tips on character making.

[Icey]

My friend drew a picture of two characters for a short adventure game he wants to make. He ask me to redraw them as he likes my style more. He wants me to make the characters animations as well. I wanted to try and make a them with Photoshop instead of paint.

[Bogdan]

http://kafkaskoffee.tripod.com/tutorials/phototochartut.htm
maybe this will help.

[Icey]

ehh not exactly what I was looking for. However that is worth the bookmark though.

I came up with this. It's not really smooth but it's good for now.

[WHAM]

One of the frames is in wrong order and the animation skips backwards.
The knees also need a "little" work.

[Icey]

I have to re-upload the pics again.

As for the knee, I can't figure out a way to get that part fixed as the walk cycle thing keeps doing that.

[Monsieur OUXX]

I have to re-upload the pics again.

As for the knee, I can't figure out a way to get that part fixed as the walk cycle thing keeps doing that.

You need to add a rounded end at the end of each bit of sprite you're going to use.
In other words : Instead of having his thighs end as a rectangle, add a rounded bit, that would have the same color as the skin.

The goal is that the lower rounded end of the thigh overlaps with the upper rounded end of the leg/knee.

[Icey]

I was thinking of doing that however I knew parts of it would stick out weirdly.

However it is the day time now and I am smarter. I wll add the round joints however they will be tab bit smaller. This will make it look like it is connected at all times.

[Chicky]

Why not do it right and draw the knees yourself?

[Icey]

That's what I was planning to do.

I will try it soon.

[Ghost]

Given the size and overall detail of the character, it's strange that the upper body doesn't move at all; I'd invest that little extra work and at least make some creases on his clothes, or move the jacket.
Also, walking in a straight line while looking sideways... Walk Like An Egyptian much?

[Icey]

I had bigger plans to make it look more real however the walk cycle thing only offers so much flexablity. Therefor it's hard to make it look better. I have another program that might work better with a little help. But his face I will have to fix.

[Ghost]

I had bigger plans to make it look more real however the walk cycle thing only offers so much flexablity. Therefor it's hard to make it look better.

Then why not doing it by hand? WCG is a nice tool to get you started, yes, and it creates a solid base, but would it be so hard to do the ten or so frames by hand? That's not to sound patronizing, but you'll have to edit the frames anyway- so why not got all the way?

[Icey]

That was my plan from the start. It is also what I was ask for how to do. I never did that before and I don't want to try it if I can't do it.

[Ghost]

Okay, then- sorry Here's one way:

Since you already have a solid base walkcycle, just take the individual frames and create a strip in the Photoshop clone of your choice (you will need layers).
Since you're using a rather large character with AA, I suggest you scale the image up by 2.
Then create a new layer, and with a fine soft line tool (start with 4 pixels, but experiment), draw the individual frames. If you got a tablet, that's super, but mouse has always worked for me too. Just draw the outlines now, in solid black (or maybe 90% gray).
Then create another layer behind the one with your lineart. Switch to a pen tool, and fill your outlines.
For a quick test, scale the image down to 1/2 to get your original size, import the frames into AGS, and have a look at them!
Always keep the original files with its layers intact, because you'll have to return to it and refine stuff. Don't start on detail work before the animation itself looks good!

This is one approach, and a very work-intense one. If you got a program that can deal with GIF files (Image Ready comes to mind, but there are dozen others), it's much easier to create a GIF and quick import it. It's all worth the effort, though, believe me this.

[Icey]

Thanks a bunch. That sounds like a lot but with a little practice I'm pretty sure I will get it.