[wip] ittybitty topdown spear attack

[michael]

howdy

so my brother and i are working on this giant centipede hunting arcade game. he's coding it and im doing design/art. it's our first project so i wanted to start with a simple graphic style. like really simple. im not really looking for critique on the overall style (though i wont mind it at all) rather the little guy's spear attack animation. ive gone through a couple stages and i think its improving, but theres more fine tuning that can be done. what do you think 

initial -> -> final and here's a walking for reference

*updated*



and here's a sketch of him which should make the sprite make more sense.


and i'll throw in a dirty mockup for additional reference and shameless self promotion 

[michael]

a little update. i added some windup and more thrust
->

[crab2selout.png]

Main problem with your animation is that the snap is in the opposite part of where you want it. Your attack doesn't look forceful except when returning the spear to its original position. Kinda like he's afraid of stabbing the poor centipede and then quickly retrieves his spear out of shame.

Here's an edit. You can see how there's almost no transition from the relaxed frame to the max stab frame in mine. This makes it look more forceful. Now that I think of it, I probably should've gotten rid of a frame or two on the return. Too many frames on small pixel stuff can look bad



There's a Tools and Resources thread in the General section(it's stickied). There should be some links to sites that go over animation principles. I'd recommend taking a look.

[Ben2theEdge]

Judging by the mockup I would rethink your on-screen proportions or do something else to give certain things higher visual priority. I had to scan it for several seconds before I could find the main character OR the health and other HUD elements. Those are the last things you want camouflaged!

[Turbo]

Complementing Ben's advice, i'd say lower the background's saturation and color contrast, to make the main elements (character, huds) stand out.
In the animation, the speed with which he retracts the spear appears faster than the actual strike, should be the other way around. Play with the timing of the retract frames, and/or remove "motion blur" you may have there.

This looks kind of old school

[kitty]

In all of your versions it seems like he's pulling back faster than he's attacking.
I really like the white outline idea though. Very intriguing.

[michael]

crab: thank you! that edit has really helped improve the animation! more forceful indeed!

original -> -> heres my latest. the main changes were increasing the thrust speed and reducing the retract speed (thanks ben and turbo and kitty!). i also stalled the stab frame too give it even more oomf. its a spear, and our hero isnt the strongest guy around so i thought that it should appear a bit strenuous.

ben and turbo: i have been wondering about the readability myself. im waiting for a playable demo to see if its still a problem when everythings moving. the game is very sparse, with only a handful of elements. what you see in the mockup is pretty much everything in the game so im hoping that the simplicity will resolve most of the readability issues. but a saturation contrast like turbo suggested may be in need. i'll try and get a demo posted soon, youre comments have really been helpful.

kitty: im glad you like the white outline . it was one of my earliest ideas for the game. a lot of people have had problems with it, but since its the game is been developed for the gp2x i feel that the strong white outlines against the solid black ground will help keep the games tiny sprites readable on a small, poorly lit screen. but also i just like the feel it gives, it makes all the colors so rich.

so ya, i'll try and get something playable or at least moving soon, thanks for you cc!