AuthorTopic: Platformer character animations  (Read 10979 times)

Offline rikfuzz

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 427
  • Karma: +1/-0
    • View Profile
    • twitter @hot_pengu

Re: Platformer character animations

Reply #10 on: January 15, 2014, 10:10:12 am
I tried to bring more life to the hair in the run animation, but I feel like I over-did it a bit.



I'm certainly no expert (as PPD is), but I have found it's actually very hard to over-do it, and some of the more satisfying animation tends to be really more exaggerated than you might expect. It probably just looks jarring as you're used to seeing it one way. 

Semi-related thought:  Doing new keyframes is actually pretty awkward in low res pixel art, I often find it much easier to resize x10 to sketch out the pose more freely, else I generally don't stray far enough from the last key pose. 

Offline Zizka

  • 0011
  • **
  • Posts: 501
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Keep on smilin'
    • View Profile

Re: Platformer character animations

Reply #11 on: January 15, 2014, 04:48:16 pm
Sorry to the OP for the off-topicness of this message. Please forgive me.

He's done it again! Wouldn't it be a good idea to archive PPD's post in a post-it thread somewhere? I just feel like they could use as a reference for a lot of people. It's a shame to seem scattered here and there and ultimately sort of ''disappear'' as the threads get abandonned.

Offline Mr. Fahrenheit

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 326
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Platformer character animations

Reply #12 on: January 15, 2014, 09:37:59 pm
You could browse through his past posts

Offline NaCl

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 437
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • When it rains it pours
    • View Profile

Re: Platformer character animations

Reply #13 on: January 16, 2014, 09:14:48 am
Wow, thanks PPD. Your post really illuminated some concepts I only had inklings about.

Quote
There's a couple things about the run.
I think its that the green line on her shorts is mostly suspended on the y axis.
The knee also seems to have the same thing going on.
Also the foot while on the ground slows down from the spacing.

Good catch on that. I tried to fix it up. I made her knee raise up more before extending, I think it makes the run more dynamic. Not sure if I completely resolved the issues however.



Quote
I hope you are somewhat kidding here.

Half kidding. I see that you didn't invent this technique, but its application here was really effective and all I could do was basically the same thing.

Here is a running jump animation I'm working on. I don't like how the legs come together in the landing, but I'm not quite sure what to do with them.

Offline cels

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 380
  • Karma: +1/-0
    • http://pixeljoint.com/p/32715.htm
    • View Profile

Re: Platformer character animations

Reply #14 on: January 16, 2014, 02:59:18 pm
Are you sure you want her to land with both legs? You could also do a Prince of Persia-style running jump. If she lands with both legs, one would imagine her to stop after the jump, losing most of her forward momentum. Like in Flashback or a long jump.

Again, just spouting my amateur opinion. If nothing else, I just bumped your thread :)

Offline Savick

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 39
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Platformer character animations

Reply #15 on: January 18, 2014, 06:31:03 pm
I think cels has the right of it. If you jump while running you're going to want to keep running after the jump to slow down some before you come to a stop unless you want to stop completely with both feet firmly together. Does that sound right?

Offline Tapsu

  • 0001
  • *
  • Posts: 37
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile

Re: Platformer character animations

Reply #16 on: January 25, 2014, 06:00:03 pm
I am quite a fan of the simple character design.

There seemed something fishy about the run animation, a bit like Charlie Chaplin walking.
I suggest not raising the back leg so high, at least not so soon in the run animation.
Also, according to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJWPwVF30yo there are two different gaits for running, and the short-step gait (called gliding in the video) has obviously better maneuverability than sprinting. However it looks much less flashy, so I would not suggest going that far with realism. Though maybe the highest foot position is still bit too high.
While the leg is back, I think the girl should have at least a little bit of butt.

And a thought about slashing animation. If the movement comes from the legs, then other movement like hand being pulled forward, would work more like the body pulls the hand forward with the same force as the hand pulls body backward.
Did a few frames of slashing. If the weapon is not heavy, like a lightsaber, and it is just the weight of the hand that is moving forward, then I probably overdid it a bit.

Offline NaCl

  • 0010
  • *
  • Posts: 437
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • When it rains it pours
    • View Profile

Re: Platformer character animations

Reply #17 on: January 27, 2014, 11:11:43 pm
@cels and Savick: Yes, you're exactly right. Here is a rough first draft of the new running jump animation. Still needs some tweaks but leading with one foot makes much more sense



@Tapsu: Good feedback, thank you. I modified her legs a bit so in the impact frame, they aren't already kicked almost all the way up. Looks better. I like the way you get the body moving in the slash animation. I will have to play with that and come back with something. Thanks!