terley

The earth has been warming and cooling for years yes, since the birth of plant life oxygen was introduced to the atmosphere which significantly cooled the earth. global warming isn't natural, with the constant increase in change I think its like by 2080 the temperature will go up 4+ degrees, the most significant changes won't just be the change in climates, im sure we'd deal with it.. But the raise in water levels. We're gonna loose land, with our population increasing so rapidly that definately not a good thing.

when I think of 'a zit' I picture a big popable spot.. which is very rare if you regularly take care of your skin, unless it's out of your control. I tend to just get 'black heads'.

how come only americans refer to it as 'acne'? and call em zits. To me they sound like really crappily thought up names.

The next person to post is only posting to seek attention

i'd actually love to teach someone how to pixel, as in someone physically in front of me, instead of via the internet. I think It'd be pretty easy if whoever id be teaching had some artistic skills. it really is a challenge getting a point across in words, I personally think you need to see someone in action in oder to understand the hows and whys.. But this is a great idea, if this works it can put some structure to their pixeling and give them the help they desire.

lol.. I actually dread asking my family because they're too honest in most circumstances. I suppose its because most of my family are good artists.

it's easy when you break it down for yourself. draw the first frame. the last frame. the key frame (in this case the moment of impact punching) and then just break it down further by drawing half way between each. thats the basic way to animate, but it does get more complicated than that, theres everything to consider. Ive used all sorts of animating programs, its just that imageready's on all the computers I use and you kinda just get used to it.. but animation isn't pixel based haha, try get hold of flash, it's much funner to use if your a beginner.

ive currently got no intention of making a background or changing the ground. the point of it is supposed to be a two toned animation, two colours. but I decided to do a bit of aaing to smoothen it out, kept to 5 colours. id like to point out, because some how its not obvious.. it isn't suppsosed to be highly detailed, it is what you see. either critique on the pixeling itself (use of AA and colour etc) or the animation.

well I did this for a demonstration.. But I think it's a good distraction from all this pivot malarky.. stick figures are terrible, but this is how I'd animate them.. decided it was a shame not to do something with it, fixed much of the mistakes bumped it up to 8 frames, dont think any more is necissery.. if I have more time i'll add more to this, and even maybe add more pixel animations to this thread, I need I way to practice this animation stuff.. without steering away from pixeling, im just too addicted :lol: . well any comments welcome, and if anyone has any animation tips i'd love to hear em. heres it frame by frame. If anyone wants to crit em individually.

ok I understand that the program itself maybe a big handicap, maybe I didnt realise that, but you gotta understand stickmen are the 'buddy's' of animation.. no real animator uses em, they look terrible, and are tecnically wrong. If I were you I'd ditch the program, get out a pencil and paper and download a simple free gif animator. at least even work on the computer, just for the love of god animate how you're supposed to animate, there is no other way. Smapla i dont think its been negative, my initial comment was and im sorry but all comments should be constructive, whether you like it or not. dont disencourage from animating.

Imageready CS2 for gifs (animating pixel work) and flash for general animation work. I gotta say animating is really hard, it's very confusing when your first starting, you just need to get into a system where you make it easier for yourself. oh and this quote from this book by Richard Williams im reading is useful, whilst talking to Richard Kelsey (an illustrator who worked at disney). 'First of all, kid, learn to draw. You can always do the animation stuff later. I mean, Really learn to draw' without being a great anatomist and draftsman you cant animate, stick figures aren't the right way to go. Learn to draw, draw people around.

sorry that was a pretty stupid thing to say, they aren't 'terrible' it's just that im trying to study animation in my spare time, Im actually racking my brains around the fundamentals of animation and my first thoughts with this is that non of these movements in this make any sense, at all, there's no planning here, its as if you were just making it up as you animated. It isn't the fact that 'at least I tried', if you thought about what you wanted to do you should of atleast realised that time management is the key to animation. I was doing similar things when I was 10 and seriously it isnt really that hard to make something move, the key is to make it believable. here I'll quickly do a punching demonstration so you cant say that I don't try, dont expect a miracle it is literally a rushed animation.. this is how I'd initially start a punching sequence. ok first you should draw the first frame, whatever it may be, be rough and basically plan out 'where' things are initially. Im not being to accurate with the anatomy. what exactly do you want to happen? Im planning of having this chap on the left stood idol for the minute and the guy on the right jumping into a punch square in the face. The guy on the right should be in a bent knee position (back to us) with his arms strung ready to go. Next you should concentrate on the ending frame, not the next frame. because you don't know where he'll end up.. the left guy is on the floor, im just guessing the postures for the minute, this is only really a plan for his movement across the screen.. any characturation will come soon. then work out the key moment, this is the obvious punching contact.. again only rough. :uhh: this 3 frame animation looks like this. very jerky but the timing's pretty much alright. to smoothen the animation you need more frames, all you basically need to do is draw half way between the start and middle, and middle and end. concentrate on the position on the feet firstly, the planted foot should stay still and determains the position of the body. the animation with the two extra frames.. hope some of this helps, I cant be bothered finishing it but its basically what im trying to get at. break your animations, plan out what you want to happen. and please, move away from those terrible stick figures. oh here's another rough animation of someone getting woken up.

sorry I don't understand any of these, they're terrible.

