So before I go much further with what could be something bad, I figured I'd put this here for some opinions? Because I'm a little clueless, sorry! ^-^;

So here's a 32x40 (not really, but that's the image size) 15 color+background (could've done 13 easily, but I like the 3-shade eyes, heh) standing animation for... Well, here:

And here's the sheet

There are definitely things that I think seem iffy, but I don't want to influence your opinion too much by saying them. But I'm probably talking too much, so, any tips for the sprite? Thanks~!

(Also, before anyone points it out, the style probably looks a lot like New Super Marisa Land since the proportions are based on that, and the palettes were taken directly from it. Hopefully that doesn't cross any lines! ^-^; )

Edited by 479482o1 - 26 June 2013 at 9:56pm

I like the hair, except the weird antennae; they strike me as really weird. Plus I second the point on the eyes, I read your post and then I looked at the image and I was like "wtf? They're just BLACK"... no joke :p

* You managed to get it down to 13 colors + transparency without a major loss in detail or quality. Kudos!
* The overall design looks better with the fourth shade than the third, but as a minor nitpick, I think the sprite needs a lone pixel of the lightest skin color to the exact left and exact right of the mouth.

This image looks markedly improved over the initial image after an examination of the details. Keep up the good work!

What is the standnig animation supposed to be doing exactly? Cuz it looks pretty weird. Like she's stirring something with her foot. That the eyes turn without the rest of the face makes that look pretty strange too (as in, she looks like she's scanning left and right wildly)

When you're doing animation, especially at this stage when it remains only to fix jumping pixels,
then try to animate each part separately (one foot, then the other, hand, ears, and so on).
Try in order to pixels do not disappeared and did not appear by themselves while driving.
I fixed your work, I spent a couple of hours, but yet saved as a normal gif :(((((
Well, show that survived, remodel another try, if you have the spirit, good enough to me stubbornness


Когда ты делаешь анимацию, особенно на этом этапе, когда осталось только исправить прыгающие пиксели, то старайся анимировать каждую часть в отдельности (одну ногу, затем вторую, руку, уши, и так далее). Старайся, чтобы пиксели не пропадали и не появлялись сами собой во время движения. Я исправил твою работу, я потратил около пары часов, но к сожелению сохранил как обычный гиф :((((( Ну покажу что сохранилось, переделывать ещё раз попробую, если хватит духу, благо мне упрямости хватает.

Edited by Yuran - 28 June 2013 at 2:32pm

Jelly Ankles!
I'm an utter noob, but wouldn't it be better if she moved forward the front foot when she seems to lean forth?

Mm. I see what you mean about the knee movement, though I kinda meant the foot would be lifted in the forward motion, rather than sliding along the ground.

((Why do you do translations in Russian?))

(Google перевод) левая нога должна подниматься от земли при движении вперед, я думаю. Хотя создатель не вернулся, так что я не уверен ...

The left foot should rise from the ground when moving forward I think. Though the original creator hasn't returned, so I'm not sure...

Hey there, yeah I've been reading these posts; I just haven't had much of anything to contribute since I haven't really sprited in the past couple days.

First off, thanks for the edits, Yuran! There's definitely stuff there I'll reference for the coming-soon edit. But before I do that, I've been thinking about the animation as a whole.

I mean, who the heck makes that kind of motion, anyway? ^-^; It doesn't really make sense (but for what it's worth, she wasn't supposed to be moving her leg. I just had trouble making it look like she was rotating it). For a while I was thinking of doing a straight up-and-down kind of idle motion, but then again, even that would be pretty extreme, especially given the size. What about a subtle chest expansion/arm movement for breathing, or maybe I should only have the hair be moving? Unless there are better suggestions for the concept, of course!

I agree with Xhukari, better not go into such details of the animation. In addition, there are only four frames, any action seems overly expressive. It is better to have to do next ...



Согласен с Xhukari, лучше не вдаваться в такие подробности анимации. К тому же здесь всего четыре кадра, любое действие выглядит излишне выразительным. Лучше уже делать дальше...

What kind of game is it? That may impact what would be most suited, but keeping them still should not be underestimated; it can help focus the player on the more interesting attack/hurt animations, for instance.

