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iSohei In reply to cocghe [2015-10-31 12:02:52 +0000 UTC]

My preferences come from the long animation practice. I did found, that sprites larger than 70 pixels in height are extremely tedious to animate. So I try to keep all of them under this limit.

Another hint - decide what type of the game are you making, and whether you do want a sprite to have a face. Making different expression really add to visual appeal, but can hardly be be applied for the strategy game units.
Deciding the type of a game. Probably, you wouldn't be making a game art, but what is crucial - the proportion, between the screen resolution and the unit height. For the fighting game a unit height should be 1/2 - 1/3 to the screen height. For a platformer: 1/5 - 1/7. For a strategy: 1/15 - 1/20
Deciding on a face expression. Draw a face expression as small as you can, an then add the rest of the body taking into account the proportion. Measure height in heads. Keep in mind, that if you're making a stylization, the amount of heads in all units should be constant.

I hope this information is useful.  Sorry for probable language mistakes.

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cocghe In reply to iSohei [2015-11-02 08:06:06 +0000 UTC]

I loved to hear this advice from you. So when I want to make some animation, I should keep the height smaller than 70 pixels for ease. As I see from your image all the sprites are over 70 pixels in height so it would be difficult to make animation, right? And for a smooth animation with image larger than 70 pixels how many frames does it need per animation (like 8 or more)? Or do you have a ratio between animation frame and the size of the sprite?

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iSohei In reply to cocghe [2015-11-02 09:47:54 +0000 UTC]

I'm sorry. Animation theory is too complex to explain in a few words. And most of understanding comes though practice.

To explain how it feels I have to tell a small story. Some time ago, I have bought a kitchen weighter. And for curiosity purpose did start to weight everything I could reach. I didn't know how much a teaspoon of sugar is, but now it was magically revealed. How much a piece of bread, a tomato, my cockatiel parrot, banana, etc. I've acquired a whole new dimension of world apprehension. From that moment I could see a world in grams.

To get similar understanding of animation, you have to buy a camera and a clock and start measuring everything in frames.

About 8 frames - it depends on the movement. A walk animation consists of two key-frames and it's a bare minimum to show bipedal walk movement.

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cocghe In reply to iSohei [2015-11-02 11:21:42 +0000 UTC]

That's right. The best way to figure out is to try many times. Thank you for these answers. I should do more pixel art in my free time instead of doing non-sense stuffs

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iSohei In reply to rdwndta [2015-10-31 12:03:13 +0000 UTC]

Oh, thank you!

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