[INPROGRESS] Puppet Abed (and Important Study Group Meeting)

http://i.imgur.com/mMitD6G

Firstly, I wanted to get feedback on making puppet costumes. In this case, I've modified the structure of the character while still keeping them in place.

Secondly, I wanted to start a dialogue on how the puppets will behave, because it'd be nice to have a consensus.

1. Walking. The puppets have no legs. I felt it best to replicate the look of the puppets and not give them feet. This will affect a lot. Since they can't walk, I would recommend they dodder around like Muppets:

http://i.imgur.com/tUSjeGP.gif

This can be accomplished with the same three-frame action as regular walking.

2. Kicking and sliding. Same challenge. For kicking, I would take a cue from metaridleyX's Jeff-in-a-Box sprite (http://i.imgur.com/OcSn2aN.gif) and simply have the puppets "kick" with the bottom of their torsos. Unlike that one, in reality, the base will remain on the ground, with a bulge near the bottom where the imaginary puppeteer has just jutted his elbow out.

3. Arm bars: Muppet-style puppets use little bars to move their arms. I have included them in my design. They don't hurt anything, though they'll appear to be emerging straight from the ground, which really replicates the on-screen look. They won't even interfere with weapons since the weapons are plastered on top of the character sprites.

I'm actually planning on splaying the arms a little during static sprites since it's the default for puppets.

4. Jumping: One of my sprites shows a sliver of puppeteer arm. Ignore it. The puppet, since it'll have to jump on things, will simply be a legless creature, bouncing on its base.

5. Crouching: I'd like to incorporate some wrinkling/crumpling of the fabric when the characters crouch, as if the puppeteer just pulled his hand down, making the torso slide up the forearm.

6. Hurt: There's precious little opportunity to demonstrate the physicality of the puppet's mouths (maybe during jumps, too?), since our sprites don't have a talking option. Here is where we can see the Kermit the Frog-style panic mode, the mouth wide open and the top half of the head bent back at a 90-degree angle.

7. Dead: My current idea is to have a "deflated" puppet, which the sturdy head still intact, but the body flattened by the lack of an internal arm. This is also another opportunity to have a wide open mouth.