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21stCentury's Art journey! - Digital Art is Magic!

21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short![They/Them]Registered User regular
edited May 2017 in Artist's Corner
Hello, Artist's Corner.

I recently started making little pixel people for fun and I want to improve, but I am not sure how. So I thought maybe some people here could prove to have useful insight! So here are selected pieces from my portfolio.

Note that pretty much all of them are some form of fanart and pretty much none of the pieces i made are done entirely without reference.

I started by drawing avatars of some posters and other basic characters in a 20px square
07FN2Je.pnglQdiT1o.pngpauYMJX.pngcSqJM6j.pngBWjff5H.pngtQsnk7v.pngyZ4dcAB.pngjVIpWCf.pngwicjIL0.pnghkuBsUs.pngBfKr4eM.png4j1zz2Y.pngjEMGaUT.pngdnXnILt.pngo8eIN1s.png

Then I started doing characters from webcomics and video games I liked, to tweet them at their creators
LUM9L58.png
VR5AxBA.png
vzCJaeJ.png
MGAOv77.png
lmj3Ajr.png
FxwIgs8.png
h2yunUU.png
AJAlWuX.png
jUI0axe.pngaJQrh2O.png
pmLZisV.png

I started making a few characters from DOTA 2 in that style, also.
SicHXVE.pngEWdPTSk.pngXhKjlp0.pngyNUznRy.pngnKZEBpl.pngwruJlFH.pngou0QjDZ.pngwWIQMwl.png

But then, I changed my modus operandi a bit, and increased resolution to 30px squares.

Basically, I realized that 20px didn't let me show enough detail in characters, namely Eddy Riggs
So i started shading and detailing more and made these
dnsMTDm.png became FSO0usY.png
KQNxYSp.png became 8jQRmYw.png
WRxZ70k.pngYrJe9ZJ.png
L0mPJky.png
FJYDNGZ.png
xgY56b4.pngmevNzEn.pngoTRiff4.pnglC52Tte.pngZSSwwM5.pngKgRS9ZS.png

And lastly, I made this as commissioned by @Dark Raven X
DpgRDSM.png

Now, the thing I want to focus the most on is shading. I have seen a few tutorials, but i still have trouble picturing shading in my mind. Adding volume to 2d drawings is a bit hard, heh.
So I'd love to have criticisms. So far, i've posted these on twitter and on D&D's [Chat] thread and the response is, well, overwhelmingly positive, but i don't feel like they're that good. Hence my coming here to get honest and constructive criticism so that i may improve.

I know it's all pixel art, but i am fairly sure shading is not only a pixel art thing, so I expect more than just pixel artist criticisms. :)

Thank you in advance and have a nice day. :)

21stCentury on
«13

Posts

  • LazarusKingLazarusKing Registered User regular
    These are super. I especially like the Eddie Riggs with the axe. Brutal Legend always makes me want to draw.

  • NightDragonNightDragon 6th Grade Username Registered User regular
    edited September 2014
    Cool pieces! As far as improvement goes, is there a specific "look" that you want to achieve? Do you know of other pixel artists that make work you really admire, and/or do work that you'd like to be able to do someday?

    It can be hard to critique pixel art at this size sometimes, just because there is so little to work with (and a pixel removed or added might be all that is needed, but it's hard to be that specific). If you have a direction that you're aiming for, that could help give you some more specific and useful critiques.

    The only critique(s) I have right now are that you could possibly make some of your color combinations a little more tied together, perhaps by studying some color theory and taking hints from premade palettes, or fashion spreads. Secondly, in some cases, the slightly more complex clothing is getting a bit lost or muddled. You may have to simplify some of the clothing further to have it really read clearly.

    These images are also very large, and sometimes it's hard to see the "overall picture" because they're so zoomed in. For future postings it might be good to consider posting them at half this size, or 2/3 this size.

    If you're interesting in checking out other pixel artists, I seem to remember that there were actually quite a few really impressive pieces on DeviantArt.

    NightDragon on
  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    Cool pieces! As far as improvement goes, is there a specific "look" that you want to achieve? Do you know of other pixel artists that make work you really admire, and/or do work that you'd like to be able to do someday?

    It can be hard to critique pixel art at this size sometimes, just because there is so little to work with (and a pixel removed or added might be all that is needed, but it's hard to be that specific). If you have a direction that you're aiming for, that could help give you some more specific and useful critiques.

