AuthorTopic: [Nudity] Need Help With Improving This Female Run Cycle  (Read 2889 times)

Offline Sammy

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Hi Everyone!

I need some piece of advice to improve the run cycle I made.
Here it is


This is the reference video. I want my run cycle to be like this but I'm having trouble figuring it out:
[Nudity] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGlgPauSg-M

P.S. The angle I'm looking for is top-down. It is for a 2D RPG game.

I appreciate any critiques on how to improve it!
Thank You!  :)


Offline Chonky Pixel

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Re: [Nudity] Need Help With Improving This Female Run Cycle

Reply #1 on: January 16, 2020, 02:52:19 pm
There's some really good work here. But I'm going to go ahead and nit-pick some.

I don't think the arm motions are really working. But I don't think much of the arm motions in the original animation either. They're very stylised and I think they're going for a "sexy" look, but the result is an effete kind of wafting action. I'm thinking it's inspired by anime.

(The men are animated really strangely as well, like a hyper-stylised French animation. I find it a really weird video throughout.)

I believe the trouble may be that you're trying to apply this wafty arm action to your character, but you want something with a bit of drive and purpose. The result looks to me like strong arm movements in a direction that would be completely useless to anyone actually running.

This is a video of an actual woman running, and one of the angles is from the front. See how the arms are much closer to the body? Also see how obviously they alternate from side to side, while with yours the difference isn't so pronounced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=filSEGMGbd8

I see you've tried to make the arm alternations more obvious, but for some reason the different angle and shading haven't really convinced me the arm is moving backwards. It looks a bit like "jazz hands" to my brain. If you wanted to stick with this arm motion, I would try shortening the forearms during the backwards part of each stroke, because at the moment the length of the forearm doesn't seem to change. It looks more like it's rotating around the elbow in the plane of the screen, so my brain is getting conflicting signals when I see the change in shade and arm-pit shadows.

Also, even though you're top-down, you could probably give yourself artistic license to show people with more reasonable proportions. I understand what you're doing with foreshortening, but the body from the hips down looks a bit compressed for my liking. I'm guessing the player will be looking at characters based on this template a hell of a lot during the game. I might consider relaxing physics a little to give them a more pleasant view. It's not like a top-down view is a realistic perspective anyway. But that's just my preference.

Anyway, I hope that's not too negative. Carry on the good work!

Offline Sammy

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Re: [Nudity] Need Help With Improving This Female Run Cycle

Reply #2 on: January 22, 2020, 12:21:02 am
Thank you Chonky Pixel for your feedback! I changed the arms movement based on what you said and tried to make it look more realistic. Here is the improved version:


If there are more critiques to it, let me know!
Thanks a lot!  ;D

Offline Chonky Pixel

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Re: [Nudity] Need Help With Improving This Female Run Cycle

Reply #3 on: January 22, 2020, 01:08:26 am
Wow, that's a lot easier to read and much more realistic, to my eyes at least. Well done!

Offline Sammy

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Re: [Nudity] Need Help With Improving This Female Run Cycle

Reply #4 on: January 30, 2020, 06:29:27 pm
Glad to hear! Thanks to you and your help!  :)

I need everyone's help again. I have another run cycle for the same character, except it is facing up. Curious to know how I can improve it. Any help/ suggestion/ critique would be appreciated.



Looking forward to hearing from you guys  ;D

Offline Chonky Pixel

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Re: [Nudity] Need Help With Improving This Female Run Cycle

Reply #5 on: January 30, 2020, 09:17:44 pm
In the previous animation, the arms went upwards on the in-stroke. In this one, they look a bit like they're swinging side-to-side like pendulums. :)

Offline Sammy

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Re: [Nudity] Need Help With Improving This Female Run Cycle

Reply #6 on: February 01, 2020, 10:06:46 pm
Is this any better?



A friend of mine said the back doesn't move back and forth enough. I don't know how to fix it... I consider myself a newbie in pixel art. ???

Offline Chonky Pixel

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Re: [Nudity] Need Help With Improving This Female Run Cycle

Reply #7 on: February 02, 2020, 11:28:25 am
I've not been doing it that long either, so I won't be able to give you pointers on things like anatomy, just a different perspective. In that spirit, you could try limiting the amount the arms move horizontally outside the body. I know this means the silhouette won't match up with the opposite direction, but it may focus the animation a bit.