Female anime sprite base animation -- C&C requested

[Lendrick]

Greets!

I've been working on this base sprite for a while:


(edit: very rough 8-frame version)

If possible, I'd like to get some comments, both on the sprite and on the walk.  I feel like the right-facing walk in particular isn't quite right yet, but I'm not quite sure what I need to adjust.  Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Bart

[misterj]

I'm not an anatomy expert but I'm sure someone else out there more qualified than me can be more accurate. To me, the shins look far too short.
As far as shading, it looks good pretty much everywhere except on the right leg in the walking down pose. When the leg is pulled back it's especially bad. The main problem there is in the huge shadow created. I think you simply need more of your highlight higher up, because for not it's just not... looking so good. The left leg's shading also seems a bit off while going from highlighting the thigh to just a vertical portion of her leg.
For the walking right pose, I think the biggest gripe I have with it is the animation of her head. It simply bobs, but the look just doesn't seem to match the amount of movement the rest of her body takes.

[EvilEye]

She has some huge thighs.

Her lower leg is too short as pointed out by misterj. From the bottom of her pelvis to her knee should be about the same length as from her knee to her ankle.

The front view walk looks decent, except the feet ( see below ). The side view looks like a completely different walk. Its very determined looking while the one in the front view is casual.

The next part that sticks out to me is the feet. She is walking flatfooted. You need to look at some reference for how the feet move when someone walks.

[Lendrick]

-> (lengthened legs)

(if you're coming to this thread for the first time, you'll see the same image on both posts -- I accidentally overwrote the old one)

Okay, working on this a little bit at a time.  First, I've addressed the head bob issue, not by removing it, but by tweaking the arms, shoulders, and chest to give her whole body more of a sense of up and down movement.  I've also tried to address the leg length issue on the right walk.  Hopefully it looks a little better now. 

I see what you mean by the difference between a casual and non-casual walk.  I'll try and rectify that.

Walking references are really hard to find.  I've been looking all over the place.  Any suggestions?

[snowsoft]

http://www.idleworm.com/how/anm/02w/walk1.shtml was/is very helpful in my opinion. May be a little more cartoony than what you are wanting, but an exaggerated walk can also give your sprite more character.

Anyways, a really nice tutorial on animating walking and the mechanics behind it.

[Lendrick]

I've added some in-between frames on the forward walk to address te choppiness.  I'll need to go back and work on the side one now.

[chimico]

she has potential, but before you go on animating you should notice her legs don't fit her trunk, they're too large, and her arms could be less straight. i hope this helps

[Lendrick]

You're not actually the first person to comment on this.  The leg size is a stylistic decision and not a mistake on my part.  I realize her proportions aren't 100% realistic.

[ndchristie]

Her lower leg is too short as pointed out by misterj. From the bottom of her pelvis to her knee should be about the same length as from her knee to her ankle.

Sorry if all I can offer is counter-advice, but the above is seldom if ever true.  The length from the bottom of the pelvis to the knee is equal to that from the knee to the heel.  This is correct even in an 8-headed figure which generally see longer legs/shins that a natural human.

The anatomical issues i see if there are any are based around two things; one is that she has no properly established pelvis (a fairly simple change, since she more or less moves like she does so far) and the other is that, while there's nothing wrong with a little meat on the bones, it's not drawn on convincingly (look more like an inflated leg than one with substance).  Solving the first should address any ideas of thigh length or trunk shortness and chimco has already provided a decent edit for the second (although i think the shin would taper more still with comparisson to the calf, especially in a female). 

The sideview is a slider, it's mostly in that the feet never pick up, but i don't have time to be more specific.  good work adn good luck .

[Lendrick]

The anatomical issues i see if there are any are based around two things; one is that she has no properly established pelvis (a fairly simple change, since she more or less moves like she does so far) and the other is that, while there's nothing wrong with a little meat on the bones, it's not drawn on convincingly (look more like an inflated leg than one with substance).  Solving the first should address any ideas of thigh length or trunk shortness and chimco has already provided a decent edit for the second (although i think the shin would taper more still with comparisson to the calf, especially in a female).

Okay.  I'm not 100% sure what you mean by establishing the pelvis, but I took a shot:



Also toned down the bright highlight.

EDIT: tweaked her torso slightly:

or

Which is better?

[Lendrick]

Still struggling with this.  I made some major changes to the right walk animation.  It's still very rough at the moment, but I wanted to get people's thoughts before I took the time to do all the detailing on it.



I've also, as you can see, settled on a version with a smaller torso, which gives her a bit more of an hourglass look.  I'm hoping it's not glaringly awful.  The question, of course, is does it look stylized at this point, or just bad?  I don't have the eye for anatomy yet, so I really can't tell.

Any comments would be appreciated! 

Thanks,
Bart

[Scribblette]

To me the hourglass shape too strong and too high, as opposed to stylistic. You've probably seen this already, but this Andrew Loomis example shows that perhaps the indent should be lower than it is. The hips look too wide for the shoulders - and especially on such a small waist. IMHO, anyway.

http://www.create-fantasy-art.com/images/AndrewLoomisBodyProportionsFemaleSmall.jpg

As far as the pelvis goes, it had me stumped on my old sprites as well when Atnas mentioned it. You can find a clearer example here, demonstrating how the legs don't really terminate at the crotch, but creep up around the sides on the hips, resulting in - especially at the size you're drawing - a bony ridge around the navel:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_-H-t-Wz1VNU/SZOlW51sIsI/AAAAAAAACQY/cLADH5GOTg4/s400/06AndrewLoomis_FigureDrawing_96.jpg
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/3383/107nt5.jpg

What do you mean by 'more detailing'? You already have plenty of shades - the difference in lighting and lines between frames seems like it could be more fluid. Any more (heck, as is with 8 frames at that size anyway) and you're risking burn out for the massive amount of work involved in any other animations.

I'm no expert, but hopefully some of that is on the right path and will help you find what you're looking for.

[Lendrick]

Okay, I'm kind of stumped on this.  As for "more detailing", notice how some of the right walk frames look rough.  I just want to make sure the walk animation looks decent before I clean it up.  I'll try widening her shoulders a bit on the front frame and re-shaping her torso, and see how it comes out.

[Lendrick]

Does this look any better?

[Scribblette]

To me, yes! Considered thinning the thighs a little? They seem extra round and less like muscle groups.

[Lendrick]

I'd rather she not appear overly muscular.  I've toned down some of the highlights and shadows here, but I've also shaped them a bit to give her what I think is a bit more volume.  How's this look:

[Scribblette]

I might've used the wrong words - I don't mean muscle groups as in muscular, but as in the general shape. I can't find any other examples than a slightly muscular one by ndchristie, though.



I'd stay with the stronger contrast, darker shadows as per grayscale shot - accentuated her waist nicely. The new shading on her legs looks like an improvement.