    The only critique(s) I have right now are that you could possibly make some of your color combinations a little more tied together, perhaps by studying some color theory and taking hints from premade palettes, or fashion spreads. Secondly, in some cases, the slightly more complex clothing is getting a bit lost or muddled. You may have to simplify some of the clothing further to have it really read clearly.

    These images are also very large, and sometimes it's hard to see the "overall picture" because they're so zoomed in. For future postings it might be good to consider posting them at half this size, or 2/3 this size.

    If you're interesting in checking out other pixel artists, I seem to remember that there were actually quite a few really impressive pieces on DeviantArt.

    Geez, now those are some hard questions.

    I don't know what style i'm going for, hopefully i'm trying to cultivate my own, but... i'll be honest, I don't really do this for any reason other than that I enjoy it a lot. I admit i'm my own worst critic, however, i don't like the shading work i'm currently doing.

    One thing i am gonna try to make is make some animated sprites for Dark Raven X's RPG Maker project... Though that will be in a different style.

    Another thing i'm trying to make is montages and dioramas, i guess? Like, you might've noticed, but i'm doing the Super Smash Bros roster in my 30px style..

    As for my palettes, i'll be honest, i basically take a reference image and steal that image's palette, so I do it without really thinking about color.

    What are some resources for me to better understand Color Theory?

    Thanks in advance and please enjoy this, an attempt at learning shading that went decently, IMO.

    u2tkp8G.png ==> WgXZDUx.png ==> bJD9TY5.png

    I don't think it's perfect yet, maybe i need to add more shades?

    Honestly, over Color Theory, I want to work on shading and adding weight and volume to my drawings first.

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    Oh, and I forgot to post this, as well

    This:
    DpgRDSM.png

    Became this for the RPG Maker project i mentioned
    25vRo1w.png

    i'm not entirely pleased with the result, honestly.

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    605irlrt8wmv.png

    Made the Final Fantasy 9 Main Cast in a different style...

    it's not a lot more dynamic than the old style, but it's a start.

  • AmmalineAmmaline Registered User regular
    I am by no means an expert on pixel art or anything, but even to me I can see some improvement already and application of some of the advice you've gotten here! Keep up the hard work, you can see results already!

    My art tumblr
    3DS : 2165-5535-6036
  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    oh, and i posted this over in the doodle thread...

    i'm not 100% happy with it, but i am at least 80% happy with it.

    ---

    zpwqpxlwe6an.png

    Silouhette: ZyoLczb.png

    Progress animation
    TCN4YKK.gif

    ---

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    I made these portrait things that I'm pretty proud of.

    kg9588xiuxly.png
    Me

    5gy0spj8udtx.gif
    Ronnie Filyaw

    uplcauxc441u.png
    Mim

    unynb06mrei0.png
    Red

    I'm gonna post in this thread more, I think.

  • Dark Raven XDark Raven X Laugh hard, run fast, be kindRegistered User regular
    That Red is excellent, dude <3

    Oh brilliant
  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    Red's skin tone seems a little on the grey side. That's a pretty excellent ronnie though.

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    edited February 2015
    Still obsessed with Transistor, making portraits for the major characters.

    Here's the ones I made so far

    Red
    wzDo8OE.png
    drokPpM.png
    xfmbtKD.png

    Transistor
    n8ZuWSn.gif

    I'm not 100% pleased with red, though.
    i can't put my finger on what looks off, though. I'm still real new at this whole "art" thing.

    21stCentury on
  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    Still obsessed with Transistor.

    I made portraits for the Major Characters and am moving on to the Integrated Traces next.

    Enjoy!
    RED showing EMOTIONAL RANGE!

    60nsd6ca8n14.pngwnsmjpyqx6iw.pngvilh1hte6v1h.png

    The TRANSISTOR, weapon of our heroine!

    gklfcjbj7zei.gif

    The CAMERATA, talking it out!

    fotdxaicewjt.gif6c2y3gt6d84p.gif
    ovp8hzk49quy.gifdjhzm3z557dg.gif

    And this MYSTERIOUS FELLOW!

    caonfdz7ray5.gif

    ALSO AVAILABLE ON TUMBLR!


    This is, as everything, very open to criticism. I want to get better, after all! :)

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    SO!

