Knight Animations :D
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=21529
Printed Date: 14 June 2026 at 3:11pm
Topic: Knight Animations :D
Posted By: mzn528
Subject: Knight Animations :D
Date Posted: 22 February 2015 at 12:20am
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Hello PJers! This is my first post ever woohoo!
This is my second month into pixel art and game developing, below is a knight character I've done for an action game with a focus on different combat style I am working on. Please let me know what I can do to make it smoother and generally better, I know there's a ton of room for improvement (I was especially confused on shading and all). Here is him running: 
Attacking: 
Idling: 
WIP Enemy (this is just here to give you a sense of game style, all from old submission) 
Thank you all and lots of love! TL;DR : "Is it good?" [This is a bonus discussion thingy: I was going to create a character less advanced then the armored knight (junior...knight?) so it can level up to the current character since my game focuses on combat and character progression, any idea how I can draw a "junior knight"...?] |
Replies:
Posted By: Olhcim
Date Posted: 22 February 2015 at 5:06am
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One suggestion is that the head in the idle animation looks strangely offset. Maybe try to get it to match up better with the movement of the body. |
Posted By: mzn528
Date Posted: 22 February 2015 at 2:54pm
| Thanks for the reply Olhcim! I was trying to make the body move first and then the head to show a "breathing" animation, but with my small sized canvas, even two pixels of difference can make it really dramatic, I think I will just make the head move with the body to avoid making a bubblehead movement.. |
Posted By: Iscalio
Date Posted: 23 February 2015 at 7:27am
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It would be hugely helpful if you really want good animation feedback to post your frames as well. Otherwise I have to try to read on a very quick cycle where your feet are planting, where both your feet are on the same frame, etc etc. Which can be difficult to tell unless you see frame by frame.
I'd suggest a darker shadow color that can define your shapes. Right now it's hard to tell where your shoulder pad ends and your arm begins. I feel like your arm may be changing length in the side view or be too short but can't tell because it's obscured so much by the huge shoulder armor, which blends in with the armor on the elbows and makes it all hard to read. I think generally you're having trouble because you're afraid to move your torso. Your torsos are very static vs other motion going on in your animations. Similarly you seem to be afraid to tilt your helmet because you've made it such a flat, graphic shape. It's easy for you to turn it on the X/Y plane, but you can't Z tilt it without revealing more information about that shape. You're going to have to make some decisions here about if you want to show more motion or limit your other motion to match such a flat style. While this is stylized your lower arms feel EXTREMELY short. They are possibly shorter even than your hands. It's just not something that's immediately apparent due to your bulky armor, but it still makes the anatomy feel slightly off even if someone can't tell why. Similarly your neck feels slightly too long and thin for the bulky character you're making. Especially when you stretch that neck in some of these animations. Run cycle Right now this feels heavy and paced, as if the character is going to run for awhile aka not a sprint. When people carry weapons it takes a lot of energy for them to hold the weapon up while running. People tend to drop their arm during a long run like the one you have and only raise the weapon when sprinting, which requires much more arm involvement than paced running. So I'd drop the sword lower. Note that the character in this animation is obviously very strong, but doesn't waste effort holding out his axe out while walking for what will clearly be a long time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ffy-YwybA Also your head is doing what I think is a bit excessive L-R rotation during the cycle. Attacks Your feet seem to be moving, popping to new positinos, even while planted. Compared to the complex motion n the sword swings your shield bash motion seems almost an afterthought. Your shield never tilts and all the motion seems to be only in the lower arm. At the very least I'd have the sword arm jerk back in a Secondary Action as the shield arm jerks forward. When one arm goes one direction the other arm tends to counterbalance the motion. In your sword strike for example your sword arm goes forward and your shield arm draws back toward the body at the same time. Idling Feels too bouncy and goofy for this sort of character. I'd cut down on the neck length and bounce and the amount the feet are raising up on tippy toes. Meanwhile your shield arm and torso are utterly stationary and flat. So you have exaggerated motion alongside static parts. Overall though they look decent and I could see them in a game just fine. As far as a junior knight I'd look at how the human body changes proportionally as it ages. With a younger person you have a larger head to body ratio. Less muscle mass especially upper body. |