Not sure what you mean in the last sentence about shading it like a box? Apologies.

Edit:

Not sure if this is what you meant:




Edited by AshCrimson - 31 August 2014 at 10:14am

By shading it like a box I mean to like try to visualize each part, like the thigh, as a simple 3d box. Each plane of the box gets a single shade that depends on where the lightsource is coming from.

1: Not a massive update from the previous one, but i did try making the waist more obvious. Big one has AA applied to it.

2: More of a big update; tried to make the stomach of the medium one less face-on, made the head rounder, applied more AA. Most notable update for both of them is the deeper shadow below the armpit and the side of the chest.

Nah, but because they're bases i put the clothing on after i've got the general body down.

Here's my attempt at a battle-like stance with a two-handed sword (could be swapped for general two-handed weapon):



It's not as detailed as the previous image, but is my attempt at making a less stiff and more, action-based stance.

Just an example of what could be done with it:



Quite rough atm, hopefully it'll get smoother as time goes on.

Thanks for the advice, will definitely amend it.

I'm also currently working on my anatomy again, trying to make the medium base look uh, better.

Here's a comparison between the previous version and current one i am working on (the last two have only differences in terms of the right arm):



I:
Broadened the shoulders.
Raised the neck, as it looked like it had none.
Changed the legs,basically made them look like actual legs and tried to show the calves as well.
Changed the feet.
Changed the chest, I felt it didn't look good enough to me.
Changed the arms, tried to shape them like actual arms, unsure if they look like such (I definitely know there is an issue with the right arm however).

My current issues:

I fear the uh, pecs look too much like breasts, but im unsure of how to represent them without there being any ambiguity.

Unsure of what to do with the feet.

Unsure of what to do with the right arm, i know it has to be occluded by the chest, but to what degree?

Maybe a bit less duck footed and ready to battle instead of weapons slung low.

Honestly, I think there's too much movement. I wouldn't change the outline so much. I think moving the pecs' shadow and maybe the shoulders/arms a little could suffice. Also, if you're going for a battle-ready stance, I don't think it reads as aggressive enough. Right now it sort of looks like a bored guard on duty rolling on the balls of his feet. The classic aggressive stance is feet wide, back hunched, head down, arms away from body (here's a (somewhat extreme) example: http://i.imgur.com/DDHOmiH.png).

Awesome effort as always Ash, good to see you going strong.

Edited by MrHai - 15 September 2014 at 4:30pm

i think youd benefit from studying closer other examples of good idle animations.

secondly...put yourself in the character animations you have created for yourself.  imagine you moving in the same fashion as your animations.  it would be ridiculous right? 

Instead, do a little solitary role play.  imagine you are that guy wielding the sword in an idle animation.  feel how your body moves, how you feel mentally...your body language...then try to emulate that with your animations.

You've almost got the pose nailed down. Bend the knees more I think and it will look more natural :)

I'm probably spending too much time on getting a single pose right, but here's a non-animated update, as i still feel there's something off about it and that it could be better (as well as to look more like the picture MrHai posted).




Compare to:

Thanks for pointing that out!

Made a quick edit with your advice in mind:



1/Blue = Original

2/Green = Update

Tried bending the chest and back forwards, tried making the back leg look more bent rather than hyper extended, shortened the height and made other small edits

It has improved so much! :D I don't think you're wasting your time spending all this effort on getting one pose right. Posing a character correctly is really important in my experience. The line of action in a pose tells you so much about a character and their intentions. I would say with this pose specifically, to get that battle ready feel, it needs to be much more perched and eager.


I did a really quick edit of my approach to achieving this. Sorry it's really rough, and far from perfect. But it might help with the knee difficulty you've been having.

Edited by Mr Special - 19 September 2014 at 6:31pm

Thanks for the edits Mr Special and MrHai!

I submitted the piece, but i've recieved critique on the awkwardness of the feet and how it looks like he's standing on his toes:



Critique is in the comments here: http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/89019.htm

So i decided to try to redo it, to make it look less awkward. Took what you both said into account as well as the critique and tried to avoid making him stand on his toes and focus more on the bending of the knees and made this:



I intended it to look like the idle animation on IGoRge's wonderful "protecteur" piece:



If you compare you can see it uh, came out a bit different from what i intended.


Edited by AshCrimson - 20 September 2014 at 7:28am

What should i do with the arms?

Also took your advice and made him not move too much:



Compared to my previous attempt:



It looks and feels slower? Although there are more frames in the edit (new frames have him going up a pixel before he learns back) since it looked like he was going too fast without them.


Edited by AshCrimson - 21 September 2014 at 9:43am

You are awesome, AshCrimson.

I would like to see a version where you switch the amount of vertical and horizontal movement. I.e. move him up and down as much as he's currently moving side-to-side, and vice versa.

A little detail.
In IGoRge's "protecteur", when iddling, even when the feet are not moving, the ankles change a little bit.
In this case, in your last iddle, you can change a  pixel or two in the ankles, to change the  angle of the end of the trousers, to make the line a little perpendicular when the leg is inclined.
Do someone else agree this?


Edited by dyluck - 22 September 2014 at 8:52am

Yes, even if his knuckles and the top of his fingers were facing us it would till be fairly severe.

Well, I felt he was moving too much side-to-side. I wasn't sure simply switching the amounts would be a good solution, but figured it would be worthwhile exploring.

I really like the faster animation in your previous post.

I would expect more arm movement but I think this looks like it has more depth.

I meant mostly about the wrist position. I think is more natural not to draw the wrist twisted in the stance. It exhaust the muscles in the wrist and makes difficult to hit something, and when seen looks unnatural. In the stance, try to draw the sword more perpendicular to the forearm. Only during the blow it may be twisted to strengthen the blow, but at this scale there's no need to give that much detail to the animation.


Edited by dyluck - 24 September 2014 at 3:24pm

I'm finding it difficult to put much detail on the hand, should i make them bigger? I know they're roughly around the same size as the head when they aren't closed (although maybe just a tad smalller? but im unsure of the size when they're closed and making a fist, etc.

Edited by AshCrimson - 25 September 2014 at 3:21am

Something like this?

Yes, pretty much like that, but as said, I thing you may go darker with the shadow.

Good update. I think it's a little odd that all your characters have crazy-defined pectorals and no abs.The shading on the stomach is a little odd, too. I did an edit to help me think, and it got out of hand, so I'm going to leave it here for some examples.

Generally, my advice is on gesture. Copying the same legs can sort of work with smaller sprites. Your small characters are great as-is. The bigger you go and the more specific your art is, the less it works. I'd say this size is where you really need to draw unique shins for both legs if you're doing a three-quarters-esque view of the character standing. To me the reason is that it interrupts the flow of power and form that defines the human body, the gesture. Getting the body grounded, and twisting it and flexing it in a flowing way, is vital--one teacher explicitly instructed a class I was in to "make fantastic and extreme shapes" with our own bodies, to understand the forces being applied to us and recreate them more truly. Bottom line is, your character needs to be grounded and move from there! Use your lines to lead into the ground strongly and fantastically.
The stomach thing is luckily simpler. The waist is pronounced by two diagonal/vertical lines at the base of the leg that extend up over the pelvis to the abs. It's clothing that accentuates the pelvis/core divide (at least to me). The groin can be less or more defined. As long as the legs are good that part just sort of works itself out.
Good work, sorry for the wall of text!