I could see him run for hours, super smooth

The animation is very smooth!

Great animation! Exellent!

the little orb on the sword looks like it is liquified in the anim, but still very nice.

Nice animation.=) Something strange going on on the end of his sword comparing  to the rest.
Oh, it was already mentioned.=)

nice one ... some big sword :D ...

In this context (on a pixel art website) the auto-rotation looks crappy.

In a game setting, it would be entirely understandable. Honestly, I'd keep it autorotated in the game, as it's bound to save you quit a bit of work and leave more opportunity for more techniques and stuff.

in any case i was questioning your animation, yet only Gil's statement that this 'deserves' a lot of praise.

Whoah, apparently I missed a court date, so to speak! :p

I failed to mention the use of rotation because I honestly didn't think it was a big deal. My work is influenced greatly by Treasure games which use scaling/rotation constantly so I never thought of it as being unorthodox when used in moderation, but I suppose it's all subjective. (Plus the same thing can be done by moving areas of pixels by hand, it just takes much longer) However technique and self-imposed rules aside, apparently most people just think it looks ugly, so maybe I need to reconsider the benefits/disadvantages of having a sword that can be rotated independantly in the game engine.

I do hope that no one thinks I was trying to "cheat" with this. Those who know me from Pixelation know that I'm a disciple of traditional animators like Richard Williams and Chuck Jones, and anyone who studies the animation can see that aside from the sword it's been animated using proper traditional hand animation techniques, and every frame is fully redrawn except for the head and the sword. So obviously I'm more interested in animation quality than trying to cut corners.

I will amend the description to satisfy anyone who is bothered by the use of rotation, but I'm more concerned with the fact that it sticks out as unpleasant even to people who are less strict with the definitions of "pixel art".

Tools or not it looks crappy in it's current state next to the other parts of the animation. I think that should be the most fundamental worry. Most people will use dirty tools to make things look better, but in this case it doesn't exactly work that way.

I agree with met that there should be a disclaimer, and I agree with Gil that this should still be allowed on the site (with the disclaimer.) Ben put enough work into that animation that I believe he wouldn't cut it short by rotating possibly the easiest part to animate. Therefore he didn't use dirty tools for the reason of cutting pixel art  short. Naturally then he did so for the purpose of the game, and I don't think we should require him to remake the animation with that part pixel-rotated just because we want to see what it could look like in game.

I think both met and Gil and everyone else understand that and probably agree with that, I'm just saying that at this point the fault lies on Ben for not mentioning that in the description. Ultimately it could have merely been a slip of the mind, not some darker intent. Either way this will get resolved as soon as Ben remedies the description and we can at least enjoy the animation for what it's worth.

I'm not a fundamentalist and I'm using a lot of dirty tools in most, if not all of my pixel art. I just can't stand copying of other people's work. The fact is that this site has a set of rules that need to be followed, but I don't think this piece is breaching any.

All my animations use similar rotation effects, I just clean them up, because I can, but here it's impossible due to the game's nature. That said, I don't see any NPA elements in this piece anyway, the rotation tool used is a clean tool, such as the fill bucket, which is allowed as far as I know.

the walking cycle is as smooth as hell, so it deserves all the praise i could give to it.

but

If you think about it carefully, as you mention(and hope to notice also), the rotation of the sword was created by his game's engine. therefore, not by him. now tell me, what's the difference between the rotation of that sword is artificially rendered by a game engine's algorythm and a software rendered sprite rotation?(such as graphics gale, for example, or tracing a 3d model). isn't our (yours and mines) sacred rules of pixel art that any automated effect shall not be used for the creation of a pixel art piece? surely, you (or he) can argue that this was part of the game's mechanics and its completely  normal whiting the game's nature. but I can mention several authors arround that have worked on similar pieces wich doesn't need such thing to acieve the same result(the first example that comes to my mind would be adarias or Frankie).

why do I mention all this stuff? because you're talking me that this piece deserves A LOT of praise(your use of caps in specific words reminds me Richard Simmons article about orphaned works, ironically, for me to notice how important such thing is) and it does confuse me that you, being such a extreme fundamentalist of pixel art 's basics as me hadn't noticed such thing.

I do have to state clear that I don't have anything agaisnt you, i do not pretend to sound ironic or sarcastic, I do not have anything agaisn't this piece. past has taugh me that this discalimer lines must be always put at the end of such comments.

it have a real movement to body, i like it
congratulations!

very cute

I just happen to know that fact and noticed that people were commenting on the bad movement of the sword, so I thought I'd help out, as this sprite deserves A LOT of praise.

shouldn't he mention such an important fact by himself? are you some sort of secretary?

Nice and smooth, just the way I like it:)

He mentioned on Pixelation that the sword is rotated by the game engine, that's why it doesn't look as good as the rest. Just mentioning so people stop commenting on it's wonky nature...

It have a REAL movement of body. Great!

This is delicious

Really fluid stuff, I love those legs.

Excellent Animation AND Walk Cycle, I love this kind of small sprites

Excellent run cycle.

the animation is perfect. Very good!

excellent sprite

Zomg, this is so ownage.

This run cycle is completely radical. I love it. The way the sword rotates when he runs sorta bothers me; the rotation is spot on, but it's still rough looking.

I don't like the way he turns his head (it seems to me that people simply don't run like that), but it's totally ace otherwise.

sword tip etc.

Hot!!!  The movement of the weapon is fantastic.

the tip of the sword needs a revision. as badassbill mentioned below, its a victim of the rotation tool. it appears that its shape gets distorted as it moves.

The smoothness is outrageous!

is he carrying a sword? Exept that that thing makes him a little unballanced, this is really one of the best animations I have ever seen, if not the best running animation ever!

The character runs really smooth and realistic!
Great job!

the subtle motion of the face and hair really sell this for me!  Great job!  The "sword" thing looks a little off ... but probably just because it's so much bigger than everything else.

The running animation is tops though!  Great job!

Great piece.  Nice animation, anatomy and so on ...I must add it to favorites.. ..

it's a shame the sword is a victim of the rotation tool, but still a Great anim.

aaah well done ben!  I like it very much

Very nice animation. Smooth and realistic.

ahhh!!! love it

Very smooth. I dig this a lot!

Great anim ! Very dynamic and smooth !

the "chara design" is much better than the first ! great :)
the only thing that bug me is the left of the sword on your animation :(

turned out real sexy!

Realy smooth, nice!
The one thing that is bothering me is the movement
of the back of the sword. It looks like the iron bal inside
is moving around and the circle loses its arc.
But, it is so much better than your original, which was good anyway! :)