Sprite animation workflow

[MikeOT]

For starters, I have no idea which forum this properly fits in. I'd like to have a discussion about it, and I have nothing to show off, so discussions?
Anyhow, I'm really trying to learn to be a competent spriter. I'm finally at a point to where I do pretty good making items or just a single frame for a character outfit or monster.

I'm having trouble figuring out the proper workflow for animating. Specifically, player outfits and monster walking.


I've found plenty of guides for animating 2d art, but I'm having trouble connecting that specifically to tibia characters due to the small size and odd perspective. (Most tutorials I find are for bigger images with alot more room to play with and standard perspectives)


Do any of you know of any updated tutorials showing the process of animating tibia characters or monsters where the images actually load up?

I'm finding it very difficult to make a walk cycle look right. At this point I'm basically just erasing every part that will move and redrawing it.

Is there an easier way to accomplish this, or at least an easier way to keep proper dimensions?

How do some of you pros go about your animations?

I know it takes practice, yada yada. I'm not trying to be perfect, or accomplish it overnight. I just need some general tips here.

Thanks

 

[Shadowsong]

Here's a video I made that might help.
It can't be applied to all cases, but in some cases where it can, it looks decent and is very easy to accomplish:

 

[MikeOT]

Wow. That is exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you very much. I don' have the skill for complex animations, so this suits it perfectly.

 

[Shadowsong]

Wow. That is exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you very much. I don' have the skill for complex animations, so this suits it perfectly.

Glad to help
For more complex animation, well, I haven't found any significant shortcuts maybe because there aren't any or I'm not exploring the options enough.
To save time: try re-using and just repositioning/rotating existing limbs and elements instead of drawing them from scratch on each frame.

But most of the time, you'll simply need to draw stuff that's missing in each frame and color it manually. Still, this is not much work while working on small scale (up to 64x64). Anything after that, especially if bigger than 100px, becomes a hefty amount of work per frame.

What makes it endurable is the fact that for these animations, you don't need a lot of frames. Even if you needed to manually redraw everything all the time, it would be 6 frames for all of this.
This is not always the case. Sometimes I'll be commissioned to do huge animations and large creatures with 9+ frames per one side, and boi... it gets pretty nice in there, if you catch my drift. Sometimes 5-8 hours for 1 creature.

 

[Anderson]

roxxxx , gooood job friend

 

[MikeOT]

Ha, well another reason to love tibia graphics.

I watched your other vids also, you're very helpful, thank you.

 

[kingsley666]

Here's a video I made that might help.
It can't be applied to all cases, but in some cases where it can, it looks decent and is very easy to accomplish:

Wow, excelent, i will use it for sure, thank you very much!!