AuthorTopic: [C+C] Muscular Enemy Idle, Running (WIP)  (Read 3191 times)

Offline mzn528

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[C+C] Muscular Enemy Idle, Running (WIP)

on: February 10, 2015, 05:02:32 pm
First time using a canvas that is not 32*32, the arm/muscle/shading is a real pain. I know there are a lot of things can be done to improve this, please let me know!!!!

The reason why it looks so weird, btw, is because I am trying to have no outlines to fit the style of my other game asset better.

Idle:


Running


Please C+C and let me know what I can do to improve, thanks Pixelation!
« Last Edit: February 10, 2015, 05:07:22 pm by mzn528 »
Noob Game Dev and Pixel Artist - Twitter @mzn528

Current Game: Soul Appeaser, an ARPG inspired by Dark Souls and Berserk (the manga yes)
DevLog here

Offline Johasu

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Re: [C+C] Muscular Enemy Idle, Running (WIP)

Reply #1 on: February 10, 2015, 06:29:02 pm
You have really exaggerated the swing of his body.  He is turning his shoulders in so much when he brings an arm forward it's like he is twisting his entire body as he runs.
It looks uncomfortable.  One arm is swinging up all the way to his face/eye level and the other is more around his chest/neck.

on the Idle stance I think your shoulder looks funny with that long flat line of pixels that drops off at a sharp corner.  Maybe bring that in a pixel or too to round it more.
The back arm seems really straight and offset compared to the arm closer to the viewer.
Your chest muscles are pulling completely in rather than expanding and retracting.  It seems like a lot of movement for that muscle group.  Especially with the complete shifting of the group to the left and right as he cycles his breath.

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Offline mzn528

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Re: [C+C] Muscular Enemy Idle, Running (WIP)

Reply #2 on: February 10, 2015, 11:17:09 pm
Thanks for the reply Johasu! I will lower the arm a little bit and fix the turning, I was trying to exaggerate the motion a little bit but I think I overdid it..

As for the idle animation, I think I see the issues you mentioned, on my way to fix it now, thank you so much!
Noob Game Dev and Pixel Artist - Twitter @mzn528

Current Game: Soul Appeaser, an ARPG inspired by Dark Souls and Berserk (the manga yes)
DevLog here

Offline Iceaxe

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Re: [C+C] Muscular Enemy Idle, Running (WIP)

Reply #3 on: February 11, 2015, 02:49:55 am
I think you've done an awesome job of animating him so far, while the movement is very over the top i think it has a certain character to it. I like that you have animated his whole body moving when he runs, maybe just lighten up the arm at the back? Looks like someone else's arm. :P You've also formed his body well but the bulkiness in his idle doesn't seem to match the bulkiness in his running. I went ahead and did a quick edit of the first frame of his idle:



I changed his skin color palette to define his muscles a little more and used the shape of a later frame for his shoulder and arm positions as he looks bulkier that way. I think that if you used that as his base frame instead and then animated from there he will look more buff and less stretched upwards. I also moved his pecs up as his pecs probably shouldn't be hanging so low and also added a little edging around where his abs would be. Also smoothed out his shoulders a bit and added a couple pixels on his left arm (on the right).

The most important thing I changed though was his hands. They kinda looked like a confused mess of pixels and I gave them some shape. When ever I do hands, especially when it's a fist, I focus on the direction the fingers flow a use the lightest color to create that direction and the darker colors to define the "holes" or concave parts of the hand.

For some example on hands, while they might not be very good, below are some animations I did a while ago (the last one is supposed to be him treading water). I think the hands are best defined in the jumping and the swimming where you can see closed fist from different angles and open hand from different angles.









I hope some of this helps!  ;D

Offline mzn528

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Re: [C+C] Muscular Enemy Idle, Running (WIP)

Reply #4 on: February 11, 2015, 04:21:29 am
Iceaxe! First, thank you so much for your reply! This is my first 64*64 sized canvas so I am really excited about it!

I made the back arm darker just for my own reference, I will change it soon since it really looks like I put someone else's arm on him lol. Thank you so much for the edit, I did those two animation separately so they do seem a bit different haha.

And you pointed out the thing that confused me the most, the damn fist, with a canvas this small I was really struggling to define it so I just went "f it I will give you a bunch of pixel, deal with it". But now with your suggestion I can really see a good way of doing that!

I really like your examples! What's the canvas size for those btw?
Noob Game Dev and Pixel Artist - Twitter @mzn528

Current Game: Soul Appeaser, an ARPG inspired by Dark Souls and Berserk (the manga yes)
DevLog here

Offline Iceaxe

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Re: [C+C] Muscular Enemy Idle, Running (WIP)

Reply #5 on: February 11, 2015, 08:37:02 am
No Worries! ;D It's good to know that my response was useful.

As for my dude, the canvas would have only been 64x64. I remember him being around 50-60 pixels tall.

Offline Decroded

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Re: [C+C] Muscular Enemy Idle, Running (WIP)

Reply #6 on: February 13, 2015, 10:56:16 pm
a few small fixes will make a big difference.
for the frames where arm is most forward extended, simply bring the whole shoulder and arm piece back a few pixels.
then curle the hand slightly towards the body.

now the arm motion is too regular and needs more slow-in slow-out. This is easily achieved by taking the frame where arm just starts to move forward from the most back position and move the hand right back to only a couple of pixels forward of the most extended frame rather than being by his side.
similarly with the next frame push the hand right near the most front extended frame.

I would say focus on getting that right first and we'll see how it looks.
I also don't like the shape of the legs, try less sudden jump from chunky to stick and see how bottom of legs look with 2 pixel thickness.