Work in progress assorted game sprite animations Yipee!!

[Souly]

I think to speed it up he removed some frames.
As I said before I really dislike the arms at the end of that swing.
They just don't read how they should.
Now my edit has thick arms but hopefully you can see how the arms should kind of be.

[Jad]

Haha, who the hell is 'she'? : D

I'm a MANLYMAN you know. Even with blob and all.

Err, I just lowered frame delay in graphics gale O: from 5 to 3. I actually added a frame without sparkles and ice debris at the end, heh. Do you use graphics gale? In that case you just click the [...]-button on the frame and change stuff from there!

Also yes, I agree with souly's edit, arms read much better like that.

I'd say - don't be afraid to draw complex key frames! First draw the wind-up as you'd like it with complex pose and all (doing it super rough is great - redrawing every frame is a good thing in this stage!), then do the same with the release! Then polish those frames and then do in-betweens!

Remember that if you want snappy and smooth motion, you can use your frames for almost only release animation - even instantaneous motion looks smooth if there's well-drawn and smoothly animated release afterwards.

So if you've got 5 frames for example to do an attack animation with, doing windup-windup-slash-release-release would seem like a good idea, but I'd go with windup-slash[WITH OVERREACH]-release-release-release instead

For snappy motion you will want the slash frame to either be very fast and almost invisible (only motion blur) or integrate it into one of the release frames (motion trail, for example)

You did the latter but then you neglected to tend to your release frames instead, so instead of creating smooth snappy motion you arrived at snappy and stuttering motion instead! This is what I think!

Some other things to check out in my animation:

Note the little hit-flash that indicates where his ice slash would hit. I think it's good to indicate stuff like that to make it clear where the action is centered.

Note the slight overreach - he slams so fast his bat goes farther than where his arms natural resting position would be, and thus it snaps back in the following frames.

Note how most of the small particle effects are extremely simply drawn but move at very small increments per frames - coupled with high animation speed this creates very smooth and pleasing motion. This goes for his overreach and release frames as well, using the same framecount as you I was able to make things feel smooth by simply dragging and dropping stuff in single-pixel steps. The eye instantly spots sudden stops in motion so keep it entertained!

Well, I'm glad you like it, heh.

Also Souly sorry if I have decieved you with a false cutesy orange blobby effeminate...ness. I think a switch to a manlier avatar might be in order!

[Mike]

Jad before I start my edits(which will be posted "soonish"; edited after the fact) I was wondering about how you said I should use windup, slash, release release release on a 5 frame animation and yet for the edit you did of the second attack it has several frames before the slash and release.  I'm not trying to say you are contradicting what you said, but I'm just curious as to how I should go about this before hand.  Furthermore I am a strong believer in putting the game play before the art so with that in mind I definitely want the animations to be fast. 

I should say though that it is less like Zero's slashing which is strong enough to kill an enemy in one hit while on the other hand my characters first attack is merely a tap which doesn't cause a huge amount of knockback.  The game I'm making is based on using combo's to cause more damage for the enemy as well as using proper elements so that you have the advantage. 

My hierarchy goes like this 1st attack=little knockback,little damage, 2nd attack, more knockback, more damage, 3rd attack, the most knockback, plus the most damage.

The 3rd attack knocks enemies out of range basically, though you can always stop before you finish the 3rd attack and return to attack 1 than 2 than 3.  In addition you have a move which allows you to knock enemies into the air after which you can jump up to them and attack them with air combo's.  Think Devil May Cry and you pretty much have the basis for the combat style I'm going for.  Do not fret though as I am adding in my own flair and ideas into the combat which I hope will make it stand on it's own.

Just wanted to clear that up as well as throw out how I want things to work in game.  Feel free to critique me on that too because I'm open to whatever in order to make my game more appealing.

In addition this thread(and this time I mean it) will be the only thread I use to upload art for this current project.  Even if it is far away from the top I will update in this thread from now on, and not just animations.  I'll be needing a grip load of help on how the heck I should do the tiles as well as how tiles are even done    I'll be providing early screenshots of the game in order for you guys to see exactly what I'm getting at. 

tl;dr This thread will be where I dump all art from the game I'm making.(Hopefully that is allowed...)
Oh and I will stay laser focused on the current critiques before going to another piece of art

I think to speed it up he removed some frames.
As I said before I really dislike the arms at the end of that swing.
They just don't read how they should.
Now my edit has thick arms but hopefully you can see how the arms should kind of be.

Souly I'm going to address this exact thing in my edit.  I didn't like the way the arms were drawn either, but I didn't know how I wanted them.  I like that you took the road of simplification.  I really need to learn that there is more than one way to do things.

Sadly I must go to sleep now as I am knackered.

[Jad]

Well, first off, I made the edit first and then I typed whatever useful I could come up with so the edit and the text do contradict in places! O:

Anyhow, it doesn't have to be super strong looking, but you know, if the first attack is more of a tap, then just ditch the windup and go straight for the slash and some release, then increase windup for the second attack and add some oopmph, and then go all out with third attack. You've got the hierarchy down in your mind so be sure to express it in your animations as well.