AuthorTopic: Manny Calavera walksprite c+c  (Read 3921 times)

Offline Srejv

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Manny Calavera walksprite c+c

on: March 23, 2009, 02:42:29 am
Heya,

This is my first gif animation ever. I'm trying to make a small grim fandango 2d game (just the first 3 puzzles), for the fun of programming and trying out pixeling. I'm pretty new to this but I tried reading some tutorials just to get the techniques right (though I don't really know when to use what yet but I'm getting there)

Critique is very welcome as I'm here to learn! (no ass-patting as stated in the rules/guidelines) ;D

Oh yeah, Manny Calavera and Grim Fandango is the property of LucasArts/LucasGames.

Animation


Sheet

Offline Rydin

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Re: Manny Calavera walksprite c+c

Reply #1 on: March 23, 2009, 03:11:16 am
When you converted the frames to a gif, it applied some unwanted noise, making the animation difficult to read, and ultimately ruining the pixel art.

Edit:

Also, welcome to Pixelation! ^_^
Man cannot remake himself without suffering for he is both the marble and the sculptor.

Offline Squiggly_P

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Re: Manny Calavera walksprite c+c

Reply #2 on: March 23, 2009, 06:43:19 am
Arms and legs move opposite one another.  Left arm forward + right leg forward.  Right arm forward + left leg forward.
The noise does make the motion hard to crit very well.
The sprite itself is interesting to me in that it poses an odd challenge:  Manny was designed to be a stylized 3D character, and he has a very simple, iconic sort of look.  Trying to get that likeness with just a handful of pixels will be difficult - especially if it's just black and white.


The mouth is a pretty significant feature, as is the size of his eyes.  I don't think the likeness is there on your sprite yet, and with anly about a dozen or so pixels to work with vertically you'll probably want to do some experimenting to get some proportions and shapes.  I'd suggest a midtone or two so you can sort of fake some of the facial stuff like so:

Top row = square shapes
row below = same shapes with two midtones that act to round the shape (I'm half asleep and forgot a couple of shapes you could try, like "+" shapes and such)
and obviously there's my own attempt.  I'm still just learning pixel art as well, so I'm just throwing out ideas.  More a front view than profile shot, but I tried to give the facial shapes' proportions similar to that in-game shot up there.  I think the size of the eyes and a larger mouth shape are the best spots to focus on to hit a decent likeness.

You also probably don't even need a neck.  Just sit his head right on his suit and maybe have a little overlap there during the animations...  instead of having the head drop, tho, you might want to have the whole body rise and fall for each step (evenly, not just one frame per step).

Sadly, I have only ever played the demo for Grim Fandango.  I liked it, but at the time i was without my own computer.  Perhaps I will find a used copy via e-bay or something and give it a shot.  I loved that Manny would look at the things he could interact with.  I wonder why more games didn't steal that feature and avoid the pixel-searching of most adventure games.

Offline Srejv

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Re: Manny Calavera walksprite c+c

Reply #3 on: March 23, 2009, 12:20:47 pm
Since this post seemed to offend everyone I've deleted the contents.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2009, 08:31:59 pm by Srejv »

Offline Gil

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Re: Manny Calavera walksprite c+c

Reply #4 on: March 24, 2009, 01:41:13 am
Yeah, people do tend to look down on the whole copying parts of an edit thing.

Basically, you should never copy parts of an edit and use them. Sometimes the rules can be bent I guess, since there is only so much information a certain piece can contain and trying to do something different, looking equally good as the edit can be a bit counter-productive.

Offline Srejv

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Re: Manny Calavera walksprite c+c

Reply #5 on: March 24, 2009, 08:35:32 pm


Since it felt like my last post gave me the plague and I had to be quarantined (whichever way you spell it), I've put back the old head.
Still wondering about the animation which was the reason I posted here in the first place.

I'm really sorry and I should have realized I shouldn't have done what I did (and I should have fixed it up sooner...)
My only excuse is that I'm new.

Offline Squiggly_P

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Re: Manny Calavera walksprite c+c

Reply #6 on: March 24, 2009, 11:01:58 pm
Don't worry about it.  Like Gil said, there's only so much you can do with a 16x16 block of pixels - especially when you're trying to hit a likeness on a two-tone character like Manny.
It can just take a while sometimes to get crits :P

The animation you had up on the last post looked better than your original, for sure.  Both versions of the heads are facing to our right, tho, and we're seeing the body straight-on.  The walk cycle you had up there before would have worked if manny was moving down and to the right, but if he was moving directly down or - especially - to the right, it probably would have looked kinda weird, like he was side-stepping.  But then, a lot of older 2D adventure games had issues like that, too.  If you're gonna have him walking in all directions you're gonna need more angles.  I think the one you had up looked fine, tho.  Granted, I'm new as well, but that's my two cents :P

You should just keep dumping stuff for the game in here as well, tho.  I'm sure you've got more to do than just Manny.  As your project progresses you'll probably find things to alter on your sprites, and the more stuff you make, the better everything will get.