    I decided to take steps to be good at drawing freehand and digitally. I want to be good at drawing things other than pixel art.

    So I started checking out the Drawabox lessons and sketched a few things and...

    Well... I finally have something that's not pixel art.

    it's not great yet, but i think it's a promising start.

    So here are 3 drawings I made of Steven Universe characters.

    Friday's offering:
    22DOpMn.png
    Bubblegum Garnet, click for bigger

    Saturday's piece
    BwinFUh.png
    Sardonyx, Click for bigger

    Today's thing
    uy67i9e.png
    Ruby, Sapphire and Garnet, click for bigger

    So, yeah, constructive criticisms would be appreciated.

    i'll post my stuff more often.

    ALSO! I post weekly art reports every sunday on my tumblr page.

  • credeikicredeiki Registered User regular
    Keep up the basic practice as well as the digital art. The shading on Sardonyx is a bit perfunctory and doesn't quite make sense or hint at any structure (although maybe these steven universe dudes all just have noodle limbs, dunno). But right now, it looks like you're shading just by putting a darker line of even width alongside the bottom/left side of everything, which is how I shade also but I am not an artist and I believe artists shade in a way that actually matches how light would be hitting things/obscured from things. Probably drawing basic shapes hit by light would give you a better sense of that sort of thing?

    I like your sense of color. I don't know if you're inventing these palettes or taking them from the source but they look great.

    Steam, LoL: credeiki
  • SublimusSublimus Artist. nowhereRegistered User regular
    Glad to see you posting again after a little break!

    I think these images of yours show good progress, but also show areas in which you can improve.

    I think the biggest thing to mention is that the best cartoon style art is informed by the actual complex nature of the things it is representing, and then artfully simplifies it.

    My main crit would be that it does not yet appear that you have a strong enough handle on the complex anatomy of the human form in order to artfully simplify it.

    Now that is not to say you need to be able to do a photo-real figure drawing. But the more you understand how the forms of the muscles wrap around each other, and how weight is distributed and all the other things human bodies do, the more successfully you can show these things in a simplified manner. Successful cartoon art is not exactly a lack of detail, but often more an implication of detail.

    All this is to say, "good job, do some figure studies". :D

    I'll be excited to see your progress!

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    Sublimus wrote: »
    Glad to see you posting again after a little break!

    I think these images of yours show good progress, but also show areas in which you can improve.

    I think the biggest thing to mention is that the best cartoon style art is informed by the actual complex nature of the things it is representing, and then artfully simplifies it.

    My main crit would be that it does not yet appear that you have a strong enough handle on the complex anatomy of the human form in order to artfully simplify it.

    Now that is not to say you need to be able to do a photo-real figure drawing. But the more you understand how the forms of the muscles wrap around each other, and how weight is distributed and all the other things human bodies do, the more successfully you can show these things in a simplified manner. Successful cartoon art is not exactly a lack of detail, but often more an implication of detail.

    All this is to say, "good job, do some figure studies". :D

    I'll be excited to see your progress!

    This site is a good place for that, right?

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    edited June 2016
    Hey, i'm back. gonna post in here again.

    here's a dump of the OVERWATCH sprites i made recently.

    r76EuCg.png
    AedcdMy.gifGuZiIDa.gifzfoGcaB.gifaNNrxWO.gif
    2P6EEGM.gifpROyEoD.gif6vhmTWv.gifA7EVHfy.gif
    iaCK2pc.gifI5RKlxL.gif

    will update this post as more are considered "good enough to be done for now". Then i'll redraw them better.

    Please leave comments and criticisms in the meantime!

    21stCentury on
  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    Hey man, nice boopin' animation. They are starting to feel pretty dynamic, but heads are also subject to inertia. A very subtle shift at the neck might help, like http://ashleyzombiearts.tumblr.com/post/144379462030/its-been-eons-since-i-animated-here-some-idle

    Really good animation brings everything to life, so keep at it, and really push yourself on it!

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    edited May 2016
    Workin' on Bastion.

    3T4UBXR.png ==> UaQKzFo.png ==> yoZ5HP7.gif

    *Beep*-*Whirr*-*Long Beep*

    I think the head-boppin' will make it feel a lot more alive, yeah!

    21stCentury on
  • milskimilski Poyo! Registered User regular
    I think that you need more bulk on the gun to the barrel. It looks sort of funky when the barrel extends twice as far as the rest of the gun.

