AuthorTopic: GR#100 - Character Animation  (Read 21241 times)

Offline jams0988

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Re: [WIP] need help with pixel character

Reply #20 on: March 21, 2012, 02:01:28 am
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About the fighting stances, Im a long time boxing and MMA fan so I thought I would share what I know about different stances.
Im no expert though so some of what I say might not be 100% accurate. Im more of a fan than a practitioner.
A boxing stance should have the rear hand up high if anything. The lead hand can be high too but some fighters(mostly counter fighters) like to leave it down.
Jams, I know you said you didnt draw the rear hand up high in your edit because it might block the face details, but it makes your stance look more like a karate stance with the lead hand up high and the rear hand low. Still looks cool though...just not a boxing stance.
Yar, definitely true about the rear hand being the one that's usually tucked in closer. If I were doing the animation, I'd definitely let his rear hand block his face, hahah. But I don't think numlock wants to block the face, so I thought it'd be a decent compromise.

And please don't mention BJJ near me. I'm six months into Judo (started it because I broke my thumb boxing, actually, lol; going to Japan April to July to study!) , which makes us sworn and bitter enemies, hahah! My friend is a hobbyist BJJ'er. I'm going to teach him the power of Judo when I get back from my trip, heheh. XD
And you're right that pure grappling arts usually have a lower, more open stance than striking arts, but that's because we don't need to worry about getting punched in the face while we're doing grappling competitions, lol. I'd be in a karate stance if I ever got into a real fight, hahah.

And I freaking love those edits, 9_6 and pixel_driver. Especially that walk cycle. Fits the character perfectly! I think his straight might be a little too sluggish though, 9_6. Not a lot of oomph behind it, since it's got so many frames. The jab's really nice, though!
« Last Edit: March 21, 2012, 02:06:44 am by jams0988 »

Offline skeme_IN5

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Re: [WIP] need help with pixel character

Reply #21 on: March 21, 2012, 02:34:47 am
Hey, Im a massive fan of Judo too! Those throws are LETHAL! Usually the fight would be over from one throw on concrete lol
I dont know if you have heard of Ronda Rousey? Shes a judoka who went into MMA and is now champ after just 4 or 5 fights. Her armbars are badass!
One thing lacking from BJJ is the takedowns/trips/throws. I think BJJ and judo suit each other perfectly tbh.
Anyway, dont want to go off the subject of this thread. Great edits 9_6 and PixelPiledriver. :y: Im working on a jabbing animation edit but its not working out well right now! I will show it if I can finish it.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2012, 02:39:46 am by skeme_IN5 »
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Offline PixelPiledriver

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Re: [WIP] need help with pixel character

Reply #22 on: March 21, 2012, 07:33:23 am
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I started this one but I kinda get lazy and it didn't give the punch feeling that I want I guess
Just by working with timing and spacing you can pull a lot more impact out of an animation:


Don't get disheartened if the first pass isn't exactly what you want.
Each pass is a tool for the next.
Animation can be frustrating at first.
Stick to it and the payoff will be awesome.

Drawing in a simple dude to punch makes for good reference.
It also just keeps me entertained and more likely stay interested in doing the work.

Make duplicates of your file, try different things and compare them.
To keep track of my progress I use a very simple file naming convention:
punch_1.gal
punch_2.gal
punch_3.gal

etc...

If I break away from the original direction and get something else that I'd also like to progress I just slap an index in front of the name as well:
punch_1.gal
punch_2.gal
punch_3.gal

punch2_1.gal
punch2_2.gal

punch3_1.gal

Thanks to 9_6 for some good looking frames.
I barely had to do any drawing.

I swear I'll make some helpful diagrams in the near future. :blind:
« Last Edit: March 21, 2012, 07:49:08 am by PixelPiledriver »
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Offline numlock

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Re: [WIP] need help with pixel character

Reply #23 on: March 21, 2012, 01:26:29 pm
wow pixel your walking animation is making look it like alive, it looks so awesome and 9_6 I now understand about animation much better thanks to you, yesterday my close friend had birthday and today I'm going to visit my parents(they are in another city) so I really couldn't work on things much(and probably tomorrow will be the same) but I didn't want to cool off so I tried to polish punching animations as well as giving hair motion, I tried to add gloves shiny surface but I think its pretty distracting,I should make one or two creatures for punching(probably will be little demons and skeletons), also I probably should start doing tilesets or drawing enviorment(I guess RCR had tilesets)
so heres polished animations
not shiny+bigger shoes+no pockets 
shiny

polished
I guess I should work on hair animations bit more still I think it looks great on game engine, I don't really want to rush things but I'm really enjoying doing this and I want to work on more things, also thanks to you I'm making fast progress

ah also when I make punchable demon or skeleton I could upload some demo exe if you guys are wondering how it'll look ingame,

