[WIP] Knight Character

[Roach]

Cool hit animation! I don't think he should slide so much, it kind of looks like he's on a mario ice level. But that's just me.

[Neophos]

To me that animation looks more like he's scared than he's being hit.

Take, for example, Alucard from SotN: http://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/3228/

His small actions, walking, crouching, are generally very smooth with small changes in each sprite between frames, while the larger actions, attacking, getting hit, have bigger, more exaggerated changes to emphasize the power.

[Rhino]

To me that animation looks more like he's scared than he's being hit.

Take, for example, Alucard from SotN: http://www.spriters-resource.com/fullview/3228/

His small actions, walking, crouching, are generally very smooth with small changes in each sprite between frames, while the larger actions, attacking, getting hit, have bigger, more exaggerated changes to emphasize the power.

Alucard has been my reference ever since I started spriting this character haha. I'm planning on creating the attacking animation pretty similar to SoTN's. It's gonna be pretty tricky, though.

I made a quick edit on the hurt animation:



Also, I create an idle animation:



Fast version:



Working on the hair was pretty hard, I must say. Not really sure if it is correct.

Animating clothing is also pretty hard. Sometimes I get very confused whether I'm doing it correctly or not.

[Roach]

On his idle animation I don't think the pixels on his shoulder should move at all. it makes it look like his armor is blowing in the wind like some sword of slime, it takes away from the property of the metal being solid.

[Decroded]

I like the style of this sprite, makes me wanna do several variation edits.

I have a bit to say about improving these animations but I don't have computer access today.
Unfortunately gifs just do NOT play smoothly on my phone so I can't tell exactly what I'm looking at but one thing I'll say though is one I've roughed in an animation (and even as I'm working) and the basic motion feels right, I like to review to look for isolated pixels or groups of pixels that flicker on and off again too fast I.e. Only one frame.

While it made sense in slow-mo to do whatever caused the flicker and that frame alone looks good, i find the effect in real time is distracting and detracts from overall quality (unless obviously its one of those few cases where flickering really was the intention).

other question about what actions need more frames is the wrong question imo.
just do the actions first.
imo don't spend long on each one, do it fast and rough to block in the keyframes and post here I'd say.
and dont paint every detail as ur working or it will really hinder u and make for much repeated work and time wasted.
don't worry about the tweening, working without it is going to free u up to be more exaggerated.
Once u have good keyframes the tweening is generally straight forward especially if ur getting good feedback here.

[Rhino]

I like the style of this sprite, makes me wanna do several variation edits.

I have a bit to say about improving these animations but I don't have computer access today.
Unfortunately gifs just do NOT play smoothly on my phone so I can't tell exactly what I'm looking at but one thing I'll say though is one I've roughed in an animation (and even as I'm working) and the basic motion feels right, I like to review to look for isolated pixels or groups of pixels that flicker on and off again too fast I.e. Only one frame.

While it made sense in slow-mo to do whatever caused the flicker and that frame alone looks good, i find the effect in real time is distracting and detracts from overall quality (unless obviously its one of those few cases where flickering really was the intention).

other question about what actions need more frames is the wrong question imo.
just do the actions first.
imo don't spend long on each one, do it fast and rough to block in the keyframes and post here I'd say.
and dont paint every detail as ur working or it will really hinder u and make for much repeated work and time wasted.
don't worry about the tweening, working without it is going to free u up to be more exaggerated.
Once u have good keyframes the tweening is generally straight forward especially if ur getting good feedback here.

Interesting points, I've never really considered that. When spriting, I like to do work hard on some of the details, especially if the sprite has a lot of them (which is the case). As I said, Alucard has been my reference ever since the beginning, and his sprites are simply awesome. They are very smooth and detailed, despite being small. I'm trying to get close to his spriting style: "small" sprites with nice changes between each frames.

Anyway, thanks for the post, it's was really really useful.

Btw, here's the most recent version of the idle animation (changed a few pixels haha):



What do you guys think?

I think I might start working on a running sprite for him on the next few days, but I'm not really sure where to start. Any ideas?

I do have a few running sprites I created a few months ago that I may use as a reference, although running cycles are a pain in the ass to work with imo haha.

[tpendle]

I think what Rhino said above about the shoulder holds true about the leg armor too, especially the shins. It is clearly metal yet seems to flap in the wind with the same looseness as the cloth..

Otherwise a very impressive sprite

[Rhino]

I think what Rhino said above about the shoulder holds true about the leg armor too, especially the shins. It is clearly metal yet seems to flap in the wind with the same looseness as the cloth..

Otherwise a very impressive sprite

Thank you! I really appreciate that!

I changed a lot of pixels this time and fixed the metal part. Here it is:



Quick question: would it be a good idea to shade the metal parts on the idle animation?

[Neophos]

I think it looks a tad unnatural that the cloth blows back but when it goes forward again, it stops at the lowest point. If the animation was slower or happened less often and had a reaction flowing from the first gust, then I think it would look better.

Kinda like Chun Li's idle in SF3 (http://zweifuss.ca/chun-li/chun-li.htm).

[Roach]

Quick question: would it be a good idea to shade the metal parts on the idle animation?

I personally don't think so no. It doesn't really make sense as to where the shadow is being cast from for me.
I think it would look better to not have any moving pixels on the metal, unless his body was turning in the shoulders, hips, or legs, there should't be any variation of light on it. It can again, take away the illusion of it being solid. That's just my opinion though.