Character Walking animation
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: The Lounge
Forum Name: Resources and Support
Forum Discription: Help your fellow pixel artists out with links to good tutorials, other forums, software, fonts, etc. Bugs and support issues should go here as well.
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=25611
Printed Date: 12 September 2025 at 4:50am
Topic: Character Walking animation
Posted By: Beowulf
Subject: Character Walking animation
Date Posted: 13 February 2017 at 11:08am
 can anyone give me some tip to improve my character walking animation
idle >  walking >  |
Replies:
Posted By: eishiya
Date Posted: 13 February 2017 at 11:36am
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When a person walks, they put one foot in front of the other, shift their weight onto the front foot, and then repeat the process with the other foot. To help with balance, they also swing their arms to oppose the motion of their legs (left leg forward = left arm back and right arm forward, right leg forward = right arm back and left arm forward). What you've drawn is the character moving their legs like scissor blades, the left leg alternates between being in the front and being in a neutral position, and the right leg alternates between neutral and back. Walking's going to take more than two frames of animation, because it's not a very simply motion. Even three is too little and tends to look bad, four is probably the minimum. I think 6 is a good number of frames for a sprite this size, though you could do more. If you really want to do a 2-frame walk, then have two frames of the legs in their most extended positions, one frame with the left leg forward, and another frame with the right leg forward. Since your sprite isn't a perfect side view (we're seeing the character slightly from the front), the two frames should have sufficiently different silhouettes that it should still read like a walk. If the frames have identical silhouettes, then that makes the motion difficult to understand. Here's a good reference for a walking animation, it covers all the key moments in a walk cycle:  Note that this covers only half of a walking loop (just right leg moving from back to front, it doesn't include the left leg moving from back to front), so there should be 3 more frames for the other half of the animation, making this animation an 8-framer. There is not a single frame where the character is in a neutral "standing" position, because during walking, the legs are always in motion, one foot is always off the ground. Also notice that the torso rotates and twists because the legs are moving one way and the arms are moving the opposite way. Lastly, because when the legs are extended, they're at an angle, so the torso isn't raised as high and dips, which creates the lowest part of the head/torso bobbing motion. In the "up" position, the character is essentially on their toes, so their head is slightly higher than normal. The undulation between these two positions creates that bobbing motion that you see in people when they walk, and adding it will help a lot with making the character look like they're walking. You've got the torso bobbing, but it raises when the legs are extended, the opposite of how it should be. That's more akin to how the torso moves when running, when the legs push the character completely off the ground for a moment. |
Posted By: Beowulf
Date Posted: 23 February 2017 at 9:21am
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Thanks !! i am still working on it but it already looks much better with some more frames   |