hero of time

[.TakaM]

I was just really bored, I tried to make it a bit different than most walk anims (mainly the crazily wide hips) and I kinda like the result, just wanted to see what you guys thought of it
edit-
super boredom:


edit-
just so you all know, I will be dropping all IP abuse in this project

[Cow]

Not bad, nice little walk animation. What bugs me is the outline repeatedly changing, as well as the light on the hat. Both of which are extremely distracting. I think the line between the head and the body is way too thick. His really determined expression is quite cute, and the AAing is pretty nice in most areas. Good work.

[AdamAtomic]

mccow28 pointed out everything perfectly while I was typing this...the only thing I might add is his arms seem pretty thick and buff, especially around the wrists.  Looks neat to me otherwise!

[.TakaM]

thanks guys, his hat would be what bugs me the most, I dont like the way it moves, I probably shouldve left it stationary or just make it lag a pixel behind when link hops up and down every 2 frames, and the wide arms- well i wanted to give him a ragdollish look so the wide hips would fit in a bit better
 

[Cazador]

I'd like if his head bounce a little while he runs. Also will pretty good if his hair move too!
Good Link anyway! Long live The Legend of Zelda

[AlexHW]

nice.. this looks very interesting, the style works nicely.
can't say that ive seen anything like it before, which is good since most games tend to look similar.
only thing which bothers me is the outline at the very top, its lighter due to the highlight, but it makes the outline seem cut in that area.. also the outline below the face makes the head seem segmented from the body.

[Joseph]

I dont know if I missed your first image, but this one is amazing.  I love the style and how the character walks.  very well done, this would be an incredible game.

[Joel]

I think what makes the hat look bad when he's in motion is that you've got a black outline pretty much ALL around him, then green AA for the hat in the outline, and the pixel switches sides and it's very noticeable and distracting. So you are watching the pixels jump from side on the hat while he walks. Otherwise, very cool and very cute animation.

[Panda]

For some reason, the body reminds me of the powerpuff girls 
But the animation is nice.
My only suggestion would be to make the head bigger or pull the torso down a bit.
But good job. 


Edit: Well, more like this

Made arms + body thinner and pulled torso 2 pixels down :X

[.TakaM]

powerpuff girls, heh yeah I guess it is actually pretty similar and Ive noticed a few suggestions to make his head a bit bigger, is it really needed because his head is already more than 1/3rd of his shoulder width

[VictorR]

I dunno why I did this but it was fun

http://two.xthost.info/randomupload/DEMOLOL.zip

I made a little demo of ur mock up here..it runs really nice as you can see..open it..click on start and play my amazing demo!!

[.TakaM]

victor, I did not see my name in the credits!
if I find out you profited from this....









 

[VictorR]

lmao..haha thats funny..this is no demo..i messed arounnd wirg gamemeker..all credit goes to u

[.TakaM]

Ive decided to actually make a small project out of this, been working on the side views:

I think I prefer 'B' even tho it looks a bit off-balance

[Faceless]

Liposuction.

[.TakaM]

with the help of faceless:

[Gnarf]

Very nice and I love the subtle colors in the overall piece itself (sprite and tiles.)  They go well together but the black outline doesn't seem to fit.  Well, it does and it doesn't, I have mixed thoughts about it.  You should try adding the sprite without the outlines or some relative selout.

[8bitty]

with the help of faceless:

i love those ones takam, really cool

[.TakaM]

what do you guys think of the way the hats animated now?

[Sohashu]

Cool.  I want to see some sweet attacking animations   I was wondering if I could make a small edit?  I just have a few nitpicks and my descriptions are slipshod at best. 

[.TakaM]

Cool.  I want to see some sweet attacking animations   I was wondering if I could make a small edit?  I just have a few nitpicks and my descriptions are slipshod at best. 

go straight ahead

[cpaw88]

Very nice work!  I really like the palette you used for Link.  I wish you the best on your game! 

 

[.TakaM]

(head turns)
I need to work on the feet a bit more I think
edit-

[Gunne]

I think it's because when his left feet is behind it springs to the first frame again, it now actually just throws his feets forwards. I wish you good luck with your project

[Scotteh]

sorry but i have to say this, the new version now looks like hes a wind up doll   hope this turns out really good and good luck with it

[.TakaM]

lol dont worry about it, I agree.
I dont think I shouldve made him pop forward for four frames, it only added emphasis on his left leg

edit-

without popping forward
edit-

made the hair and ear turn with the face, thanks larwick

[Larwick]

(This stuff is awesome .TakaM)

Generally i think a much more exaggerated walk is needed. Well, perhaps not much more, but at least slightly. Take the arms for instance, his shoulders dont actually move, making it look like he's got a rope tied around his chest. The same kindof goes with the legs and hips, although i think you improved it, they don't swing quite enough for a comfortable walk (look more at your head-on walk, which i think is fine).

Also, when turning his head that much, surely his ear should move too?

Good luck with this, it looks superb.

