IKHOR game dev spriting.

[nicktheslayer]

Newest Version:



What's this going to be in? Check this video out!



Original Post:

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I'm gonna have to do the other four directions on these soon enough, but how are these four, so far? 

[DragonDePlatino]

As far as coloring and detailing goes, these are some pretty well-done sprites. However, the animations look a little unnatural.

When a person takes a step forward, their feet point inward like this. In the south-facing animation, your guy is sticking his legs outward which would really mess up his balance. That approach does work with smaller 16x16 sprites, but once you move up in resolution you need to start referencing real poses more.

Also, the posing in the west/east facing animations look a little stiff. In the frames where your character puts his foot down, both of his feet are flat on the ground. They should be upturned a little bit. I think this sheet of Locke from FFVI shows a pretty good method of doing walking animations in this resolution.

[nicktheslayer]

I fixed the south facing sprites, I believe. The east/west sprites I'm having trouble with, I can't seem to change his feet without breaking them, or making them too big.

How can I fix the north-facing sprites? The back foot doesn't even move from it's place when he walks, and something about his neck/ears showing bothers me.

Lastly, the east/west standing/midwalk frame looks like he's hunched over, but I haven't been able to fix that yet either.

[DragonDePlatino]

OK then. Here are some quick edits. In the .GIF, the edited version is on the bottom.

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Firstly, the animation will look much less stiff if you add an upward or downward bounce in each direction. This was done with the south-facing animation, but its missing from the other directions. The feet should also point inwards like I said, but to more of an extent than you did.

The hands could also use some work. Try focusing on stronger, square-shaped lumps of pixels instead the triangular ones you had. The arms also looked a little unnatural because their swinging was a little too exaggerated.

Lastly, this is what I was talking about for the side-facing animation. On the frames that your character is taking a step, at least one of his feet should be up in the air. If both of them are flat on the ground, it gives the impression that he's stomping. I also widened the head on the side-facing animation and made the aforementioned fixes to the arms and feet.

Last thing to note: I assume you're working with 16x24 so to fit the bouncing in I had to shift the standing frame up a pixel. If you plan to do the same thing and are programming a game, I'd compensate for that offset by moving the character's hitbox up a pixel.

[nicktheslayer]

Okay, I really like what's happening here. I've take this new info in and attempted what I consider to be the hard part. Diagonals.



I'm not liking the mid frame at all. His standing looks strange, and his legs, I cannot figure out what to do with them. I also had a hard time animating the arms in the right frame, so i left them alone so the rest of the sprite didn't become a mess.

Ideas on where to go from here?

[DragonDePlatino]

Ah, yes. Diagonal movement. This is slightly more difficult in low resolutions and I don't have a lot of experience with it. Here's my best shot, though:



In the original animation, the beltline of your character never moved up or down. And again, the arms were a little bit too exaggerated in their movement. Shading the back leg wasn't necessary either as there's never any confusion as to which leg is which (unlike in most side-walking animations).

Quick question: Are you using a sprite animation program like ASEprite, Graphics Gale or Pro Motion? Or are you drawing all of your frames separately? If you're doing the latter, that is a very difficult way to animate that nobody does. I'd highly recommend getting a formal animation program so you can preview your work.

[nicktheslayer]

Feeling better about this one, though I spent much longer on it trying to work out the legs, especially. Still not fond of the neck/shoulder area.


Soon enough, I'll have to do sword animations. *shiver* Those can't be mirrored. The character is right handed.

[Gors]

by the way, skin colored pants is disturbing. looks like he's naked. I would use black pants instead.

[nicktheslayer]

Well, here's a piece of the map in the game:



I feel like the amount of black alreadg in some areas will make the game look a bit muddy. Also, the guy is supposed to have been rich, so the white pants is the only thing other than his pompadour that shows this in his sprites.

[Gors]

I tried editing your sprites a little to fix the issues,

1- Gave him shoes - that somehow breaks the 'no pants' perception, and makes him not look barefoot anymore.
2- reworked side sprites. Note that due to the sprite size, you don't need to have different poses for legs (see Earthbound for references).
3- I also reworked the diagonal down sprite.

[nicktheslayer]

When I get home from work, I'll work on it more, too. I like the shoes, but the down facing sprite looks a bit like it has goat legs now.

I'm also liking the hair on the edited sprites.

[Gors]

the 'goat leg' effect can be fixed by filling that 1px gap with outline, i think

[nicktheslayer]

I'm not sure I like the shoes, but I did give the feet shape this time around. My biggest issue at the moment is the animation of the left and right facing sprites.

[The KKM]

Dunno how smart it''d be, but I'd maybe try a touch of anti-aliasing with the blue. at least in the corners of the feet- the fact he has perfect _| feet makes him look more like a lego doll.

[nicktheslayer]

Necrobump.

Spent a lot of time programming, but now I'm trying to polish the graphics. The ones with the blue checks I'm satisfied with, but I'll still accept credit for. The red X's are the ones I need help with....which is most of them, actually.



So, where do we start?