Tezca's 8-bit Style Sprite

[Tezca]

I'm working on a game project and I'm trying to improve my pixel art skills.

This is the hero character of the game. I initially tried to stay within the NES limits and came up with this character, using only black and 2 shades of grey. The NES tile sizes are 16x16, so this character is 16x32.



I tried staying within the limits of the NES when applying color (3 colors max from the 64 color palette) but I couldn't  find a color scheme I was satisfied with under those restrictions. I cheated, went way over the limit and colored my character like this:



I decided to cheat the NES limits further and make the character taller than the initial 16x32 sprite, mainly because I needed to add the spearhead to the top of his staff. I also started doing some animations.

Idle and Walk:


Duck and Duck Walk:


Attack:


Duck Attack:


I'm having trouble making a convincing jump animation though. The cape makes my previous attempts look unconvincing when the sprite is actually in motion in the game. I initially just used one of the frames from the Duck animation, it definitely doesn't look right in action:



I may have to create two sets of animations for the jump; One for when hes jumping up, and one for when he's falling down. The cape would react accordingly.

I haven't shown this hero character to many people, so any thoughts or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Rydin]

Subtle observation on the attacking motions.

When you lean forwards with a sharp long weapon it comes off as being delicate, careful, like inquisitive prodding.

When you lean backwards with a sharp long weapon it comes off as a motion of urgent self defense. The entire primal reason of putting a knife on a stick is the fear of being too close to what you intent to stab.

A courageous / foolish man with nothing to lose uses a knife to get in close to the action. The wise / careful man uses a spear to keep a safe, yet effective distance from the action.

These are things to think about while animating this character. How to breathe the correct intentions into the character's posture?   

[Tezca]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I was thinking of redoing the attack animation for other reasons as well. For example, when I tried the animation in-game, the way the lance travels in a 45 degree arc looks like the hero is making a sweeping attack (like in Link to the Past) instead of a completely straight horizontal attack. When I start the process of updating the animation, I'll try to make him appear more cautious/defensive as well.

[BadMoodTaylor]

I wonder if repeating the second frame at the end would make it look horizontal instead of sweeping.

So if you are just doing frame 1->2->3->(1 or idle/other animation) do 1->2->3->2->(1 or idle/other animation)

[Tezca]

So I forgot to update this thread, I actually updated the attack animation but forgot to post it here. Thanks for the feedback, I think it looks much better.



There is a problem with this animation in terms of the game mechanics. The animation is much more convincing than before. The character looks much more aggressive and dangerous, plus there is no longer the illusion of a sweeping attack. However, the character steps forward quite a bit, which means I now have to account for the collision box every time he attacks. In the previous animation, the position of the collision box remained the same in the idle, walk and attack animations. Now, the collision box has to be re positioned since the character steps forward with his attack. This can cause issues when you attack near a wall, as your character will jerk to a new position. Additionally, players might accidentally bump into the enemy when they try to attack them up close, since the character now steps forward.

I think I'll try to find a middle ground where the character doesn't step forward but still maintains that aggressive look. 

And on an unrelated note: Zombie. Still need to animate it. I'll probably make another variation or two of this same zombie. I'll start with one that leans backward instead of forward.

[eishiya]

Most games fudge their character collision boxes, and only have movable collision boxes for attacks. It's usually not a problem to have the hitbox and art not match slightly for a couple of frames.
That said, I think the animation could use a bit more work before you worry about hitboxes, and perhaps in working on it more, you can solve the hitbox issue. The character doesn't step forward, they seem to slide forward instead, and their cape feels weightless because there's (almost?) no delay in its motion compared to the character.

One solution to give the character more thrusting power for their attack without moving them too far forward would be to have them move backwards during the wind-up, so that when they thrust forward, they're actually very close to the starting position, while still looking like they took a big step forward. That can help you make a smooth transition to idle, too! It'll also allow you to have the cape move around more and show its weight and motion more clearly without having it move too far away from the character.