Snivy animations

[Speed-X]

Okay. See, upon visiting TSR again, I realized something: I need to practice with actual sprite animations, because most of the time I only focus on static sprites. Which...I suppose is okay, but I really needed to sharpen up on animation.

I decided to try out Snivy because, well, Snivy is awesome. Also because it's bipedal and has a pretty basic body type.

frames
I tried to make it as fluent as it could be on a reasonable level...however, I've not really any experience with general animating, so if anything about this looks off (or if I need to add something to it), please let me know.
I don't feel as if I did too terrible of a job, considering that I don't really have much experience with this. Eh...yeah.

I used Graphics Gale, as usual, but I decided to try something different and possibly more efficient: separating each body part into a different layer. So, like...there's a layer for the back foot, front foot, body, front arm, back arm, head, tail leaf, back collar, and front collar; I figured that this way the editing of each frame would be more efficient. It worked out well (much easier), despite the fact that it still took me at least maybe an hour or so.

Lazy typing, sorry. I don't feel like typing in absolutely complete and clear sentences right now for some reason.

TL;DR: let me know what I did wrong here and/or how I can fix it. Thank you.


Edit: Okay, I really hate my computer right now. Gawd I'm such an idiot. I got the hosting save file mixed up and the .gale file mixed up so I ended up being able to extend the animation, but when I reopened it the layers were gone.

So this pretty much means that I don't really have much hope with fixing the little kink at the end of the animation, so yeah. Maybe I'll come back to fixing that at a later time when I'm not so butthurt about it. :o

Man, I really hate it when that happens.

[Cobalt Blue]

it works, so i'd asume that animation wise you didn't do anything wrong.

i'd play a bit more with each frame's speed in order to make the animation more lively/less stiff

[Speed-X]

Thanks. Yeah, I think I see what you mean, since in the animation Snivy's head area looks as if its stiff due to lack of movement. I'll keep that in mind for the walking animation...which I am having much trouble with.
I'd post what I have of it, but I have no computer access right now.

[Gors]

that's some handy spritework you got there. I like how it waves around, but there are some flaws I can't really put my finger on.

---

in a more serious tone, you could use some movement on its head, yes, and maybe using a vivid, bright color palette instead of the current, dull one.

[Speed-X]

Alrighty, thank you.
I honestly feel as if the palette is fine as is; in all honesty I feel as if palette vividness and the amount thereof is more of a personal preference. (Honestly I took the colors from the Sugi art because that's just what I preferred)
However, I can try to up that a bit when I get back home and see how it turna out. It won't hurt to try it out, after all.

Also, do you think the flaw would be with the kink in the extended version of the idle animation, or something else?

That being said, luckily I have the walking frames all figured out now. I found a fantastic reference.

[Garamonde]

I feel like Snivy's head should be a tiny bit bigger, but that might just be me.
I also feel like its heels should touch the ground when its body lowers, then lift them back up again when it raises up since its legs are kinda static to me.
Finally it feels like its head isn't facing the exact same angle as its body... might look better if the head was facing us just a tiny bit more.
Otherwise I can't see much else wrong it, great job.

[Speed-X]

Ohh. That's what I was trying to go for! The heels lifting up, I mean. Yeah, that does look a bit awkward as is.

As for the head's angle, I'm not sure. Snivy's snout takes up a lot of its face and its eyes are parallel to each other, thus I'm not sure if I can do much with that. if you don't mind, could you perhaps show me what you mean?

But thanks, nonetheless. Sorry for the semi-pointless posts, I suppose. I'll be out of school before long. (Ugh, can I like just graduate now?) =_=

[Garamonde]

I'm not sure if I can right now, but I mean that Snivy's head could do to be turned left-ways (toward us) a pixel or so angle-wise, but not enough to see its other eye though.
Its body just looks a tiny bit off with the head angle-wise IMO.
I'll see if I can draw a quick example in a little bit if you're still unsure.

[Speed-X]

Ah. I think I see. I moved the eye to the left by one pixel, and I think it might have helped. As of now I'm redoing the idle, and instead of depending on GG for the pieces, I'm making sure to save each piece on a sheet. xD
Thanks again, Jetters! I'll have this Snivy posted back up in a couple of hours or so.

[Speed-X]

I thought I may as well bump this thread with an update. Sorry for any inconveniences.

I'm much more content with this one, but something still doesn't seem right to me.

[Garamonde]

Well, you didn't move the heels at all for one thing.
Also, that looks a little better, but now I think you should move the mouth and nose over left a pixel, and move the tip of its snout "inwards" (shrink it sideways by one pixel, if you understand what I mean) to give the impression that it's actually facing more diagonally.

[Speed-X]

Yeah, I was actually trying to go for that...oh, okay. Now I actually see what I did wrong there with the heels. Thanks. XD I had spent a while trying to figure it out when I was remaking this thing earlier.

Edit: I think the main problem I'm having is that I don't really think Snivy has much of a heel to begin with.

Its feet are like that as is. So I'm a little stuck on that. ^^;

Also, I managed to fix the head I think. Does this look any better, by chance?


Edit 2: Okay. I'm still a bit unsure of how I can pull off the heel thing; if someone could shed a little bit more light on that, that'd be great! xD
However, here's the fix with the nostrils and mouth moved a pixel to the left.

That does look better.
I think I'll be restarting the walking animation eventually.

Edit 3: Alrighty! So besides the fact that this is unfinished, I'm wanting to post up what I have of this so far.

Thoughts? At first I was concerned about the tail bouncing up a little too far, but then I increased the delay by 2 centiseconds and it doesn't look as bad as it did before.
Always helps to have another eye to help with pointing these things out though!


Added the tail leaves.

Edit: holy shit, I cant believe I just NOW understood Gors' joke in his post.

[Speed-X]

Update again. I finished it. Unsure if I should have Snivy's collar bounce at all, though.


Oh my god, I finally realized what was wrong with the idle Snivy's movement! One moment.

I think it looks a little more natural, now...I guess.

[Garamonde]

Edit: holy shit, I cant believe I just NOW understood Gors' joke in his post.

I have yet to understand it...

[Speed-X]

My original title was, "My hand at animating" basically meaning my attempt.

that's some handy spritework you got there. I like how it waves around, but there are some flaws I can't really put my finger on.