Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

[LoTekK]

What might help with the firing animation is a slight alteration to the the timing. Try having the guns straighten out before/during the "crouch". Right now it feels a little odd because it's almost as if the bot is sliding forward in order for the weapon to stabilise/straighten. Having it straighten earlier also allows you to make the recoil kick in earlier as well.

[WM]

...
Okay, and he idle animation:
...

Right now the it seems as though he's flinching/jerking himself around. Instead of having the legs moving the body in the idle, have the body slightly rock, which in turn moves the legs. The legs should follow the body's movement.


Not only am I astounded by the quality of your work, but how fast you can produce it! It's insanely productive! 

[CrazyMLC]

Maybe you want to add in a looking animation with the little headlight on the front?

For an actual idle animation in an actual game you probably want to make a long idle animation along with a few little quirks to lead up to, like standing for a while, then a random quirk, like looking around.


You might want to make a starting/stopping walking animation, you could use the stopping right before the shooting to get rid of that slight choppiness.


(Getting so attached to this little guy.   )

[Howard Day]

Jakten , LoTeKK: Both excellent suggestions. Here's the re-vamped firing animation...

WM: Good crit - I've attempted to address that here: - much less movement overall.
CrazyMLC: Multiple idle animations is a great idea. I'll get on that after I do the next thing on my list - the spider-bot projectile, and impact animations...
Everything stuck together.

Thoughts?

[CrazyMLC]

Seems much more like an idling robot than a hyper-active child.
Shooting animation looks much better as well.
Really great work, always a treat to look at. Here's hoping for more!

[LoTekK]

Hell yeah! That's feeling all powerful and punchy now. Also, I'm generally a fan of OTT muzzle flashes, so the one you've got warms my heart, being all blindingly-bright and huge. :p

[Howard Day]

Thanks, guys. I'm glad I'm finally starting to hit all the right notes.
And here's where I got with the weapon effects...

Thoughts?

EDIT: Stuck another option for the weapon blast up there.

[Jakten]

Ohh man! That firing animation has so much power now, I love it!

The effects look great but the energy it shoots looks kinda noisy, it might not look to bad up against its proper background though. I gues it depends on what kind of energy its shooting as well, right now it kind of looks liek electricity which is fine if that's what you wanted. I think if you wanted it to look like fire it should have more flow to it.

I think the reason why the idle animation looks twitchy is because it has a recognizable beginning and end. I think it would look nice some where in between the 2 you posted with a seamless loop. I liked how the legs seemed to move randomly in the first which you didn't really do in the second one.

By the way are you acctually planning on programming this into a game or is this just generally a mock up? Because I really want to play this!

Also do you have ideas for a main character? I was wondering if you plan to take inspiration for him or her from Baidir as well.

[Lord Ash]

thank you so much, I have been trying to get here with bryce and poser for a long time. I am glad to see other using 3d to help them, I am doing my best to understand what is different about these from mine, and between all the different versions.

[Howard Day]

Jakten: Thanks! I stuck an updated version of the fired bolt in the last post. I agree with you - it looks really noisy and undefined. I will revisit that idle animation tonight. I have a couple ideas of specific animations I can do to split up the idle animations...
As of right now, this is just a mock-up. I'll see how much farther I get...that will decide whether or not I try and put an actual game together. As for the main character, I have a confession to make - I don't have a lot of character skills. I may try and put a human character together, but I have some ideas closer to a dude-in-a-suit, which would make the animation a hell of a lot easier for me. But I'm more than willing to try and expand my skills.
Lord Ash: Not sure I understood your post...are you asking for a rundown of all the different 3d programs?
Anyhow, here are 2 more variations on the bolt impact, as well as a mid-air collision version. I stuck the original in there for reference...

Thoughts?