    I ate an engineer
  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    edited May 2016
    Maybe you should think of some ways to animate the characters that aren't the standard "body up-down" animation? The stuff you are making is pretty good, but for some of the characters, it looks like they are humping air. Torbjorn (the dwarf dude... not putting Umlauts in there) feels like he could be stockier and maybe less dynamic. EDIT: I really like the smoke, though.

    Hahnsoo1 on
    8i1dt37buh2m.png
  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    edited May 2016
    Hahnsoo1 wrote: »
    Maybe you should think of some ways to animate the characters that aren't the standard "body up-down" animation? The stuff you are making is pretty good, but for some of the characters, it looks like they are humping air. Torbjorn (the dwarf dude... not putting Umlauts in there) feels like he could be stockier and maybe less dynamic. EDIT: I really like the smoke, though.

    Oh, yeah, i intend on animating them differently later on, but for now i wanna perfect the idle bounce.

    As for humping the air.... yeah, Soldier: 76 was my first so he looks janky, haha. I'll fix it in post, thanks for the input.
    milski wrote: »
    I think that you need more bulk on the gun to the barrel. It looks sort of funky when the barrel extends twice as far as the rest of the gun.

    ooh, good point, looking back at the source material, i did make the gun barrel too long, or, rather, made the body too short.

    Edit: in the meantime, added to head boopin' to Ganymede.

    ilV7tFD.gif

    EDIT The Second:

    Milski, you were right, looks much better with a shorter barrel.

    6vhmTWv.gif

    21stCentury on
  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    The gun looks like its flexing, but assuming its not rubber, you want the whole thing to move as a unit and shift the motion at the wrist exclusively. You can pivot the gun up and down at the wrist to get the effect of the barrel moving, but warping hard parts is going to make them look weird. unless you have some specific circumstances, like super highspeed that warrants some squash and stretch.

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    edited May 2016
    New WIP: Genji.

    really early still, with Pharah for Scale.

    aNNrxWO.gifvb5vx68o3vqg.png
    EDIT: more complete WIP.
    cnaok1pf3wun.png

    21stCentury on
  • credeikicredeiki Registered User regular
    Forearms too long and skinny; pose should be more dynamic unless he's meant to be contemplatively staring at his hand. I envision Genji as always in motion/often crouching/lunging.

    Steam, LoL: credeiki
  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    ovjlconfy17c.png

    Went "fuck it" and redid the pose copying the official pixel spray... looks way better.

  • MESRecordsMESRecords Registered User regular
    I absolutely love these. Great work!

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    edited May 2016
    ydurv0tbcgxa.png

    I think it's ready to be animated, eh?

    Let's see how it looks!

    we3oogmhhb5q.gif

    21stCentury on
  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    t0040ssv4296.png

    New Sprite WIP: Widowmaker!

  • The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    edited May 2016
    HMM

    I really do like the baseline you have, 21st... but I feel like there's a lack of cadence & gravity to the animations.


    Here's 2 Ken sprites at different levels of fidelity:

    kenstand.gif

    Ken3s-stance.gif


    There's a 'bounce', a sense of weight, conveyed by the way that (for example) his forearms just sort of snap downward as he reaches the lowest part of his stance; the movement is not all at uniform speed, with notable jumps in motion at key points of interest.

    The Ender on
    With Love and Courage
  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    You may also want to note the way the animation handles knees. Some of your guys look like their knee is literally folding in on itself, Pharah's animation suffers this the most. since the legs are a giant hinge, the thighs and the calves are going to compress towards one another. I wish I could find an idle bounce in mocap, but these will do:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAAoBtj5JfI
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lniEeHahQKI

    The motion is a bit easier to see in 3D. You really want to be thinking of how the joints operate anatomically and animate based on that. The more you use your idle animations to figure out those relationships, the easier it will be to move onto animating something else.

  • IrukaIruka Registered User, Moderator mod
    @21stCentury saw this on twitter and immediately thought "Reference!"

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    8i2rwtm6amis.gif

    Really not satisfied with this one, but i feel it might be because i took too long to make it and was a bit rusty AND because I tried to do the knee movements I'm not comfortable with.

    Still! Feedback would be appreciated! Thanks.

