(C + C + ADVICE/HELP) running animation

[guu]

Hi there,

 I'm new here, but not very new to pixel art. Saying that, I couldn't say that I am particularly confident with my work as it's something I don't practice on a regular basis.
Anyways, I've been getting back into it and trying to get some animation going too. I seem to be having a bit of a problem with this walking animation. I would like to get some advice on the legs for the moment as I feel this is the most crucial. I'm feeling pretty daunted by the idea of going back into it to figure out what to add/ remove/ change... I'm feeling pretty lost. I've looked at it and swapped over frames countless times to try and figure what I need to add to have this look nicer.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to get this run looking smoother, i'm all ears as this guy is looking pretty funny right now!
Thanks in advance, and I look forward to hearing

nice one,

guuu

[Iceaxe]

Hi guu,

For starters your character looks pretty cool and I love that you've got his head looking very 3D so nice work on that. Proportions are also looking good, only thing that I can see is that his left arm looks a little bit short.

As for the animation I would say you got a good skeleton to work from at the moment you just need to think a bit more about the flow and motion of this guy. You seem like you're trying to avoid having one leg directly behind one another and my first piece of advise is DON'T. The point at which the legs cross paths is one of the most important steps of a running/walking animation. It's what we like to call a "key frame". For a run/walk cycle there are 2 extremely important key frames, the legs crossing over and the legs being hyper extended (at the peak of their motion). To better illustrate what I'm talking about here's a tutorial that explains a lot about this topic: http://www.manningkrull.com/pixel-art/walking.php

The other thing is that his arms are out of sync with his legs making them look really crazy. Arms move opposite to the leg on the same side of the body during a run, so if your right leg is forward your right arm will be back, kinda thing.

Anyway, hope that helps!

Peace

[guu]

Thanks so much for critique and info! I'll be sure to check that tutorial and post up my progress.
Definitely hearing you about the arms too haha, I'll be sure try and clean that up too.
Thanks again, and thanks for the kind words!