[MOB] Giant Bird concept

[pateame]

Based on the feathers that NPC Pachua wears on his head,
I decide to do a bird that could be the origin of these feathers.
[+] Preview:


+ Spritesheet 50x50 & XML:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/364 ... l/bird.xml


@EDIT #3: Added new frames, some fixes from feedback and missing pixels. Now starting with the idle and death animations. Thanks everybody for critics and suggestions, I appreciate it.
@EDIT #4: A little spritesheet order, added all idle views missing. Still need to draw death frames (the worse part, kill your creation )
@EDIT #5: I think I'm done with this bird, here's a testing version now.
@EDIT #6: Added the south death frame suggested by Virtual Reality, thanks!.

[EJlol]

I like it. Please continue

The south and north animation can use some extra work though. It looks like his legs are becoming shorter/longer. To prevent this you can make the legs darker/lighter, and/or animate the body/head/tail more. For example the body could swing lightly left/right, and the head could tilt a little. Same for the tail. My guess is it would improve the walking cycle (though not sure )

Don't get me wrong, what you have now is already looking good. Keep up the good work!

[SDN]

It's about the time the game have "chicken" mob, so none will wonder where the chicken legs comes from.

[Virtual Reality]

This looks fantastic, but the tail seems to move a little too much when it's attacking.
The legs also don't look quite right when the bird is walking to the north (they seem to just be moving up and down, but they should change size as well).
The head also seems to move more when attacking towards the south (although I kind of like it; perhaps you could make the east and west versions move the head more and tail less?) while the tail doesn't move.
You may also want to add a little sway for the walking animations to accommodate for picking up and moving each leg.
The attack animations to the east and west also have the foot twitch, which is not reflected in the southern attack animation.
I assume there will also be a northern attack animation?
I don't say any of this to discourage you; I think the art is already really great, but I think you could make a few small edits to make it superb.
Keep up the great work!

[pateame]

*BUMP* to notify some updates added in the first post.
Thanks everybody for suggestions!. Let's continue the art discussion here:
1) About views: North and south views are always my weak point when drawing monsters (this weakness include previous works). I still got problems trying to imaginate the "missing" part from the monster, and shading isn't my favorite task. Any help with this problem will be appreciated.
2) About animations: More frames in an animation do a more fluid result, but for me is harder when fixing is needed in lots of frames, so I decide to keep it simple for the moment to can test it first.
I will keep updating the first post when finish the death frames and xml, the duel process takes time. bye!

[Rubikon_]

Just continue. Nice Work

[pateame]

Again I did update the first post with the concept, now finished as a testing version. Any changes since now as pixel cleanup, shading or redraw can be possible if required, but surely need your suggestions to can proceed. Still feel unhappy with most of north view, but expect that some time away from pixels can clear my mind.

[Cassy]

Sorry, I can't help with good critism. I already love this mob too much.

[Virtual Reality]

Again I did update the first post with the concept, now finished as a testing version. Any changes since now as pixel cleanup, shading or redraw can be possible if required, but surely need your suggestions to can proceed. Still feel unhappy with most of north view, but expect that some time away from pixels can clear my mind.

I think you did a great job!
EDIT: I tried improving the last frame of southern death animation (the tail seemed a hair too big and the feet weren't there). I didn't do a great job with the feet, but perhaps my shoddy pixel art is a start(?):

Note the last frame of the southern death animation.

bird.png (30.29 KiB) Viewed 4224 times

My only other suggestions would be to decrease the leg height difference for the northern walk animation (I think the southern one looks pretty good) and to have the tail pop out a bit less on the horizontal attack animations.
I wish there was a way to have the bird fall forward when dying (instead of having the feet slide out from under it), but I think you did a good job handling that issue.
This mob is looking great!

[EJlol]

I wish there was a way to have the bird fall forward when dying (instead of having the feet slide out from under it)

The XML file should be able to take care of that