Simple Windmill

[BadMoodTaylor]

Any feedback appreciated

[spO_oks]

Looks good! Could maybe up the contrast between the 3 different windmill colours.  The colour choices feel a bit dull too, but it still looks nice.

[BadMoodTaylor]

Re-did the colors and first attempt at animating (not sure how to avoid it transforming/deforming at different angles)

[MysteryMeat]

(not sure how to avoid it transforming/deforming at different angles)

Unfortunately not much choice but to redraw them frame by frame.

[BadMoodTaylor]

(not sure how to avoid it transforming/deforming at different angles)

Unfortunately not much choice but to redraw them frame by frame.

I did redraw the windmill each frame. I'm talking about 1 pixel width horizontal looks thicker than 1 pixel width diagonal

[questseeker]

• The windmill is spinning the wrong way. The sails should follow the wooden arms.
• The windmill body shouldn't be a cone: the upper portion where the arms are connected to gears is a separate piece that can spin around to align itself with the wind, about as wide as the base or wider.
• In the frame with vertical and horizontal arms, I think omitting the border of the trailing edge of the sail would result in better compatibility with the other frames.
• The antialiasing seems irregular. All pixels of the arms and all pixels of the sails should be the same colour, respectively lightened to give the same apparent arm thickness, and exactly identical, compared to the colours in the frame with horizontal and vertical arms.
• In oblique frames, sails are deformed from rectangles to parallelograms and the sharp corner at the end of the arms disappears. The current 50% stippled transparent sails impose an unacceptable amount of 45° features at such a small size: why don't you try a more realistic style with off-white solid sails?

[BadMoodTaylor]

Wow, thanks for all the comments—so many on such a little piece.

Let me respond one by one but first mention that the animation was an afterthought.  I wasn't sure if it would animate well but tried for practice and to see if it could:

• Corrected that below.  Was in a rush to finish the first animation (made me late for a meeting!)
• I attached the image I used as reference.  It may not be as much of a cone as I have made it and the top piece does not protrude much.  I would also implore you to try an edit in regards to these remarks.  It's one thing to say these changes should be made but it's another thing to make the changes and keep the integrity.  For example at such a small sized piece making the upper portion one additional pixel in size can make it look irregular.
• Gave it a try—looks better to me
• This was in attempts to keep the width consistent looking.  Again, you may want to try an edit to prove your point.  I added the antialiasing because it didn't look right to me without it
• I'm not 100% sure I follow exactly but believe I do.  I agree with you that it deforms and not sure how it could be fixed.  As for choosing a different style that would be my normal though too.  But I wanted to try and do it in case it could be done.  If so it could change my thinking (so I'm not incorrectly thinking things are impossible) and either way I learned more than if I didn't do it.  Like I said, the piece is just for practice and the animation an afterthought.  Would like to know if an animation could be well done from the OP

Thanks again for the comments.  Don't think that any disagreement above means I don't appreciate your time to comment.

[BadMoodTaylor]

Another edit to take away all of the bulk on the back of the sails.  Still deforms but attracts less attention IMO.  Maybe try an edit on the to stop the front from deforming as much?

[BadMoodTaylor]

• The windmill body shouldn't be a cone...

Also, I think I like it as cone because it reminds me of the honeycomb from Mario 3 

[questseeker]

Regarding your reference photograph, it shows frames without sails because it isn't operational. If the windmill spins, it should have sails.
For example, no further than Wikipedia, a Dutch-style "smock mill" of the sort I had in mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windmill#/media/File:Goliath_Poldermolen.jpg and a tower-like one, more similar to your reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_Foster_Windmill#/media/File:Skirbeck,_Boston,_Maud_Foster_Mill.jpg