Character animations for NES game

[PsylentKnight]

Don't use the URL in the address bar. Right click image, select "copy image URL" from the context menu, then paste between the image tags.

[Joe]

Yea the src on your image is a .gifv. Foolproof way, I do it every time: once uploaded, to the right is a "share this image", I just click the button to copy the bbcode for forums, paste it, boom.

Anyway on the animation, I think there needs to be more follow-through. Too quick, not enough impact.

[Julito98]

 Pretty cool man!, i love retro style sprites, good luck with your project and nothing else to say.

[ErekT]

Very nice, very nice. You got a bright future if this is your first anim attempt

Anyway, that doesn't matter too much because what I'm really looking for is help in getting good at animating. It will be easier to cut things down to good dimensions for my medium if I start out with an ideal animation.

So, this animation includes 3 different attacks, forward, forward up, and straight up. I think I may make the forward up animation strike a little higher so it's hitbox doesn't overlap as much with the regular attack, but beyond that, I'm about to the point that I don't know how else to improve these.

Yeh, I think it's a good idea to heighten the hit range more, both for forward and forward-up. She could lean more into the attacks for more sense of dynamics and power. And shouldn't she be facing whatever it is she's hitting while hitting it?

[darryl.revok]

And shouldn't she be facing whatever it is she's hitting while hitting it?

This has been something I've been struggling with for a while. On one hand, yes, it would make a lot more sense if she was looking forward while attacking forward. On the other hand, if her head doesn't turn, the animation feels a lot less active. So far I've stuck with what I've got now because it looked the best in motion, but there's probably some middle ground that I haven't figured out yet.

Additionally, I've found myself limited in how many positions I can draw her head and it look okay. If I try to tilt it or turn it the wrong way it turns into an alien looking head...

She could lean more into the attacks for more sense of dynamics and power.

Are you sure? I could try it, but I've done the same motion and my hips don't really even move as much as hers. Plus if she moved more, she'd be beyond the position of her hitbox, which I suppose could be addressed but I don't intend for her actual in game position to move during this attack.

I think there needs to be more follow-through. Too quick, not enough impact.

How so? If her point of contact is dead ahead, she actually swings about 90 degrees past that, but she also turns her head to look in the direction of the player, which throws it off. There may be something I could do with the animation to make it more impactful but I also have to balance it for gameplay. Currently, if she doesn't strike again immediately before sheathing, there's a pretty long cooldown after the attack. I'm afraid that any longer may frustrate gamers.

So are you going to make more animations for this character?

Yes, I am. I'm not sure what the full moveset will be for each character, but I have currently planned 20 characters. With all of the animations and background tiles, it's going to be a challenge to pack everything I intend to into the 256 KB CHR space of an MMC3 cartridge.

I also decided to post a couple animations I've been messing with for other characters. These may be a bit more rough but as before any feedback would be appreciated.

Thank you all very much for your suggestions thus far.

[BatElite]

And shouldn't she be facing whatever it is she's hitting while hitting it?

This has been something I've been struggling with for a while. On one hand, yes, it would make a lot more sense if she was looking forward while attacking forward. On the other hand, if her head doesn't turn, the animation feels a lot less active.

Maybe you should try switching the head frames around, and see if that helps.

The part at the end moving the arm back into it's original position looks weird. The same goes for the original animations; There seems to be some effort getting from the end of a slash to the idle pose, whereas I would expect a fighter to maintain a pose that attacks easily flow back into. You might want to find a way to smoothen that out.