Hey, remember that kid who never posts?

[Thumbtacks]

The canvas effect is a Photoshop filter, no?

If so, Don't use it unless you can do it by hand.

In fact, the whole piece looks done in Photoshop, as in it doesn't have the crisp, pixel look to it.
(Though this can happen with resizing due to image hosting sites)

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Also, what Bombshell93 said, Parallax is your friend.

[Mashuga]

I would definitely recommend the parallax scrolling like bombshell suggested. It does kind of look like a photo-filter. I like the effect that the canvas provides, but it also seems lazy.

As for the background being rendered in photoshop, sometimes it looks better if a background is fitted with smooth antialiasing, so dont worry about that.

[Bombshell93]

EDIT: wow thats trippy on the eyes, if you keep your eye on 1 mountain while it moves your eyes wont hurt as much and the effect will be more apparent, its usually done much smoother, but I wasn't willing to do 60 frames, it'd take hours, its easier done in the draw code of the game its intended for.
quick whip up for an example
Here are the layers (clouds are same colour as the background, hard to make out as is)

Spoiler

[Gameboy]

EDIT: wow thats trippy on the eyes, if you keep your eye on 1 mountain while it moves your eyes wont hurt as much and the effect will be more apparent, its usually done much smoother, but I wasn't willing to do 60 frames, it'd take hours, its easier done in the draw code of the game its intended for.
quick whip up for an example
Here are the layers (clouds are same colour as the background, hard to make out as is)

Spoiler

I also simplified the layers so it looks more pixel-ish

[Sevenstitch]

If you decide to use Parallax, make sure to vary the movement speeds of the background layers. foliage right next to you passes by much faster than mountains in the distance, and clouds rarely ever stay still no matter whether you are or not.

[Mashuga]

It all comes down to immersion. You want the player to feel like there's more world than simply what the play area is. I've known several games to provide this effect ranging for the new super mario bros. to castlevania: order of ecclesia. I see that there are near mountains and there are far mountains. Maybe you should split those into different layers?

[Gameboy]

Doing the running man. Anyways, maybe you guys can help me out with a dilemma.
The kid has a giant paintbrush and holds it in his left hand. So that would mean to look "correct", I would need two sets of actions. One for each direction.
Unless you think it's more trouble than it worth, or even have a better idea...

[Shade]

I think the leg need to bend more when he moves it forward.

[Bombshell93]

well you could if you want to avoid making another set of sprites have a turning animations where he swaps hands, simple as lowering the brush and swapping, could do it in 2 frames and have it play in reverse mirrored after its played the first time.

[Thumbtacks]

Well you could have just one animation and flip it like so many other games do, not bothering to switch hands, Though doing both sides is always cool.

His head is rather static throughout the whole thing.


Notice how his head bobs left and right?
I'd recommend doing something like that to your guy up there.

[Bombshell93]

actually popcorn, the head should mainly only bob up and down.
when figure drawing a useful tip for balance is the nose will line up almost always with the center of weight, which is usually the foot weight is resting on, but in run cycles case it will generally be a little in front of the torso (as running is basicly falling with style)

[Hoeloe]

The reason that sprite's head appears to bob left and right is because it's been put into an animation badly and the offset of the sprite changes through the animation.

Bombshell is right, up/down movement is more important.

[Korby]

I think what Popcorn meant was that Zero's head is turning left and right during his run cycle, it's not staring straight forwards like the main character up there.

[Gaia]

Athough here is a much better animation, I'm with Hoeloe on that one, if you look at how a real life run animates you could tell there's actual motion going on with the frames, and they usually don't bob left and right, or stay the same height. The legs themselves seem very stiff too, as they don't bend when they begin to touch the ground.