I don't think it matters in the slightest what age these were drawn, all we can do is give our opinions and critique it the best to our ability. its no good saying 'do you expect a masterpiece', what, should we wait a few years until he's the correct age and then give an honest critique? and until then just lie through our teeth and fill this thread with useless comments. Posting your work on an open forum suggests that critique is welcome unless told otherwise. no one is saying these aren't good, but no one's perfect, you can only learn and improve, even learn from work you may have done years previously.. Just because its in the past doesn't mean you're now an expert compared to what you were, if tomdavies90 was to re-do all these now, he would most probably make the same mistakes. I personally think these are very good considering what age they were done, it shows great observation and attention to detail. But what most people have pointed out it still needs that level of contrast.

stick to the rules or leave, no one else is complaining. Its in the rules for a reason.

not with comments like that it won't, people are willing to help, it doesn't matter if it's not a global event of an idea I think it's great that people are willing to contribute towards teaching those who want to learn. Dont crap on our eutopia.

well you can draw, theres no doubt about that, what I suggest is forgetting about breaking things down into outlines, concentrate about how the light effects your objects. Otherwise your images will always look very flat, I do sympathise that your scanner has brightened it up a tad but still im getting the impression that you don't have enough contrast. As an artist your not trying to photorealistic image otherwise you'd just might as well take a picture of it, concentrate on texture, experiment with your pencil and build the detailing of your image to capture how you percieve what your drawing. But contrast is essential, I did some shells and stuff a while ago, I hosted it on devianart. http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/46059078/ If you don't have a strong lightsource, get one by hovering a light over your object, because what your trying to do is capture the shape of your object.. Your being very technical with your drawings, loosen up, learn to work lightly and loosely to build shape and get your perspective and proportions correct and then start to build depth, add details etc. I also just now quickly drew my trainer in charcoal especially to help you, I find it helps to constently have your eyes darting back and forth from your object to your paper whilst working, don't spend 5 minutes staring at your paper becuase you don't know exactly what the object looks like, so don't try and draw it off memory. (They're Vans) I gotta say tho, your doing really well, these are fairly complicated things to draw and your definately on the right tracks.

Im always willing to help, that is if this isn't too time consuming.

Metroid :

awesome, very good way of working.. the posture of this character looks a bit dodgy but your a proffesional and it's hard not to like anything you do.

I'd be more concerned with getting the body planned in first at least, the wings are more of an accessory to the dragon, its like starting a drawing of a character with the back-pack or drawing a dog starting with the tail.. get the base sorted first, work on the proportions and then add in the wings. I wouldnt say not to use the line tool, use whatever you can to get what you initially wanted to achieve.. if you drew it freehand and tried to clean up your lines I'd betcha the consistancy of the curves wouldn't look right. Using the line tool helps to keep your linework smooth, that is if you drew with it by continuously clicking as you go. But using a 1 pxl pencil tool is essential to make alterations, add details.. Just don't go to the extreme of having everything jerky, nor limiting yourself to placing every single pixel manually, if your not an expert your just giving yourself a handicap.

I would never copy an image straight from reference without challenging myself in some way, what are you achiving by copying it, even if you haven't traced it your only re-creating someone else's work to a lesser standard, I personally would keep drawing from many references and try build your own image.. If you were copying straight from with a more traditional method such as drawing it or painting it could be just for learning purposes but pixel art is primarily a time-burning, technical method.. plus your great deal of effort to protect it from being stolen suggests your claiming it as your work, as if the original wasn't copyrighted.. I just feel a bit iffy about this, I suppose your doing a good job but I don't see the point of this, theres no creativity here, its squashed horizontally compared to the original reference also.

ok just letting everyone know in advance, its gonna really difficult for me to do much since Im going to be moving house some time soon, im staying at a friends until im completely moved so atm im using a laptop without internet. I should be able to do some work because If I find a mouse to plug into this it should be ok but I won't have much comunication to this forum much until im officially moved and with a new internet provider. I also promised chaostayoko that id help him with something so If I don't talk to him, its not cus im ignoring anyone its cus im internet-less. :( don't blame me guys if im a bit of a nusense with the deadline, ill do my best.

Editting your work not only helps you, it helps everyone else, its really hard explaining what needs changing in words so I personally think editing your work is the right thing to do. If your scared of people ripping it Id suggest putting a faint watermark somewhere, write your name in 1% transparency somewhere. so it doesn't stop us from seeing your work. Its not ripping it, he's trying to help.

your doing really well I got to say, but what's missing from your pieces are correct perspective. It's like a habbit that your views are always looking down like you'd see in an RPG so the characters don't tend to look right.. If you were to judge the view from the characters on your newest one, the horizon line would be much lower, just done very quickly so hope you dont mind..