I'm going to critique you, but first of all, I seriously think this style looks way too much like Ragnarok Online ( http://www.fe-online.co.uk/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=8238&fullsize=1 ). You should try to animate something in your own style to learn as your first animation, because it's harder to understand what someone else did for their own art.

For me, drawing walk cycles straight on is harder than a side view. I recommend scrolling down this tutorial site to understand walk cycles (front view is lower on that page): http://www.idleworm.com/how/anm/02w/walk1.shtml

For your drawing, the left knee cap is kind of spinning around like water running down a drain, you should just keep the line art more stationary on that area.

The left foot does a little "ankle shake/wiggle" thing while stepping. The right foot seems fine. But the left foot goes inward (pigeon-toed), but then seems to kick out towards the opposite angle.

I think the walk cycle seems weird because the character doesn't have a neck. For stepping, the whole lower body moves, not just below the knees (for example, you could move the rib cage down when the step goes lowest or something to show it). Good luck.

The character still looks like he is walking down, as if we are viewing from slightly above.
This is ok, but it makes that his head better go down a bit more like in the first version.

Also, his legs sime a bit thick to me, especially his lower legs.

Try to break up the outline you have now and define some of the muscles by making them protrude in intrude from his body. Like skinny up near the ankles. Also, see if you can make his head less babyish if you know what i mean.

You have a lot of issues with the motion. I recommend working on those before you continue with your shading.

Your feet and knees are much better than before, but the entire body has a sway to it that doesn't look right. Especially since the head doesn't move left to right.

The breasts move independently from the shoulders which makes them look less firm than the muscles would indicate.

Why is he bending his arm on each swing backwards. I know very few non-flamboyant people who do this without it being part of a dance.

His left shoulder (our right) looks like it swings forward at the furthest back part of the animation.

Even if the scene that this will be placed on has a bit of perspective, where the feet land currently indicate a very steep slope. However, the shading and perspective on the body and head indicate a very narrow slope or almost flat surface. The feet should then have maybe about half of the vertical movement that they have now.

The entire body is pillow shaded. If light is coming from above, then when a body part angles underneath the body it should be completely shadowed. And when it swings out in front of the body, be completely lit. Currently you're just surrounding the borders with darker color.

Already much improved from your original post, but if you don't fix the anatomy / shading first you're going to end up with a bunch of issues when you start to layer on clothing and other accessories.

Thanks for all the critiques! I definitely learned a lot with this piece, so I think it's about time to call it done.


Edited by breakfast - 29 July 2013 at 1:55pm

He looks like he's slouching. Bring his shoulders down a bit and give him a neck.

Also, instead of walking he looks like he's sliding.