[WiP] Walking Animation

[BG]

Hello! I'm new here. Nice to meet you all.
I've been doing sprites on my freetime for some time now and I've had tons of trouble animating things. I started on this one a few days ago and I think it's starting to look good. I just added his right arm in a hurry, and will change it once I get the time. C+C appreciated.

I focused on the animations on this one, so try to ignore the boring design.

[ndchristie]

I love it, and I think you've done most of what you can with regular pixel motion save for a few jigglies (feet passing frame, right hand extreme frame).  Although, i think he would be really cute if he wobbled side-side.

What you need to do now if you want to improve it technically is get into subpixel to make the movement a little more specific and fluid.  If you don't know the term, a forum search will take youto places that will explain it far better than I could in the moment I have before getting back to work.

[ejay]

Very nice! I generally agree with Adarias, and would like to add a suggestion of my own - try making the helmet's "lid" lag behind the head and bounce a little with each step, for that extra cuteness

[BG]

Thanx for the tips! I'm going to study some subpixeling.

I updated it a little, making his "lid" jump while ha walked. I like how it turned out, though it might jump a bit too much. What do you say? Great sugestion anyway, ejay

[BG]

I tried removing the black outlines and replace them with darker shades. Does it look any better?

[BlueCheer]

Wow looks good although shouldn't it have a sword? any way it looks a tad slow but i think that gives it its charm

[BG]

Yeah, he's suposed to hold a sword, but I've been having some problems with animating it. I'll put up the sword-holding version later. I'm currently studying the animations on the megadrive game Soleil (also known as Ragnacenty)

[ejay]

Looks great, much better without the black outline, IMO .
Is this going to be used in an actual game or is it just for practice ?

[Crow]

Wow. Thats the perfect example for the difference between a black outline and just dark shades. I love it

[BG]

Thanx, people! I also prefer it without the dark outlines. At first I just made it to get the hang of a walk animation, but I've been thinking of putting him in a game.

[Feron]

nice, but his chest hands and feet look very pillowy.

[PypeBros]

I tried removing the black outlines and replace them with darker shades. Does it look any better?

much more i'd say. maybe adding a little shadow on the lifted feet will give him more a "walking" look... right now, he looks like being on slippery ground (or maybe just scrolling dirt below him would just fix this). I preferred the previous speed, though. At that rate, you just can't keep "walking" you need more to "run", which finely coincide with the helmet movement, but would require another kind of stepping.

[dragonrc]

Removing the black outline was a good thing, but at some spots you replaced it by a shade that is too bright.

yours   mine
Here is my edit. Mostly edited the chin, helmet and the hands.

Also, some places are pillowshaded (the pants for example). It doesn't look that bad in this picture, but it would be a big improvement if you removed it.

[sharprm]

Looks like some stray pixels when the visor bounces up. Maybe removing the highlights on the knees when they go far back would help shading.
One small thing that bugs me is maybe it looks like he has no right arm at all and the shield is just stuck on. If his arm were holding the shield, it would rotate differently (ie push it a few pixels to the right for some frames). But i could be wrong.

Definately fix his chestplate somehow. It bugs me so much - looks like a woman's breasts. Pokes out too much, rotates too much also maybe. And the yellow thing,can't tell what that is.

Great piece though - very smooth animation. Keep working on it.

[BG]

maybe adding a little shadow on the lifted feet will give him more a "walking" look... right now, he looks like being on slippery ground (or maybe just scrolling dirt below him would just fix this). I preferred the previous speed, though. At that rate, you just can't keep "walking" you need more to "run", which finely coincide with the helmet movement, but would require another kind of stepping.

I'll try adding a shadow beneath him, and change the speed to the previous version, since I don't think you need both a walk and a run animation in these kinds of games (unless he would get a hold of some Pegasus Boots, but that's not likely )

Removing the black outline was a good thing, but at some spots you replaced it by a shade that is too bright.
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/8185/rttas5.gif
Here is my edit. Mostly edited the chin, helmet and the hands.

Also, some places are pillowshaded (the pants for example). It doesn't look that bad in this picture, but it would be a big improvement if you removed it.

I'm darkening some of the outlines at once. Thanks for pointing that out. I'm not a fan of pillow shading, but in the case of the pants, I realy don't see the problem, since they are suposed to be kind of "sacky" (is that the right word?) and loose. They're also suposed to be made out of textile, much like pillows, but I'll try changing it. I'll do anything that helps me become a better pixel artist.

