BEEFY WALK CYCLE

[Rydin]

Howdy

I wanted to pixel Gilgamesh. Trying to give him big hunky swagger. Also want to improve the animation. He's supposed to be walking south:


What must improve?

All input appreciated. Thank you!

[32]

Is there a reason you are sticking to so few frames? It won't take a tremendous amount of extra time to make a few more frames and you can get a wealth of extra character from it.

It definitely comes off with the attitude you intend which is an excellent start for so few frames. My suggestion is that rather than using the standing frame as an in between try using 4 unique frames. Make it clear that when the feet are swinging past each other one of them is in the air and one of them is on the ground.

I assume the finish is very preliminary at the moment but make sure you go in and make subtle changes to things like the angle of the chest and belt, as well as adding some movement to the hair.

This is a great start! If you have any more specific issues you'd like some help with please go ahead and ask. All I can say for now is keep pushing it 

[pistachio]

I have to disagree with 32. I'm not quite seeing the swagger here. A big key to this would be his limbs moving in arcs and that those arcs are a bit exaggerated compared to a normal walk.
Looking at it some more a lot of it comes down to lack of polish. It's pretty flat here, looks like he's made of paper. No changes in shading etc. The biggest problems to fix there = arms, hands, calves, adding some chest rotation is a good idea.

I can't overstate how huge arcs are in animation even with only 4 frames. That can really push one's skills and force you to get creative (which it's great to see you doing right after just static sprites, keep that up).

There were actually some killer 4-frame full anims for an RTS I saw on TIGsource some years back. If I find them I'll link here, if not ignore this tangent, but they were totally worth looking at.

If it's top down perspective, take a look at this. Should show more of that perspective. It could be intentional choice tho.

Original design?

[Rydin]

Is there a reason you are sticking to so few frames?

Rpg Maker Sprites only have 3 frames.
The in-between "standing" frame is reused from the actual frame of standing idle.

I can't overstate how huge arcs are in animation

I'm note sure I grasp what you mean by "arc"?

I will put together an edit with what's said so far.

[32]

Animating under those restrictions is probably not going to be the best way to learn since it forces you to disobey a lot of fundamental animation concepts. If this animation must be made like that then there isn't a huge amount you can do, just make sure your swing poses are really solid, try having him shrug his shoulders and lift his hands a bit to add some extra oomph.

Arcs refer to the idea that objects in motion follow a path, and that path is often an arc. This can be for various reasons, on a human it tends to be because our anatomy is essentially a series of levers, and when you rotate one end of a lever the other end traces out an arc. In nature it is caused by things like gravity and air resistance which erode the trajectory of an object, causing it to move in a smooth arc.

So when we start animating often we will draw out (either in our mind or on the paper) a path which different parts of the character/ object will take. And then we decide where along that path to put the object on each frame, where you put it on each frame is called spacing, and this changes what kind of energy an object appears to be moving with, i.e. whether it's speeding up or slowing down.

[pistachio]

Yeah, thank you 32. That's more well put than I had time for. Apologies if my initial post was confusing.

Expressive animation is definitely possible in 3 frames or even 2. I raise these old animations by Facet against the opposing claim. (can't find the TIGS thread alas.) The key there is to push the motion more w/o killing consistency between frames. But it is indeed pretty insane and at your level it's best to just take this one as far as it goes.

Consider the idle sprite as the pass-pos frame an extra challenge to conquer

EDIT:


Could have pushed the perspective more, but here you go.

BTW
You're a cool cat so you most likely know this, but I wholeheartedly recommend The Animator's Survival Kit if you can get your hands on a copy (the image on the end of his reply is from it) and study the crap out of it.

[Peltast]

I second Pistachio's sentiment - a lot of movement can be conveyed in limited frames.  Adding more certainly can help (when used appropriately), but you can still represent very wide motion without them.  The brain will stitch together the missing pieces on its own.

I'm not able to make an edit right now unfortunately...but here are some (probably overused) examples of really successful low-frame animations:
- 3 frames, with one being used twice as a sort of "centered" frame
- 2 frames!

I don't have too much experience in animation, but I personally find it best to stick to a few keyframes first anyway.  When those look good, I add more and more until it has the amount of fluidity I want.  But if the keyframes don't convey motion well, additional frames will only make it more messy and difficult to work with.

In terms of concrete advise, and in hopes of not repeating what others have said, I think there needs to be more horizontal movement with the arms and legs.  When we walk, our legs cross, but it currently looks like he's just picking them straight up and down.  Even if it's a front-view of his walking (though he seems to be aimed to the left a bit?), I would expect that the receding leg moves far behind him - currently it stops just below him.  And with a swagger, his arms and shoulders could really lean into each stride, going up to or past his belly.  Right now they just go back and forth in a straight line.

It might be helpful to check for old games with front-view walk animations and see what their keyframes look like.  Sorry I'm not able to offer an edit but I hope this helps! 

[32]

Wanted to clarify that animation in a small number of frames is certainly possible! Just that if this piece is intended to help you learn animation techniques that challenge is going to severely limit the types of things you can do. A higher frame count, or at least not using the idle frames, would serve you better in terms of understanding what techniques you are using and how a walk animation works. The better you understand those things the easier it will be to make a convincing animation under a set of strict limitations.