  • The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    I have to say I dislike that one; she looks too stiff, IMHO, and the movement is unnatural.


    What kind of character / personality do you want to present to the viewer?

    With Love and Courage
  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    The Ender wrote: »
    I have to say I dislike that one; she looks too stiff, IMHO, and the movement is unnatural.


    What kind of character / personality do you want to present to the viewer?

    Seductive femme fatale, but i don't feel like i can do it justice.

    i assume the stiffness you perceive isn't just in the animated version, right?

    c70did05beyl.png
    (unanimated version)

  • Angel_of_BaconAngel_of_Bacon Moderator mod
    edited June 2016
    8i2rwtm6amis.gif

    Really not satisfied with this one, but i feel it might be because i took too long to make it and was a bit rusty AND because I tried to do the knee movements I'm not comfortable with.

    Still! Feedback would be appreciated! Thanks.

    Big thing about animation: Taking video reference is your absolute best friend, when trying to sort out animation difficulties.
    I threw together some .gifs that will hopefully illustrate some of the points being made, that would be hard to get across just in text.


    The big thing here (and this is just reiterating what Iruka was talking about) is that you're trying to make do with moving things around two dimensionally in your animation program, but not really redrawing things- which is essential to do, when volumes such as shins and thighs are rotating backwards and forwards in space. If something is coming towards or away from the camera, there's no way to just use 2d transform tools, and have that idea come across.

    So in trying to make your 'bouncing' animations, it winds up looking more like the leg is being 'stretched' instead- just expanding upwards, rather than feeling like the torso/pelvis is being elevated by the action of a bent knee straightening out.

    Let's take this latest one as an example- you've started out in a pose with the legs in this isosceles triangle shape- two legs, at even angles at even lengths, going straight to the ground. If you act this out, you realize it's hard to move from that position in a natural manner, since your legs are locked, full outstretched.

    clip1gif.gif
    That doesn't look quite right, does it?

    Now, that pose could work, if the animation worked from a pose where the knees were bent, moved into this outstretched position, and then back down. The way you've animated it starts from that position, and tries to move it even further up- and as you can see from the example up there, it doesn't quite make sense. The legs just don't have any way to extend themselves further from the position they are already in, so trying to make them do so is never going to feel right.

    Now, if you bring the pelvis down just an inch, bend the knees just a few degrees, things start to look a bit more naturalistic.

    clip3gif.gif
    Obviously I'm exaggerating this movement, because the movement has to be pretty broad to be readable when translated to a sprite, but I think it's fairly typical of a game 'idle' animation. Knees slightly bent, weight being shifted from foot to foot, tilt of the hip swaying to keep the body balanced. You can make a version that's more exaggerated/bouncy, or one that's more subtle, but the principles of the bend of the knees being used as a shock absorber to keep the body balanced will remain the same.

    Now in terms of getting the sense of character- well, in this case you're lucky that you're working of an existing character, so Blizzard has done all this work for you already, really. Break down and analyze what they're doing in her idle animations. How does the character hold themselves- upright, feet close together? Or a wide stance, back arched over? Is the weight evenly balanced, or swaying side to side, or favoring one side or another? If you can break down the major tilts (the pelvis, the ribcage, and the head) and the location of the feet, you should have a pretty solid idea of how to get across the idea of the 'character' of this character.

    Now I haven't actually played this game, but this is kinda what I got from skimming some clips and looking at the character on Google Image Search
    clip2gif.gif
    Unlike the other example, this is a more upright pose, favoring weight on the back leg rather than being totally evenly distributed. Part of that is character- the more bend the knees are, the more arched over the back is, the more 'feral'/gorilla-like the pose becomes. The other part is more physics, in that putting the weight on the back leg acts to counterbalance the weight of the gun.

    Now that's not the only way to go with this animation, I'm just driving home the idea that going out and acting these things out and analyzing them in video, is super helpful to any kind of animation work. Even just acting it out in a mirror is very helpful.


    Also, to add to what Ender was getting at with the sense of 'weight', a big thing missing in these is the idea of 'slow in/slow out'.

    Basically, if you are making inbetweens, going from one pose to another, evenly spacing those inbetweens will look unnatural; because things naturally need to build momentum to get moving, and intertia (or in the case of a character, controlling their body movement so they're not flailing all over the place) will slow the movement to stop. Therefore, frames moving out of a pose, and frames moving into a pose, will be spaced closer together than frames in the midpoint between those two poses.

