Help/Advise for My Run Cycle

[Darkantuan]

I've spent the last few days working on a full run cycle for my game's protagonist, and despite using a reference, the movements just look so... off. I am entry level when it comes to stuff like this (this is literally the first thing I've ever animated and it shows xD) so I was hoping to get some help, or advise on how to make it look more smooth/realistic.



The sprite animation runs through an event as a parallel process rather than a script. It's looped on a conditional branch, with the still image (1) showing by default when the player is still, and looping (2), (3), (4), (5), (4), (3), for the run animation.

Note: Because of the letterbox overlay, the legs are never fully visible, so I am leaving them as is for now and focusing more on the movement of the dress.











Any tips or assistance will be greatly appreciated!

[MetalRenard]

It looks good - the way the image is overlayed on the screen works.
The problem is with the arm movement which looks very unnatural. The hands shouldn't go that far out to the sides, I think. When I run, I tend to keep my forearms parallel or in fact pointing slightly towards each other as they go forwards.

[Darkantuan]

It looks good - the way the image is overlayed on the screen works.
The problem is with the arm movement which looks very unnatural. The hands shouldn't go that far out to the sides, I think. When I run, I tend to keep my forearms parallel or in fact pointing slightly towards each other as they go forwards.

I think the arms are what I have been having the most trouble with xD the reference has helped some, but theres size and proportion difference so it ended up.. well, like this! Lol

Frame (1) is fine, I'm currently restarting (2) to (5), though not completely from scratch.

-EDIT-

Tweaked the radius of the arms and tried to make it look more like they are actually changing perspective

[MetalRenard]

Puuurrrrrfect. Looks good!

[Darkantuan]

It looks even better now that i've slowed it down a bit in-game. Putting the arms a bit closer made it look completely different, thanks for the advise!

[Bounty Hunter Lani]

The updated runs look much better!