I spent the past 2 days with about 6 hours of sleep total, working almost exclusively on the character sprites for my game (which I think came out amazingly). I have the side-walkcycle and front-walkcycle done, and then moved onto my back-walkcycle... Many hours staring at little dots on the screen with little to no sleep (my wife has been sick and I took vacation time from work, so I have nothing to do) have put me in a sort of stupor.. When I went to sleep last night, I was satisfied with this back-walkcycle. When I opened it this morning, I almost choked in surprise. It is simply attrocious.. Notice the rapidly changing crazy shading/shadows, notice the difference in the arm and leg widths, notice the difference in armpit and pelvis heights, notice.. just .. how horrible it is..
It really is amazing how skewed your perspective is when running on no sleep and with really tired eyes.. I had to post this just to laugh at it.. I have since re-done it properly :)
(http://www.billandnicole.net/games/test.gif)
-Bill
Sleep? Isn't that this half-hearted caffeine substitute?
If you stare at him for long enough he seems to walk towards you, with his head facing the wrong way, which makes me think of the Ring, only with a creepy guy instead of a creepy girl.
Has some style though.
Hi, Bill. Ghost's right. It really looks as if he's walking towards us. It's maybe because his hands go behind (it looks like in front). I mean...Who tries to catch his ar*e while walking ??? ;D There are the same problems as your previous images. The hands are changing (shoulders for example), some frames move the guy in some strange...unnatural ways. The second thing that will fix the towards/backwards-problem is the legs. If you make them bend while moving (like the natural way a person walks), it'll make sense and one will notice "Aha, this guy's waling backwards me..."
And finally...
Quote(which I think came out amazingly)
Less talking, more working ;)
I think it is because we don't see the bottom of his shoe. Watch someone's feet while walking behind them and you will see their heel lift up first. This might take away the creepy Ring vibe Ghost was talking about. :)
Also the shading around his waist seems to appear out of no where. Make the shading move with him to smooth that out.
Or maybe it's because of the highlit ending at the level of the knees, suggesting there's a knee there..maybe add some shadowy folds at this place when he lifts his leg to move it forward and fade them out when he nearly gets it there (you know, like material wrinkles when you bend your leg and smoothens when you put it straight)
I think you should first polish your base sprite before animating it.
So I think you must turn 180 his head, draw his nose, eyes, mouth.... and the he will be walking correctly ;)