Why the update? I just read the tutorial for the first time in a long time and I'm cringing omg. This tutorial was ported as-is from the old Relic site, and the only reason I wrote it back
then was because someone requested me to do it. I'm still no animation expert or even student, but if I'm the best we've got...well I can do better.
Firstly I'll admit, I still use
GIMP and still
don't recommend it as your main editing tool. It is what the name stands for- a General Image Manipulation Program, and the reason I cling to it is simply because I've used it for sooo many years that it feels comfy and natural. Also it's free! But it's not really made for animation or pixel art. If you already have a program you're comfortable using for art, then don't start picking up GIMP instead my friend, it's not what you need.
What do I reccommend for animating? Well now I use
Aseprite (
Also on Steam, you can sometimes catch a sale there). I barely know how to use this software honestly, but because it's designed with pixel art in mind it's super handy to use. Even though I still stubbornly stick to the program I know for most things, Aseprite is optimized enough that I can animate just as fast while still being a beginner user. With a little more practice and actually learning the keybinds?? It's over for you un-animated sprites!
At the end of the day though, the secret isn't to use pro tools, it's to become a pro with the tools you use. So here's some tool-agnostic ideas I like to consider:
(sprites done for Tempo Rising, full credits there I didn't originally sprites these just animated them)
The first thing I wanted to talk about is
weight. Now this sprite I don't think I executed on too well but hopefully you'll be able to see what I'm talking about at least with the ideas behind it. Dhelmise here has a pretty heavy anchor, so it doesn't really move untill the wheel part of it slams into place.
Lots of light movement + quick movement of the wheel is being used to contrast it against the much heavier anchor, which shows it's weight by moving slowly. The contrast is also emphasized by the timing, where the wheel's quick movement stops to allow the anchor it's moment in the spotlight. For what it's worth, the whole sprite is also subtly floating in a clockwise motion, timed with the wheel's movement.
Next I wanted to show an example of maintaining
volume. When you're animating, of course things are gonna get distorted,
especially a squishy goo pile of a Pokemon like Goomy or Sandygast here. However, when you distort or stretch any Pokemon, it's probably gonna have an effect on their whole body.
The simple idea here that's gonna make your animation feel good is to keep your volume consistent. When Goomy squashes down a little, it also squashes out a little. When Sandygast scrunches its' sand bunches, it gets thicker. The overall volume isn't changing, it's just getting moved around. Maybe this technique sounds obvious and cartoony now that I've spelled it out, but I promise it makes a world of difference.
Something else to keep in mind is the focal point of your animation. There usually needs to be some kind of
stability. I think one of the faults of Dhelmise up above is that one of its' most complex parts is moving so consistently fast that it's kinda hard to get a good look at it. Alolan Raichu here moves pretty fast but doesn't have that problem. Why?
Well I think it's because the number of moving parts isn't overdone. Besides some small twitches of the ears and feet, the only movement here is really just a big pendulum swing. The tail and arms aren't waving around independently of the body movement, and the head's position is barely changing overall. It just adds a level of steadiness that gives the viewer something to focus on. Sometimes less is more!
That's all I've got today, hope it helps in some way! If you wanna get more serious about animation though, don't be afraid to look up some more general animation techniques. You might not see how they apply to Pokemon sprites, but as an example
here's a tutorial about Squash and Stretch, which is the same idea I was calling
Volume just above. Don't overlook good advice just because it's not being directly applied in a Pokemon style. \(￣︶￣*\))
