I am working on a main character for a flash game I am creating. I have the programming skills but am a little soft on the artistic side of things. Below is what I have so far.

Dr. Death goes from sanding still, starts to run, is running, and then attacks.



Below is my sprite sheet.



I am wondering what I can do to improve the quality of the image. There are a couple of things that I can improve but wanted some assistance before I get too far ahead of myself.

1. I can easily improve the attack trail, I have to do some research but I am sure I can come up with something better than the rainbow.

2. I can add some frames to the run animation, to show a sway back and forth.

Some of the things that I am wondering if someone could help me with are.

1. How do I make Dr. Death's cape look more cape like?

2. His arms look a little funny during the attack animation, any hints on making things look a little better.

3. How do I get more depth and detail for the shading, he still looks a bit flat. I use black for an outline to separate all the areas of the design. In some of the great pixel art here the borders are smoothed in with a color. What tips are there on getting this right and not coming up with a puddle looking thing?

Thanks for any and all feedback!

You want to do this for the attack:

Notice that the forward swipe is faster than the retracting motion, and notice that the motion blur whatevers are on the opposite side when retracting.

For the cape - add ripples and motion, show it's flexible cloth.

The arms look weird because they're at an unnatural angle. Pose out the attack and imagine what it looks like from above. Hint: the arms are straighter.

For the outline, a simple way to do so is to take 1 shade darker from the palette and use that as the outline color:

I did some work on the animation and I think it is working much better now, but I still have a couple issues.



And the sprite sheet:



You might notice that the 4th and 11th animations in the sprite sheet has been removed from the animation. I did this because they did not seem to work well, and made the animation seem jittery.

This animation corresponds to the 3rd 1:1 line in your animation examples.

I think that this is caused by the 1:1 ratio not being enough of a difference compared to my rendering of the 2:1 line.

The other thing I need to still put in is an extra frame in the retraction so that the arm retracts slower.

Lots more to do (haven't touched the cape yet), but I think I am making some progress on this.

Thanks again for the suggestions it made a world of difference for me.

/* A side by side just for me */



Wow... side by side the new one really looks flat. I am going to have to work on some better color depth.

Edited by stats - 05 November 2010 at 7:50am

And just so I can continue the conversation with myself.



I modified the ramp a little more, and it has some better depth, but it has lost a little bit in terms of a seedy look.

I keep having a thought in the back of my head that using shades of gray is probably a bad choice for the character.

What would make it more frightening or deadly to you? I am all ears and I will be back with the improvement!

Not sure how to speed up the pull back as it is being played with no delay.

My better shading will have to be done again. I seem to have not saved that version.

Here is a faster snap with both blades is use:




Also wanted to include a full routine:


The slow speed here is not a huge issue, in the flash game it will be in I can control the frame rate much easier.

Funny to this point I have now spent at least 2x as much time on the image as I have on the code. This is why every code should have a best friend who is a talented graphic artist...

Edited by stats - 05 November 2010 at 12:44pm

i agree with zeratanus but at the same time i think the speed and "snap" of the animation is just right now.It looks like hes attacking now rather than waving his knives, definitely a big improvement. just make the arms cross just a little and then i think we can go onto the ruuning. Keep it up!

Also... would it be a better idea for me to work out all the movement in blocks?

Just pick a single color and mock it out? or is it worthwhile to work with all the outlines and such?

If anyone has an example of how they would mock up animation I would real appreciate seeing it.

And thanks for all the help, it is really helping.

It's good, but the thing bugging me still is that I feel that it's somewhat robotic. I get the 'robotic' impression because his body stays still the whole time while his arms are swinging. If you could somehow incorporate a little momentum into the head and torso I'm sure it would look far more organic.

And some legs working on a run:

Could you show me an example of how you would do the arms?

I am having trouble doing any kind of slight angle. I can do a 2:1 angle, but getting less than that 3:1 or 4:1 it starts looking bad to me.

I put his arms at a sort of angle, I thinking about it now I should have made the forearms darker so they appear to be lower on the body.  Anyways, here's a suggestion from me...

This is more for how I think the arms should move, the torso's still stiff because I'm not really sure how strong this attack is supposed to look.   Hope it gets you closer to what you're looking for.


Edited by Siscoman - 12 November 2010 at 10:42pm

I spent some more time thinking about the character and its positions, and I seem to keep moving backwards, i.e. redoing where I have been cuz what I have just doesn't work.

Were I to be running with some swords in my hands, I would most likely be holding the blades in a way that would make running easier - i.e. in an arm pumping position.

I think that I would then model the attack from this neutral-ish position.



The more I look at this, the less I think of it as a top down view... I am going to have to shift the angle a little more.

Edited by stats - 16 November 2010 at 11:28am

arms need to end straighter. try to find a place between what you have now and what you had back with the red 'beam' thing a few posts up.

the wiggling in the arms im not sure of, but they dont really bother me either.


keep up the improvements :D


Edited by Zeratanus - 16 November 2010 at 10:05pm

i agree. although i did like it when he leaned forward, i dont think its necessary.its at a stage where you can start detailing again