Help with a character animation

[jastorman]

Hi everybody, I'm kinda new to AGS & I've been working on animations for a character  for a game I have in my head. I'm reasonably happy with the side view, but the front view dosen't look right, does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might improve him? I must admit to cheating a little bit on this animation, I used an already existing animation as a base to tell me where everything should go (I barely know which foot to put in front of the other in real life, doing it in animation would be asking too much!). Can anyone suggest any tweaks I could make to either animation to give him a bit more character?

Draft 2:

[Domino]

Hello jastorman,

Upload your images here. It seems you are having trouble with tripod.

http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/upload/upload.html

Good Luck.

[jastorman]

Thanks Domino, lesson learned.

[rbaleksandar]

More frames will make the movement smoother.
Shadows would be nice (unless you don't want to make 'em )
When you make each frame (think you've used paint or something like that), try to keep things similar. What I mean is that if you look at the front view for example (the same "problem" occur by your side view too), you'll notice that by some frames his shape changes. This should be fixed really. And I don't know if it's just my illusion, but in the front view the guy changes his eyes In some frames he stairs "normally", in others he gives some kind of laser look
Eyebrows in front view are different from these you have in your side view. A quick skatch, in which I took your sideview eyebrow and made a front view out of them. Big difference. Front view eyebrows show happiness or surprise (although the mouth doesn't do that - you should fix it by adjusting some expression that'll fit to the eyebrows). Sideview eyebrows show total unhappiness:



Oh, one more thing (there are others but not so necessary for now) - he looks too flat. Clothes, body skulpture, hair. Should add some details to make it an eyecandy


Hope I didn't critisize you too much.

[jastorman]

Thanks for your input rbaleksandar, there's no such thing as too much criticism (as long as it's constructive & not nasty!). I have adjusted the animation slightly, see above. You were right about the eyebrows, they were way out on the side view. I've also made the colours more consistent through the frames, I think I have eliminated the "laser look". As for him looking a bit flat, I was kinda going for a pared - down cartoony look; there will be more details & shading later, but I wanted to get the basics right before moving on to the details. I'll be working more in the coming days to give him a more thorough overhaul. This is the first time I've tried animating like this & the subtleties are hard to get to grips with, a rouge pixel here and there can change the look significantly. 

[rbaleksandar]

Glad I can help. No such thing as too much criticism...He, will see after this post

Well, no laser look now I think BUT he is still staring at me
Let's start with the front view. To see the things I've written below you can easily zoom your animation (even in you browser) and see for yourself.

Note:

LEFT//-----------------------\\RIGHT

1.Feet:



Something wrong here? Look at the feet in your cycle. The left foot moves smooth and suddenly this appears. One frame to correct for now.

#Note: Following remarks are based on this image:



2.Scattered spots over body and face (pointed them out with red lines - too many to count now ) - appear in one frame (maybe two).

3.No shoulders (pink figures )

4.Arms - look at the pink lines I've drawn like a VERY basic skeleton. One arm is way to low then the other and hasn't got any visible elbow.

5.Left hand - while frames pass you can see some strange waves below the elbow (which is not so visible but at least something tells you that there's such thing - not like the right hand).

6.Eyes - don't know if that's your intention (to scare little children, he ), but I thing that staring razor-sharp look combined with crossed eyes will give even a grown up man some shivers down the spine

  There are other things to correct. I will suggest something that you might do to practice a little bit before diving into more complex figures...


...Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Stickman I know it might sound stupid, but the stickman is wonderful for learning the basics especially in animation although you'll use it later for even more complicated things. Since I'm new to pixel art (look at my stupid thread in this forum ), I can't give you any suggestion how to make it, but I think that if you google a little bit, you'll find tons of animations and positions of our beloved Mr. Stickman. That's just an advice. I myself began with it, and as it seems I have to use it again and redo some things and adjust them to the pixel art.


Greetings,
rbaleksandar