Making Sally Walk Down

#The Idea

# I finally have a 1-week vacation! Maybe I can finally get some projects done. I don’t want to spend the whole time just playing games.

# HotRed’s pixel hentai discord hasn’t had enough artists actually making art. Maybe I can change that. I showed them my old sprite tutorials awhile back, but now that I have some time I should actually contribute something.

# How about a Sally Acorn RPG sprite? I kind of want to go all-out on the walk cycle. We’re talking Chrono Trigger quality. Maybe 4 or 6 animation frames. But still SNES sized so it will work with all my other sprites.

#The Process

# Let’s figure out her proportions. I’m a big fan of Chrono Trigger. Sally should look sleek, tall, and womanly. Let’s go for a slightly smaller head to show off more of her body and legs. Especially the legs. I’ll even make the entire sprite taller just so her legs can be longer.

# Now that I know where everything is, let’s try going all-out on details just to see how good this sprite can look at this size. How far can I push things?

# Those shoulders are bugging me. Let’s slope them more to look more feminine. Her hair also needs to be bigger. It’s her defining feature after all.

# Hmm… the boobs aren’t quite right. They need to be perkier. Something more like… this.

# The hair still doesn’t look big enough. I know, let’s make the whole sprite taller to make more room for it!

#Animating The Legs

# Now let’s simplify the colors while I figure out the pose and walk animation.

# Let’s have her hug her boobs in a sexy way while she walks, and to show her personality I’ll make her look lost in thought.

# When planning out an animation, I find it easier to use large dots to figure out where the hands and feet are during the movements.

# I’m just gonna copy marle’s feet positions for this. The way her feet and legs overlap already has a feminine look to it. Also front walk-cycles are tricky so why reinvent the wheel?

# Now that I’ve got the feet more-or-less placed, let’s move those hips. Mmm… it’s like some kind of sexy Atari sprite.

# Of course, turning the hips like that would make the body twist too. I REALLY like what this is doing to her chest.

# I’ll add a little shading to figure out the shape of her feet better and show her “step” motion.

# Let’s figure out where her knees go.

# And outline the feet to see how they overlap and define their shape more.

# Time to figure out the legs.

# Yup… those legs sure are overlapping. Really really… overlapping. Maybe too much? She walks like a Looney Toon. It’s too exaggerated and cartoony.

# Let’s dial it back a bit. Make the front foot overlap slightly less. Much better.

#Refined Jiggle Physics

# What if I give the boobs some lingering velocity? Ooh! … VERY NICE!!

# But… it almost looks like the boobs are moving too early. What if I delay their animation by one frame? Ooh… that’s interesting. Kind of like a determined jogging.

# I prefer the smooth swaying motion more for this particular walk. Maybe if I slow it down it’ll look right.

# There’s also a weird optical illusion going on here. The breasts actually have the same animation frames as the “jogging” animation, but the movement looks smooth because of the body’s up-and-down motion. It adds extra motion while they’re holding still.

#Hey, Eyes Up Here!

# Hmm… looking back at the previous drawing steps I kind of like the old eyes more. The feminine slant and high lashes look more like Sally.

# Then again, that expression might look too intense for someone lost in thought. She should look calm for this particular pose.

#Hair and Shading

# Let’s add the shading. I’ll start with the easy part. Aside from shifting left and right, the shape of the boobs hasn’t changed, so I can just copy the shading I had before.

# Wait a minute. If she’s moving up and down, shouldn’t the hair be moving?

# Okay, now it won’t STOP moving! I guess I should tone it down a bit.

# That works. The hair just needs to acknowledge that a “step” movement happened. There’s no need to fly all over the place.

# Now for the legs. Gotta darken things as they move back and the leg tilts down. Also need to make the arm cast a shadow over the legs. And finally I just have to add that one pixel to highlight the kneecaps… at least when I can. When the legs recede the shading takes priority.

#Obsessed With Boobs

# Something about the boobs is bothering me. Next to everything else, that flat color joining them makes it look like I forgot to add shading there.

# This does look better, but… I was kind of trying to avoid completely separating them into two circles.

# When she’s standing normally the breasts are their own surface with shading under them, which separates them from the body below. Maybe this is just a matter of circumstance.

# I guess I’ll compromise. I’ll put shading between them when the thumb rests between them and join them when they’re off to the side doing their own thing.