It's a Mock-up.

I'm doing another Game Jam thing - no more of it, because there's a decent chance I won't make it in time. In any case, I was doing some mock-ups, mainly to determine the style of palette to use.
I kind of like the one here, since it has this, sort of Commodore 64 vibe to it.

The strong orange-yellowish colors remind me of the first Castlevania, though.

The palette in the top-left corner is my initial one, trying to figure out the color harmonies. I ended up with this one after a bit of tweaking, increasing contrast and reducing lightness.

The original palette was kind of pastel-y.

I painted this mostly using the rectangle tool. It's kind of fun.
As you can see, I did poke around with some filters and adjustments.
This is about the correct size - I'm targeting 800x480, and going for the main character sprite to be around 64x96 pixels.

Worst case, this is all I'll have to show for it, but... mmh.

As for designing the characters, I want to think of them as designing toys. Part of the idea is trying to shut down my inner critic.

Mm... Locations, moving parts... Should be interesting.

Part 2:

Movement cycles

So, I was in need of a jogging cycle. I have done one before, but that one was really stiff-backed. I intended to go for 8 frames, but for some reason, I drew one with 6 frames - it's at the bottom.

I ended up inserting them in the computer, it looked strange without them. Oh, and I used this paper earlier while pondering other animation thingies.

What I had to do was:
1. Scan this sheet.
2. cut every frame into  individual png:s,
3. Import pngs as layers in gimp. Make canvas size equidistant
4. Open the images in graphicsgale, tweak around, add missing frames
5. Export as strip for further painting.

The biggest strenght of Graphicsgale is it's ability to port to and from spritestrips and spritesheets, in my opinion. You can paint on a spritestrip with anything, and if it's created properly - IE, all frames are the correct width - you can pull it back in to GG.

For actual animation, I still think Plastic Animation Paper is great, but it's one of those where you need to learn the keyboard shortcuts by heart.

My RSI is acting up something fierce - I have decent wrist support, but my keyboard is an extra-cheap Logitech one, and I could really use something nicer. While I'm indoctrinated into the Keyboard Cult, and drool after mechanical switches, I'm currently lookin at Microsoft's comfort offerings, mainly due to their christmas rebate deal.

Part 3:

Indeed, I didn't make it in time. Ludum Dare 28 is next weekend, though, and I've pre-committed to doing that.

Anyway, Runcycles.
Here's an old one I did wayback, with PAP.

I HAVE SUCH A CRAMP IN MY BACK

And here's the new one in it's current incarnation.

The master file is way way bigger, this one is 80x64, which is decent, but System 3's Myth: History in the Making on Commodore 64 had this really great looking character that was, I believe, 16x20 pixels.

Side note: This game is gorgeous. In my opinion it looks better than it's Amiga port, even.

The new one is much more relaxed, but it seems a bit glitchy, as if it's limping or something.
The master file is almost 500 pixels tall, and has a separate layer for each limb as well as torso. I want to have something I can tweak and paint over when creating different characters, I think.

Oh, Aseprite is quite cool. I haven't poked around with it enough as of yet to be certain whether I prefer it to GraphicsGale or not.

And this is me fiddling around in Asesprite.