New animations

[em3]

Nice. The knot on his helm could stand more movement than just a mirror flip.

[thespaceinvader]

Indeed, that's the most obvious problem with it - the helmet plume moves without any particular logic or cause.

[Reepurr]

Indeed, that's the most obvious problem with it - the helmet plume moves without any particular logic or cause.

I adapted the animation from the original two frames, and, I confess, simply cut and slid from there, with only a small amount of actual pixelling. The plume was flipped in the original version, so I flipped it in the new one. I think the plume's supposed to move in the opposite direction his body is travelling. It does look weird, but I think a static plume would too.

[em3]

Alright. I was just complaining that it's not moving enough. It should of course be moving as the body jerks from recoil. If you're planning to tweak it with 'pixelling', that's good.

[thespaceinvader]

It needs a different motion - and honestly using the old animation as a guide probably isn't the best of ideas. The reason they need replacing is because they're not good enough But it definitely does need motion. This is a good test of an animator's skill - long fluid things like plumes, banners and ribbons are notoriously difficult to get to work correctly, because their motions are very distinct but we tend to assume we know how they move, rather than actually STUDYING how they move. Get some reference. Use a towel or something if you don't happen to have a horsehair helmet plume

[Reepurr]

I'm hoping the current animation is working well, sparing the plume, so for now I'm bothering only with that pesky plume. Is this along the right lines? (It might need a bit more curving, methinks)

sergeant-crossbow-plume.gif (6.1 KiB) Viewed 4500 times

[thespaceinvader]

Honestly, the more I look at it the more bugs me about it. The motion of the rear leg isn't smooth and seems quite arbitrary. Overall, I think you probably need to think more about the kinematics of the motion.

[Reepurr]

Honestly, the more I look at it the more bugs me about it. The motion of the rear leg isn't smooth and seems quite arbitrary.

Wouldn't he be pushed backwards by the force of the crossbow, being a measly little level 1?

[thespaceinvader]

Yes. But he's not, much, and the movement of his leg happens beforehand.

Get up. Act the motion out. His back foot shouldn't mve too much, but he should bend his leg as he fires to absorb the recoil of the bow.

[StDrake]

I'd say it shouldn't move up, let him slide a pixel or two to the side, but don't make him take a high step, something's fishy about the string too, could you present some of the static frames as well?

[Reepurr]

he should bend his leg as he fires to absorb the recoil of the bow

He's already crouching. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do that, though I have quickly stuck his legs in place.

sergeant-crossbow-plumeb.gif (5.14 KiB) Viewed 4463 times

I'd say it shouldn't move up, let him slide a pixel or two to the side, but don't make him take a high step, something's fishy about the string too, could you present some of the static frames as well?

The string's not so hot, no. I don't like strings. Here are the firing frames.

sergeant-crossbow-plume4.png (4.74 KiB) Viewed 4463 times

sergeant-crossbow-plume5.png (4.72 KiB) Viewed 4463 times

EDIT: Bendy legs...of a sort.

sergeant-crossbow-plumec.gif (6.08 KiB) Viewed 4438 times

[Reepurr]

Made the bendy legs look slightly better.

sergeant-crossbow-bendylegs.gif (6.08 KiB) Viewed 4371 times

EDIT: Put a bit more curl in the plume.

sergeant-crossbow-bendy2.gif (6.08 KiB) Viewed 4369 times

[zookeeper]

The way the plume jumps up doesn't really make any sense.

[Mirion147]

[Totally_offtopic]
If I ever get good enough at spriting (which I know I wont, but just saying) I would totally make an idle anim of this guy rocking out on his crossbow guitar lol.
[/Totally_offtopic]

[Zaggy1024]

I made a death animation for the goblin wolf rider. I'm not sure how good it is overall, but I do believe that it may need a frame between frames 3 and 4, because it seems to jump a bit. Otherwise, what do you guys think?

And, yes, this is my first (sprite) animation.