Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: Eli_Shane on February 05, 2015, 12:04:23 am
Title: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: Eli_Shane on February 05, 2015, 12:04:23 am
I've been trying to improve on my animations. How does this look? (http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l140/Eli_Shane/Rillian%20Shooting%20Bow_zpsacc9hnbo.gif)
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: HarveyDentMustDie on February 05, 2015, 03:57:26 pm
You are skipping steps, it's like trying to run parkour and you don't know how to walk properly yet. Practice drawing skills, study existing drawings and animations to improve your skill.
Frames and shapes are not well defined and if I didn't read title it will be hard to determine what this animation is. If projectile is fired he should move much faster, and moving backward during firing is not logical.
Here's the example made by Elian : (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YF8ATH7YzFM/VMDI5fMEQgI/AAAAAAAAKro/IRneV3Nm32c/s1600/edit_SlowShot.gif)
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: Eli_Shane on February 08, 2015, 11:38:53 pm
I always come here cause I know I need the help... but everytime I get a response it depresses me because I know I'm not good.... sigh... practice makes perfect I guess! It's getting better! I'll try to work on it. I was told about the stepping back thing, and I didn't notice it until anybody told me. Lol. I'll edit it and try to make it look better.
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: lachrymose on February 08, 2015, 11:50:09 pm
I think maybe you want to work on your general pixel abilities before you do any sort of animating. I've been here for almost a year and have submitted like 0 animations, working on getting the basics down first, lol.
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: wzl on February 08, 2015, 11:52:22 pm
Don't get discouraged, nobody want's to drag you down. People give advise for you to improve on. Try to understand and study it instead of being discouraged. Look at art that is similar to what you want to create and try to analyze it. It's not only practice that will improve your skill, it's also comprehension and observation.
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: PixelPiledriver on February 09, 2015, 03:29:51 am
Agreed. Don't give up. Just push through the struggle and learn to enjoy it.
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: ErekT on February 09, 2015, 11:38:21 am
Heya,
here's an example of a bow animation you can study:
http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/66756.htm
Pay attention to things like anticipation and recovery/follow through. Here's a good read to trigger some thought processes:
Keep at it. It's all about learning the right tricks and then practice :)
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: yaomon17 on February 09, 2015, 06:44:03 pm
Huh, didn't know UW had that course. Might have to look into it. Also, often its good to save an animation and observe it frame by frame.
(http://puu.sh/fH77L/34daf086c7.png)
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: Eli_Shane on February 12, 2015, 11:37:39 pm
Ok, I've been told the stepping back was a big issue. I took out the step back, am going to remove the particles soon so it looks like an arrow, and will add more movement to the character.(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l140/Eli_Shane/Rillian%20Shooting%20Bow_zpslrv4dzyk.gif)
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: 32 on February 13, 2015, 07:51:45 am
You need a solid stance when you're firing a bow so a step back makes sense, but you would be planting your front foot solidly and stepping your back foot back, not moving your front foot like you do currently. The main issue I see with this is it's very understated. You're pulling the bowstring back perhaps a hand span when in reality archers will pull the string back the entire length of the arrow. Arrows are pretty long so that means a very stretched out bow. The force from a bow, contrary to what you might imagine, comes from the bending of the bow itself and not the string. What this means is you need to pull the hand back a long way, maybe even to the shoulder, keep the string the same length and pull the ends of the bow in towards it, it's a bit of a tricky piece of geometry so have a go sketching it out and making sure everything always stays the same size and it's just the bow bending that allows the hand to move back. I can see you've made the bow bend outwards after the shot is fired which is great! That's called an overshoot in animation terminology and I think it's essential to a good bow animation, but you're adding pixels to the bow rather than bending the pixels that already exist.
I suggest you retry this animation but don't move the body at all at first, just focus on making the best hand and bow animation you can and you can try doing the step after you've got that sorted. Also, I suggest you expand your canvas, I can tell it's limiting you.
Good luck ;)
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: Eli_Shane on February 17, 2015, 02:09:05 am
I've been trying to fix it, how's it look now? (http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l140/Eli_Shane/Rillian%20Shooting%20Bow_zpsgdhltvpn.gif)
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: yaomon17 on February 17, 2015, 03:39:25 am
Don't move the dinosaur body/feet at all for now. The most common way to shoot an arrow from a bow is to have your feet firmly planted. Right now it looks like the dino is floating around and nodding every time he shoots. Focus on the arms and bow. You can see in Ellian's animation, both feet never change throughout the entire shot. Look here: http://youtu.be/n3hDAaxHNjs?t=1m53s
Title: Re: Bow Shooting Animation
Post by: Eli_Shane on February 21, 2015, 05:30:07 pm
Good point... I'll change that. Been doing a lot of edits on this animation... getting much better! Improvement=Happiness! :)