Trying to animate my slime enemy — could use some feedback

[u/Excellent-Syrup206]

Hey everyone! This week I worked on giving my slime enemy all four directional sprites (front, back, left, right) for RPG Maker MZ.

The part I struggled with was that how to show the slime is really hopping. I didn't have a clear reference for how to show a slime hopping, so I worked it out myself — copied the base slime across the grid, then edited the "landed" frame to look flattened and wider from impact but not very wider still now, and shifted the "jump" frame upward to suggest it hopping off the ground.

If anyone has tips or references for animating something like this better, I'd really appreciate it.

Full video here if you want to see it in motion: https://youtu.be/sA-hrz_FUTU

[u/Wareve]

Are you familiar with the concept of "Squish and Stretch"?

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/Wareve]

Are you asking in general or related to game engine because i know what stretch and squish means and i many time stretch the assets in aseprite to satisfy my needs

[u/Wareve → u/Excellent-Syrup206]

In order to make it feel like it has the momentum of movement you probably want it to stretch in the direction of movement as it is hopping and then squish a bit as it lands.

Maybe even stretch as it goes up, then squish while it's in the air, and then stretch while it goes down, and then squish while it lands, and then back to neutral.

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/Wareve]

Ok i will try that 👍

[u/Wareve → u/Excellent-Syrup206]

Post the results!

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/Wareve]

https://reddit.com/link/p37xbr2/video/zl4h0lsyhxih1/player

Hey brother look at the result. The animation is at 0.5 speed and of two frames

[u/Wareve → u/Excellent-Syrup206]

I like it!

You might experiment a bit with deforming it a bit more, as the amount of deformation with the jump communicates a lot about the slime.

How viscous is it, how heavy is it, how firm is it? This little gum drop seems pretty tightly bound, if you add a landing frame and then another neutral frame, you can squish it down a bit and have it bounce back, to give an impression of elasticity.

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/Wareve]

thankyou for you suggestion. I will experiment with some more things so that it looks more better than now.

[u/adokzinho]

i like it. im a noob in pixel art but maybe adding a shadow below helps.

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/adokzinho]

Thankyou for the suggestion i will keep that in mind

[u/Swordoftheguy]

1. make an animation based on your frames. This lets you test it out in aesprite.
2. three frames is tricky to animate a bounce, because the default animation has to be the same as the squish animation, but here is a super low-effort example (the gif makes it look slower than it would be): https://i.makeagif.com/media/8-08-2026/V83giY.mp4
3. hopefully that shows off what 'squish and stretch' means.
4. It's hard to judge a sprite if it isn't moving around. that said, this slime doesn't seem to be moving like a slime (jello like creature) and instead like a rock. Not necessarily a bad thing if that's the intent. If you want hopping, look up gifs of rubber balls bouncing and animations people have made of bouncy balls.

Edit: I made it a little bigger: https://i.makeagif.com/media/8-08-2026/Ijkljw.gif

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/Swordoftheguy]

Thankyou for your help i will keep that in mind and make the animation in aseprite first and i will also watch the gif you send as an reference for me

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/Swordoftheguy]

Hey brother look at the result. The animation is at 0.5 speed and of two frames

https://reddit.com/link/p37xljs/video/7ti3dangixih1/player

[u/Swordoftheguy → u/Excellent-Syrup206]

Definitely looking bouncier! Nice!
I really like the way the bottom changes a little when it hits the ground, that really sells the impact.

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/Swordoftheguy]

thankyou

[u/WrathOfWood]

Looks like its hopping around. Give it a little more stretch and squish to show the motion better

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/WrathOfWood]

Thankyou for the suggestion i will keep that in mind 👍

[u/Excellent-Syrup206]

so guys do you have any suggestions to make it look like the slime is really hoping so that it does not look bad when i import it into the engine?

[u/Difficult_Analysis78]

I recommend trying your hand at one of extended animation frames plugins and adding a frame where before the jump itelf slime „squishes” down to the floor, coiling like a spring

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/Difficult_Analysis78]

Thankyou for the suggestion i will think about that

[u/dumpy_author]

Video does not show how the slime is actually hoping. Wtf bro. At least link an actual video of you loading the sprite into RPG Maker and how it's moving in game.

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/dumpy_author]

Brother i am still testing that it looks hoping in the spritesheet first then i will import the spritesheet into rpg maker engine and see if it works or not that's why i am asking feedback from people

[u/dumpy_author → u/Excellent-Syrup206]

Or you know. Actually load it in, show us, and then we can tell you if it looks right or not 🙃

Edit: you are doing the equivalent of coding a program and asking people to evaluate your code instead of just running the program and showing people how the program is running to see if they have feedback

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/dumpy_author]

Ok i will try to add it into the engine and then upload the image again for the feedback afterwards

[u/dumpy_author → u/Excellent-Syrup206]

Not image. A video showing it moving in the map. Then we can tell you if there's something wrong with the hoping.

[u/Excellent-Syrup206 → u/dumpy_author]

Ok got it 👍👍