First real character animated by hand...

[Hollister Man]

Okay, I've been working on my animation skillz, since I'm really hoping to get better, in order to work on the many ideas I've got.

I took the keyframes that a buddy drew by hand, and placed them in Gale, coloring them and trying to touch up the lines frame-by-frame.  Here's my first effort...



Now, I haven't got to shading in the blocked out colors except the sleeve, but what do you think?  I'd really appreciate any help you could offer.

This character is supposed to be a little cocky, but fairly athletic and fun.  I know he appears to be stomping, but I liked the general feel of the animation.  Any advice on how to proceed?  I'm actually fairly pleased with it so far, now that I got the 'bobbing' to look natural.

Thanks, I'm looking forward to anything you have to say!

[i k a r i]

I would change his "santa boots" into a different shape, something not so round and big..
And I would also make his head rise a little after the first step, it would give a him a superiority attitude.
other that that I think it looks very very good..
edit: And maybe his head is a bit small..and his left fist looks a bit weird..

[Hollister Man]

Good catch on the boots.  I think I'll make that change soon, his clothes are supposed to be poofy, while he's actually pretty 'lanky' underneath, so his head is supposed to look a little small.

I know the hands are strange, after shading they should be better.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

The main issue is his swaying left to right.  This may look jerky when put in a game environment.  Typically, you only want up/down motion for a walking animation.  The animation itself is very nice, so keep at it!

[Oneway]

That a nice animation for a first serious try!

First thing that struck me was the head size. Although it has nothing to do with the animation itself, it's way too small. It looks like there's a baby head on top of an adult body, so i suggest increasing the size.

I like the arm movement, it shows the cocky attitude you're going for, but it would we nice if the shoulders would go forward and backward along with it to really give him that self-confident look. I realise this is a bit against what ProgZmax said, and he's farmore experienced in animating than i am, but give it a shot and see how it turns out.

Okay, i did a little paintover of the shoulder suggestion:


Maybe it's a bit exaggerated, but i quite like the feel it gives.

Good luck!

[Akumayo]

The way the fingers/knuckles move on the right hand make it look like he's grabbing at something to me, but maybe it's just me...

[JRock]

Either his pants are super-baggy or he has abnormally large legs or he had a major accident in there.   

[SuperFoop]

I think maybe the head could be a pixel larger. Dosn't really look right in comparison.

[PinkSugarHearts]

I think it's cool. Keep going on like this ^_^.