A running animation for a game. I just want critique before I started adding "flesh" :P

that's the person.

animation ref

Edited by CakeDrake - 04 August 2014 at 8:12am

ya it seems a little wierd not to have the actual torso in there.  Might as well include it as you can practically just get away with a rectangle for starters.

are you going for a run, or a walk?  Cause your ref is for a walk, and what you have looks like maybe a power walk.  For it to look like a run, both feet have to be off the ground at the same time at some point.

it also looks kind of like the character is leaning back, because the arms are further back than the legs.  If its a run, the character would probably be leaning forward a bit.  If its a walk you can adjust the posture however you think fits the characters personality.


Edited by r1k - 11 July 2014 at 2:24pm

oh ok.  thats looking pretty good, but a little jerky, Im not sure exactly how to fix it though.  It seems like the legs get shorter when she picks them up though.

I think I may see where the "limp" is coming from. I will preface this by saying I know nothing about animating. It looks like the blue leg is shaped differently than the green. The blue doesn't seem to have as prominent of a knee, to me, this looks like how your leg remains stiff if you are hurt and limping, almost as if it were overstretching but in a stiff way. I think the green leg looks good and shows a good range of motion. I do notice on the last frame, the green "butt area" seems to shift up in relation to the rest of the stride. If the character has some jiggle there, that may be what you are going for, so not sure if this is out of the ordinary or not.

I am not sure what is causing it, but the blue almost looks like it's doing a moonwalk but in reverse, maybe it's hitting the ground too flat footed, or something with the weight shifting?

That said, it does look like a great start for the animation, keep up the good work! :)

Edited by boogieman - 12 July 2014 at 5:15am

I can help your limping troubles! The main problem that I find when I animate is I often forget to lean the torso into a walk or run. This causes problems, because the torso is one of the best tools for conveying the direction someone is moving. A torso that isn't leaning towards where a person is going makes the whole thing weird. It's happened here, and instead of your torso smoothly following the direction of the walk, it's jerking around like nobody's business. It kind of looks like your character is taking a step, stopping, and turning their upper body 90 degrees before repeating the whole affair. The legs are a little uneven right now, but I'd say you need a good solid spine to animate off of before you go on with them.

I'm gonna go for the obvious advice and tell you to find a sprite similar to the animation you're hoping to create and imitate it. You're not going to have luck trying to imagine what running or walking look like without some kind of reference.

Get a model you like in a style you like, look at the silhouette, recreate the poses in your own style. This is how you'll learn the fastest. Best of luck.

Back from the vacataion, phew...

I'm going to search up some animations (suggestions are welcome) and I'll be back with a new animation :)

You need higher knee lift.

Generally when you run your feet get close to your bum and your knees move upwards to being almost horizontal. That is complete laymans terms btw. A slight lean from the torso is good too and pretty efficient from a semi-elite distance runners perspective.

Don't be afraid to exaggerate movements, they certainly look better to look at than limited movemnts.

small update -

Got some higher knee lifting, and I copied the legs so they are exactly the same. I haven't refined the arms, I can't get them right. I'm not going to add the head before I have a better understanding of the arms.
[I REALLY NEED HELP WITH THE ARMS!!!] D:

Edited by CakeDrake - 21 July 2014 at 2:30pm

Hey cake I love your work. That's definitely a good animation start too. The first set of running has your gals left arm going too far back, making her look like she's twisting her torso outwards, as well as her leaning a bit backwards and her left leg seems shorter or weighed down. It looks like she is pulling a sled harnessed to her neck while also trying to yank a resistant dog's leash. You could make her bend a bit more forward and have her step farther with the blue leg, but I understand if you'd rather work with your latest one.

For running I usually take a cue from oldschool games where the entire sprite drops a few pixels during full stride. If you can, do a quick jog around wherever you are, and notice that you feel your entire body rise as each foot pushes you forward, so you kind of bounce a bit. I've got a really poor & sloppy example of this made and as soon as I get home I'll export it as a .gif and edit this post to include it.

edit: attached it. Like a previous poster said before it's probably best to work with the sprite itself, especially such a clean and well designed like that one.

PS that ref animation looks like its meant to illustrate walking from my perspective

Edited by MFlanaga - 21 July 2014 at 5:42pm

Looking much better. Don't be afraid to add a head, though.

No. The head is just too big even if its going to be toony.

tried to make it better:

just a still frame

EDIT:

whole animation

Edited by CakeDrake - 23 July 2014 at 4:36pm

I like the newer sassier shorts and like how it make for a better stomach form but really dislike that single pixel just above and below on the out edges. One on each side. Can that be corrected?

E:Maybe the butt side one is supposed to be butt overhang?


Edited by jalonso - 27 July 2014 at 1:56pm

Having technical difficulties posting image :(




Edited by jalonso - 27 July 2014 at 2:24pm

I have started a new project, wich im more confident that I can finish:

Supposed to be viewable at 100x 200x and 300x
I just came here to ask wich sprite is better. I'm not really sure because ghosts might glow, and the whitelined sprite could portray that (might be a pain to animate) :P
ps don't worry about the tiles right now. I'm working on it. I will update when I have something more fleshed out.

Edited by CakeDrake - 04 October 2014 at 5:19pm