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[Alistair Aitcheson]

Hi everyone. I'm working on some character animations for my game at the moment. I'm already well practiced at making animated sprites, but I'm looking for resources that'll help me make better animations. Tips or tutorials for adding life and personality, making them seem more natural, etc.

Does anyone know any good ones?

[J. R. Hill]

Check out John Kricfalusi's blog.

[Alistair Aitcheson]

Check out John Kricfalusi's blog.

I looked him up. Looks like he's got a lot of useful stuff - many thanks for recommending him

[MT206]

I have found that this particular website has a nice walk animation that I have used as reference for my own as well as some nice tutorials http://www.angryanimator.com/word/tutorials/. I have also found that most disney animation stuff is really good for learning animation. Check out Don Bluth and Preston Blair. This is another good link to an old book by Preston Blair: http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/05/media-preston-blairs-animation-1st.html.

[JasonPickering]

BUY THIS BOOK:
http://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Expanded-Principles/dp/0571238343/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292911039&sr=8-1


I got it when I was going to school for animation and I use it all the time.

[Bree]

Woah, what's this crazy Expanded Edition? I've had the original book for as long as I can remember.

As long as you don't mind John K's rants about the good old days of animation and how everything looked better in the 60s, he's got some great art advice. I'd recommend his blogs on color theory.

[ezuk]

It's hard to top the old Disney guys.  Two of them wrote out the Twelve Principles of Animation, which are described here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation

I'm not sure that all of them are useful in a video game context, though, as things like anticipation require extra frames and a slow-down in the action.  Still, there's a lot to absorb here.

[baconman]

The main principles that apply to gaming art are "line of action" and blurring/smearing, so I'd pay the most attention to those two; and give yourself a large degree of lenience with blur/smear - it's only right if it looks a bit absurd. Check out some Capcom hit reaction frames for a good idea of how absurd I'm talking about. And that's MODEST blur.

[JasonPickering]

I think depending on the game anticipation and flow through could be more important. a lot of games use anticipation in boss battles where you can see whats coming by how the boss telegraphs his moves. you might see a boss lift his leg way high so he can smash it down to create a shockwave. it all really depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

[J. R. Hill]

Woah, what's this crazy Expanded Edition? I've had the original book for as long as I can remember.

As long as you don't mind John K's rants about the good old days of animation and how everything looked better in the 60s, he's got some great art advice. I'd recommend his blogs on color theory.

Yeah, exactly.  Half of his stuff is pretty bitter, lol.  But the insights he has into animation are pretty awesome.

[Bree]

The other half are sketches for some cartoon pilots that I really hope never get made. <.< He's great when he talks about actual animation techniques, though.

[Gryxitl]

Animators Survival Kit is the animators bible.  I had a signed copy till it burst into flames.

[Jetrel]

The main principles that apply to gaming art are "line of action" and blurring/smearing, so I'd pay the most attention to those two; and give yourself a large degree of lenience with blur/smear - it's only right if it looks a bit absurd. Check out some Capcom hit reaction frames for a good idea of how absurd I'm talking about. And that's MODEST blur.

I want to second this - the amount of blur that's "de rigeur" in a good hand-animated sprite is way, way the hell above what any 'layman' would consider reasonable.  You almost can't overdo it.

In my experience, the only way you can "go wrong" with motion blur is to use it as a crutch to compensate for too low of a frame count.

[philquiet]

I'm an animation student, and I second that Disney's principles and any Richard William book (and DVD's of his master classes) are the ultimate tips and secrets of good animation.

Also, analyse good animation movies. Watch them frame by frame, and begin to look the world around you with animator's eyes. Watch how the animated characters moves. Ypu can watch a lot of cartoons, too. The original Looney Tunes are the best!

Animation, it's timing and spacing.




Google "timing and spacing" and do the bouncing ball exercise. And then animate stick figures, etc.

 I only scratched the surface, maybe I'll come later with more tips.

[Alistair Aitcheson]

These are fantastic resources! Thank you very much! I've been looking at the blogs and online tutorials, and they're full of useful stuff. I'll probably buy one or two of the books in the near future.