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I've been working on animation for the better part of two years, which is why I've been posting to this board for awhile without any games under my belt. I'm getting there, slowly.

I'd like to wholeheartedly recommend the Animator's Survival Kit. Best. Animation. Book. Ever.

Sorry if the structure of my first post was confusing; I didn't draw the stuff at the site I linked. The two posted images, however, are mine.

The site is the homepage of conceptual artist Feng Zhu. He's done work for the new Star Wars films as well as a lot of other cool projects.

Thanks for the crits. The robot-character was really my second attempt at drawing something using prisma-color art markers; the rooster was the third.

For the game I'm working on, the backgrounds will definitely be done in this style. I'm not 100% on whether or not the characters will be rendered this way. My partner swears up and down that he'd like to cut the lineart apart in moho after I drag it through adobe streamline, but I'm more keen on hand animating the lot of it.

I purchased a bunch of animation tools several months back; the onion skin paper with that locks into a lighted 'flipping' board, etc. I used to hand draw all the animations, scan them in, and then pixel them, so this method of hand drawing, scanning, and cleaning up the edges would probably be faster for me, I think.

About being derivitave of Fang, that's a comparison I can live with. I'd like to eventually grow into my own style more. For the time being, he's not a bad person to remind someone of when they see your work.

He has a wicked sense of focal point/perspective in his backgrounds and they're the next thing I want to try and hammer out. The adventure I'm working on has some pretty unique settings, and I need to get some reference pics on some hardware before I can put those together.

And, yes, I was getting bored with pixelart; it's nice to do something different for a change.

Good to see you kickin', Minimi.

Submitted below are two pictures done in a pen and marker style. One is a concept sketch for a game, the second is just practice in the style. I'd like to do the backgrounds for an upcoming game in a concept sketch style. See this site for examples.





Whattya think? It's a departure from traditional adventure game graphics, but I'm kinda getting tired of pixelart.

Gotcha.  Their looking for a whole brand identity work-up for $500.

$500? That's way above scale as outlined in the GAG guidelines for a beginning designer.

I may need to move where you live.

Actually, I am. I've finally found someone willing to do the programming and co-write a project that I can do the art for. I'm greatly looking forward to it!

Thanks for the bookmarks! Every hit helps!

It's meant to be offensive, plain and simple. That particular character is the 'evil genius' of the strip and goes out of his way to offend all those around him. Rest assured I am no Nazi.

Webcomic link.

I posted regularly to the critics lounge there for awhile. Some of you may recognize me.

I got sidetracked from my AGS endevours by the webcomic I refer to in the subject of my post. I and three other people work on it. I'm responsible for the art but have written one or two of the comics as well.

I've always valued the opinions of this community and would like to know what you all thought of it.

Today's comic makes sense in the context of a few of the previous comics, so pardon me for it's apparent randomness when you see the front page.

You might want to start at the beginning and go from there.

Excellent as always. Don't let adding highlights kill your style. They look fine either way.

I did a quick paint-over of your head-shot guy. I didn't want to redraw the whole thing and add recoil, so I added a bit more goo hanging from the back of his head. I wanted to edit it, not reinterpret it.

a few measley pixels were added to the back of his head, only. The style of the character is nice and clean. Cool beans.

If you'd like some help in the animatin' department, I'd suggest Richard Willaim's Animators Survival Kit.

Pic:

Thanks for the comments.

I would like to post something to show why the left hand gets kicked back the way it does and why the legs don't move as is.

Aside from the animation needing to be able to loop if the person is rapidly pushing the fire button, the animation needs to make some sense if the person doesn't fire agian.

Below is the fire animation being abruptly stopped and continuing with the idle stance.


It's a bit choppy, but it may be the best compromise available. Luckily, the game is not a frenetic shooting game ala Gunstar Heroes or the Metal Slug series (though I am inspired by both). This allows for a longer, more-fluid shooting animation. I'm thinking of adding one more frame to it based on everyone's comments. Something to let the hair flow better, the shirt settle slower, and the hand move smoother. However, that may pose a problem for a single shot that returns to an idle stance, ya think?

Anyhow, here are a few other things I've been working on:

[Darth]

Let me ask your opinions about the legs. The character is going to be used in a platformer. Do you think having the characters footing change position during the firing animation will throw people off at all?

The only reason I canned the leg movement was because I didn't want for the art to get in the way of the gameplay. I'm curious to see what your opinions on the point are.

Also, Darth, I am such a shmuck. As an avid gun collector, I think they are going to take away my NRA membership for missing that detail!

I haven't had ANY free time lately, but decided last night (about 2:00 am) that I had to do something towards the game I've been working on.

Here is that something:


And here is that something slower and at 300% size:


Thanks in advance for any comments! (And to the people waiting on logos, I haven't forgotten!)

To all waiting on logos:

I'm working on em! Real life has been busy. Don't think I forgot about ya.

[Magintz]

Magintz, I can certainly make the sign post and logo red. If you'd like, I can make the planet more Mars-like and red to match.

I've got a few ideas for 'Clockworx Productions' as well.

I'll upload a couple of sketches tonight if it would help. check the tutorials thread, as well. Good stuff abound, there.

In the sense that foreshortening would be more important with the feet straight forward, yes, it could be deemed more difficult.

However, I'm not sure if you will get a natural looking walk with his feet out to the side.

I'll do an edit, if you'd like, later tonight on my home PC. The biggest tip I can give you with the feet, in general, is that you'd probablly see them a bit more straight-forward than to the side in a pose like that.