Baby steps in animation
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Your pal Stella from Team Nazgul here once again to give you a peek into the radical world of making a video game happen. This week we’ll take a look at my choppy first attempt at a walk loop for the Witch Hunter boss in Burn Witch, Burn.  Sprite sheet of the first key frames of the walk cycle
I’m not a very experienced animator so from the very start I knew doing this project could be a mouthful for me as a beginner.
I got lucky with animating the player character because basically the only thing that’s moving with her is her flaming hair and flowing cloak because she’s flying. I drew a sigh of relief when I realized she had no visible hands or legs that I would have to make move naturally.
I didn’t get off the hook so easily I realized when we started examining the boss fight with the Witch Hunter. She would be stomping around the screen in plain sight and there was nothing I could do to hide her moving appendages
 Gif version
(the upload killed it a little but you get the idea)
I drew the rough shapes over my existing sketch for the Witch Hunter Sprite to keep her size consistent. I quite honestly had no idea where to start so I simply googled “walking animation front view” to get a clue. I figured you could get the most basic sense of movement by just mirroring the frame below.
 I used this and it’s mirror as my main key frames in this loop. I added an in between frame and mirrored that one too. Lastly I made the cloak lightly bob and made her ponytail sway from side to side to give her more movement. The final result from this session is still absolutely a placeholder and needs way more frames to be usable but for a first try I think it’s good judging by my own standards. I believe it will look some what presentable when I can declare it actually done.
I have a lot more to learn about animation but I like believe I’m slowly but surely getting there. Wish me luck!
Stella Crawford
Team Nazgul
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