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Ive been trying to that, using layering to copy my sprite over the walkframes and try to adapt them a little to fit with the unique proportons of a given character.  As someone who has never done any animation, or even much computer art, I find that they are an enormous help in setting me on the road to creating a game.  Once I'm more comfortable with what works and what doesnt, I'll probably throw the whole lot out and start again

Is there any templates that you would reccomend then?Ã,  As a total amateur at this, its useful to get a simple guide as otherwise I get very lost very quickly, and I'm finding these outlines very useful for my first attempt.  I'll probably keep using them for the moment, and clean everything up (If I can!) when I have a little more experience...

Heres my first ever batch of walkcycles, with Thomas sauntering down screen.Ã,  Ive stuck them into AGS and they look fairly good to me.Ã,  I just need to alter the head a little between frames and do something with the eyes as they are a bit static.Ã,  Also the shorts need shading, but I'm more interested in getting the animation right at the moment.

Once again, MrColossals templates were an enormous help.

Oh, and apologies if the images look squashed, they dont on my computer I assure you!

-Did some tinkering to bring side and back proportions into line with front
-Changed side and back hair to make it more similar to ProgZmax's paintover
-Widened side arm
-Accentuated bottom
-Did some rejigging of backlegs

Not 100% sure if I've got the proportions of the side-on head 100% correct...

Im currently using these
kindly created by MrColossal
and painting over them with my own characters, altering dimensions as needed.Ã,  With a litle work I'm sure you can get them to fit your art style!

On Underdogs, when I was reading about Larry Vales...

Once I realised it wasn't mind blowingly complicated and that there were loads of other games I could...pay homage to...I decided to muck around with a few backgrounds and my first ever pixellated sprite.  Three days in and I'm already working on my first mini-adventure!

Hmmm, not really my cup of team I'm afraid, he looks far too angry!Ã,  I could use him as an evil Magnum in a future adventure

Seriously, I do like the extra detail you've added, especially the watch (which I may now steal!) and the extra shading around the shirt.Ã,  I don't want to get him too complicated however, as I've never animated a character before so want to lessen the amount of things that I can possibly mess up...

Okay, thanks for all the great suggestions thus far guys.Ã,  Since my initial post I have...

-completely removed the blackoutlines (Thanks Pablo!)
-added some shading to the t-shirt
-touched up the feet a little
-attempted to shade the back of the head but failed miserably

Darth_Mandarb, like the black hair, I'll add that on in a bit and see how it looks.Ã,  I'll also try resizing parts of the body, to see which bits I like and which I don't.Ã,  I think the head you altered looks really good though, and helps eliminate the "square eyed" look he had initially...

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Made some changes based upon Darth_Mandarb's paintover:





-Used the new head from Darth but lowered the neck a little
-Widened the legs and shorts
-Changed some shading around the legs

So, what do we all think now?Ã,  Im getting increasingly happy with this, I think its almost nearing perfection (Well, perfection for my skill level at least!).

Hmmm, your right, he does look better without the black, I'll get rid of that pronto.

Taffytom, I can't take all the credit for the graphic as MrColossal's templates give excellent anatomy and shading guidelines.  All I did was colour it in (and add the 'tache!).  Any advice you would give to alter the eyes?

Heres the main poses I've done for Magnum PI, using MrColossals template as a frame to which I added my design.Ã,  Im planning on using these three as the basis for all of my walk animations, so I'm trying to get them as sharp as possible.Ã,  In case anybodies really interested, heres the picture I used as a point of reference:http://www.magnum-pi.de/gallery/images/Tom_JungleBird.jpg





Apart from the shoes in the side-on view, I'm fairly happy with these.Ã,  Ive tried messing around with them, but they always come out looking a little...silly.Ã, 

So only a single line of shading then?  Will do.

Do you think theres anything I can do with the lips, given the limited pixel space I have to mess around with them?

Well, been fiddling about with AGS for a few days and decided to take the plunge and design my first simple game!Ã,  Heres one of the main characters, Taxx.Ã,  Sorry its so small, i'm designing the game in 320x200, and blowing it up really distorts it.Ã, 

Anyway, I'm fairly happy with it as a first attempt, although I'm not to sure about the lips.Ã,  Any advice on how I can get these looking half decent with such a tiny scale?