FreeGameDev

I created a few graphics for the swimming feature, here's a gif of what I made. It's basically the ladder climbing tux except his head is in a swimming position.



You can download the seperate pngs in the attachments. What do you think?

Erm... It's ok... But I've never really liked the ladder sprite,
Because the arms are thin and odd, The head is facing the side (instead of the back) and it is just not right...?
This swimming sprite is the same as the ladder.
The head looks just not right, jiggling all about,
and his body is not facing the right way.
I mean, how does that even work? His neck is bending in an impossible way!
Heads don't work that way...?!

Sorry for the critisism, but it's not right.
I'll draw some concepts of a swimming animation
and put them on my "custom sprites" thread.

Good try though!

Try and base it off the concepts I will draw for the swimming sprites.
And PLEASE don't re-use ANY elements of the ladder sprite!

Good luck, and I hope you can make my concept a sprite (When I make it)

~Alzter... Out!

...For now of course.

Oh okay

One thing I hate about designing things for SuperTux is how we only have low quality >100x100 pngs to work with. Why not have bigger pngs and let people resize them to the correct size later? That would make work much easier.

Random responses:
Wouldn't the climbing look weird just seeing the back of his head?
Why not make higher resolution .png's to work with?
About the swimming: Thanks! it's a start, it doesn't loop the best at the moment, and the up/down movement of the body isn't consistent. There are also small details like the changing neck line color, but this is just a fist pass?

I quite like it, but the edges look messy.

Hey Suiciwd, i really like your approach. I think it was quite creative to use the sprites of climbing tux. I totally agree on having high res material and open files.

Ok, I'll try and make some swimming concepts and put them on my "custom sprites" forum,
Hopefully today! Try making a swimming animation based on the concepts I will make soon!
Just be patient! I will tell you when the concepts are up!

the edges look messy

It's quite hard to make nice edges when you only have a 86x68 space to work with.

Guys, Just because the resolution is small, DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN'T MAKE EDGES SMOOTH.
Use transparency, anti-aliasing and colours that compliment each-other.

Ta-da! Swimming concepts to base a sprite on!
These concepts have a low frame count,
So make sure to add some in between frames too.

Nice

Some new side swimming tux graphics based on Alzters's concepts.



I need to add some action on Tux's fins as well.
You can download the pngs in the next post.
What do you think?

Download the PNGs

Great! But maybe make the arms move and add the other foot behind the current one.
But still, Great!!

Try using SVG (i.e. Inkscape) instead of bitmaps/PNGs then you will find it much easier to tweak/maintain/resize etc.

Plus the feet should be pointing backwards on the horizontal swim. When you swim do you paddle your feet downwards like that? No, out behind you. Same for penguins.

A better question to ask: do penguins even use their feet when swimming? It appears not.

In fact, they don't use their arms that much either, but that can be tweaked with re-timing.

What about something like this?

I nade Tux's feet move when he swims to convey he is swimming and add a bit more life to the animation.
Plus, the swimming is OK, but it has only 2 frames! Add more! Plus, the second foot should be behind the body too.
And penguins DO move their arms when swimming. Or at least they do to steer themselves.
So, suicwd, good try, But add more frames and make Tux's arms flap. And also make his second leg behind the body.
Once you've done that, I'd consider the animation complete!

Updated Swimming Tux with more frames and flapping arms! Download PNGs and .xfc in next post.

Download PNGs and project files!

One minor suggestion I would make is to lower the tail and increase flapping arc

That's more like it Suiciwd.

Really there should be more movement with the arms. If you are modelling it on real penguins swimming then it would be a full stroke of the wings followed by a burst of speed. Not sure how keen the SuperTux team are on taking it that far.