Samurai Subpixels

[Feron]

why does his whole torso expand when he is breathing?  his chest should get bigger and move upwards slightly.... air shouldn't be going into his stomach :p

unless of course he is a balloon samurai...

[Ben2theEdge]

Agreed, your shoulders rise when you inhale and lower when you exhale, but your animation has it backwards. Personally I would ditch the expanding/contracting entirely, in real life observation it's very very subtle unless the breathing is very labored, the up-down movement implies breathing much better.

[artisan]

i do like my balloons....

yeah you guys are right so back too umpa lumpa ing

im going to keep in the expanding for now unless enough people think i should leave it out, simple because i want a highly animated wacky feel and am not going for a real life realistic kinda thing.



the left is the old one and right is the new one... you think i should start to subpixel again now or is there anything else that needs changing you think?

[Feron]

if you got rid of that ridiculous torso movement and the jumpy highlight, you wouldn't need "subpixel" .

the legs and arms look fine for an idle anim.  i think your over complicating things.

[artisan]

The problem is there is little difference between the two main frames ie the difference is 1 pixel or 2 max on like the arms for instance, as you can see this isnt very smooth...



and so that is the reason i want to use subpixel animation, it seems to make my character much more "organic" and alive and the animation much more smooth and almost wacky.

im going to keep in the expanding for now unless enough people think i should leave it out, simply because i want a highly animated wacky feel and am not going for a real life realistic kinda thing.

[Feron]

i want a highly animated wacky feel

then i think you are mis-understanding the point of sub-pixelling, it is more for subtle animation on quite small objects where 1 pixel is relatively big.

your sprite is huge, you could just animate a wacky idle pose with "normal" animation technique.



ps. please don't quote yourself at me 

[artisan]

then please read through threads before posting...

when i say i want a wacky feel i dont mean wacky waveing flailing arm guy type animation i mean i want him to look a bit jellyish if that makes sense.

everyone seems to be stuck in the sense that subpixel animation is supposed to be used for only subtle animation... it certainly can be... and may well be the main use for it... and should definatly as pointed out before be very discreet in itself but have you never used a spoon to cut a pudding? doesnt need to be a cut with a knife.

while i am obviously no authority / god / expert at pixel art or animating the point of subpixeling as far as i am concerned is to animate between two pixels where previously not possible, due too there being a lack of pixels. animation can seem somewhat jumpy without it. which it does on mine. as i have pointed out myself and is obvious by looking at the sprite the subpixel animation IS much smoother than the 2 frame, even if i were able to fit another 3rd frame in there maybe by moving the arms 1 pixel might be possible it would still look less smooth and i think conveys less character.

[kingkumquat]

why does his whole torso expand when he is breathing?  his chest should get bigger and move upwards slightly.... air shouldn't be going into his stomach :p

I was always under the impression that "proper breathing" would show more noticeable inflation in one's stomach. Or at least that's what my music teacher always taught us to do. (It also seems far easier in my personal experience.)

Of course, following from this, the synchronization of the head and the stomach in the animation would be reversed with the abdominal area pushing out as the shoulders are raised.

[artisan]

actually yes now i think about it kingkum is right, although the lungs are not in the stomach the diaphragm muscle which is what is used for proper breathing expands your stomach to allow for maximum air flow, this is due to the fact ribcage's cant expand... so going back to this


the original... the stomach moves out...

now the problem seems to be in the head bobbing being the wrong way round... however because his knees are bending his head would go the oposite way because the knees bending would have more effect on a head bob than breathing... i may be totally wrong but

thoughts anyone?

[mobichan]

I think the version with the chest expanding was conveying breathing more.  You might want to consider what stereotypical visual cues will make people see the action you are trying to convey.  I am not sure what "jellyfish" type of movement you are going for, but if you want the character to simply bob up and down and have a wave of movement travel up and down his body, then it isn't conveying that.  The suggestion that you might not need so much subpixelling might not be far off.  If you know your total frame count, then why not work out the best key poses without using subpixelling and then see if a couple tweaks here and there are necessary.  If that 2 frame animation (without subpixelling) is the max number of key poses you are going to do, then I think you might want to consider an even subtler animation, since sub pixelling (at this size) works really well for shifting pixels one or two pixels at most.

I am actually kind of bothered by the sword and the pose he is using to hold it.  The far arm looks short to me, even though I assume his arm is bent.  Also, the sword itself is a great prop for adding uniqueness to your idle.  Maybe lower it and give it a sense of weight?  Or are you working in a size restriction?

My 2 cents,

Mobichan