what it's reading as, but his sword is above where his head should normally be, so it must be his stomach that's showing, right? You have a blue head with a white headband, and a blue stomach with a white belt, so it's a little hard to tell what's going on with such fast movement. Maybe try a different color for his tunic to fix that? =)

For the walking animation, it looks like his feet are just teleporting around, instead of him walking. I can't get my walk cycle to look correct, either, but a good reference is the Animator's Survival Kit. It has a bunch of basic walk cycles in it. For now, maybe making his back leg darker would make it easier to spot the problems?
Timed close to similar thread http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=16527.0

Anyway the perspective is wrong it looks more like a sidescroller.
Refer to more rpg sprite and see what they do with the feet.

Its weird how he ends the sword animation with sword right up in the air.
Try animating the walk in blocks of colour with no detail (to free you up) and get a good motion before you build up all these details.
Yes, I was inspired by Hyper Light Drifter :p, and I really liked the style and wanted to keep it for my pixel art, but I'm too bad at pixel art yet, so I couldn't make my own style with it...

About the walking animation now. Now that you say it, it really looks strange. I'm gonna try what you said. (and what Decroded said, too).

And the attack animation. It's actually his head going near his stomach, but the color under the head is the pants' color, so it looks strange. I'll try to fix that. And the reason that the second attack stops in mid air is because it isn't finished (as I stated WIP), I'll do another combo finisher next (and probably give more frames to the animation)

About the perspective, now. Is the reason because it looks a sidescroller is because there's no shading at all? And I'll try the idea about making the walk in blocks of colour with no detail. It looks like it's gonna make things easier!
Any hints on how to make the animations/sprites better? (other than chaning the colors)
And should I change the style of the art?
(And it's not a headband. It's actually headphones, haha)

Thanks!
« Last Edit: April 21, 2014, 04:04:42 am by Akhirat »
- "Dreams are what keeps us awake"

Offline Rosier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 477
  • Karma: +1/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Character Animations (Need Critiques)

Reply #4 on: April 21, 2014, 02:22:27 am
Timed close to similar thread http://wayofthepixel


Ohaither

But if you want to go HLD inspired, I've learned that a smaller scale wouldn't hurt.  I see the beginning of pretty good animations, but if you want to learn how to improve them, working on smaller animations is far simpler and easier to perfect.

Offline lachrymose

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 345
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Character Animations (Need Critiques)

Reply #5 on: April 21, 2014, 02:52:28 am
Pretty sure RPG maker uses a top down orthographic projection.
-EDIT-

For some reason I had 2.5D projection in my head. Disregard.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2014, 03:07:47 am by lachrymose »

Offline Akhirat

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 12
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Dreamer
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Character Animations (Need Critiques)

Reply #6 on: April 21, 2014, 03:37:13 am
Pretty sure RPG maker uses a top down orthographic projection.
-EDIT-

For some reason I had 2.5D projection in my head. Disregard.

Haha. I was going to tell you that just now.
Well, thanks for trying to help, at least.


Timed close to similar thread http://wayofthepixel


Ohaither

But if you want to go HLD inspired, I've learned that a smaller scale wouldn't hurt.  I see the beginning of pretty good animations, but if you want to learn how to improve them, working on smaller animations is far simpler and easier to perfect.

Can you give me an example of scale size? Thanks.


Timed close to similar thread http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?topic=16527.0

Anyway the perspective is wrong it looks more like a sidescroller.
Refer to more rpg sprite and see what they do with the feet.

Its weird how he ends the sword animation with sword right up in the air.
Try animating the walk in blocks of colour with no detail (to free you up) and get a good motion before you build up all these details.

