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[Melly]

Since the last thread of this kind is around 3 years old, I decided to just go ahead and create a new one.

This is a thread where you can post finished or in-progress animation and get critique on it from your peers.

Allow me to start with my own piece. These are the keyframes of a combo animation for a beat'em up project I have in the works.



This thread's about being as brutal and honest as possible with your criticism, so bring it.

[moi]

Are the animal legs deliberate?
Nice work BTW

[Melly]

Yes. I didn't add ears or tail (hard enough to plan the animation this way for me), but it's meant to be an animal character.

[Jad]

D:

Man I love speaking animation srsly 4 REALZ you know g-dawg

but this looks good to me? I'd have to see it in motion to actually be able to judge it, I haven't gained enough SUPA PRO-ness to be able to just see everything move in my mind. Also image is biig so it's hard to get a good overview.

What kind of graphixxxx are you going to use? Pixels? If so I think you could just go ahead and blotch those graphixxx DOWN G

if not I'll try to help anyway O: Anyways it's readable at least! Hehu, that's good in itself I supposes!

[Ninja Dodo]

Looks cool. It would be easier to critique if you put it in an animated gif or mov clip or something, but I think you could exaggerate your anticipations and play more with the up & down and reversals. Really emphasize the ) to ( changes, maybe have the second to last pose be more of a crouch really gathering up the energy and then make the final throw of the spell more straight for contrast...

[Melly]

I'll be working more on this tonight. I'll add some in-betweens and make it into an animated gif. When I can I'll also post a lower res version of everything to make it better for people to see.

It's going to be pixel art, but not ultra low res. I'm thinking she should have around 90-something pixels in height, or whatever feels good around that range.

Dodo, what exactly do you mean with "up & down and reversals"? Could you indicate which frames you're specifically talking about?

[Jad]

Saying it's hard to get a good overview apparently doesn't stop me from editing all the same

quick edit. I just drew over most stuff to show what kind of dynamic changes I'd like to make to it O:

power of movement is a nice thing! O: Tried to emphasize it by just bending and stretching the character more than one would think to do when drawing schematically .. somehow

note how when he (or is it a she? it's very rumpy) does the spin one leg remains static and the other just makes a full revolution and eventually ends up where it started. Then WHAM, with both feet in place the the FIGHTA can do a powerful torso spin thrust (since body is balanced again)

then I went a little wild and just removed next-to-last move. Because silhouette-wise it was so close to the last move, is why! O: I feel that it broke the whole movement in a kind of awkward way. The FIGHTA just backs off, throws some balls in there, then backs off and thrusts forward again. First a spin move then a backward-forward-backward-forward move, it takes away from the impact of the final move

so I imagine that FIGHTA does the swipe to its full extent, then stops as a natural result of not being able to bend further, then does a reverse motion with its arms O: which would create the swirlyswirl or something.

Then final move is just a back off (you could exaggerate it even further to be honest!) and then a THRUST which could also be more powerful probably. Work with overreach and stretching proportions here!

[Melly]

Thanks a lot man, there's some nice critique there. I can see what you mean with these points. I think I'll incorporate some of the stuff you mention. I like the way you emphasized the movement on the finisher.

It's a she, yeah, though I don't think a he would be very different anatomy-wise.

One thing I'd like to note is that I don't want it to seem like she's making too much effort in these attacks. I want it to feel effortless to her. Not that all your suggestions make it seem like she's exerting herself, of course.

You know, one of the directions I could take this to is to have a dance/rythim focus and make all attack look like dancing moves. It's one of the more wild ideas I have in my mind lately. I imagine this combo would look pretty different if I went with that.

[Jad]

just make sure that there's contrast between each key pose O: contrast between curves, shapes, round things, straight things, etc! You'll need that to put force in the animation.

And yeah I know I'm a sucker for overly EFFORTy movement. I like my fighters breaking out a sweat '  D  '

[ChevyRay]

Holy man Jad you're an animating machine. I'll have to get some critiques from you at some point too, because my animations lately have really started to lose their edge. I need to shape up a bit.

[Ninja Dodo]

Reversals are when you change the line of action from a C-shape to a reverse C-shape, which usually feels stronger than going from one straight line to another straight line. Nice reversal at the end of Jad's edit, actually. For the up & down I meant general vertical movement. Not much bounce in there right now.

Drew this real quick this morning:



[more antic, [your] line of action doesn't change much, hit with this arm before other arm finishes [getting to its] extreme, agree with Jad, superfluous, gather up like spring]

[Tycho Brahe]

Great, a thread to help with animations!

I've got somthing I think I need help with (if its not too presumptuous to ask)

how could I improve this animation/sprite in general?


I'm not too sure about the legs, I think they're a bit too short, and I'm not happy with the feet either...

anyway, any help would be much appreciated.

[Melly]

First, top-down sprites usually don't look very good for most people, though there are probably ways to make them more appealing.

Also, with only his legs moving back and forth like that at once makes him look like a stiff robot. The rest of the body needs some movement as well.

Also, thanks a lot for the critique guys. Though the more I think about it, the more it seems I won't have the character move exactly like you guys want it. I'll take all your points into account of course.

[Ninja Dodo]

how could I improve this animation/sprite in general?

Shoulders need to rotate countering the hips, arms need to move... Is he holding an object? Try studying some reference for ideas.

[Tycho Brahe]

Thanks for the advice, I'll go over the shoulders and take a look at some of the reference when I get a bit of time. I tried to find a bit of good overhead reference beforehand, but I couldn't find much, which didn't really help much. I suppose, like melly said, that as they're not that common, I probably wouldn't be able to find many anyway...

[Xion]

I started making an edit of melly's thing but Jad's is so much better. I stopped.

Anyway most of my point was going to be about breaking the joints or something. Elbows and knees and stuff only bend one way yeah (generally), but limbs look much more dynamic when you bend them the other way, treat them like omnidirectional joints and stuff. Like, let the joint lead rather than the extremity. I dunno I'm kind of sleepy. I'm just really really fond of rubbery limbs and broken joints.

Haha I just noticed the last frame looks like she's bleeding.

Erm. Yeah-like-I-said, I'm sleepy.