Pixelation

Critique => Pixel Art => Topic started by: pgil on May 20, 2010, 01:51:40 am

Title: Hawk animation wip
Post by: pgil on May 20, 2010, 01:51:40 am
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/smind/hawk_flight_norm_wip-1.gif)

Been working on this today. C+c appreciated.
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: Moribund on May 20, 2010, 02:18:36 am
Oh my that flapping is beautiful.

For criticism? I'm not really qualified but the chest movement is a little out of sync with the flapping. From what I know from my swimming experiences, the greatest amount of force is applied just slightly after halfway through the stroke. I think it could be a frame or two earlier.
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: Jorund on May 20, 2010, 03:44:53 am
There's to much contrast between the smooth animation of the wings and the stiffness of the rest of the body.
I don't know exactly how birds move when they fly. But I don't know... maybe moving the whole bird a bit more could help, or some minimal changes in the shadow, to give the effect of moving feathers.

PS: Forgot to mention, the flapping is great  :)
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: balls01 on May 20, 2010, 07:33:46 am
hello :)

in addition to the stiffness of the animation, i tried to find a decent reference for you to use, i guess this may help abit... if it was in an animation.

(http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/9086799/2/istockphoto_9086799-hawk-flying-animation-sequence.jpg)

already i have noticed from the resource i picked out from google, in the last 2 frames, the feet/foot jerks wildly, from 90 degree from the body, to a more 45 degree.
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: pgil on May 20, 2010, 03:12:25 pm
Hmm yeah, the bird in This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aVOD1sMA-4) does the same thing with its legs. I'll try adding that to my animation.
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: CrazyMLC on May 20, 2010, 05:20:19 pm
The flapping looks really unnatural because the wings only move up and down, as opposed to moving left and right as well.
It might look nice to have the bird's body move down a bit when it flaps upwards, and upwards when it flaps downwards. You already do this a bit but the downward motion stops at a certain point for some reason.

You might also want to move the head down to make it more aerodynamic-looking.

Also, please note that many birds only flap to take off, and often glide to maintain flight. It all depends on wingspan though, since their wings might not be large enough to hold their weight while gliding.

Another problem is the frames or frame rate, the downward flapping motion is a very slow, fluid motion, when in reality it is a fast, powerful and somewhat jerky motion. Think of it like punching someone in slow motion, it isn't going to do much because it's going so slowly.

The wings seem like a triangle, attached to the body when they flap up, which, unless this is a feature unique to this bird, is anatomically incorrect.
http://www.google.com/images?oe=UTF-8&gfns=1&q=bird+wings&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=sHb1S-naBJC4swPOgLGIBQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQsAQwAA
Bird wings have a somewhat small attachment to the body, and their long flight feathers usually become even longer at the ends.

You have a rather defined chest right there, but it barely moves, giving the bird a lifeless look. I have a pet bird, and I can easily say that they have a very clear motion in their chest when they breath.

When flying in mid-air birds often tuck their feet into their body, so that they are covered by their feathers. This makes them much more aerodynamic. Smaller birds do this, and I'm pretty sure large birds of prey do it as well.
The bird in that video was taking off, and probably planning to grab onto the railing the whole time, so he wouldn't have tucked in his feet anyway.

The head looks like it's attached to the body, take advantage of a neck being there to make it look more lifelike, make it move around, whatever you want.

The tail looks odd, for birds flying mid-air the tail is usually small and flat. It only really fans out when landing, because it slows the bird down.

The bird's body is pointed slightly upwards. this makes it looks like the bird is trying to go upwards rather than stay at the same altitude. This may be on purpose, but it looks kind of odd.

One last thing is the bird's colors, usually female birds are less colorful, while males are colorful and pretty so that they can win the ladies! :D
But, this bird looks like it's somewhere in-between. :huh:

Purple is also an odd color for most birds, as they usually are colorful to warn off predators or to camouflage. Purple serves neither purpose, as red or yellow would be warning colors, while blue, green, and brown would be camouflage colors.
As a side note, the bird being brown would mean it would spend most of it's time on the ground rather than on the air, being that it would want to blend in with the ground. You might also want to consider what kind of feet this bird has. Having three toes in front and one in the back means it want lots of traction when walking around, while having two in the back and front means it want a good grip on branches.
The purple also ruins the camouflage, as purple is a pretty rare color in the animal world.

Also, this looks less like a hawk, and more like a pigeon to me. Usually hawks have big, beefy, yellow legs and talons for swooping and grabbing stuff.
This bird looks like it has little pink stick legs, the direct opposite...



Otherwise, it looks good. Nice job on all of those frames by the way!
...
Oh, my. I seem to have written an essay analyzing your art.

Well, I hope it helps!
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: pgil on May 20, 2010, 06:17:44 pm
Thanks for the comments, everyone. And the essay ;)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/smind/hawk_flight_norm_wip_5_20.gif)

 I removed a few frames on the downstroke. I think that helps. Also animated the tail and legs, and made him bob a little more fluidly.
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: MadHatter on May 21, 2010, 12:03:44 am
Make him breath a bit.
Move his chest up and down, so to speak.
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: ndchristie on May 21, 2010, 12:59:03 am
birds wings are not elastic; there is a distinct upper-arm bone and forearm bone (just like a human) and "hand" which controls the final orientation of the feathers.  If you want the reference video posted, you can see this playing out in the wing shape.
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: Dusty on May 21, 2010, 01:20:46 am
Aye. I remember seeing a bird animated in slow motion a long time ago on a show and it really stuck with me for some reason. Birds don't just flap their wings, they almost 'cup' the air, giving them the push they need. Simply moving their wings up and down is not going to give them the force they need to get airborne.

From ironsword:
(http://www.zee-3.com/pickfordbros/archive/is/eagle_anim.gif)

Also, the same game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwf3eLlfxAM#t=2m00s). You may want to go back some to see their smaller eagles that fly around as well. I think Ninja Gaiden on the NES had some animated eagles as well, but I don't remember how well they were animated.
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: colinsick on June 03, 2010, 01:18:26 am
...Birds don't just flap their wings, they almost 'cup' the air, giving them the push they need...

That's an excellent observation (with the animated example). I'm keeping it in mind.
Aside from stiffness, I was trying to pinpoint what was wrong with the animation - and that's it. It's beautifully fluid though.
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: Anarkhya on June 04, 2010, 08:59:05 am
Talking about videogame bird animation reference, maybe you can learn from this owl, ripped from Agony (Amiga) (http://hol.abime.net/3209):
steps (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1ALaA) or in action: (http://s4.postimage.org/1Ame9.gif)
Title: Re: Hawk animation wip
Post by: blinkok on June 08, 2010, 12:21:23 am
this is a pretty good reference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1JMX2HWo9o