Quote
I really don't know how to call it, but it's basically RPG Maker's Hyper Light Drifter's graphics, and it has 8 direction movement with sprites for only 4 directions (I think thats enough sprites)
Fixed. X'D
Not that being inspired by something is a bad thing, but it might be a little too obvious in this case...
For the attack animation, I can't tell what it is he's doing, sadly. Is that his head down near his stomach? That's what it's reading as, but his sword is above where his head should normally be, so it must be his stomach that's showing, right? You have a blue head with a white headband, and a blue stomach with a white belt, so it's a little hard to tell what's going on with such fast movement. Maybe try a different color for his tunic to fix that? =)

For the walking animation, it looks like his feet are just teleporting around, instead of him walking. I can't get my walk cycle to look correct, either, but a good reference is the Animator's Survival Kit. It has a bunch of basic walk cycles in it. For now, maybe making his back leg darker would make it easier to spot the problems?
I took a screenshot from in-game, to show how the perspective is for now (please don't mind the background, I just put some objects there to test them)


Is it really that strange? I really thought it was natural..
Anyways, what can I do to make the perspective look better, then? (I'm working on the walking animation and sword animation already, too)
Thanks!
- "Dreams are what keeps us awake"

Offline Rosier

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 477
  • Karma: +1/-0
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Character Animations (Need Critiques)

Reply #7 on: April 21, 2014, 04:08:53 am
The one facing the right (The bottom right one) should have the body more facing the side.  Right now it looks like he's showing his torso to the screen while his head is facing the side.

As for size, look at the videos and weapon animations.  The one you have should look a bit more like that. Try shrinking your animations by half, then improving them before doubling their size again.

Offline Decroded

  • 0100
  • ***
  • Posts: 1285
  • Karma: +3/-0
  • Oh hai
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Character Animations (Need Critiques)

Reply #8 on: April 21, 2014, 05:13:29 am
And the attack animation. It's actually his head going near his stomach, but the color under the head is the pants' color, so it looks strange. I'll try to fix that. And the reason that the second attack stops in mid air is because it isn't finished (as I stated WIP), I'll do another combo finisher next (and probably give more frames to the animation)
Oh lol ok.
I'm having trouble reading what he is doing at that point there's lots of black stuff up the top which looks like it shouldn't be there.
Its also confusing to just replace the blue head with similar shaped black stuff then just slam the head down very quickly like that.
Does he switch from two handed to single handed for the second attack?


Perspective of feet is where you should start.
They shouldn't line up with each other horizontally.
Study some references as suggested.

Offline Akhirat

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 12
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Dreamer
    • View Profile

Re: [WIP] Character Animations (Need Critiques)

Reply #9 on: April 21, 2014, 06:01:30 am
And the attack animation. It's actually his head going near his stomach, but the color under the head is the pants' color, so it looks strange. I'll try to fix that. And the reason that the second attack stops in mid air is because it isn't finished (as I stated WIP), I'll do another combo finisher next (and probably give more frames to the animation)
Oh lol ok.
I'm having trouble reading what he is doing at that point there's lots of black stuff up the top which looks like it shouldn't be there.
Its also confusing to just replace the blue head with similar shaped black stuff then just slam the head down very quickly like that.
Does he switch from two handed to single handed for the second attack?


Perspective of feet is where you should start.
They shouldn't line up with each other horizontally.
Study some references as suggested.

He's actually one handed in both attacks, but I didn't put to show the second hand. And the "black stuff", is his "coat", it's pretty hard to manage a coat, but I'll try to fix the wrong allignments. I'm working on the sword animation now.
And, here's my new walk animation. I tried to fix the perspective, as everyone said! And I'm really thankful for all your attention.



The one facing the right (The bottom right one) should have the body more facing the side.  Right now it looks like he's showing his torso to the screen while his head is facing the side.

As for size, look at the videos and weapon animations.  The one you have should look a bit more like that. Try shrinking your animations by half, then improving them before doubling their size again.

I really didn't understand much about the scale you said. But I think I shortened the horizontal/width(?) scale in this new sprite I created. Is it better?


Is the perspective right, now? And what else should I fix?
Thanks!
(Working on the sword animation now, as I said!)
- "Dreams are what keeps us awake"