SolidSnake NES/GB sprite, using the limitations to my advantage

[Conzeit]

Way back when BOB decied to make a little NakedSnake sprite.....I got inspired enough to start one too, but I never really finished it or posted it anywhere because it wasnt relevant to anything. Now I got it to a decent showable stage



I have no ide how close it is to actual limitations, but I'm guessing not much. I know atleast I didnt use up too many colors :p

What's interesting is I didnt define the legs so that you could tell them apart. Because of this I could get away with a full walk cycle by making ONE 4 frame step, instead of two steps of 2 frames. The less than rational limitation to walk cycles in NES always interested me and I always wanted to take MY tackle on it.

TAKE THAT RYU HAYABUSA....

....FO SHIZZLE!

This is based on the run Snake has in PSX MGS1, which I always thought was quite interesting. The feet dont go too far forward, and he moves the hands very little, the palms face down as if they were shooshing the feet :p. it's kind of like a stalk-run

I know it's still not much but I figure since I post so little I might as well go and post a topic about it. I figure if  people keep postingt maybe that might just give me some incentive to do an actually fully animated character set (wink, wink, nudge, nudge ) if you meanies dont respond i might go and post it on the off topic threads :p

[sharprm]

Are you trying to make a 4 frame cycle into effectively a 8 frame cycle? I don't think that can be done unless the whole sprite is in silhouette, or unless the arms don't cycle (eg. he holds a handgun in front of him), or unless you break the sprite into two sprites and run the upper one at 1/2 speed.  This is because a 4 frame upper body cycle will look odd for 8 frame lower cycle i believe. Hope it helps, goodluck.

[Conzeit]

dude...I know, look at my avatar :p

that's a good idea about the arms though, now I feel stupid for not thinking of that

[EvilEye]

Ya, I agree the top part of the sprite looks like its out of sync with the bottom part.

Also the top part is leaning forward while the legs are curled up under him. The legs should be farther back. Of course, I never played the game so don't know what the sprite your are emulating looks like ( post it maybe? ).

And yes, looking at your avatar you should know better 

SolidSnake is a great name.

[chriskot]

Of course, I never played the game so don't know what the sprite your are emulating looks like ( post it maybe? ).

Metal Gear Solid is a 3D game for the Playstation, so he's basing it on a model, not a sprite (the original games were for the NES, but they were from a bird's eye view).
Here's some footage. When he's not in a cutscene you can see the run that Conceit is trying to mimic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gQV6JOgLtw
By the way, if you own a Playstation, you should definitely give the games a try. They're awesome.

It's looking quite good but I also agree that it looks strange with his arms moving twice as fast as his legs.

[Helm]

What was said about the 4 frame walk not translating to an 8 frame one unless it's a silluette is correct. The top arm in your avatar seems to travel front.. and baaack and frooont etc properly. Whereas the shaded one in the nes sprite just goes FRONT FRONT FRONT FRONT very fast. The legs suffer less (just one highlight on the top of the leg) but they also suffer. It's impossible to do what you're trying to do with 4 frames I think.

[The B.O.B.]

I agree with Sharpm's statement: " I don't think that can be done unless the whole sprite is in silhouette, or unless the arms don't cycle (eg. he holds a handgun in front of him), or unless you break the sprite into two sprites and run the upper one at 1/2 speed. "

-->

Edit's not great, as it looks like he's holding his crotch in pain, or a bazooka. But maybe this may be considered in an update of yours?

[Conzeit]

--->
I took sharpm's track of thought and took it a little further =)
I made it bigger which is probably a bad idea considering what it's supposed to be about, but I'm pretty satisfied with this now, it is functionally of 4 frames but it passes as a normal 8 frame anim (which is what the GIF actually is)

Thanks sharpm! I think that's the number one criteria one should use with insane limitations, insane looping methods 

[Helm]

if that is 4 on the leg sprite and 4 on the top sprite, only delayed, then yes, you have a sprite made of two parts that loop in different speeds that reads as 8 frames, and a pretty smooth and stealthy walk-cycle. Good job and good idea with the sprite segmentation by sharprm.

[Conzeit]

The top goes
1,2,3,3,2,1,4,4
The botton goes
1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4

If anyone wants to know what that means and why it works, download the gif and disect it :p
(if it seems like the top actually has 5 frames it's because I accidentally put the wrong hair on one frame, it's pretty easy to see which tho)

[sharprm]

Thats pretty clever Conceit how you reversed the arm animation.



I did an edit. I just felt the feet looked a little like flippers. I added his butt. Probably broke the frame restrictions. Just for you to consider, not necessarily better.

Just for everyone's edjumacation: those cheap bastards at Psgnosis also passed off a 5 frame anim as a 10 frame anim for benefactor.

[chriskot]

That's better, but I think that the way that his bandanna waves is not quite as smooth as it was before (because of the doubling up of frames #3 and 4).
I can't think of any good way to fix that and keep it down to 4 frames though.

I like shraprm's edit. Somehow having a butt makes it look like he's leaning further into the run.

[Conzeit]

Thanks for the edit SharpRM (sorry bout getting the spelling wrong :p ever think about using capitals in it like that?) but I think I've had quite enough of Snake's butt in every game after MGS....did you see those MGS4 gameplay previews? we had to look up his crotch AS he humped the floor to move forward. Kojima seems to enjoy giving Snake tighter and tigther underwear as he gets older O_o he says it's because we'll be staring at his butt for most of the game so he wants detail. Personally I'd prefer some creaces instead of Snake's buttcrack.

I know about the flipper-ish thing, but I happen to think that makes it look smoother...I like the effect, also I noticed what you did with the arms...I'm not going exactly the same way...I want to keep the shape of the arms a little less obvious so it doesnt look as his arms are bare, but I did change the arms so they didnt seem to change SO arbitrarily at every frame.