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[Zanhuf]

on the middle frame raise the arms up a bit. yer damn shoulders arent in yer damn tit area.

Apologies! Is this any better:

[jgrams]

Is this any better:

They're still low, I think. And they stick out more than they should? Shoulders are a really floaty joint: they change shape a lot when they move around. I took a quick'n'dirty reference photo (click for a bit of video of me swinging it around):

[Zanhuf]

Is this any better:

They're still low, I think. And they stick out more than they should? Shoulders are a really floaty joint: they change shape a lot when they move around. I took a quick'n'dirty reference photo (click for a bit of video of me swinging it around):

Thanks so much for the reference, here's my edit:



Also thanks for tolerating my constant questions and posts guys, i really appreciate it!

More content; updated archer, added 5th idle frame. Frames here:



Gif here:

[SolarLune]

The sword guy's better, but still off. His arms are basically right above his head, when they should be above and behind it. Also, his arms are much longer when at his side than when they're overhead - you probably need to add some negative space between his head and his arms.

Just do the motion yourself, and you'll probably have your elbows around where your head is, and your forearms bent back at, like, a 40 degree angle. Your hands will probably be aimed more downwards, in a "rest" position, as well, not up like the sprite is now. You'll notice the same in jgrams's video. Also, his back should be arched, because the sword's heavy and he's trying to bring it down quickly, right? The sword itself needs some perspective; it's not just a 45 degree "side-view", but rather should have one side (the "front") be more visible than the rest of it, which could be darkened. If you want it to be a bit more cartoony, you could raise his forward leg a bit.

Also, you might be able to get more bang for your buck by leaving the archer guy's legs spread after he lets go of the arrow in the last frame. His firing arm should be drawn back, like he let go of the bow, not straight down. His bow could be a bit lowered as well (not to the degree of the first few frames). Doing the motions yourself should help you a lot in tracing out how they should go. Also, in the middle frame, the archer's arrow arm would be a lot more logically placed if it were bringing down the arrow, rather than pulling it out of the quiver, lowering it to his side, and then raising it again to the bow.

Final Edit: Oh, and mess around with the animation timings - not every frame of the archer or the swordsman's animation should be equal length.

[Zanhuf]

The sword guy's better, but still off. His arms are basically right above his head, when they should be above and behind it. Also, his arms are much longer when at his side than when they're overhead - you probably need to add some negative space between his head and his arms.

Just do the motion yourself, and you'll probably have your elbows around where your head is, and your forearms bent back at, like, a 40 degree angle. Your hands will probably be aimed more downwards, in a "rest" position, as well, not up like the sprite is now. You'll notice the same in jgrams's video. Also, his back should be arched, because the sword's heavy and he's trying to bring it down quickly, right? The sword itself needs some perspective; it's not just a 45 degree "side-view", but rather should have one side (the "front") be more visible than the rest of it, which could be darkened. If you want it to be a bit more cartoony, you could raise his forward leg a bit.

Also, you might be able to get more bang for your buck by leaving the archer guy's legs spread after he lets go of the arrow in the last frame. His firing arm should be drawn back, like he let go of the bow, not straight down. His bow could be a bit lowered as well (not to the degree of the first few frames). Doing the motions yourself should help you a lot in tracing out how they should go. Also, in the middle frame, the archer's arrow arm would be a lot more logically placed if it were bringing down the arrow, rather than pulling it out of the quiver, lowering it to his side, and then raising it again to the bow.

Final Edit: Oh, and mess around with the animation timings - not every frame of the archer or the swordsman's animation should be equal length.

Here's a quick edit of the swordsman with your words in mind:



Thanks for the advice and critique.

Will edit the archer's frames with your advice in mind as well.

[Irock]

I feel like, given the direction his body is facing, the sword should be at more of a vertical angle. Right now it looks to be drastically angled sideways. It would be really awkward to swing a sword that way in a two-handed vertical-slice manner.

[Hue]

New project that is somewhat related to what I've been posting earlier, feel free to read more about it here!

[Zanhuf]

I feel like, given the direction his body is facing, the sword should be at more of a vertical angle. Right now it looks to be drastically angled sideways. It would be really awkward to swing a sword that way in a two-handed vertical-slice manner.

Apologies for taking up so much of this page and last page with what are basic, newbie errors.

Is that what you envisioned:



Apologies if not

[Bandages]

Zanhuf, my apologies but that's hilarious.

I think what Irock was getting at is that you can see the flat part of the blade, when you'd really be looking at only the edge in the perspective. It appears in that first sprite like he's about to slap someone with the flat side of his sword, not slash someone.

[Irock]

Haha, wrong way. I meant more at this angle:



Though if this is for a game, you're going to have less range if you have the sword's path make sense with his body angle. In that case, I'd consider having a different sword technique, like a jab or a horizontal slash.

[Zanhuf]

Haha, wrong way. I meant more at this angle:



Though if this is for a game, you're going to have less range if you have the sword's path make sense with his body angle. In that case, I'd consider having a different sword technique, like a jab or a horizontal slash.

Mind if i uh, use this edit with your permission?

In regards to range, the potential game will be a tile-based one, like shining force so all i really need is an attack animation, regardless if it's a jab or not.

