As you told I tried to focus on pixel details and I am rewriting graphic of the game again. Because of that old assests do not match at all and I have to recreate "some" again. But I will do it in order to improve. I also posted screen how game looked 5months ago (I added it in the first post of this thread)

IN GAME SCREEN with new graphic ::
For screen CLICK here --> Link will redirect you to indiedb screen (the light effect on the left is genereated). I post this screen to show a change in pixelart. I would not be here without everyone here. still way to go...

Stand animation with leg movement:


Do not fall animation (hero's foot is over a cliff),

LINK:In game screen with the foot over the edge you can notice on the screen I have added one strand of hair. I made the change eve on the anim above.



Edited by RebeaLeion - 06 November 2014 at 3:37pm

Its hard! I did run animation like 20 hours (total). (because I reworked it like 4x)


This is final result:


and jump



Edited by RebeaLeion - 07 November 2014 at 5:27pm

I love how you're progressing. Great general improvement. I have to say though, this does mean that we're not going to let the same things slide that we would a month ago. *evil laugh*

So, I'm a little late to the table when it comes to critiquing your latest work, so I'm going to focus on some specific stuff rather than the whole set of things you've produced. Mainly, your animation.

In general, it's way better. In specifics, it still doesn't pass for anything close to real most of the time. My favourite animation would have to be the goblin, just because you haven't over-animated it. It's simple, pac-man stuff, and though the motion could be improved a lot (having the club drag along the ground for a moment before the goblin weightily lifts it up, for instance), it still works. Take a look at this topic again (it's great to see you looking at other topics and building skill through helping and asking questions, by the way). Starting midway down page three, the artist begins to work on animation. Try looking at their journey outside of tools (rotated bone program? Frame by frame animation?), and just see what changes as they progress.

However, when we are talking about tools, something AshCrimson did was draw individual "bones" to animate, whilst making the animation frame by frame. The bones aren't copied frame-to-frame, they're just kept in mind as a guide to the anatomy of the character. It's the physical equivalent of remembering "the legs are brown, the shirt is blue": "The leg has this bone that is this long, and that never changes except if there is this perspective". Of course, this can look boring--a character that does not stretch and squish in ways that it probably wouldn't in real life doesn't look real! But, as a general rule, it is one way of helping the animation along so it doesn't wobble or twist oddly.

Whew. Okay, now for an edit of your "unbalanced" animation. Right now it looks like your main character is dipping his foot into a bath to test the water, or hanging upside down from the straight leg. The body and limbs are twisted and unreadable. You gotta look at things in simple terms. If it doesn't make sense in three lines, it won't work in a thousand carefully placed pixels.


Look how the weight of the edit is really off-center. He's not halfway over the edge, he's over the edge. The grounded leg is the one that follows the gesture line, and everything about the rest of the character does not want to be on the righthand side of it! Legs swing back, arms wheel in the air (sorry there's no animation--those suckers are fighting for balance, not hanging stiff at chest height), and even the head is tilting backwards. Only the loose elements such as hair and the scabbard flop with gravity, which shows the viewer just which way this person is heading if they don't correct their balance. This should be true for every key frame of your animations--strong lines are what tell the most stories, so an extended stride or the moment before a sword is drawn should be simple and dynamic. This may be why your goblin is my favourite. With the club drawn back, every part of it bends back along one line and it looks awesome.

Alright, I hope that massive text dump helped you out with animation. Use rules to give structure to your animation, follow flowing lines to create stronger poses, and as usual, have a good time pixeling!

Thanks again for great tips! Owww... your sprite is so clean and nice readable SuperTurnip (I keep in mind that's a quick edit - but wow!). Also for these sketch lines - etc. I will try to use them for any animation that will require some bigger body movement since now (like sword attack or the mentioned hanging).

Finlal anim is running at speed which you mentioned in the game( I made it slower for forum).

I should look at it eventually and make some re-animation. I have to move forward now, pherhaps when a time is right I will redone even that hanging animation too. (animations re really my weakest point, and it hits a game very hard ! :((( ).

I am really appreciating every feedback. And I am trying to re-done everything in a game(trees, basic enemies, etc... to make it more readable) and in same style.


I will try to follow what I learned from you so far. It may be not perfect yet (I don't even aim there now), I will try to do it the readable, clean and with the bones and lines in mind for next animations.




Edited by RebeaLeion - 10 November 2014 at 5:53pm

So how excatly to animate - well the reference book won't help me much as I am not so perfect in English when it comes to terms, etc. (not native speaker), I looked @book but it's not in our language.

NEW method I am trying.
So first I tried to make some lines ( I tried to center them over hero's orig. static body +/-). I am starting with it because of feedback here + the anatomy thread, where it is common.

It's first time I used this method. *note month ago I created animations only by rotation of body parts + edits over it, with an image that is is the best i can do. I had no much idea how to animate. I started to animate human body first when I tried legs and i drew them frame by frame. I also made a mistakes with resizing (aka, old sample, new run is above):


Now when I prepared animations with lines, I am trying to draw final shapes over it. But I am not sury if I am doing it ok. (I am trying to follow that of the anatomy thread). Guys shows usually complete animation, but I am curious about the progress itself now.

Now I am @

I started with a head, then I added legs - body should come next as legs should move a hips.. etc.
am I not following some *bad* habits here ?

EDIT FEB/2016 : I am not animating using those lines. Frame by frame suits me better.

10 hours of work (total time).



