Sprite walk cycle criticism

[tonedeafmessiah]

Thanks InCreator - that was really useful. It's a shame, though understandable, you don't have enough time for an edit but I think I kinda get what you're on about.

"Depending on your room, front/back walkcycles either are or are not very important. I try to draw my rooms so there's as little of vertical floor area as possible, with so weak f/b walkcycles you might consider this."

This is a good point, but due to the fact that this is not only my protagonist sprite, but the whole point of me making this game is to improve my animation/pixel art skills, and so I really want to make sure I have the strongest walk cycles possible. In addition, once I have one set of working walk cycles, I have a working template for all my other sprites.


"Shading on hands turned out quite well - now add a mid-moment, where dark shade isn't either in upper or lower part of the hand, and that's also what you have to do with feet."

There is actually a frame where the arms are uniformly the non-shaded green colour on both front and back walk cycles, but maybe there should be a more gradual shift into it? it's on screen for such a short space of time it just looks like a flicker...


Thanks again.

Also I'd just like to state that edits are welcome, should anyone decide they want to/have enough time to have a crack at it.

[Brad Newsom]

Maybe Disney never gave a thought about human biology.

No, but maybe you should pick up an industry standard Animation book and see how things really are understood.

[Brad Newsom]

Okay I see the problem and confusion now. I am correct. The movemen you speak of which you think is a realistic walking way is false. People don't walk like they are marching. I didn't see it before though.

The frame in which Boyd said isn't realistic is actually the opposite of what is realistic. The frame in which both legs are straight but on opposite sides is the most crucial frame there.



By following Boyd's advice will create a character that walks as if he is wearing extremely tight pants. The first from of a walk cycle must be as shown. This frame is crucial mainly because this position is what creates balance in the way we walk. Here is what your animation will look like when we add that frame:

Mine/Yours
     
(Fixed: left one original frame out. Was in a hurry. Oh well.)
By creating two extra frames, the character now looks like his body has wait and that his feet actually touch the ground.

If you are interested in getting a book for $30 at the store if not cheaper on amazon. The scan in which I provide is only a small bit of a huge boo with everything you need to know. Check out 'the Animator's Survival Kit'. It is a book that anyone who is animating anything should use. It helped me plenty when doing cell shading at Disney and for my Flash Series 'Boil Boy'.



Boyd was right. I was wrong. What I said was actually the realistic way and not an industry standard approved/prefered way.


Here is an additional tidbit to help your front and back movement.


(Note: I have been approved by the author of the book to provide these images.)

[InCreator]

I prefer Kadji-san's footwork but original hand movement on this case.

In general, to be realistic, hand movement should be even less visible. Most people don't wave hands almost at all while walking. Of course, depends on temperament and walking speed too.

[Regnum Eternum]

As can be seen in the walk cycle drawing from that book, when walking toward or away from the camera the character needs to keep their weight balanced on the foot that is down. In your cycle he would fall over since he is "hovering" over the raised foot -- nothing is supporting half of his body.

The body compensates for the raised foot in walking by leaning onto the planted foot. In the book example you can see that a straight vertical line can be drawn from the heel of the planted foot up through the spine, dividing the body in half. When standing still, the weight is more evenly distributed between feet and the feet don't have to be directly below the spine.