Return of the NINJA!

[Helm]

As it is right now it seems she pulls herself up not by the power of her upper body, but by the gravity-defying power of her bottom. I am not sure in how many ways this can be resolved unless you're willing to completely rework the animation.

[Dusty]

I think you could emphasize her upper body pull by pulling her above the ledge and let her land on it.

[michael]

whoawhoa, nononono not pamila anderson   pamila from bondage fairies, of course 

[Conzeit]

As it is right now it seems she pulls herself up not by the power of her upper body, but by the gravity-defying power of her bottom. I am not sure in how many ways this can be resolved unless you're willing to completely rework the animation.

LMAO somebody should make an earthwormjim-like game with a girl and make that a powerup XDD

I can just envision Princess-what's-her-name lighting up her botton in red and hover butt-high, her body and legs dangling below her glutes, as her bombastic botton keeps her afloat XD

[tehwexxl0rz]

Whoa, I think you could stand to raise her ass a few pixels in the scene four image.
Also, her breasts seem rather disconnected from her body. It actually took a few seconds to figure out what's going on there! I think it would help a lot to move her shoulder over and bring them more centered—basically rotate her torso forward a bit. At the moment her torso does not look connected to the hips at all (and it looks very odd to have the one breast dead center).

Great work overall anyway! I'm especially impressed by your techniques on the larger scene images. Great lighting and AA for only four shades to work with!

[Fingerfoods]

I remember this project! Good to see that it's still alive.

There's some awesome perspective in your scenes, but 'Above the Street' is bothering me. Her face looks a lot bigger/wider compared to her hair than in the other shots, but that could just be because her hair's swept back.

And also I forget who mentioned it previously but Ghost in the Shell DOES have a lot of gratuitous female athletics scenes that may be good to learn from. XD

[Vertigo-zero]

The best reference you'll ever find for your character is Taki from SoulCaliber2. She has the same shapes and she is in a fighting game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh1RPjbQd5c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyvacTtj6Dg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ofpw0nB24&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAS9ApKs4Uo&feature=related

hope it helps. Im going to sleep now

[Ryona]

As it is right now it seems she pulls herself up not by the power of her upper body, but by the gravity-defying power of her bottom. I am not sure in how many ways this can be resolved unless you're willing to completely rework the animation.

I personally thought it looked alright because it makes the climb look pretty effortless, which is what I was going with, and felt the frames just needed to move faster (which I unfortunately can't do with the dinky GIF. maker I use).
...But, I'm totally open to suggestions, so what can I do to improve it? I don't really want it to look like a regular climb. She needs to appear stronger and more agile than the average person.

I think you could emphasize her upper body pull by pulling her above the ledge and let her land on it.

I thought that's what I did... 

whoawhoa, nononono not pamila anderson   pamila from bondage fairies, of course 

Oh she's a cutie. I'll have to see what that manga is all about.
And she does resemble my character, I have to admit.


And thanks to everyone for leaving comments and such.
The tips from Ghost in the Shell and Taki from the SoulCalibur series are real helpful, and I actually have SoulCalibur III, so I'll study from that.

I'll see about touching up the hair in scene III, and I'm quite fine with how the body is in scene IV. Her outfit with the cutout shapes might be a little tricky to read in the shots, so I'm going to show a drawing of her I made to make it clear...

[Dusty]

I think you could emphasize her upper body pull by pulling her above the ledge and let her land on it.

I don't think you gave her enough vertical lift. I think it would look great if she threw herself in to a small jump, I guess you could say. Because her feet never really go above the platform, she never looks like she throws herself, but just pulls herself up in an awkward manner. It might also help to have her actual pull fast and quick, but her descent slowed down, to emphasize the strength of her pull.

[LaserBeing]

bondage fairies

what that manga is all about.

"Bondage Fairies"... the title says it all, really :O


*ahem* That aside, I like where you're going with this. More indie game characters should have legs like that!

Regarding her standing idle pose, the new one is an improvement, but she still just doesn't look ready. She doesn't even have her sword out! She should either get that steel out and start doing some sweet ninja poses, or if you don't want her to be running around with a drawn sword, she could have her hand on the hilt like in the Scene 1 image, ready to draw it out in a flash, iaijutsu-style (in fact I think Ryu does this in the old Ninja Gaiden games).

As for her climbing-up animation, I think it would look better if she ended in a crouch, rather than just standing straight up as soon as her feet land. Take a look at how Ayame gets over walls in this Tenchu 4 video, might give you some ideas. Another idea might be to have her do something flashy like a flip or a handstand or something.

Other than that my advice is to play lots of ninja games for inspiration. Shinobi III, Strider, Kaze Kiri, that sort of thing. Also it probably wouldn't hurt to watch Jubei-Chan for cute girls wailing on people with katanas.