[VictorR]

Haha this is neato!! More to add to the demo

[Godslayer]

The side view walking animation is not in sync with it self. Looking at the front view, I notice that the arms in legs are exactly in tune with each other. Right leg back, left arm back, left leg forward, right arm forward. In the side view however, they seem to be on different pendulums of motion, and it throws off the piece.

Also, I like how his legs looked like they ended in nubs, perhaps you should ditch the toe portion you see from the side.

The side views walk seems unnatural in another way- he's not quite facing the side. When he walks, he goes directly side to side, but his angle dictates that he would actually veer to the side a little.

His head jerks to one direction only. I don't think his head should move horizontally at all, in the side view, hes staring straight ahead, not wobbling his head like hes looking for something. But, aside from that, his eyes move towards us, but not away. Try turning your head steadily to one side but not the other. No one ever does that.

I like the front and back views a lot.

[.TakaM]

I noticed the legs and arms were out of sync when I first made it, I cant quite remember completely but I think that mightve been as good as I could get it, I shouldve used the head on animation for the same timings
and the head turn, I dont like it anymore, especially considering the head on animation doesnt turn his head, instead I think I'll just use it for part of the idle anim:

thanks gs

[shaheen]

The arms and legs look very stiff from the sideview, like they're single pieces without joints. You can probably get away with that as far as the arms go, but the legs really need some bending there.

[.TakaM]

I made the head no longer turn, re-did the timing on the legs/arms and made him jump up 1 pixel every third and fourth frame, opinions?
edit-

lagged the legs an extra frame
edit-

ok, i think that looks pretty good.. I just need to make the shoulders move?
edit-

stubbier feet thanks to panda

[Nix]

a absolutely adore the colours. i would buy this if it was released. such good pixrel art.

[.TakaM]

well, since i dont own any copyrights to link I cant profit from it, but thanks
made a gif out of almost everything Ive made so far:

[Jad]

Since his hips would be moving when his walking you might want to make the belt buckle move a bit. Or maybe you wouldn't. Otherwise, for good-looking walk animations, except for the arms and legs, you'd want to move the shoulders and the hips. The head bob/turn often looks weird since we humans want to keep our heads still and in one direction when we walk.

I'd also like to say that I really like how his cap bobs when he walks forward. You are great at manipulating the outlines and small pixels to get your effect through; I think it's very skillzored and also makes me think of how Samus is animated in super metroid.

Kudos :0

[Darien]

I think you need to lengthen his stride (in the side view), and make the knees action in the movement more noticable.  It's looking really good though, nice and unique. 

[Godslayer]

Side view walk hat doesn't look good, perhaps it should sway to the side instead of bobbing like that.

On the walk, his closer leg leaps back forward in a single frame. Thats fine, but his other leg doesn't do that, so he seems to have one spastic leg and another sedated one. Bring the speed to the other one, and he'll look like hes actually covering ground like the front view, not just ambling.

Keep it up.

[Nix]

i think u should scrub the hole link thing and make ur own character and game.

[GOODNIGHTdestroyer]

i think u should scrub the hole link thing and make ur own character and game.

[Helm]

Well yeah I agree to that.  See no point for IP usage, but it doesn't really help the art at hand.

[.TakaM]

well.. I dont see the harm in explaining why Im using link here.
the other day I was thinking about all these 3d games that look great but consist of almost no real content, and I started thinking of a game with absolutely no content other than a main character and a world, you'd just walk around and explore.. then I realised thats pretty much the first demo almost every indie game makes and almost all every fangame ever makes.
so, as a parody to fangames and a graphical showcase showing off my tiles and sprites, there isnt much reason for anyone to care about it.
so i figured using Link's likeness would help in gaining a bit of attention.

so yeah, its not much of a game to begin with, and Im just using link to fill a little of the huge void of content

[Helm]

Uh, personally speaking, I find no merit in that reasoning at all. Why don't you devote your creative energy, which you'll find as years pass to be dreadfully finite, into something you believe in, is completely your own and will eventually be something to be proud of?

[Sohashu]

Forget my edit.  I was gonna make the green more saturated, but It seems like im the only one who wants the colours changed.  OH well. 

However, looking sweet.  I think you should turn the body a bit when he walks, because he seems really robotic without it. 

As for an answer to all the complaints as to you making another character, I think you should finish all these, then  get the animation base, and base a new original character on that, if you wanted to solve those complaints and not waste this. 

[.TakaM]

Uh, personally speaking, I find no merit in that reasoning at all. Why don't you devote your creative energy, which you'll find as years pass to be dreadfully finite, into something you believe in, is completely your own and will eventually be something to be proud of?

I get what youre saying, and if I planned on making a real game I would absolutely use my own characters.
I will ofcourse keep these sprites as bases for perhaps a real project in the future

[Sohashu]

Are you doing more on these?  I want to see a sword slash at least

[artisan]

well, since i dont own any copyrights to link I cant profit from it, but thanks
made a gif out of almost everything Ive made so far:

looking good so far.. and why dont u make up an original charicter... just use the same animation.

