Standing and idle animations?

[Zoomo]

yeah I think what looks odd is the fact that when he breathes he goes down, while as when you breath in real life you tend to go up. here are two versions, one just going back and forth and one pausing when he breath in all the way. the later in my opinion gives him a bit of an arrogant look which I like.

[Dugi]

That bandit still looks like if he was exercising, and the standing animation is supposed to be some kind of floating, breathing, moving a weapon, or releasing some magical flare, but not exercising. It might be a good idle animation, though.

[Dixie]

Good job on the much smoother animation. Although I have to agree with Dugi. Personnally, I'd exagerate the movement more and just make it an idle...

Also, I think you overdid the breathing, he looks a bit like an inflatable balloon, at the moment, as if he had no chest... Chests don't inflate THAT much. During heavier breathing, the chest expands a tiny bit (not sure it'd be noticeable much on a sprite), it goes up, and the belly expands a bit too. Maybe look up some reference?

There's also a strange dark pixel on the shoulder to our left on one fo the last frames of the animation.

Still, good job on smoothing out the thing! Don't give up

[Zoomo]

tweaked him a bit more so he looks more like he's actually breathing

[Dugi]

I don't usually bend my knees when breathing...

Like I said, he is moving too much, when you have already drawn it, just make from it an idle animation.

[Zoomo]

Oh sorry I just read your post. heres it as an idle

[Speedbrain]

Looking good. The only thing I would add is to change the shape of the shadow as he squats down. It seems too static.

[Zoomo]

too much?

[alluton]

I'd say too much. But then again it may looks just fine in game.

[Dugi]

I would say that he should do that movement three times as an idle animation, stretching his muscles from standing for too long on one place.

[Dixie]

Still not convinced by the breathing, chest movement part of the anim. For starters, AFAIK it's more natural to breath in rather than to breath out when stretching, and breath out when contracting. Try this movement in front of a mirror, starting from neutral, comfortable medium-full-of-air, and breath out all you can while stretching out. Not only will this feel really unnatural and straining to pump out all your air, but I'm pretty sure your chest will not cave in on itself like in your animation. Your thug should breath in while doing this, and that action would not inflate his chest like a balloon: it might inflate the belly a bit, maybe the chest too (although maybe not enough to show at pixel-scale), and it will especially raise the chest. Try to find reference. It's sometimes hard on the net (I tried for you, no luck in 5 minutes), but you can always look at yourself in a mirror. Or film you, whatever works best. Or ask a friend or family member, if you must. Artists have been doing this for centuries, the internet has not always existed, you know!

But anyway, don't give it up!

[Zoomo]

@Dixie
I think you miss understood, this newest version is an idle not a standing anim.

[artisticdude]

Not bad. I'm a bit concerned about his right (our left) leg though... the way it's bending ATM isn't technically anatomically possible, given the position of his knee in the baseframe and the static position of his foot throughout the animation. You're probably going to either have to rotate his foot with his knee or use more foreshortening on the knee to get it right.

The lower half of his club becomes a bit distorted as he lowers it (I'd suggest sticking with the single-pixel outlines rather than trying to thicken them, in order to preserve readability), and the end of the club seems to elongate when he squats all the way down.

If you're trying for an idle animation of him stretching, I'd suggest having him stick out his right leg behind him like he's trying to stretch his calf muscles, since to me squatting doesn't really register as stretching.

[Sleepwalker]

I second artisticdude's suggestions. Again, i would recommend reading what i said about foreshortening; put more light on the top of his knee and thigh when bending and putting the lower leg more into shadow. Also then the rim of his boot would rotate down towards us a bit. Alternatively instead of foreshortening leave it as it is and change the angle of the foot.

The elvish fighter has a calf stretching idle animation you could look at.

Another thing to think about: the torso expansion/ shrinking does not look convincing because the shoulders and to a lesser extent the head don't move with it. That said the the expansion is a bit much.

[Zoomo]

Ok heres with a slightly turning leg