EDIT: I don't want to create trivial replies, so.. I agree that 10 hrs is too much, I did run animation 20hrs. I really dont know how else to create so I can make it in hour or two. When I consider that my anims're uhh...*out of places, tho I tried to keep lines in a motion last time, I don't see any more perspective in my tries. I really don't want to animate one motion 10-20 hours (3-4-7+days) when I consdier doing it after work till the late evening. This is not how I want to make a game /pace/ I will rather postpone it. I may reconsider whole process.
youtube vid

Edited by RebeaLeion - 12 November 2014 at 12:13pm

10 hrs is good if you haven't been at it for years... You'll begin to get a feeling for the weights and forms of bodies as you go along. You've dropped whole days of work into the character here, and it's improved a great amount. Do reconsider how you draw and what you're doing--thinking about your art can help.
Remember: First you get good. Then you get fast. Then you get better.

I gave up on this sprite, it was too difficult for me at this phase (yes difficult + very time consuming). I remade sprite again (made few anims, all are visible in the vid - link). All together took me around 4 hrs when I consider I remade some (6), its improvement anyway, i did it faster but truth is its simple. new sprite fits in a game more (compared to goblins, etc.)

New sprite is on vid now: (in motion)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myPQklrKJ78

I also changed this on the edge anim. not excatly like :
, but I did it with this in mind :o) hanging anim in the vid + motion.

example: I did this jump anim excatly 1 hr.


EDIT : exc.my eng.



Edited by RebeaLeion - 23 November 2014 at 4:25am

Speed isn't the goal. Especially for the main character, take your time. Right now you still have a -lot- of random motion and conflicting animation (where frame A to B shows one direction/motion, and B to C a completely different one.)

The spinny one has super messy hair. The face itself is okay, the legs are kinda wobbly, and the arms are just flapping about.

The bottom one... is supposed to be a run I guess? But it doesn't work at all.

first make the animation, then add the shapes, then add the shading, then add the details:

Background isn't bad at all.

Here's quick test why chara is sitting on it :

*video link removed* vid is down

clouds ll be slower this was just quick edit menu - try / concept

Edited by RebeaLeion - 24 January 2015 at 2:40am

I tried some cave tileset :
edit : light of upper side (of bottom layer) is off in the pic, I fixed it.

*cave picture is missing* link removed

Damian:Thanks for a tip, I will try to experiment with a bigger backgroud shapes in the future.

----------------------------------------------

I tried house, uh that's so hard. Very hard, took me around 6-7 hrs. First is on the left, the second is quick edit



I bow down in front of ADrawingMan and his excellent houses.


Edited by RebeaLeion - 07 December 2014 at 6:54am

Two edits ::
I find 1th (on left) very bright tho, so I tried a second attempt to change a look a bit by adding a shadow to back side to make a front - more front like.
So is the second (right one) better than the original (first posted above) ?



EDIT3 : avoiding to multiposting. /i now changed a way how I handle the right window. dont mind crates, its alpha-testplay scrn.


Edited by RebeaLeion - 09 December 2014 at 9:39am

latest version of houses.



edit/update :


here I used adrwaing's man house as a reference, i hope he won't be angry about this. (I find him as good artist and this house / shape helped me a lot)

edit / update 2 :
after this shop I realized how should I tune the other house too so I reedit it.




Edited by RebeaLeion - 11 December 2014 at 12:00pm

I made smaller houses. they can be seen in this concept sheet here :

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MlCQzhP6Z-E/VItYEIUUjtI/AAAAAAAABsg/_NvVNQo8U58/s1600/backg.png

Edited by RebeaLeion - 12 December 2014 at 1:08pm

I am still working on houses, trying to do a little adjustments.

Meantime I took a break and did some mushrooms and branches.

I used red from this pallete for mushroom hat:
, it helped me a lot. (Link does not work, uh. its one from color thread - those spheres)





Edited by RebeaLeion - 13 December 2014 at 4:49pm

I changed sign, please let me know what do u think about the new one.

Edited by RebeaLeion - 16 December 2014 at 11:41am

is here any example of this distant overhead light source ?

I combined borders from 1st sign.


or a test without a light :

with


Edited by RebeaLeion - 16 December 2014 at 12:15pm

All advices're really helping me a lot.
My last sign edit, I think I fixed shadows now ? Font is a little messy but clean one did not fit in goblin's territory.



a little off: Here's a vid that's capturing how my concept/assets progressed since april, when I started with pixelart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Feg3vR2evCk

Edited by RebeaLeion - 19 December 2014 at 3:56pm

I am keeping a lot of different trees (different style of creation) in game, but it quite does not matter as it creates forest together. I however discovered a very simple and easy way to create graphic now and I m sticking to it (so far) and its quite ok readable in the game.

I even uploaded quick tutorial for beginners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97O1ELnOKxk

Everyone could draw such simple thing as this (I just didnt think of it sooner).(I made special brush of leaf shape and it's really helpful for this style too).

same style was used here :


Edited by RebeaLeion - 21 December 2014 at 3:01pm

I changed p. of X, it's now moving too along with mountains.



Edited by RebeaLeion - 24 January 2015 at 2:38am

The goblin in the background is an awesome touch. :)

I think you can get rid of the noisiness under the grass, and in the background trees (which have, by the way, improved a HUGE amount! Great work!). You have a lot of very simple tiles and sprites, and a lot of very complicated ones. They look good from far away, because your colours are nice, but closer up they can seem out of place. Toning down the noisiest sprites and adding details to the simplest ones means you don't need to change everything, but it'll help make everything fit together.

I didnt do much and I won't these few days but I did some quick noise? edit on the grass, because everyone is telling me to :) so here it is, how do you like the new one ? i d like to keep texture instead of one colour blocks.

Original is the upper one:


EDIT : I plan another edit of grass in the future I think I know what you meant. It's little distracting.

Edited by RebeaLeion - 17 January 2015 at 12:26pm

final grass touch ? removed the noisy things.
EDIT2016: This was still noisy, I didnt realize back then.