Какие игры это такое? Которые могут повлиять на то, что будет наиболее подходящим, но держать их до сих пор не следует недооценивать того, она может помочь сосредоточить внимание игроков на более интересные атаки / боль анимации, например.

If it's a standing fight pose, wouldn't it make more sense to have her bounce more and sway less? I say this because I pictured the animated Ryu ready GIF.

I'm thinking just a light bob/bounce might work best in that case.

Looks much better now! More human like bounce to her body. =D Keep up the good work.

Is the blink animation part of the standing animation? If it's not it's allright, if it is then consider doing a standing animation and a standing blink, why? Because then everything is "modular" this means that when you do an animation with this character for a clip or for a game you can decide exactly when to blink, by doing this the animation won't be annoying (as now I feel like it blinks way too much >:C).

The eyes look very cute, I like it a lot, good job.

I pointed out to you minor flaws in the animation.

And I do not really like her ears, here are a few options you offer as an example of the desired, it is better if you yourself think up something of their own.


Я указал тебе небольшие недочёты в анимации. И мне не очень нравятся её уши, вот тебе предложить несколько вариантов как пример желаемого, лучше если ты сам что-то своё придумаешь.

By faster blinking, I don't mean the frequency--I was hoping to make the illusion of the action being faster by pushing her eyelids down on the first animation frame there.

But yeah I do agree that it's too often on the animation there, but it's not like I have a way to make it random in a gif ^-^;
I guess great minds do think alike, since what Skykanden said is pretty much exactly what I was going to do: Have one sheet of the normal animation that plays, and when it ends, it has, say, a 20% chance to blink and a 80% chance to continue looping, unless a counter reaches a certain number, at which point it switches to the idle animation (looking around or something).

@Yuran: Uhh, aren't all of those just all the points where the animation does more than just movement? XD
I'll look into those, though, and the head, I'll see what I can think of. But I noticed you made the hairband thinner, too?

I'd post edits here, but I think it's about time I ask, does anyone know an easier way to make a .gif than saving each frame of an animation as an individual .bmp out of GraphicsGale (I have the free version), converting it with Giffy, and plopping the frames in UnFREEz? Because that makes things really inconvenient @_@

Hrmm, Yuran hasn't posted again--I'm still a tad confused as to what exactly I'm supposed to do about the red-marked areas, sorry!

I did make an alternate headpiece, though I'm not sure if it's too complex for the rest of the sprite since I don't necessarily consider it a focal point...


As for animating, huh yeah I guess I can just make my own program, that's an interesting idea XD

Right so I tried to follow that (I left the old headpiece for an easy comparison)

I'm still not sure I understand what you mean, especially with the left arm ^-^;
The right arm looks much better now, though, and the pixels in the middle of her hair do, too, I think.

Sorry I haven't posted for a while--I tried and failed to do what you did with the hair and got discouraged for a while ^-^;

Regardless, that second visual definitely helps! I have an overall much smoother animation now (aside from the hair), but I also decided do a minor redesign:

Thoughts?

Aw, I thought the other one was very cute!

Hmm, though with this new one, since it's so small you can't really add 'cuteness' features to it really. The other one has a lot of bobbing around and stuff which I liked. But if this is what you want to go with, I think it looks cute too.

For your newer one, I know she's turning her head to the side, but I think each eye should be the same amount of pixels and with no 'light'. At the moment, it looks like she has big square eyes, and the light just blends into the skin anyways. So just make the other eye thinner.

Edited by Oriena - 03 September 2013 at 9:18am

Yep, giving this another go XD

Even if I can't do bouncy nuanced movements, this size looks to be promising (if only because it's so much easier for a non-traditional artist to make small things... OTL)

But yeah, by adding to the palette, I get a lot of options, and hopefully this way I can keep the wider near eye (since 1 pixel seems too thin IMO)

Not sure how best to color the hands/breastplate, though... Also, I've never made a palette, so... yeah ^-^;

Edited by 479482o1 - 03 September 2013 at 6:52pm

I have no idea what I'm doing.

(especially with the hair, I don't know where to start on that)
But I should probably change the topic title now that there's more than standing?