Soldier Dude - Run Cycle

[Hase]

The sprite looks pretty good and will probably make for good animating. However, I wouldnīt use a breathing animation for sprites this size, the overall movement is simply not enough to be really noticeable, and too much to be anything close to life.

My suggestion would be not to use a breathing animation for idle mode, but rather something with more movement. Shifting his weight, moving his legs, flexing his arms, etc..

looking forward to more...

[Turbo]

I agree on adding animations such as those you mentioned, and cycling through them randomly. But if i remove the breathing, leaving just sporadic animations, the sprite tends to look static and lifeless. I think some sort of continuous movement is needed, even if barely noticeable (at the size this shows up, even just one pixel moving is quite easy to see), and breathing seems to be the most probable and significant movement at that size. I did try to keep this to indicate the lowest possible pixel movement (to my abilities), so it would most realistic, while keeping in mind the size.
I hope it doesn't sound like i'm rebating critics, i'm just trying to find a balance between them and my views, not losing sight of the original vision while at the same time finding out it's weaknesses...

By the way, love your stuff and hope to hear your comments anytime you please.

[Razz]

I like it, but to me, it looks like his chest is a balloon and inflating and deflating way too unrealisticly. Maybe if you kept the outline of the chest the same and just moved the pixels that are inside of it.

[Hase]

I didnīt mean to suggest to leave the sprite completely static at times, but rather to have one (or more) idle animations that are a bit more expressive. It might not fit with the style of game you want to make, but I think that at the size and resolution you mentioned, a lot of movement would look good. I.e. go crazy a bit.

[Turbo]

Thanks for the comments so far, taking them all into account.

Hase: yeah, that's more what i had in mind, cycling through some different anims.
Razz: thanks for that suggestion, i'll try that when i come back to this animation. Doing some work rotation now...


Here's a preliminar version of the dude's running cycle. Do you see problems with it? I'll have to clean it up, further define his body parts, and shade it properly, but that comes after getting a satisfactory motion. Can't wait to hear those cc's.

[JWW]

the motion is excellent. very fluid

[Crazy Asian Gamer]

Since your breathing cycle is pretty exaggerated, exaggerate his run cycle. Add more bounce, bend more knees, have him lag a bit, and then burst forward a bit, distort a few things here and there (you know, Einstein's theory of relativity, haha).