[C+C][WIP] Slashing and Running

[[Friends] Ro$$]

Thanks a bunch both of you! That's very helpful. I've been trying to get the running animation to work, but I haven't had much success (also really busy with grad school for the past couple of weeks). I was also messing around with the slash animation, trying to add some weight to the hit because I feel like it doesn't have very much. Does anyone have any suggestions of how to do this?

[[Friends] Ro$$]

I finally got some time to work on this! I tried to take your advice, and came up with this new running cycle. I'm not opposed to using more than 6 frames either. It's still very rough, and I mostly focused on the legs and the relative position of the arms. How does it look?

[MysteryMeat]

Very jittery, I'm not quite sure what you were trying for with how the head moves but it's distracting from the overall animation.
There's definitely more of a sense of urgency to it though with how the legs are moving, I think if you were to staple the new legs onto the old animation it'd give him kind of a stumbling run which might look good for a kid character like this.

[[Friends] Ro$$]

That's not a bad idea mysterymeat! Yeah the head is very rough, I worked mainly on the legs
Edit: Whoops just realized I uploaded the wrong version of it. Here's a better one with more frames. The head is still a mess and the arms look a bit off

[MysteryMeat]

looking better for sure, maybe a tick faster to really sell it.

[[Friends] Ro$$]

damn it, you got me to google what q-tipping your cat is! Thanks! Here's a sped up version

I moved the step in the attack one frame forward, I think it may have solved the weight issue I was having. What do you think?
old: new:

[MysteryMeat]

Still a bit jibbly, but it's getting closer RE: the run animation! Try to stabilize the various bits just a bit more.
As for the swing, my original complaint that it looks like it's circling his body still stands. Might help to widen the trail to cover his face more on the second swing to compensate.

Also, I'm glad people are paying attention to my terrible terrible userflair haha

[[Friends] Ro$$]

The swing around the body issue will be the next thing I tackle! I've been procrastinating since it will probably take a good bit of reworking/rethinking to get right.
I tried to remove the jigglies from the running animation. How do you think it turned out?

[Clockfeet]

The animation feels so satisfying  . The things I would note as a problem are as follows
A:The transition between sword swings and running. I think that from a gameplay perspective there should be a dash attack as well as an idle attack because losing so much momentum after running sucks from a gameplay perspective. I'd reccomend an overhead swing onto the enemy
B:How fast the Character is going on the stage and how it transitions from the walking animation (Seems good so far but I haven't seen a bigger screen perspective)
C:The expression of the Character as they swing their sword. The characters body language seems angry and savage while the character seems so innocent and calm. Perhaps an angry expression would make it better?
D:The swing makes very little physical sense The motion swing goes to the left of the Characters body but leaves the motion trail in front of the head. Also, The character doesn't swing around and yet does a full body swing? Normally the fight hand would get caught. That's why I think it'd be better for the sword to be swung alternately. If one sword animation happens the other one happens next. That way you can keep the animation realistic and fluid.

[[Friends] Ro$$]

The animation feels so satisfying  . The things I would note as a problem are as follows
A:The transition between sword swings and running. I think that from a gameplay perspective there should be a dash attack as well as an idle attack because losing so much momentum after running sucks from a gameplay perspective. I'd reccomend an overhead swing onto the enemy
B:How fast the Character is going on the stage and how it transitions from the walking animation (Seems good so far but I haven't seen a bigger screen perspective)
C:The expression of the Character as they swing their sword. The characters body language seems angry and savage while the character seems so innocent and calm. Perhaps an angry expression would make it better?
D:The swing makes very little physical sense The motion swing goes to the left of the Characters body but leaves the motion trail in front of the head. Also, The character doesn't swing around and yet does a full body swing? Normally the fight hand would get caught. That's why I think it'd be better for the sword to be swung alternately. If one sword animation happens the other one happens next. That way you can keep the animation realistic and fluid.

Thanks!
A: That's a really good point! I will try to play around with something like that. I will attach a gif of what it looks like in game currently.
B: Yeah I was doing this pretty blindly. I've edited the running animation a little bit to make match the current running speed in the game.
C: This is a good idea as well. I was trying to make him look like there's a real weight to the weapon and that he had to throw around his body weight in order to be able to use it because he's just a small kid.
If I understand you correctly, what I was trying to emulate with the swing was first a swing from the left of his body to the right, then him swinging back from the left to the right, so the blade should pass approximately across his face. Similar to the 'light  slash' in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPZ1O4erecU&t=4s

Although if this is not the way people are seeing it then I definitely need to work on this!
I tried using a darker colour for the sword to indicate when it's on the left side of his body versus when it's on the right. Did it help fix the problem?

Thanks a bunch for the feedback!

I've also updated the running animation a bit