Run, Mr Kimble. Run!
As I felt that making character sprites wasn’t really my thing I passed that task on to Viktor and proceeded making projectile sprites. There are four different main projectiles; the sponge which is the standard projectile for the main character, the mud ball which some of the children throws towards the player. Then there is the water balloon which can thrown using the Nubb Tubb and the water stream which is launched using the water thrower. I drew a few suggestions for the water stream and the mud ball since we are not sure how we want those sprites to look.
My major task for this week was animation. Now, animation is something I have only scratched the surface of before and never really gone in to properly. I gave animating the male main character’s legs a shot and sat for about 2 hours trying to figure this thing out. The result ended up being pretty good, not super smooth but good none the less. Now, the legs are not completely done yet, I will let Viktor put some shadows and lighting on them so that they goes together with the torso better.
This running animation is six frames long using two different leg models. For the left side the models have been flipped and I added some lines to show his right thigh/butt cheek in order to avoid the leg just completely disappearing as it moves forward.
I will continue making running animations for all the characters’ in the game as Viktor provides me with more sprites. I am currently trying to make a good looking animation for the Trike Kid’s pedal cycle, I do not have anything to show at this moment but I will work my ass off tomorrow and try to get a smaller blog post out to show more animations.
As for the Alpha presentation tomorrow I am feeling quite confident about everything. Robin will take the responsibility of presenting the Alpha to everyone. The game has taking shape this week, we have implemented several new features this week like the Dirt-meter which works as a health-bar, the Overheat-meter which sort of works like an ammo-bar but instead of using a set number of “bullets” it builds up heat and when it reaches max the gun will jam and you will not be able to shoot again until the meter has gone down to zero again. We have also implemented a background for the game, so, now you will walk around in a playground instead of a blue void.
That’s all! Signing off!
Knuttin Atoll 
Nice animation! The legs add a lot of visual depth to the player sprite. Though his feet could use a little less space between them. It seems like you and Viktor have found a way of working together that makes use of your individual strengths in order to increase productivity and that’s great! I’m looking forward to the next batch of animations.
Thank you. Thank you for pointing out the problem, I will re-work the animation a bit and move the feet closer.
Swanky!
It is always a joy to look at people’s animations, if nothing else because of the opportunities for the ‘ol ”cut it open and steal its power”.
I know I pulled out many a hair in rage and frustration when trying to overcome the horror that is the walking animation, so I put great importance in getting to see how other people have done them.
But anyway, the clarity is clear in its existence, with both minor and major pictures accounted for, which is always a nice touch, and not only because the course requires us to.
Some additional anecdotes as to the actual work process of what’s been done could have augmented the post a little, but then again that may just be me being a greedy bastard.
As for the whyness, as a mild-mannered Dalecarlian gentleman my neurons naturally fires off the notion that these graphical artifacts are absolutely necessary for the project and the clarity of why they have been done transcends the pale light of that petty star that some call Sol.
Being a graphics artist in both heart and soul I will leave it at that instead of splitting my hairs in order to come up with something to nit-pick about, and I will instead say jolly well done, good sir.
Thank you, my good sir.
Hello there!
Just read through your post and i’m sorry for writing this late 🙂
As I looked through the things I’m a little intrigued by the projectiles. All of them look very nice and solid, but it seems like they do not fit the rest of the theme in your game (looking to your gun with spoonge shooter) They do not seem to mix all to well. The projectiles feel cartoony while the main character looks and feels alot more realistic.
Outisde of this I think the legs are to far apart as noted by simon above me, but it looks like a great step in the right direction, but you should look to the amount of frames in your animations. Adding more frames would improve the flow of it right now.
Another thing about the animation, as it is the main part of your blogpost. I think that you should put some focus in animating the torso as it adds alot of feeling to it, just having the weapon moving back and forth a little and bopping the head from side to side 🙂
It sounds great that you are communicating within your team! Have a good one from a Van and a Game Designer!
Thank you for the constructive criticism. I’m going to let Viktor do some finishing touches on the projectile sprites so that they’ll fit with the rest of the game and I’m going to re-work the animation and move the legs closer together.