Sprite Templates Animated (Vector graphics)

[Xhukari]

I'd like some opinions on my stylized sprite templates, but first things first; they are created with the purpose of being used within Flash, primarily for my personal projects (which explains the rather large, if weird dimensions).

I'm looking for absolutely any opinions on them, primarily on how natural the movement looks as well as my stylistic choices. I'm currently not planning to add additional frames to the up or bottom facings due to time consumption.

Spoiler

You can also go here to see them animated at their desired frames per second(30), within the browser:
http://swfcabin.com/open/1346975299

I thank you for your time, and any comments made!

Edit: updates sprites

Spoiler

Comparison of the changes to the male's walk animation and shoulders.

Click here to see the new head-bobbing animations.
This is hosted on a different site which unluckily resizes the swf, so it is not that big.
I couldn't host on SWFCabin, as the site would not load for me currently (tried for the last hour.)

 

[-Silver-]

Love the more realistic proportions, I've always wanted to go this route with an RPG! The anatomy is really good, and I can't fault it at all, so great work there! It's just the animation which needs some tweaking. Animations are always tough...

You need to add more movement to the overall body. Right now, only the arms and legs move. Try walking from one side of the room to the other, and you'll notice you are swaying slightly from left to right, and moving up and down slightly. Many first person games emulate this with a 'head bob' camera sway. I'd also suggest widening the male shoulders slightly, and having a slight gap between his body and arms. It looks like he's trying to squeeze through a gap when he keeps his arms that close.

 

[Xhukari]

Made changes based on your criticisms, tell me what you think!
Just check the first post.

 

[Jason]

I'm liking the side views, but the front and back just look so off... I know it's obviously harder to do them (Trust me, I have problems trying to get it right too), but at the moment, it just looks like their legs are either shrinking and growing back, or they're sliding along the floor...

 

[Xhukari]

Haha yes. Front and back are much harder; the side is deceptively easier than you may think, because of the program I use, I can just move an entire leg to a new rotation, for instance. But front and back requires drawn-from scratch frames. Which when considering these are only templates, and I would have to redraw any details of the characters that many more times, is why I've left it at 4.

Though I don't think the frames really make it look any more or less like stomping; adding additional frames would just create a smoother stomping animation
The issue with the stomping is that it was created on a 2D plane, making depth extremely difficult; creating and animating a 3D model then positioning the camera to capture the animation with this angle would look like walking rather than stomping.

The second reason kinda comes down to the Uncanny Valley and that we're so focused on the walk animation at the moment; when placed within a proper game with other things moving with that animation, the brain recognizes the general movement portrayed; one foot forward with the hand swaying backwards, with walking and registers it as such - on previous versions overworld walking animations I have created, I'd wonder why another 2D game I've recently played had better walking animations; but when I went back and focused on that animation, it was actually inferior.

... I should stop watching explanatory videos before posting x.x
Though I have just noticed the back male walk aniamtion has a weird issue with the arms swinging too far away from the screen, making the animation awkward.

 

[-Silver-]

New animations look a lot better!

I think the issue JBrist is pointing out comes from the fact that you've created these sprites from a flat viewing angle, so to speak, instead of a top down viewing angle. So the sprites walking left-to-right will look fantastic in a platformer, but if these are for a top down RPG then they will look a little bit out of place. Especially with the front and back views when you're walking up and down.

The sprites in RPG maker have their legs move down when they step forwards, whereas your sprites lift their legs up when they step forwards. Hard to explain, but I hope that makes sense. Unless of course these are for a platformer or side-scrolling RPG, in which case they look great! But then I'm not sure why you would have a front/back sprite.

 

[Xhukari]

Ohhh, yeah that makes a lot of sense. RPG Maker style sprites thats relatively easy to get to work.
But I've found all my attempts at replicating that method with these larger sprites I create, is that it looks very unnatural, with the legs growing and shrinking and shrinking out of proportion.

I'm not too sure how to make that work, so I welcome any suggestions for that.
I will remember about that for future front and back animations I may create.

Edit:
I just remembered I had another, chibi-like style which I think worked better for the front and back animations (but worse for the side ones, funnily enough) than this since the legs actually bend rather than go straight up or down. Though I don't think these bends would look believable with the greater realism of the other style. You can see what I mean by going here; this one is a bit more interactive. Make sure the screen is active by clicking it. Then just move around with the arrow keys.

 

[Jason]

I notice that on the chibi one, on the up and down movements, as the legs move away from us, you've darkened them, it actually helps to show depth, y'know? Maybe try that on your other sprites and see how it looks?

 

[Xhukari]

Well the back and forth legs and arms do actually have more or less shadow on them, though perhaps you are right. I'll try blocking out more of the leg with shadow to show distance.

 

[Xhukari]

Alright, I've made the changes to the shadowing of the legs and arms, as well as implement it into a system movement system like the Chibi style so it should be easier to get a feel for the movement.
http://megaswf.com/s/2471933

Tell me what you guys think!
(Move around with arrow keys, if you cannot move, click the swf)

 

[Kain Nobel]

When facing up or down, the neck is really skinny and the head appears to be too high. When facing left or right, the neck appears to be thicker.

 

[-Silver-]

Okay, love the left and right. You've nailed that one.

Moving up now looks great with the added shadows for depth, so great work there too!

But moving forwards, it looks like he is kicking his legs up as he moves, like some kind of Russian dance, instead of placing them forwards. Maybe it's just me, so wait for more feedback from JBrist too, but I think the leg moving forwards need to move down slightly instead of up, to look like he's walking instead of kicking.

 

[Jason]

Hmm... looks slightly better I suppose, but as Silver pointed out, the legs actually look weird as he moves up and down, you'll have to experiment with them some more, it seems like either, as Siler said, he's doing some sort of Russian dance, or he's still sliding along the floor, however, the shadows do make it look slightly better.

And I never realised it until Kain pointed out, but his neck IS too skinny and his head seems too high on the up and down views, lol, you may want to fix that so it's more consistent with the side views.

 

[Xhukari]

The neck is easy enough to fix, but I think I may start over on sprites. I think it will be easier than trying to get them to work with a different walk method.
Thanks for all the help guys!
Gonna take this all into consideration when working on the next set, which I'll post for some more criticisms ;D