[Irock]

Well, my edit defies the pixel grid (the "sword" is a higher resolution) so I wouldn't use it if I were you. You can use it for reference though. All I did was draw a solid line.

New project that is somewhat related to what I've been posting earlier, feel free to read more about it here!

This looks cute.

Advice: The flat grass looks more dynamic and less repetitive than the slopes, so I'd work on them. I also think it would benefit from more contrast, primarily in the hue shifting department.

[Hue]

@Irock: Thanks for the tips! I was having trouble with those slopes, trying to get the twisty/curly blades of grass in them was a challenge, but I'll try again and see if I can get it to work. I've always had a hard time with contrast, I'll look into my palette and make some changes perhaps. Thanks again! 

[SolarLune]

Haha, wrong way. I meant more at this angle:

Actually, I believe Zanhuf's edit is closer to reality - if you were swinging a sword down from overhead, you probably wouldn't have it pointing upward, but rather downward. If you had the sword pointing upward, you would have to use basically just your wrist muscles to keep it upward, which would probably be really uncomfortable.

[Irock]

Haha, wrong way. I meant more at this angle:

Actually, I believe Zanhuf's edit is closer to reality - if you were swinging a sword down from overhead, you probably wouldn't have it pointing upward, but rather downward. If you had the sword pointing upward, you would have to use basically just your wrist muscles to keep it upward, which would probably be really uncomfortable.

Ah you're probably right. The angle still needs to be adjusted so it's more vertical and less horizontal though. I think the angle in my example should theoretically be part of the attack during the forward swing.

[SolarLune]

Oh, yeah, when you're bringing the sword down and it's roughly above and in front of you, it would be more vertical.

[Geti]

Actually, I believe Zanhuf's edit is closer to reality - if you were swinging a sword down from overhead, you probably wouldn't have it pointing upward, but rather downward. If you had the sword pointing upward, you would have to use basically just your wrist muscles to keep it upward, which would probably be really uncomfortable.

...torque though?
Holding it behind like that with any sort of heavy sword would take much more wrist/arm strength than holding it more or less above your head due to the pivot being pretty much exactly at the bottom - normally such a sword would be held mostly in front of the body for any sort of swing to keep balance.

@zanhuf
Wild/fully overhead swings can be good in exaggerated animation meant to show how comically heavy the weapon is, but honestly I think you'll have enough to get the hang of with simple animation before being able to exaggerate convincingly.

You'll want to focus on actually animating the body in the short term - your poses are way too static for such a dynamic movement.

Here's a quick edit - added a scabbard for transport + showed the basic construction of a few poses + different possible facial expressions. Also pumped up his legs and arms a little, and he's still probably a little flimsy for such a big sword.

Watch some videos of people using swords like this before doing the next iteration of your animation, and learn to start anew more often - for these big dynamic motions there's usually not much you can salvage between frames and it's faster to just draw them from scratch.



(my ones are still off-balance actually but should at least show how to get some more movement in there and show limbs overlapping the body, turning the body etc)

[Raku]

I made a thing for my game.

[Zanhuf]

Actually, I believe Zanhuf's edit is closer to reality - if you were swinging a sword down from overhead, you probably wouldn't have it pointing upward, but rather downward. If you had the sword pointing upward, you would have to use basically just your wrist muscles to keep it upward, which would probably be really uncomfortable.

...torque though?
Holding it behind like that with any sort of heavy sword would take much more wrist/arm strength than holding it more or less above your head due to the pivot being pretty much exactly at the bottom - normally such a sword would be held mostly in front of the body for any sort of swing to keep balance.

@zanhuf
Wild/fully overhead swings can be good in exaggerated animation meant to show how comically heavy the weapon is, but honestly I think you'll have enough to get the hang of with simple animation before being able to exaggerate convincingly.

You'll want to focus on actually animating the body in the short term - your poses are way too static for such a dynamic movement.

Here's a quick edit - added a scabbard for transport + showed the basic construction of a few poses + different possible facial expressions. Also pumped up his legs and arms a little, and he's still probably a little flimsy for such a big sword.

Watch some videos of people using swords like this before doing the next iteration of your animation, and learn to start anew more often - for these big dynamic motions there's usually not much you can salvage between frames and it's faster to just draw them from scratch.



(my ones are still off-balance actually but should at least show how to get some more movement in there and show limbs overlapping the body, turning the body etc)

Thanks for the advice!

I'll probably re-do them. I'm still rubbish at making characters semi-accurately in terms of their body and stance.

Edit:

Didn't want to straight up copy yours but here's my edit of the second and last frame:



Concentrating on the body first, so i left the head for later. Wasn't sure about whether i should make him look more swole or not in terms of limbs, so left it as normal.

[Geti]

Practice makes perfect. Those poses are significantly more dynamic, though very close to mine, haha. I appreciate you not wanting to do a straight copy though, that kind of initiative will get you on the right track in no time. Just get some ref and start grinding out art.

(I'd probably pump your guys up a little bit, they are medieval soldiers swinging what would probably amount to 20kg+ swords around)


@Raku: neat; the one missing finger is bugging me with how realistic everything else is :^) I can appreciate it's gonna play havok with your clusters if you try to get it in there though