First Sprites! What do you think?

[sharksweetheart]

Hi, I'm new to forums! I've been lurking for the past few days but I finally registered. 

I've been obsessing over my game all week, pixelling like mad! After several tries, I have these two fellas:


(My first, scary attempt, for comparison:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v665/delia123/leads.png )

I'm pretty satisfied with these for the most part though I wanted the girl to have a bandana/scarf tied around her waist as a makeshift belt, I'm not sure how to accomplish this with such limited space (I don't want them to be any bigger than this). Also the guy's shirt maybe a little blinding, however I don't want to change it too much as I want the game to be as bright and colourful as possible. I'm open to any suggestions!

Afterwards I tried making a walking animation for the girl:


(Once again, disastrous first attempt for comparison:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v665/delia123/crapwalk.gif )

I'm happy with her legs (and hair, and boobs haha, it might be a bit much and slightly unrealistic but it amuses me, so it stays), but her arms are kinda funky looking. It's like they're pinned to her sides and she's trying to punch something. I've tried correcting this but no luck. Any pointers?

Also, what do you all think of my style overall? o3o

[Hudders]

Hi!

I like your sprites, but I think I like your originals more.

On the walk... I'm sure more experienced animators will tell you how you can improve it. One thing I did notice though is that the upper body movement is very erratic.

Good first sprites! Better than mine, at any rate.

[Azaron]

Great sprites! I like the originals too. Very nice. The only thing that really looks bad is the girl looks very bow-legged. And the walk cycle amplifies that. Try to bring her feet more toward the center of the sprite. As it is, if she walked the way the walk cycle currently shows, she'd fall over.

EDIT:

I found two of the sites I use quite a bit for walk cycles.
http://www.idleworm.com/how/anm/02w/walk1.shtml - A very good tutorial
http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html - This is the best thing I have found for visualizing a walk cycle. You can change how heavy the character is, their gender, and even their mood and speed.

[Candall]

Very nice pixelling style!  Very dollz-ish.

While your second attempts with the sprites are indeed better overall, there's one thing you missed that you got right in the first attempt.  You'll want to direct your attention to the facial expressions.

In the first attempt, you had a rather neutral mouth position... this is good.  Having characters that constantly grin isn't very natural.  Grinning frames are reserved for specific situations.

As for the walk cycle, it looks a bit unnatural as well, mostly because of the way the legs are moving.  She looks as if she's gripping some sort of invisible ball between her knees.  To fix this, you should have the forward-extended legs cross toward the center of the body more.  I'll try to whip up a paintover to show you what I mean.

[sharksweetheart]

Thanks guys!

I didn't notice the legthing at first, but now that you mention it, yeah it is pretty bad. I'll try to fix that up.

As for the facial expressions, I already have about a thousand of those on file, I just sorta slapped on a random one for this example haha, but thanks~

[lo_res_man]

This slightly off topic, but does anyone know were I can find some good woman walkcycle tips? I found a few video gifs, but that would be just rotoscoping. what are the principals? plus I cant find anything for the front or the back.if not how about a good video capture program? for the wire chicks at the link above

[Azaron]

http://www.freewarefiles.com/
Do a search for video capture. There are several promising free video and screen capture options available, and MC Screencapture looks promising. I don't currently use any screen or video capture apps, so I can't really comment on their quality or usefulness.

[lo_res_man]

my thanks. Really, erm, cuddly, work there. A bit too high saturation for my tastes. As well, the eyes frighten me...those eyes!*shudder*

[Oliwerko]

Well,

Quite good for first sprites. They are a bit saturated tho as lo_res_man said.
I think they will look marvelous if you can combine them with a correct environment.

For the walkcycle, you have got much to improve. I would suggest looking onto eric's tuts ( you can find them on Tutorials page on AGS home ). I started there and it was good. One thing that makes her arms look silly is that they are changing their shape/size. Do not do that. Work with light. Lightning makes a big difference in animation.

You say that you are happy with the legs, but I don't like them. (sorry  )
Move her boots. She's stepping in place. I would suggest animating in 6 frames, then you've got more space.

One more thing - your animation is not symetrical. I don't know if you want it to look like that, but:
Her right boob is bouncing to the right. The left one doesn't bounce to left as much tho. Also the brightened area on her legs is asymetrical.

I've got these and other tips covered here if you're interested: http://oliwerko.wz.cz/Tips.txt   You'll find here all useful trics how to make it symetrical and so on. ( No advertising on my supertut. I just wrote it for people like sharksweetheart )

[sharksweetheart]

Okay, I tried fixing it and I think it looks a lot better, though I'm still stuck on how to move the arms - I looked at those websites butyeah, her arms don't really move at all now (though it still looks better than before in my opinion!)

What do you mean by 'saturated'? Too bright?

[Candall]

Okay, I tried fixing it and I think it looks a lot better, though I'm still stuck on how to move the arms - I looked at those websites butyeah, her arms don't really move at all now (though it still looks better than before in my opinion!)

What do you mean by 'saturated'? Too bright?

Too "saturated" means that the color is too intense, brightness would be "gamma."  In this case, though, I think you could rightly refer to it as "bright."  That's subjective, though, of course.

If you want to give the arms a more real sense of movement, you'll want to darken the arm that's swung back and slightly lighten the one that swings forward.  Don't do it too much... even a subtle change will sell the illusion of depth.

[Oliwerko]

Yeah, the colors are too eye-catching or something like that. She is "overcolored". I would personally use less intense colors, but.... you know, If the background is in similar style, it can be alright.

The walkcycle is better, but still not as natural as it could be.
For the legs, make move her boots more. Look at yourself as you walk. You move your toe inside when your leg is behind. She doesn't. Let me show an example:






See ? In the first one, he doesn't look natural.
But I moved his legs, and it looks much better.

For the arms - look at images up there. Little movement is required. Work with light to make the illusion of movement. Also notice - the walk animation is done in 6 frames, but it isn't necessary to use 6 frames for hands!

[Monsieur OUXX]

See ? In the first one, he doesn't look natural.
But I moved his legs, and it looks much better.

It'd be even more natural if the ... err... i don't know the word in English : It would be even more natural if "the part of the body between the top of the legs and the bottom of the torso" was also moving up and down

[Scraseface]

See ? In the first one, he doesn't look natural.
But I moved his legs, and it looks much better.

It'd be even more natural if the ... err... i don't know the word in English : It would be even more natural if "the part of the body between the top of the legs and the bottom of the torso" was also moving up and down

The hips?

[Monsieur OUXX]

/quote]

Yes. The hips should also move up and down, because they don't lie 

[Oliwerko]

Yeah, I'll correct it, thanks.