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[Slow]

I've been trying to animate walking for some time now, in some different styles. They all were very terrible..so I quit. Tried again a week later and this is what I have:



Looking for some C&C.

_{Btw, it's design has no arms in case you're wondering.}

[Jesse]

I've been trying to animate walking for some time now, in some different styles. They all were very terrible..so I quit. Tried again a week later and this is what I have:



Looking for some C&C.

_{Btw, it's design has no arms in case you're wondering.}

Hi Slow! So the first thing I notice about your walking animation is that the character seems to be performing sort of a half-skip half-gallop rather than a walk. Is this deliberate? Or are you aiming for a more traditional walk and just having trouble?

[Nix]

The head rotation seems wonky, as though his head is changing physical size as he turns it. You should try just moving the facial features and keeping the head the same size (if you want to rotate them at all. It might look best if you just keep the face in the same place).

[genericuser]

The legs never cross. Given that you're aiming for a side view of the character, this looks a bit odd. Have you looked at other peoples' walk cycles?

You might want to lessen the head rotation too. Nix put it best - it's as if the size of his head changes during the walk.

[Slow]

@Jesse: It's not deliberate. Am having trouble with it. ;__;

@Nix: I'll try that.

@Generic: Alright. I'll update the sprite when I've made the necessary edits. :I

[Xion]

both feet are on the ground at once when they move, which would mean he's got to be kind of just jumping, and when he lands he slides his feet apart. doesn't seem like a very efficient means of locomotion, to me.

try to think about how walks and runs actually work. stand up and walk around and pay attention to how you move. stand up and lean forward until your foot automatically comes out to catch yourself. that's a step. walking and running is just this, in sequence, continuing until you reach your destination. Imagine someone walking in slow motion. You've probably seen movies where this happens. If you can't imagine this, look it up; there are movies where this happens. It's like, right foot plants, left foot lifts, left foot forward as the right falls back. Left foot plants, right foot lifts, right foot forward as the left falls back. Sounds like it could be a lyric.

Contact frame is important. This is the one where the foot hits the ground. This is the instant in which the foot hits the ground. If you miss this frame, and go from a lifted foot to a grounded foot without showing the first instant of contact, the motion will seem floaty and wrong.

Crossing frame is also important. This is the frame in which the legs cross, where the lifted foot comes forward and passes the grounded foot. If you don't have a clearly identified crossing pose, it'll be easy to lose which leg is which.

These are also the easiest four frames to start with, since they're so clearly identified. Left leg contact, right leg contact, left leg passing forward, right leg passing forward. Then it's easy to go back and add transition frames between the poses, and then transition between those transitions until you have a satisfactorily smooth animation.

Trying to start at one frame and go forward from there until you reach the first pose again can be problematic, leading to situations where you have to jangle the damn thing pretty hard to get the last few frames before the first to transition smoothly, or situations where your character has a limp due to uneven timing, etc.

[Jesse]

For a small sprite, if you're not worried about super smooth, high frame-count walking animations, one of the easiest things to do is a 3 frame 6 step walking loop. It's extremely simple, and looks great for small pixely games. This is how it works:



When we walk, our bodies swing our shoulders/arms forward inversely with our legs. The time we spend in this position is greater (artistically speaking) than the time we spend in time. So a 1,1,2,3,3,2 walking animation is extremely simple, and works well, even if it's not the most technically accurate.

I think your sprite would work well with this method!

[Slow]

Interesting. Ty both. Guess i'll toss out another fail of an animation I did and try that.