Looks like some stray pixels when the visor bounces up. Maybe removing the highlights on the knees when they go far back would help shading.
One small thing that bugs me is maybe it looks like he has no right arm at all and the shield is just stuck on. If his arm were holding the shield, it would rotate differently (ie push it a few pixels to the right for some frames). But i could be wrong.

Definately fix his chestplate somehow. It bugs me so much - looks like a woman's breasts. Pokes out too much, rotates too much also maybe. And the yellow thing,can't tell what that is.

Great piece though - very smooth animation. Keep working on it.

Thanx. I'm working on the shading of his pants, and I'm gonna try experimenting with the shield a little.

About the breastplate...My simple design for this character is inspired by the artwork from the old saturn game Shining Wisdom (Not a very good game, I must say, but for some reason I do have it in both PAL and JP version The artwork is nice though, if you like typical 90s anime style) where the main character happen to wear this kind of breastplate. Here's a pic: http://www.sega-saturn.net/stha04.jpg
The yellow thing is just a decoration (which will most likely change color for the next update) for his boring armor.

[ndchristie]

yeah, those pants are just balls at this size, go ahead and leave them.  I'd nix the hard highlight though.

[BG]

After some time, a bunch of changes has been made. Decided to scrap the soldier for now and replace him with a young girl. Turned the animation from an 12 frame walk to an 8 frame run and I think it looks much better


Currently reworking the little pony/pig tail(though, I might even remove it...) Also working on some tiles at the moment. c+c appreciated.

[AlienQuark]

Why ditch the soldier when you can just have both??? I think you should just leave your soldier and consider it done for now and come back to it later, because it's slick as hell, no need to waste such a nice animation.

[ndchristie]

while this animation is much more pleasing, there are some frames where you snap a little too far.  A blur on or between these frames would preserve your timing and the continuity of motion. 

[baccaman21]

nice little anim this buddy... good stuff.

Echoing Adarias slightly - whilst I agree there is a little too much snap - I think it's a great example of how animations don't have to be smooth and continuous in order to work. I'm not sure if this is by accident or by design, if the former then I suggest you read the book I refer to in my sig... if the latter then there's no need as you obviously understand.

One thing I will point out is the hair. You're brave attempting to animate each section, and I'd be inclined to keep the pony tail/bunch as this would be a nice touch. However a number of points I should mention.

1. I looks like you've got the sequence out of synch by 1 frame with the hair mass...? or you could try on the returns (frame 4 to 5 and frame 8 to 1) keeping the hair mass high, and not moving down until the body mass pushes back up again... the secondary motion is failing here. On it's own away from the up and down bob it animates well, it's just when you position it onto the main head shape it fails. Remember with secondary motion you TRAIL the main movement by a frame or 2 - this applies to lose clothing, hair, and so on...

2. The Bunch/Pony Tail (if you keep it) needs addressing - the way you have it moving at the moment looks like it's rotating, it's too stiff... you need to loosen it up by applying the secondary motion techniques I'm referring to.

With this kind of movement you want to be trying to draw S shapes, and then the follow through shapes track along the same paths that you've just made, and then SNAP the movement by inverting the Curve...

I've done a rushed edit to illustrate this...



It's not perfect by any stretch but hopefully it illustrates what I'm trying to get at?

[edit] as a final note, having thought about it a bit further, you're using 8 frames for the run, so you may as well take advantage of that and rather than doing (what is essentially) a 4 frame loop for the hair bounce, use the 8 frames to enhance the hair further... I'd be inclined to swing it from right to left opposite to the rotation of the shoulders...



Keep on Pushin!

[sonic_reaper]

The body bounces very unnaturally.  Even if you were going for an exaggerated style, it doesn't, in my eyes, even seem to give the semblence of movement (running/jogging/ect), but that her body simply disappears into her head for whatever reason.  The legs are one of the key problem areas, since they just simply move up and down.  Try using a lighter color to suggest a knee bend where it is appropriate, and I think the animation will improve greatly.

[baccaman21]

I disagree... I think it looks like she's skipping... but each to their own I suppose...

[BG]

Thanx for all the comments!
Ok, I will probably keep the soldier as a minor character or something like that. Just gotta do some changes on the design.

I especially want to thank you, baccaman. I'll try to take in every single word of advice. Really like what you did to the hair, and just LOVE the ponytail animation!

The animation is made intentially to be like that. I don't think running should be too smooth. And, yeah I was trying to make it look like she's skipping.