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Pixel Dredd

Started by Steven Denton, 02 July, 2019, 08:49:14 PM

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Steven Denton

Quote from: GrudgeJohnDeed on 04 August, 2019, 12:42:30 AM
Wow that's an big impressive sprite, nice one! Pixel art and Dredd, two of my favourite things in the world <3

Looks suitable for gameplay, do you plan on doing anything with it in that regard? It's so easy to make games these days with Game Maker and Unity etc (I have a Dredd NES game prototype I must return to :D )

Some animation points for the last walk gif you posted - his vertical weight shift behaves differently in the last half of the gif versus the first half, it looks off because it should be the same (one cycle for each leg). Draw a line 1 pixel above his head every frame and you'll see what I mean as it animates.

Also his shoulder pads are animating at half the rate as the rest of him, with these big sprites and how much distance the pads have to cover it can look choppy. Could do with some frames between to smooth it out!

Great work!

Thanks' and thank you for the advice, I'm a complete novice at this!

I see what you mean about the uneven height bounce thing. its like the second half of the cycle holds at the apex for too long. I'm pretty sure I approached this the worst way possible, working on individual elements and only really seeing it come together as a whole at the end. I need to develop a method that lets me keep myself in check without getting to technical.

The shoulder pads have less different animation steps because the eagle is an absolute pain in the arse. I should have done more, smaller movements but moving half a pixel is way harder than a whole pixel. (hence the jump)

I did some tests with constructor 2 a while back and found it pretty understandable. I worked out how to set up a side scrolling sprite with actions in a few hours. my freeing keeps telling me I need to learn unity. I would like to make a game at some point but my plan for this is a test animation that looks like a game so I can get to grips with pixel animation.

GrudgeJohnDeed

Ah yes you definitely want to be able to see the full picture as you work. Most animators work with a key frame system, where they first draw the defining frames of the action and then when they're happy, add the 'tween frames that smoothen it out - which is easier work now you have a point A and point B for that frame to move between. Usually it's all very rough until they have every frame, they want to make sure they've captured the movement before they devote time to properly drawing and rendering.

I definitely don't envy you having to draw Dredd's eagle pad in subtle angle changes! You can still move it every frame though, it'd definitely look better. Here it is possessed by Judge Death and using all 8 frames to move, even though there's only 3 unique drawings:



One thing I'd really recommend to make it easier on yourself is go smaller next time, that's a big ol' sprite at around 150px tall and would prove challenging for most people! You can iterate quicker (feels good and is great for learning) and approximate more at lower resolutions all while getting more experience with the nitty gritty of pixel art, pushing single pixels around. The fantastic Dredd sprite in the SNES game is about 1/3 the size of yours for example and not a small sprite at all (about 50px tall). My NES Dredd sprite is around 30px tall!

That's awesome you got to grips with it so quick, I've not used Construct but I've seen some great games made in it. Unity is a really powerful engine, I stick with Game Maker personally as it's great for low resolution 2d games and I hear you have to know proper programming languages to get the absolute most out of Unity. If I ever look at 3d I might have to make the jump though, Game Maker is.. a bit of a joke in that department :D

Steven Denton

I would like to see your nes sprite.

I did have the shoulder pad and body moving an extra frame each way before but the body looked a bit flamboyant and the pad looked a bit like it was floating rather than attached to the body. Cutting the animation down made it look more solid and pinned to the body but with the side effect if it looking like a different frame rate. Maybe I need a small movement or a tilt or something. I'll try a few things next time I get some free time.

My Dredd is a big sprite but that's what I'm interested in. my first couple of tests sprites were much smaller but I wasn't getting what I wanted from them. I played on a Spectrum in the 8 bit days and an Amiga in the 16 bit days. It's the Amiga that really sets down my aesthetic, but I've ended up going bigger. It's a dumb way to learn to animate because of all the bloody detail.

GrudgeJohnDeed

Yeah it does make it a lot harder, but I totally get it - I like big sprites too and did the same thing when I first started, went big. The gargantuan rotoscoped sprites of a game like King of Fighters XII are basically pornography for me! I can't hang though.

Sure heres my NES Dredd running, pretty much finished although I might tweak some things yet:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bKBwpLS69w9jp82SXzcWUtjjLkPMZj6p/view?usp=sharing









Steven Denton

that's a fantastic little sprite. I can see why going small and working up would be a good idea!

Steven Denton



I added a little muzzle flash and put the top of his helmet back on. I was just looking at the files and wondering how on earth I managed to get an animation out of the deranged mess that was my working 'method' pretty much every element was worked on individually with each body part starting as a separate file before being pinned together. I think I thought I would be able to re-use and customise the elements but that just turned out to be a lot of work that made things harder rather than easier.

Trooper McFad

 :( Got the same issue with your updated Dredd - I can still see your originals - Dam Mac  :-[
Citizens are Perps who haven't been caught ... yet!

Steven Denton

Quote from: Trooper McFad on 10 August, 2020, 06:00:56 PM
:( Got the same issue with your updated Dredd - I can still see your originals - Dam Mac  :-[

https://gfycat.com/amusedrecentleopard

Trooper McFad

Thanks Steve
That's brilliant 👍🏻
Citizens are Perps who haven't been caught ... yet!

Steven Denton



https://gfycat.com/willinggiddychanticleer

I've started doing a new, slightly larger Dredd. still testing the pixel water. this time i started with Dredd impatiently checking his headset and shaking his head.

Dandontdare

If you mirrored that, he'd look like he's doing the Birdie Dance!  :lol:

Steven Denton


Steven Denton



https://gfycat.com/charmingwaryeasternnewt

Now with added turning to the right. slowly building actions up. (I will add a boot holster and flip it to turn left at some point)

Trooper McFad

Brilliant love his wee toe tap at the beginning
Citizens are Perps who haven't been caught ... yet!

Steven Denton



https://gfycat.com/handywellgroomedbudgie

Next I will work on the gun draw and shooting. Then i need to decide what I'm actually doing with this!