2d character creater and animation

[MisterMaSK]

i need to learn better character creator and frame animation for the character...like walking , raising hand (to shoot) etc.

any sites you could point me to, would help.

thanks.

[aladine]

Basic drawing skills and Technics is a must-have for doing such a task,  so if you think that you don't have these talents (don't worry everyone does, it's just that not everyone work on their art as much as they do on their programming skills {including myself lol})

 

I suggest that you take a look at this post, it's very helpful and encouraging (that's what you need most):

2D Game Art For Programmers part1

here is the blog of the Author with more tutorials 

http://2dgameartforprogrammers.blogspot.com/

 

i've chosen these links because i believe that working with Vector graphics software will make your life a lot more easier, so before diving into animation make sure that you are good with just drawing a single sprite, once you've done that, you can start looking for animation tutorials and articles like this one :

5 tips for making great animations for 2D games

or this course if you are willing to pay some money

https://www.udemy.com/character-animation/

 

Also don't forget to keep your work as simple as possible for now, maybe you can start with Rayman animation style (hands, feet, body and head with no joints, it seemed easier for me) you should also limit your frames as much as you can, i made this little animation for a 24hours game jam, am no-artist at all but i am very satisfied with the result even that the cat look like he is running backward lol

but the point is to show you that you can always get a decent result with less effort (typical programmer thinking xD) 

 

 

 

So in the end, what you really do here is exactly the same thing you need to have in order to achieve any other task, 

practice,motivation and A LOT of patience  

Another advice that my artists friends always say to me is to try to draw at least once per day, just draw anything, it doesn't have to be a masterpiece, even a simple geometry shapes will help to improve your relationship with your pencil, and also another thing that you need to be aware of,

i think we all fall into that trap when we started to learn game development   ...

DO NOT compare your art with professional game studios, you don't have their skills (for now  ) neither their resources nor their time, that's a very important thing to know in order to avoid getting disappointed later that can lead to motivation loss which will probably kill all your dreams....  

 

So that's it   

i hope i was a little bit helpful, good luck. 

[Chris]

Walk cycles are hard

 

Some information why your cat looks like its running backwards:

 

When you walk, the movement of moving your foot from behind you to your front takes less time, than moving your foot back again. Thats because when moving the foot back its placed on the ground and has to move all your body. If you move your foot back to the front again, its lifted into the air. Thus the movement is easier and faster.

 

The rule in a sprite based animation is: if you want a movement to appear slower, you have to use more frames.

If you look at your walkcycle, you can clearly see that its painted the other way around as it should be. The back paws are pointing to the right only on one frame. Two frames are reserved for them to point to the left. This means: movement to the right = 1 frame = fast, movement to the left = 2 frames = slow.

 

Its the same for the front paws, just in the other direction.

 

If you would turn that around to have the back paws point to the right in two frames and to the left in only one frame (same with the front paws, but inverse), then your cat would look like its running to the right.

 

I hope that description is somehow understandable - I had a few problems in explaining that in english

 

greetings,

Chris

[Rezoner]

Here you have one of the best explanations of walk animation - http://manningkrull.com/pixel-art/walking.php

[aladine]

Walk cycles are hard

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I hope that description is somehow understandable - I had a few problems in explaining that in english

 

greetings,

Chris

That was something that i never knew about !! thanx a lot man, 

i don't know if i did it right or not but, there is some improvement 

 

Here you have one of the best explanations of walk animation - http://manningkrull.com/pixel-art/walking.php

Thnx!! (the blog is really cool !!)