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[Soulliard]

Speaking of swords, the ninja's sword should be longer. It looks like he's slashing with a dagger.

[undertech]

-Both hands
-Longer blade

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[Rory]

Somethings been bothering me about Nikujin for a whil now and I just figured out what it was while playing it.

His sword is too thick and dark. Seriously, play the game and you will se what I mean.

Other than that, awesome work undertech and others.

[godsavant]

Well, the way I imagine his Through Slash is a bit like that anime cliche (you've probably seen it somewhere) where the two guys run past each other and slash and then they wait and then one of them dies. You know what I'm talking about. So the idea is that it's a kind of retroactive attack - it's so fast, it hits in the future. Or at least, it hits after Nikujin has gone past. So I hope to have two sprites for it, one of Nikujin, and one that is just a slash coming out of nowhere behind him. I think it would be cool if Nikujin's animation doesn't feature any slash at all. It could go straight from pre-slash to post-slash. And then just as his animation is finishing, the slash pops up behind him.

I don't want to force the spriters to do everything exactly how I imagine it, but that's what I had in mind when I programmed it.

I think I get the idea. Effect kind of like this?



I'd add a few blank frames afterwards, to give Nikujin cooldown time, since I imagine that the attack would launch the opponent backwards slightly.

[Rory]

Is that going from right to left?

[godsavant]

Is that going from right to left?

Yes. Reversal should be pretty easy, but I just wanted to know if the effect was accurate. It wasn't made for Ninkujin at the time, so I didn't consider direction. 

EDIT:

With good timing, you can slide past an opponent while hitting them and then follow through with a strike from behind.

Ah. In that case, forget what I said about cooldown.

[undertech]

...beep. Insert disk 2:

Haven't had too much success so far, and this represents where I am about now. I'm still not happy with it but I think I can see the direction I need to go in now.

[Rostiger]

Uh, yeah, something still seems a bit wrong about it.
I think the pre-slash phase takes a bit too long and the slash itself is also a bit too slow. Maybe take out one of the knee-bending frames at the beginning and also the frame where the sword looks straight up. Also you could add some swoosh lines like Xion didin Quote's sword swing.

Ah, why talk when you can show? I edited the gif and took out the third, fith and senventh frame. I think it looks a lot better already:



With too many frames you might get a smoother animation, but it also takes longer and can give weight to certain parts of the movement that might look off. In this case I think the Naked Ninja should really be Ninja-like, which means that he has to be quick and move without heaviness.

Also see how the blade in the first frame is a bit broader? Try to adapt this in the rest of the animation, otherwise it looks too much like a skewer.

Keep it up! 

[Rory]

Also see how the blade in the first frame is a bit broader? Try to adapt this in the rest of the animation, otherwise it looks too much like a skewer.

Yeah, but the blade is really thin in Nikujin.

[Rory]

I'm thinking the dust might be around too long, but I won't know until I see it in-game. But yeah it's looking really good!

[godsavant]

You're right, I forgot to consider the low cooldown.

Sped up the frames, now each one has about .07 seconds, w/ .09 on clouds.



Deleted OP, since undertech's updates will make this thread pretty image-heavy.

[Rostiger]

Also see how the blade in the first frame is a bit broader? Try to adapt this in the rest of the animation, otherwise it looks too much like a skewer.

Yeah, but the blade is really thin in Nikujin.

Yeah, I know, but I think in some aspects it's maybe smarter to derive from the original. For example Quote has a yellow gun instead of the blue Polar Star as in the Original, which imho suits him better.
Same goes for Naked Ninja's sword, but that's just my 2 cents.
But thanks for posting the original sprites, because they show something else quite nicely:
When then Naked Ninja swings his sword, make it bend! Right now it stays completely straight and seems kind of stiff that way.

And Godsavant - I really like that sprite, but what exactly is it supposed to be for? The slash that appears behind him? Or is it some kind of cloud that appears when he dashes away?

[undertech]

Rhythm - that was the word I was looking for earlier. Apparently, I lucked into a decent rhythm somewhat with the first try (single handed slash) then promptly lost track of it when I tried again. At least I'm aware of that now (in part due to your excision of those frames). I also looked at the Quote sprite and that helped too. Thanks for your continued crits Kovski, they are an immense help!

I agree about the blade thickness - given that the original sprite (Oracle's, not the one from Nikujin the game) has a thick blade, it should be thick. The overall art style is more chunkier now and less minimalist so the blade should also reflect this.

[Rory]

Kovski - I think you mean deviate?

And Godsavant - I really like that sprite, but what exactly is it supposed to be for? The slash that appears behind him? Or is it some kind of cloud that appears when he dashes away?

I think it's when he does his dash 'n' slash move. The cloud is where it hits. Am I right?

[godsavant]

That's correct.

[Rostiger]

Kovski - I think you mean deviate?

Uh, yes. 
For once I didn't check the dictionary and that's what I get for trying to look smart...    

And about the slash effect... I really do like it, but to me it seems more like as if it was some sort of dust cloud that appears where the Ninja was when he started to dash. For a hit sprite it almost looks a little too.. voluminous?
But I guess we need to take a look at it ingame to see how it fits.

[godsavant]

It's not a hit sprite; it's just the effect for Nikujin's through slash, regardless of whether he hits anything or not.

Come to think of it, I don't think we even have any hit sprites yet, do we?

EDIT: 'voluminous'? I need to look that up...

[Soulliard]

'voluminous' means big. And I think it's an okay size for the dust cloud. It's supposed to be a little over the top.

[Rory]

Another pic of Nikujin I meant to post:


A similar slash effect I think would give it more force and a greater sense of speed.

[undertech]

Up till now, I've been doing more of a leap for this move. Although nobody wants to say it, I think that was probably the wrong direction. I hope this attempt is more in tune with what is intended (I am pants at drawing effects, too):