My new Avatar!

[gtkampos]

This is my first revamp and my first animation too, nothing too extravagant...



I liked so much that i put it as my avatar... What do you think???
PS: for some reason, the imgur is not uploading my image correct, so you can check the animation on my avatar image.

[Iceman404]

Light source, banding, pillow shading, dark colors, hilariously high contrast, boring/flat shading on the helicopter part.

That's all I see

EDIT: Also, the other helicopter frames in your avatar make absolutely no sense perspective wise, unless it's a broken chopper.

[Baegal]

Iceman's crit is valid, except for the contrast part. I think the colors are fine, TBH.
Only other thing is the eyes are very bland compared to the rest of the sprite. Try adding a shadow at the top to signify a cast shadow, it will help give the illusion of the eye's being deeper in.
The blades are at an odd perspective. They're in more of a bird's eye view than the rest of the sprite.

References (Click to View)

You have the blades like the left image, when they should be more like the right one

[TheShyGuy]

For the blades, you should have the them "shrink" as they go back in depth and "grow" as they come forward. Its common sense, but the the animation doesn't show it. The animation doesnt seem to flow smoothly either, it seems to change in speed when it loops. Also, you shouldnt copy paste your sprite after shading, you should have done that before you shaded.

[gtkampos]

(07-17-2012 01:39 AM)Iceman404 Wrote:  Light source, banding, pillow shading, dark colors, hilariously high contrast, boring/flat shading on the helicopter part.

That's all I see

EDIT: Also, the other helicopter frames in your avatar make absolutely no sense perspective wise, unless it's a broken chopper.

Well, my lightsource is coming from front like the original sprite, so i think pillow shading was inevitavible *of course, not so inevitavible*.
I agree that is a little weird, but its looking awesome!! *ok, not so much *

the timing is perfect the same on all frames....i use photoshop. Maybe is some bug animation plug in.

Animation seems a little complicated to me in my level... I made the entire sprite then started to animate. Is this correct?
Or should i make the animation with the outlines first and after shade all frames one by one? What is the best way? Some tutorial to help with animation?

Thanx a lot guys...I am learning a lot here *this sprite on avatar doesnt count*

[TheShyGuy]

If your talking about me pointing out that you copied pasted your sprite, i was addressing the lighting issue/pillowshading. I think someone better in the shading subject should say something instead of me because i doubt ill be as useful in helping you much there.

Ignore if you want:

Spoiler (Click to View)

I have 'some' experience in animation itself, in 3D, that you might be able to use. Always use references to get the general movement and pose of how characters should be. Keyframe the most important points in the animation before you start doing the in between. -Dont try to get the animation right the first time or even attempt doing it frame by frame.

Spoiler (Click to View)

*Ignore the dress...

Hmm what else...Depending on the animation, it should have end recoil. I think what kinda "breaks" an animation is the flow. You have to keep everything smooth(most of the time), and avoid making it stiff. The hardest part i found when animating in 3d ,at first, is making different parts move individually, while still having it look like one unified fluid motion. From what i remember back then, i believe i broke the stiffness after creating the main keyframes. By removing or adding them to bones individually instead of to the whole. Take a look at this animation i made a while back :

Spoiler (Click to View)

Despite the animation being mine, i think that animation looks pretty smooth. Theres no big recoil for something that is supposedly strong, due to the character being very stable in that pose. Also notice the "snaps" in the animation that create the attack itself. Anyways, with this animation, the biggest thing i wanted to point out was the non-unified way of the body parts to break the stiffness. The most dramatic is the front leg turning, while the rest of the body turns in the opposite direction to build up power.
In the end though, nothing beats hardwork and many small edits and tweaks to improve it.

*animations made in brawlbox
*gifs made with screenshots, which explains some of its jumpiness, atleast for the last animation. I improved the "screenshots" by making a small program to take snapshots of a given viewport, which explains why the first animation isnt as jumpy.
*i havent used BB in over a year,nor have i animated in 3d since then. These animations were made over a year ago.

I feel like i just wrote a small "how to animate" tutorial, but i think there are some points in there that should help you out in your future animations, 2d or 3d. If theres anything that anyone would like to point out in it thats wrong, or "detrimental", i have no problem removing, or editing, those parts in this post.

[gtkampos]

Thanx for the tutorial, i read it and get it a lot of things...
I find a excellent tutorial too and i would like to share here...

http://finalbossblues.com/pixel-tutorials/

It helps a lot about colors, contrast, drawing the form of sprite, not the shape (which helps to visualize your sprite 3d)..
it worths take a look