Tips and configuration to create a Walking Cycle - PixelArt

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nunFalco

nunFalco

Hi everyone. In this first tutorial I made for Clip Studio Paint you will learn how to configure the program to be able to make pixel art and some types to create your own Walking Cycle. I leave the video for those who prefer that type of content, but I recommend seeing it written since I think it is better structured like this ...

First we will choose the size of the canvas, we will choose a small size to be able to make a 32x32 px pixel art character.

Then we will activate the grid in the menu View> Grid

Now we will adjust the grid to 1 pixel.

For brushes we can look for them in Clip Studio ASSETS, you can look for my nunFalco profile or look for them as PixelArt Brushes.

These are the shapes of the brushes

To design our character we have to think based on which is going to be our smallest pixel. In Pixel art we try to synthesize all the information that we see to the minimum and an example of this can be the eyes or the ear of this character.

I would recommend starting there, after this we can define if we want to add more characteristics / details to the face, such as the mouth, nose, etc. In this case I decided to leave the character without these details, This is all a matter of tastes or needs, perhaps you need your character to express emotions, and then it may be useful to use your mouth to increase expressions, and then you may require a bigger face. Depending on this you can also make your Canvas larger to add more details.

For example I can use one more pixel to add the white part of the eye.

That way I would get a little more detail, but I prefer not to add it to the final result. After defining the size of the head, you can choose what size you will make the body, the proportions will make it look different, I will use an approximate of 3 and a half heads in height for my character. You can choose 2 if you want more detail on the face and a simpler body. Or you can choose 7 and make it look more realistic. Everything is a matter of tastes and needs.

You can try adding a bit more dynamics in the pose and not making the arms all straight so that the silhouette of the character can be identified more easily. the arms slightly curved as well as the legs. You can make the hands and feet that simple, just try to differentiate between the arms and legs, for that you can use clothes of another color. We will add a darker tone to simulate the depth of the arm and leg that are further down. Thus we simulate a shadow, as if the light did not reach that point in the same way.

Once we have our character. We go to the next step which is animation.

We will activate the Timeline bar in the View> Timeline menu

Now we will create a new animation folder and a new Timeline:

We will make the timeline of Speed 12 and duration 12 as well.

Let's delete the layer that we will not use.

Now we will add the animation cels we will add 1 every 2 frames. That is, we will add one to each Non number.

One thing before you start the animation is that you can also add a border to your character. This can make it easier to tell if it is used for example for a video game or if the background color of the character is very similar.

Okay, now we will start with the animation. The first thing we must know is that our position "Unemployed" will not be part of this "Cycle (Loop)" but it is essential because that way we know what the maximum height of our character will be.

[Frame 1]

The first Frame (Frame) of our animation will be the movement of his right foot forward and his left foot back bending, this determines that the character has begun to take a step, therefore the arms will move contrary to the legs. The LEFT arm will be FORWARD while the RIGHT leg is Forward and vice versa. The head is still in the same position. But the whole body drops a frame from the knees because when we bend them the body slightly lowers its position in addition to leaning slightly forward. so we will move the whole body one frame forward as well, without moving the legs.

[Frame 3]

The next step is the lowest height in this sequence as the body has bent a little more, thus making the body smaller. This makes us 2 pixels lower than our maximum height. the body stays on axis for balance, but the arms are transitioning to swing again, so both are closer to the body.

[Frame 5]

In the next frame, we will have the maximum height again, the legs are stretched and the arms are again advancing in the opposite way, RIGHT leg BACK and RIGHT ARM IN FRONT and vice versa. Our character's head turns slightly looking towards his destination so we stop seeing an eye and move the eye and ear one pixel forward, the hair moves slightly too so we move it one pixel and make a slight variation.

[Frame 7]

The following frames will be repeated: 1 is 7, 3 is 9 and 5 is 11, we can copy them and just edit, because the arm that was behind now is the one in front and vice versa, we only need to change the color to give depth. In this frame I also decided to keep my head looking towards its destination, but in the next frame we will return it to its original position.

[Frame 9]

We edit and make slight variations of Frame 3

[Frame 11]

We also edit and make variations of frame 5.

Now we only have to export. But first we must change the resolution of our image because if we export it like this, it will look tiny, we must enlarge it if we want to share it on a social network or with our friends. Let's go to the Edit Menu> Change image resolution ...

We change the scaling and it will give us the size in Pixels. We can increase it as much as we want. For me, 1120 pixels is fine, that is, a scaling of 35 times.

To export we go to the File menu> Export animation> Animated GIF ...

After we choose the location, we choose the size, that we have of our already scaled canvas and the range of frames that we have. in my case it is from 3 to 14 because in frame 12 and I have the "Standing" pose and this is not part of the Loop. If we add it, it will make our Loop not look fluid. The blue points can be adjusted the loop to the positions we want.

We can also export frame by frame this will repeat 1 image because we use 2 frames per image. We are going to Export animation> Sequence of images.

We choose the size and the frames the same as in the GIF part.

And this would be all from me, I leave you with the result and I hope you can comment either here or on youtube, I will read all your feedback to be able to improve in these tutorials. I hope with all my heart that it helps you and see you in future tutorials.

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