Rpg Character - C&C Needed!

[Sokota]

Really? I knew they looked a bit tentacley, but I couldn't place the problem. Any other suggestions? I take it the run/walk is good?

Sokota

[AdamAtomic]

That type of 3 frame walk cycle works very good on very small characters, e.g. 16x16 px or less.  However, it starts to look really weird and limited on larger, more detailed characters.  You should work on relying on black outlines less, using more saturated skintones, and more interesting color ramps with a broader range of values.  This character is very flat, like a coloring book image currently.

[Sokota]

Well ums. Huh? I mean, I said it was first, so I have *almost* no clue what you are talking about. Except the black outlines. Is there something horribly wrong with cell-shading? Just asking, not trying to ignore advice...Could you edit the walk, or give me some example of what your talking about? I'm not sure how to make it better..

Sokota

[Corsair]

There's a lot wrong with the swinging animation.

Before you animate anything, don't think of "sword swing" think "how does a guy move when he swings the sword?"

remember that the character, not the weapon should be the focus of the movement.

as such i've made the attack more forceful and more like an attack. as it is now, it just sorta looks like he's waving a sword round in front of him. again, just ask yourself how a person would move, not how the weapon would move. the weapon comes rather naturally after that since a sword is *more or less* a simple straight line object.

here's my edit

It's crude because i'm lazy, as usual.
I'm not going to adress any anatomical proportion or style issues because i'm not really in any place to approach them.

Take in mind that attacking something or someone is an action you really have to commit your entire body to do. it doesn't really make sense for any part of him to not be moving while he's swinging. and the body isn't just a set of independent limbs and segments, if you move an arm or a leg, the rest of you is going to move as a consequence. it's all about balance.

[AdamAtomic]

Well ums. Huh? I mean, I said it was first, so I have *almost* no clue what you are talking about. Except the black outlines. Is there something horribly wrong with cell-shading? Just asking, not trying to ignore advice...Could you edit the walk, or give me some example of what your talking about? I'm not sure how to make it better..

Sokota

There isn't necessarily anything wrong with cel-shading, but this is not exactly great cel-shading, and you're ignoring some of the crucial aspects of pixel art, mainly the size of the pixels themselves.  If you put a 1 pixel outline around a limb that is only 3 or 4 pixels wide, imagine what that would look like on a cartoon character.  If the animator drew their arm to be 2" wide on the cel, they would have to put a 1/2" thick outline on each side of the arm in order to match the ratios you have in your images here.  This basically never ever happens because it looks weird, and the massive amount of black really throws off the rest of the colors in the image!

[Sokota]

There's a lot wrong with the swinging animation.

Before you animate anything, don't think of "sword swing" think "how does a guy move when he swings the sword?"

remember that the character, not the weapon should be the focus of the movement.

as such i've made the attack more forceful and more like an attack. as it is now, it just sorta looks like he's waving a sword round in front of him. again, just ask yourself how a person would move, not how the weapon would move. the weapon comes rather naturally after that since a sword is *more or less* a simple straight line object.

here's my edit

It's crude because i'm lazy, as usual.
I'm not going to adress any anatomical proportion or style issues because i'm not really in any place to approach them.

Take in mind that attacking something or someone is an action you really have to commit your entire body to do. it doesn't really make sense for any part of him to not be moving while he's swinging. and the body isn't just a set of independent limbs and segments, if you move an arm or a leg, the rest of you is going to move as a consequence. it's all about balance.

Yes, your attack is definitely better. I wasn't thinking of the body movement so much as the sword. Thanks.

Well ums. Huh? I mean, I said it was first, so I have *almost* no clue what you are talking about. Except the black outlines. Is there something horribly wrong with cell-shading? Just asking, not trying to ignore advice...Could you edit the walk, or give me some example of what your talking about? I'm not sure how to make it better..

Sokota

There isn't necessarily anything wrong with cel-shading, but this is not exactly great cel-shading, and you're ignoring some of the crucial aspects of pixel art, mainly the size of the pixels themselves.  If you put a 1 pixel outline around a limb that is only 3 or 4 pixels wide, imagine what that would look like on a cartoon character.  If the animator drew their arm to be 2" wide on the cel, they would have to put a 1/2" thick outline on each side of the arm in order to match the ratios you have in your images here.  This basically never ever happens because it looks weird, and the massive amount of black really throws off the rest of the colors in the image!

Well, I see your point about the pixel ratio, but really, where else am I going to put a black outline? Unless I didn't have one... I'm using MSPaint for my pixeling, so how can I change the size of the pixels? Or was that more in relation to the ratios? And I'm still not sure about the walk. I looks ok to me, but then again, I'm new to this. Actually, it's more of the legs that look bad, I think I did the arm swinging nicely.

Sokota

[Atnas]

It needs depth! Black outlines kill depth most of the time. Had I spent more time on my edit, I would have added even more contrast, but my main focus was to show you how much better a colored outline with vibrant colors looks.

In fact, forget outline altogether. Don't worry, it'll probably still be there, brought out by your subconscious, but try to work with form rather than shape. It's like painting rather than inking.

I also don't care for the mad expression. It can get pretty boring pretty fast.