Pixel Art Class - 8 Directional Walk [Part 1]

Hey Pals!

Today, we're starting a little series on 8-directional walking animations for top-down and isometric pixel art games. This one might be 2-3 videos, so please be patient as I work through the content (It's essentially 5 different animations).

For Part 1, we're setting up the document and getting our draft side-on animation which will be the basis for the rest of the set.

Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
0:37 - The 8 Directions
4:48 - The Setup
8:20 - Blocking in
16:30 - Base Animation
17:37 - Walk & Run Differences Explained
21:35 - Front Leg
31:22 - Back Leg
34:35 - Front Arm
41:55 - Back Arm
45:19 - Outro

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This video features clips from my stream. Catch it live: Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri 1-6pm AEST.

Later, pals!

[christopherkarlsson]

I've literally been struggling with this for a couple of weeks and then you just drop a tutorial like sup thought you might need this. You're probably the youtube creator I appreciate the most.

[TheFlintMontana]

You have a real knack for teaching my dude, great content, such a help, wish you all the best on Insignia

[fohatenchou]

Adam, the way you explain things is top-class. Thank you

[Hestiah]

I'm 7 minutes in and you've already taught me more than I've been able to find in a week of googling. Thank you.

[samuelmodig]

You are kidding me! This showed up at the perfect time for my daily tasks!

[japenhawpleistaixon]

bro, i tried to make with this video... looked pretty easy, but oh man... the differences between our drawings is like abismal PDOKSAODKASD well done <3

[ThePixelExpedition]

Thank you for taking the time to share your animation workflow, especially from this perspective. It's always inspiring to see the interative process, breaking it down so that we can understand that it's a process of intuition as much as technique.

[showcase]

Came for the art. Stayed for the anatomy lesson.

[Tee_Jay_]

Just started learning pixelart recently, and your videos have been very helpful!

[mikepennington]

Lovin it, my dude. The way you present things makes it so easy to understand.

[oliverchristie]

you beautiful man. It's soo satisfying, and illuminating watching a process be broken down in such a systematic and analytical way, which looks at the 'what' and the 'why' step by step.

[Brademmerson]

I'm working on an isometric 2d game and your isometric tutorials have been massively helpful! Thank you for the content you create man! PS - if you released a video talking about some options for handling isometric movement (for example - moving characters in alignment with your isometric grid) I would be eternally grateful! (More the game engine side than the art side) There aren't that many resources covering this!

[juanbelio]

I'm soooo glad you posted this! I was thinking about perspectives and how to best present my characters and this is heavensent

[johnathonbell]

OMG you finally did it. Ive spent of 47 hours in the last 4 months trying to find good information on how to do this

[alexcrowl]

Your tips and tricks for Aseprite animations are so valuable, I'm not animating any isometric sprites but I was struggling with modifying groups of frames and this helped!

[definitelynotnick]

Just a small aside for people making top down games. This doesn't really apply to top down much unless you really need 8 directions. Many top down games have 4 directional animations(up, down, left, right) and have next to no perspective on the characters. See Enter the Gungeon for example. This could end up adding a buttload more work if you don't know that you don't necessarily need your top down games to be this complex. 8 way is necessary for isometric though.

[Big_Theft_Auto]

I found it useful to draw tracks with the feet positions for every frame before I even start drawing the character

[buzzifilho]

Might be a good idea to draw a 8 slices pizza on top of the cube. But anyway, video!

[archsteel]

Hey, could I ask what palette you use in this? I've been messing around with asesprite for a bit and haven't really found a palette I like, but yours seems pretty good!

[ndPortal]

The hand swing before the opp foot moves into place