ARPG Sprite - Spear Attack

[DaveC86]

Hey guys, I'm making an ARPG character with a spear + shield. I want to make an attack where he thrusts the spear forward.. it looks pretty average to me so far.. I'm really struggling with positioning the spear/hand etc. I really want the spear to be fairly center to the player sprite, for gameplay reasons.

Any thoughts on things I'm doing wrong / things I can do better? cheers!

[CFKaligula]

The problem is that it doesn't look like he thrust the spear, more like he just extends his arm like he wants to push something over.
So firstly that means you have to remove some frames before the attack. What is also very important is an anticipation frame,
 your animation already kind of had this, but it didn't really work out well since he never returns his spear. Then you can also add a cool effect where you have 1 frame where the spear goes further than it should go, this makes it look a lot more lively and active.
Example:


If you wanna be a really cool dude you can add a SMEAR. this might not always work so be careful when you apply it, but I think it works here.
Example:


Here is a picture of both spritesheets:


Hope this helps a bit.

[DaveC86]

Thanks for the feedback, that has given me something more to work towards! I've added a bit of a delay with the pull back before he thrusts. I haven't managed to make the "smear" effect work too well for me during the actual animation.. my animation speed is different "in engine" than it is when I try to stitch one together to create a gif online.

This is what I have now



This kind of shows how it's looking in game. The GIF fps is weak though, so missing frames.

[MysteryMeat]

I'd reduce the delay on the final frame unless you're shooting for a sort of soulsian frame-management type of playstyle!