Harry Sullivan

[Darien]

I don't understand why he has to bend his legs to bring his arms out like that.  I tried doing what he does myself but it seems so unnatural and weird to do that I think you should seriously rethink this animation.  Perhaps he should step forward with is left leg instead of doing the weird swaying thing.

[Khris_2]

I thought it made it look a bit more dramatic and gave some much-needed motion to his legs. Really it doesn't matter what he does with his legs, because he could take his hands out of his pockets without moving the rest of his body at all.

[Conzeit]

dont animate something just to animate something.

think of what the character would achieve by moving that part of his body, and what in his personality would make him move that way.

what kind of character is this? is he cocky to the point of being silly and laughable? that's the kind of idea I get by the way you made his legs move, he bends them to go back to the same exact starting frame, that just makes it look like he's pointlessly moving to atract attention.

[Khris_2]

That's right, another update.



Alright, so here's what I did. I tried out Godslayer's idea of adding a blurred frame to make the motion from pocketed hands to fighting stance more realistic/quicker. I also cut down the leg movement to a subtle bend that's a bit more realistic compared to what he was doing before. I really didn't want him to look goofy as I'm hoping for him to actually be a very serious character.

Hopefully I'm getting closer to a final product, but I'm kind of worried that the blurred frame actually made this a bit more comical looking than before.

[Godslayer]

I'd say loose the leg thing all together and see how that looks. If the blur is too comical for you, perhaps just delete the frame and let the eye blur on its own as it often does during quick animation.

[Pawige]

The blur won't wory very well unless you axe just about all the other frames, it looks like he's moving his arms slowly half-way, and the snapping them up. Very unnatural. I stood up just now to see what I naturally do when bringing my fists up, and I'd have him step forward to widen his stance a little. I would also assume that he's trained as a boxer, and would keep his arms up closer to his face, ready to hit or defend very quickly.

[Conzeit]

I think the "unnatural" type of motion might fit if this is a mentally-rigid-serious type guy, like he's planning and forming ideas about what fight will be like when he starts bringing out the fists, but then thinks of the pose he's suppose to assuma and quickly corrects his posture.

if he's more like a drab-serious type guy then it is not fitting at all.

I still dont see the need for leg movement...scratch that, knee bending if he's not transitioning towards a diferent pose in the final frame, if you are adding the knee bending for realism, dont, have him move his waist (like he is right now) but dont have the legs move only strictly what they have to, to adapt to that waist movement, that'll make it far more natural.

Now it's completly passable though, you could keep it and it wouldnt look silly at all, maybe even benefit the character if he's the mentally-rigid-serious type, it could be like a quirk he gets from being so stubborn about the way he has to move.

I agree with pawige though, widening the stance just a little bit would be the best solution, that was the problem with the old one anyway, it would've worked too if he was going towards a new stance but bending your knees all that way down just to go back to the same stance could only look silly.

[Khris_2]

Thanks again for the comments, I think I'll get this down by the next update.

I would also assume that he's trained as a boxer, and would keep his arms up closer to his face, ready to hit or defend very quickly.

That's exactly why I gave him a bit of a goofy position for his fists, because I want him to look like an ametuer fighter.

I'll take these recent comments and update again. I'll probably cut the blur, slightly change up the end stance and hopefully get an animation that's completely in character.

[Khris_2]

I left the coat animation off this one just because I didn't feel like animating it again (it'll be easy anyways). So I'm just wondering if this new motion works, if not, I was thinking of changing the step motion to something more of a sliding motion.

[Ro83rt]

I defiently am feeling the step, but might I suggest eith shrinking his hands or enlarging his head because his fists seem really huge at my viewpoint, but if no one else spotted it then don't worry about that.