[.TakaM]

Are you doing more on these?  I want to see a sword slash at least

while I would like to answer this post with a new animation, sadly Ive been lazy
and sword slash, I doubt I'll make one, if I do it wont be for this project and probably for a new character.

looking good so far.. and why dont u make up an original charicter... just use the same animation.

for shallow attention grabbing

[Nix]

but u use link because its a well known character, but once, link was made up. and no one knew about him. so surely if u were able to designa  character.. and then make a game out of it. u could create a new character that everyone loves. if that makes sence. i would honestly by this game as it looks so good.

i think if u keep it as fan art it would be a waste of such good designs and tiles.

[willfaulds]

I hope this is of some help and you are still working on this little project - I am really excited about what you might be able to produce.

Your sideways walk cycle looks as someone said 'a bit like a wind up doll' - this is because the knees do not bend correctly.  Here are two great links for working on walk cycles that explain your solutions much better than I could in a comment;

http://www.idleworm.com/how/anm/02w/walk1.shtml

&

http://www.manningkrull.com/pixel_art/tutorials/walking.asp

Keep it up!

[.TakaM]

thanks for the advice willfaulds, I finally started on the back view walk cycle:

I dont really want to mention the things that drive me crazy, because I think that might draw your attention to them more when they might not be a big deal otherwise, please crit away

[GOODNIGHTdestroyer]

Taka: I, too, do not understand the logic and reasoning behind your idea of having a LOZ game. Although having link in your game would be an attention grabber for some, it will also be a turn off for others. But if you were to create your own, dynamic looking, original character then I am positive you would get more attention. People like original games more, original ideas. They want to see how far your creativity can take you.

You really ought to rethink creating your own character with the same animation before you get too far into it.

[Darien]

for shallow attention grabbing

I think destroyer is right, a new and original game sporting such unique and professional looking graphics like these would gather much more excitement than a fangame.  I can't really think of any fangames that are highly respected and have a lot of attention thrown at them.  But then you have things like Cave Story and people gobble it up.  In my opinion making a fangame puts you on the same level as those who write Harry Potter fanfiction.  Those people are unoriginal and uninspired who gather no attention at all and no one respects them for what they do.  No matter how hard they try, they are not going to beat JK Rowling at writing Harry Potter, and you're not going to beat Nintendo at making Zelda, so everyone already knows not to expect but a poor imitation.

I know you've probably had enough of everyone arguing this point but the reason that everyone keeps arguing about it, I think, is that we all like how this looks and it's very promising and refreshing, and we want to play YOUR game, not Nintendo's.

EDIT: I guess I missed this:

I get what youre saying, and if I planned on making a real game I would absolutely use my own characters.
I will ofcourse keep these sprites as bases for perhaps a real project in the future

Sorry for continuing to argue this when you already acknowledged the validity of the points made and continue to go with it, I see I won't change your mind. 

[.TakaM]

Im sorry I seem to just not accept your advice, Im starting to feel like an ass 
but I have been thinking about this thing for a while. I think once its finished you might agree that its not a big deal really, just remember that all you can do in this is walk, theres no story, or even a title screen- its just a different way of presenting some stuff Ive made, and I think the only way the average gamer would be interested in checking it out is if it had a character theyre familar with.
just to make sure you guys didnt miss it;

any crits?

[BadMrBox]

I like the upward animation  . The left and right animation, I don't like that much. As many has said before, - It looks like ragdoll.
If it's only gonna be a walkaround demo then go for link if you want to have him.

[Dogmeat]

Holy wow,

This is one of the better Link characters that I've seen in a long while.

The animation is nice and smooth. The only thing I would reccomend is changing the outline, during the animation the AA makes the integrity of the image fade away a little. I would suggest trying it with a dark outline, a light outline, a medium one and the current one you have. Run them on a background and see which one looks best.

[Dhaos]

Lovely work, the animations are quite smooth, and those tiles are excellant. Very colorful and stylish. However the animations could use some tweaking.

The north-walk animation is somewhat blurry on various frames, perhaps you should reduce some of the AA/sub-pixel movement. While smooth the details inconsistantly get lost during the movement. Also the shadow seems to be getting larger during one of the frames, unless you're trying to emulate a 'bounce' of the scabbard. If so it should tilt from \ to | (just no where near as extreame, just a few pixels of straightening) during the 'bounce' of the walk. Also perhaps his hat would cast a shadow on his back and the scabbard?

Are you going to try SE/SW NE/NW movement as well? Those are quite tricky to do, you could have some fun experiementing with them.

[vedsten]

crits:

dir E/W: I think you should try involving the whole body a tad more, right now the torso looks pretty seperated from the arms/legs, also, the 1pix movement of his hood doesn't look too good. In my experience, you have to exagerate the movement a bit more if you want it to work, or alternetly just go for no movement.

dir N: Agree on the jumpy pixels on the arms, the AA should be reduced, also, the movement of the arms seem to peak in a different frame than the legs

Can't say i'm too fond of the style, but i can definatly appreciate the fact that it's unique, and the time you've put into this

[Willows]

Dunno whether or not it's been mentioned already, but on the side walking animations, his hand appears to have no vertical motion outside that of the entire sprite. It basically just drifts left and right.

OR.

Maybe I'm crazy.