AuthorTopic: Animation and small size sprites  (Read 4647 times)

Offline Syn

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Animation and small size sprites

on: March 21, 2006, 12:48:57 am
I'm having trouble animating the sprite I made here.

http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=940.0

I had previously started animating the taller one and had no problem. Let me explain my problem. So the way I animated is that i work on individual part of the body at a time(the whole sprite has layers) and started with the legs. But I'm having trouble with the deformation of the shaped of the legs. In the bigger sprite version it was easier to bend and move the angle of the leg while being consistent with the overall shape of the sprite, but here it's hell. I was wondering, how can you make complex animation on a small size sprite. Any trick or things to consider ? Or should I just accept I'm not good enough for such high level stuff yet...

Offline Darien

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Re: Animation and small size sprites

Reply #1 on: March 21, 2006, 03:29:06 am
I'm not sure exactly what your problem is.  Maybe showing us your attempt would help?  One thing that you might not be doing that could help is only doing the animation in blocks of solid color, so that you get the animation down before it gets muddled with shading.  Also, try redrawing each frame rather than cutting and pasting, which sounds like what you're doing.  On small sprites, it shouldn't be too much trouble.

Offline Syn

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Re: Animation and small size sprites

Reply #2 on: March 21, 2006, 06:05:35 am
Aw, crap... my eyes were hurting so I went to rest them on my bed and fell asleep. Now I woke up and i'm wide awake at 1 am! Don't you hate it when that happens... =/

Anyway here is what I had done for big sprite first which I think it was okay as a first shot in animation, so I might have gotten too confident.



And this is what I got for the new smaller sprite after a lot of editing because I kept making the legs in a weird way.. and it doesn't feel like it's gonna smoothly transit.

Offline Syn

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Re: Animation and small size sprites

Reply #3 on: March 25, 2006, 12:04:03 am
Here is an update... this is what my legs animation looks like right now. Does it look ok?

Offline Stitchy

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Re: Animation and small size sprites

Reply #4 on: April 01, 2006, 06:00:47 pm
Not that I'm an expert or anything, but the first thing I want to point out is that this looks more like running than walking considering how fast the animation is.  :-\ There should be more of a pause when they take a step down, and the body should kind of "pop" up when they start taking the next step. The second, smaller pair of legs is animated pretty well, but it would be easier to tell just how well they work if we had the rest of the body to judge by.
Be it, so be quick
Don’t run, just walk and walk and walk
Don’t lose yourself, to decorate
Somewhere on your wall 'Cause somewhere in your mind You know you are doing fine Holding secret hair locks You’ll pluck before you hide

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Re: Animation and small size sprites

Reply #5 on: April 02, 2006, 04:57:07 am
The legs are being lifted too much for it to be a walk.  Unless you're trying to do like that super-model runway "stomp".

Offline crab2selout.png

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Re: Animation and small size sprites

Reply #6 on: April 02, 2006, 04:03:24 pm
Do some searches for peole actually walking and base it off of that. Do some googles for the principles of animation. Find some reference sites and study those.

Here's two reference links I'm pretty sure I got off of Camus. Warning for nudity
http://bowlingsite.mcf.com/Movement/locoindex.html
http://photo.ucr.edu/photographers/muybridge/index.html

Offline Syn

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Re: Animation and small size sprites

Reply #7 on: April 02, 2006, 06:38:41 pm
Did I say walk? Oops, I meant running... or power walking, lol. Yeah I think it looks okay but like you guys said, I need to add the upper part of the body to really know. I will post the entire char animation when I'm done. I decided to skip the walking anim and do a running just because I want to make a platform game with faster mouvement.