Quincy's walkcycle, please C&C

[RocketBoy]

Hi everyone,

Meet Quincy, the main character of my first game. I will probably post an announcement in the Production forum soonÃ, 

I animated him using a template with 10 frames. I think it's getting there, but there's still room for improvement, I need some comments & critics so I can move on and get going on other aspects of the game (among them, the frightening front walkcycle view, *shudder*).

So let me know if you think there's any major issues with this animation!

Actual Size:


Double Size:


Thanks in advance!

[Domino]

I think the animation looks great.  The only thing that bothers me is his eye.  You should make his eye open (or make the eye larger, and with the white showing). Other than that, i can't see any probs.

[LGM]

I agree with Dark. Maybe you should add a blink of some kind. It's so stationary compared with the rest of his body.

Great work!

[LilBlueSmurf]

At first it looked great, but I sat and watched it for a bit, and the shaded arm and leg started to bug me. Ã, They seem to be too dark, possibly have the shading only cover the arm on the top half of the back swing and the top half of the leg. Ã, They are even darker than the "dark areas" like his bottom and under the head so it look like they may even be a different color.  And something with the eye, I don't think it needs whites, but the suggested blink might help.  Eh, just watched again and I noticed the front arm sticks out too, maybe lessen the shading on it or add a bit of highlight to the body.  Also a little tail bob to go with the ears might be nice, might be overdoing it too though.  I love that char btw, gj.

[Kweepa]

Looks superb!
I disagree about the eye. I think having a blink would be too repetitive during a walk cycle. An idle is a better place for that.
The outline around his tail end changes colour from brown to black.
The back arm looks a little bit thicker than the front arm.
And just above the arm at the shoulder, the pixel step in seems a bit rough. I think it might be better continuing the back straight down through that area.
But, fantastic walk cycle.

[Oz]

I love the eye! It gives the character a unique appearance. The animation looks great.

[Floskfinger]

I love the black eyes! Reminds me of sam&max. Cartoon animals shouldn't have any white in there eyes .

[What a loser.]

Great animation, I love it very detailed, the ears moving and all... Great stuff. 

[RocketBoy]

Thanks for all the C&C!

I will do some changes and post them back sometime soon for your sharp eyes to examine again!

Speaking of eyes, the little black eye is a keeper and you folks just finish convincing me that its 5 pixels of expressiveness was worth keeping black!

Cheers,

[Nacho]

Whereas I might agree with some of the crits, if you start losing one or two days in every little thing to make it perfect, you'll never finish your game. It is perfect as it is, leave it in that way and go for the next... (just my opinion)

[RocketBoy]

I agree Farlander! But if I didn't want any critics or if I wasn't ready to change anything on my animation I wouldn't have posted it here

Plus, I'm looking for any excuse to delay the inevitable front view of the walkcycle...

Any advice as to how to tackle that animation (Front view of the walkcycle)?

[Nacho]

There are not very good tutorials for frontal walkcicles if you compare it with the amount of lateral good ones, are there? I have this, it's a paintover of Max (from Sam and Max) Dunno if it can helps, it's not very well solluted, anyway...



But it might work if you donwload it and see how the artist made it originally... I think it's quite easy to "translate" those smurfy feets into your dog ones...

[RocketBoy]

Thanks Farlander! That's going to be really helpful!

I also did some online search on walk cycles and found a really nice reference for front walkcycles that I posted on the Tutorial thread:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=600.80

[Scummbuddy]

My suggestion is to make the head turn a little to the right and left as the walking happens.

Maybe something as simple as showing more nose, and moving the eye back a pixel or two, and then back to normal, then less nose, and the eye to the other direction for a frame.

[RocketBoy]

All righty,

After looking like an idiot on my way to work by trying to decide if the walk cycle would be better with head moving from side to side (like Scummbuddy suggested) or with head bobbing up and down (I was actually doing the moves to see what was more natural). I came to the conclusion that head-bobbing is probably more natural due to the up and down motion of the whole body... so here's a quick rough (I came in 20 minutes early) of Quincy's new walk cycle.

I will redo it tonight so that his head does not seem to move on his neck.

1x


2x


Changes:
- corrected weird pixel above shoulder
- Tail is now all the same color
- Head-bobbing!

EDIT: Updated image with one without blurry edges in the animation AND with lighter right arm and right leg (I tried it... and it looked good! Thanks for insisting guys)

Stay tune for a front walkcycle soon!

[Sam.]

that looks great, excpet for the slight blurring of a frame in the middle, I'm going to see if i can pinpoin it later on.

EDIT: well, it seems like the frame where his head is tilted, there is a blur, i asusme this is because you used a rotate tool? This is not a huge problem until you put it in a game, when the blur will look odd.

[RocketBoy]

Good eye Zooty!

You are right, I used a rotation tool. This is actually why I mentionned that it was a "rough" animation. I did a quick and dirty fix to the animation. A proper version of it is going to be put online tonight after work

[Mr Flibble]

Whenever I saw this topic, I thought someone was making a game nbased on the Quincy TV show...
Anyway.

Awesome sprite, its got a great feel to it.

[LGM]

You still haven't fixed the shadow issue with his right arm and leg. It wouldn't stay dark like that.

Other than that, you're doin' great.

[RocketBoy]

I haven't fixed the shadow issue on arms and legs because my game take place at night and high-contrast shadows are perfect in that context.

But I understand what you are saying and I will make sure that it's not too dark once the character is imported in the game.