Offline numlock

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Re: [WIP] need help with pixel character

Reply #24 on: March 24, 2012, 09:43:21 am
little update,
I've decided to make demon as first punchable thing instead of skeleton, I though skeleton might be easier so heres my demon

I don't know if you can see it but his eyes are burning his attack will be bite and his walk probably will be like this

I'm still at my parents so I don't have much time or calm place for doing pixel work but my mind keeps pulling me there, I hope demon looks irritating as I want so ingame you won't get bored punching tens of those,
I guess what am I missing for a solid punch is
I should make demons; biting,walking and getting punched animations
I should make characters getting bite/punched or hurt animation
I could make characters standing animation I guess, also I need enviorment, I probably should study beat em up enviorments since I can't really do pixel work here and I'm weak on drawing enviorments/stages.

ah I also made loading image, this famicom style cartridge, I should work on this a bit more I guess, still it has that silly air I think.

Offline numlock

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Re: [WIP] need help with pixel character

Reply #25 on: April 19, 2012, 12:11:27 am
I wasn't working on this for quite a while, almost a month, but hopefully I'm back and will try to keep my daily work
so today I tried to see how would three legged demon walk altough it walks kinda clumsy I don't think its that bad, but I definitely should animate this better so I didn't clean it yet, also I kinda can't animate his tail as I like, it goes for his flaming eyes aswell, tough its late and I'll leave this for tomorrow, like I said I'm back and right after I get this motivation feeling I did these(there is also this girl) but I must sleep now :).

and this lady will be arch enemy of main character, since she won't fight much (she'll just summon annoying demons and skeletons) I tought I'll give her a cape and make animating her easier.
this is her

this is her summoning things with her book

first I draw her completely naked and then put her cloth on, but idk what nudity policy here so I won't post that, also I don't want to make new threads so I can use this one for my other sprites right? I hope I can, again please let me know if you'd like something to change with these, I'll sleep now and read 12 rules of animation sometime, I still didn't read that.

Offline Rydin

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Re: [WIP] need help with pixel character

Reply #26 on: April 19, 2012, 05:05:27 am
It's not really what you're going for, but I was curious about what she'd look like if she was a little more detailed.



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Offline numlock

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Re: [WIP] need help with pixel character

Reply #27 on: April 19, 2012, 11:03:18 pm
I deleted one frame from this and played around a little bit, just wanted to show my progress before I go to bed, still need more stable jumping, better eyeflames and a tail I guess, might remove the wings but idk if I should, I'll see how it will wourk out
also Rydin, I'm trying to make more toonish because of my bad animation skills, next time I'll make her walking animation and try to improve demon a bit more so I'll consider your edit when I'm animating her, tough I don't think I'll use dithering for characters I think she could use a beauty spot, I'll post more later.

Offline Mathias

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Re: [WIP] need help with pixel character

Reply #28 on: April 20, 2012, 12:34:29 am
One significant oversight I would like to point out about the little boxer guy - those patches of light on his upper legs moves with his legs like they're "baked on" textures.
I assume they're not wear marks because they'd be centered on the knees.

Offline PixelPiledriver

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Re: [WIP] need help with pixel character

Reply #29 on: April 23, 2012, 08:10:03 am
This is how I usually start a walk cycle:


Just move around the main mass and figure out the amount of time and space you want to take up.
This would be after removing his limbs, so go ahead and draw them in when designing what he'll look like.
Don't worry about it being perfect, just move stuff around and make something happen.

Then go for the feet.
You can start out by making them all look the same:


The eye is drawn towards objects of focus like hands and feet.
The end of a limb is more important than the limb itself (but of course still important).
The bend of the limb can be determined directly from the placement of the foot.
No need to worry about drawing that now.
Focus on contact.

The feet will generally have more motion and action than the body in this sort of cycle.
This will affect your time and space.
Don't be afraid of this.
Just add new frames where you need more time and move around the body if its position doesn't make sense relative to the feet.
Also I threw these on a new layer just to make things a little more flexible.

Once you get the general idea of your motion we can add more passes to it:


Add the limbs.
Change the form of the feet to better match the action of each frame.
Add follow through elements such as the tail.
Tweak the timing.
More passes could be done to clean up, introduce asymmetrical timing, add the flaming eye fx, etc.

The tail I've done isn't as polished as I'd like but serves as a guide if I were to finish it.
Get used to working in passes.
Every step is a tool to the next.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2012, 10:39:19 am by PixelPiledriver »
And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1