Walk Animations

[InvaderLupus]

Hawk: please, for all that is holy, ditch that beastly superiority complex of yours. Also, please stop posting that same mediocre work as an example. Instead, find a better sprite to give him an example of, but ALSO be sure to point out exactly why that sprite is better. Telling someone to basically emulate another sprite will never help. Tell them what's wrong, what they can improve, and tips on how to do so. Maybe even edit it to help illustrate your point. If you can't even do that, then maybe you should work on improving your own work, instead of sort-of trying to help others.

Dyuaru: I rather like the side view. I think that in the front view, however, you shouldn't have him twisting from side to side as he walks. It'd make more sense if he was running, but he really should have much side-to-side movement when walking. His body (and head) should be facing forwards all the time.

[dyuaru]

Hm, well that's conflicting with a lot of what other people have been saying so I guess I'll post both side by side. One without the twisting and one with.

I personally think the one with the twisting movements look a bit more lively. But well I'd like to know what you guys think to, so comment away!

By the way thanks alot for the help on this guys, really appreciate it.

[Sherman Gill]

I think the one with the turning conveys more weight and power then the one without. Overall though, I think the turning is better.

[rougewisp]

Personally, I don't bob my head from side to side when I walk, but I think as a sprite it comes off as more dynamic with the turning.

[Generic]

I'd have to agree with Gill about the head bobbing making him seem more husky and stronger. Gives him a bit off attitude, which is a good thing. Out of the two, I'd choose the head bobber.

[Hawk]

Hawk: please, for all that is holy, ditch that beastly superiority complex of yours. Also, please stop posting that same mediocre work as an example. Instead, find a better sprite to give him an example of, but ALSO be sure to point out exactly why that sprite is better. Telling someone to basically emulate another sprite will never help. Tell them what's wrong, what they can improve, and tips on how to do so. Maybe even edit it to help illustrate your point. If you can't even do that, then maybe you should work on improving your own work, instead of sort-of trying to help others.

Dyuaru: I rather like the side view. I think that in the front view, however, you shouldn't have him twisting from side to side as he walks. It'd make more sense if he was running, but he really should have much side-to-side movement when walking. His body (and head) should be facing forwards all the time.

Read before you speak:

~Bugguy, compare and constrasting two peices says more than just words dependancy on the viewer and the peices being viewed.

~Hedgehog, try to use less disturbing and useless words when describing. There may/probably be younger members here.

~Dyaru, try to slow down the frame movement it will help with frame critique. Now in terms of the whole animation you have a main issue. As you will see throughout the entire animation there is a small isolated pixel area between the feet. Lastly on the neck you should remove a meaningly black outline pixel because it distorts the neck because of it's heavy contrast. Also in stature it looks like the character is leaning forward and the porportions between upper and lower body are construded. Finally, I would suggest you follow Serendor's edit it fixed the leg issue.

Plus in terms of editation I see no reason when there is a perfectly good example that has already been displayed.

~Dyuaru, choice 2. Though I still say that by the angle in which you have created his posture it looks as if he is leaning forward or the porportions are distorted. Lastly, if you are going to move most of the head try to change about the top of the head glare as well, because realistically speaking no source of light is displayed the same at any time in regards to a moving object. True the angle may be the same, but the actual terrain/surface display will never at any one time be the same as that of a previous time. Feel free to take this into account

[AdamAtomic]

editation

This is the least real word I have ever seen used by anyone ever, and I live in the United States of America.  You know who my president is.  And yet I stand by my claim; "editation" is the most preposterous, fakest term I have ever heard.

[EDIT - dictionary.com agrees with me.]

Also, please please pretty please use 6 frames!  I know you gave a vague answer about why you couldn't, but at this size you are going to have choppy, unsatisfactory movement even if you do fix the glaring motion errors that the other posters have already pointed out.  If the programmer is telling you "no" then explain to him that it will TOTALLY BE WORTH IT - even cell phone games will give characters 6 frames half the time!

[dyuaru]

Well main thing is I'm getting paid a little bit to work on this and I would have to renegotiate the terms if I changed the frame amount and it might be a bit too much trouble.
I'll see what I can do though, I've used 4 frames for most of the animations I've done and haven't really tried going even further and doing 6 frames.

Is there really no way to make it look smooth without going to 6 frames? The classics did it 

[AdamAtomic]

The classics were frequently only 16 pixels tall though, which helps a ton.  If you're dead-set on using 4 frames I would take your lead from tsugumo's recent thread, and start by doing block-shading on every animation frame.  With just 4 frames you're going to have to really sell the volumes and anatomy of this character for us to buy the movement.  When he steps forward, make his thigh brighter, for example - this helps us establish depth and priority to that surface.  When he steps back make it darker - use value to tell us what is really going on with his movement; with this small number of frames there is no reason to use copy-paste-nudge, and that's not gonna sell the motion anyways.  Good luck!

[dyuaru]

Pixel pushing as they call it. Just made some parts a little easier to see as AdamAtomic suggested. Not sure how to make it any brighter with my current color count.