this is a game called save them originally called save me?

please view at 3x for all sprites thank you

but the story changed and the name didn't fit it at all.
here are characters that are to there final stages of Design.

Main Character Zammy.




butterfly cadets from right to left(zoe hope jen madi olive jake)

You could try making the hair bounce a pixel higher in It's highest point and a pixel lower in It's lowest point, It adds to the bouncy-ness:

The head should move on the bounce like your ref shows. Like more top of the head/less face in the middle frame.

Not really. See your ref how you see the top of her head when she bounces. You should not see the eyes in your sprite.
On the bright side she can be a zombie using that last edit.

how's this?

there you go frame by frame view at 3x

she is skipping.
I want'ed a different walking cycle for the main character and want'ed her to stand out from everything else on screen.
As goes for other main characters and main villains.
I do not want one sprite or animation cycle reused unless nessasary

I'm starting to do animation's for these little cuties and i might change them height wise but how do you like them?

these are outfits that you can unlock. Left to right
fighter, Rouge, Mage, Item user, and her normal outfit
there are three more Magical girl, sword fighter, and adventurer.
( I'm not done with the designs)
please let me know if any thing is off or unreadable.

I think part of the problem you're having is that you have a LOT of up/down motion with the hair while you have almost all left/right motion with the body to simulate things like arm swing. I think somehow you need to show up/down motion with the arms and legs to match up with the hair.

Also you have the hair bouncing at the same time as your action. You might try putting the bounce one frame after the action as overlapping action. To put it in other words... the character moves and then the hair responds to follow that motion. The hair is not a part of the physical body motion, it's following that body motion shortly afterward because it has don't have a choice in the matter :)

This video may explain some of these concepts, like overlapping action, drag, and follow through. Note the time delay between when the body stops moving and when the attached hat/cape/(hair)/etc does the responding motion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OxphYV8W3E

this topic is now closed but thank you all for your help i actually decided to go with 3d models with these characters. because the game is viewed by a child perspective that has no concept of good vs evil or there are bad people in the world. I wanted the game to look like a toy box so the enemy's look like old glass dolls and the hero looks like a stuff animal. I thank everyone that helped me and i'm sorry all that help was flushed I would have said something sooner but I thought people forgot about this topic so I really didn't bother telling you guys sorry.