    If you look at that second Ken sprite, and just follow the up and down motion of the shoulders, you'll notice that even though they are constantly moving up and down, more time is spent in the 'up' position and the 'down' position than the 'middle' position, rather than linear movement where equal time is spent at all positions. In your animations, there's an evenness of the timing and spacing that makes the motion look mechanical.

    (That's probably confusing without illustrating it, so this video does a better job of explaining it.)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQBFsTqbKhY&amp;list=PL-bOh8btec4CXd2ya1NmSKpi92U_l6ZJd&amp;index=6
    Haven't watched the rest of those videos, but the 12 principles of animation that series talks about are also worth familiarizing yourself with.

    Angel_of_Bacon on
  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    edited June 2016
    That's super useful, Angel_of_Bacon.

    thanks for the really informative post!

    Edit: i'm gonna kee going down the list and redo Widowmaker later when I'm more confident.

    For now, GAZE INTO THE IRIS.

    v8bvs5bilb7c.png

    And, uh, tell me what you think.

    (animateded now... meh, i'm not real happy. i'll redo him too, i think.)
    I5RKlxL.gif

    21stCentury on
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    that's some sexy broom/stick holding there, bacon

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • Angel_of_BaconAngel_of_Bacon Moderator mod
    The bobbing motion here is a good chance to play around with slow in/slow out and holding frames. Even great old-school Disney full animation uses held frames, so don't feel like it's going to stop looking 'animated' if there's a split-second pause.

    Example of a simple slowin/slow out- not even animating any parts, just the whole body:
    21c_ow_sprite_slow.gif
    Not only are the frames bunched together spatially near the key "up" and "down" frames, but those frames are being held for a longer duration. This helps sell the idea of the character 'slowing' into and out of the poses.
    Breakdown of the frames used in the loop- the "down" frames being duplicates of the "up" frames, just played in reverse:
    21c_ow_sprite_slow_f.gif

    Now I've tried a version using the exact same frames, but just playing with the timing to create a different effect.
    21c_ow_sprite_slow3.gif
    While in the first version the timing was the same for the up and down, here, the "down" frames are extended, and the "up" frames are shortened, to create a sense of the character pushing against gravity on each bounce up. He arcs upwards and gravity brings him down pretty quickly, and he needs to push to slow himself on the descent. The first version feels a bit like it's not being effected by gravity at all, while this small change gives a feeling like it's interacting a little bit more with normal physics. Neither is necessarily right or wrong, but each conveys a different idea about the character.


    Subtle things, but important ones. You can actually learn a lot just by taking the same set of frames and playing with the timing to get different effects.
    21c_ow_sprite_orig.gif21c_ow_sprite_slow.gif21c_ow_sprite_slow3.gif

    A good experiment to try would be to take these frames and change the timing so he's spending more time in the "up" position, but will suddenly plummet down and have to recover slowly back up, like there was a loss of control there. Doing that give a sense of just how much timing can effect how you interpret the feeling of a character.

    Now, obviously I am just moving the whole character up and down without moving any of the parts- and you may be wondering if you're just supposed to have those parts slow down or speed up with these held frames. And the answer is...maybe, sometimes, depends. While you often can design an animation to great effect by designing with holding frames in mind (and this especially going to be true for something like low-res sprite animation in particular), you also will often get the major motion right using held poses, but then have to split those poses up into separate frames to get some other bit of motion in there. It just helps a lot to first focus on getting the big poses, motions and timing down before getting into finesse. (ie: in this example, the big stuff is the overall motion of the body, the 'finesse' pass might involve moving the arms, the motion of the orbs, any little secondary animation on the head/cloth, etc. Getting that big part down will inform how all the other parts need to be handled.)
    bowen wrote: »
    that's some sexy broom/stick holding there, bacon
    Thanks. (It's a Swiffer handle, btw- obviously the sexiest of the household cleaning tools. Free pro-tip for everyone out there.)

  • 21stCentury21stCentury Call me Pixel, or Pix for short! [They/Them]Registered User regular
    Made a new piece, Steven universe themed because of the current StevenNuke happening.

    8E6DmtA.png
    (Click for Desktop-sized)

    Going to animate each character and add a couple more, probably, but for now, it's a cool desktop background, i think.

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