GR#148 - Slashing Animation

[Zizka]

I personally agree with Cyangmou but it's true my version was too similar.

I've played it safe this time.

First of all, here are the references I used. Keep in mind that this is all I used this time around, any other resemblances with anyone else’s work would be purely coincidental.



(this one is pretty big)
http://img10.imagefra.me/i5c7/freemind/fuui_808_u5vq6.jpg

The new version doesn't look as good as the second one but I'm certain there won't be any doubt about the authenticity this time around. I kept editing and editing and editing and it was a good learning experience (although I'm nowhere done with this just yet). I went for more of a knife instead of a sword this time around.

Right off the bat, I can still see some things which need fixing (like the size of the leg which decreases on the last sprite), but I figured now would be as good a time as any

Now if it looks like a parody ( ), telling me how to improve it would be most helpful (humour, peace).

Here:



Now, let's see if I can get as many comments about the animation as I did for the other issue  .

[coffee]

Nice one! It's good to see that you used what you had learned from doing the other animation and put your own touch to it. I am not at all an expert at animation, I'm currently putting a lot of time learning whilst doing projects.

Like you said there are things to tweak. First of all I think it would look good if he actually turned his head a bit, would make it easier to see that he got his back to us when he charges and easier to see it's the front when he's done. Also the arm looks a bit dislocated in the final frame, I think you should move it a bit more up and also perhaps give the strands of hair a bit of movement to make it more alive.

nice progress

/coffee

[Zizka]

Thanks coffee, I appreciate your help  .

When I was slashing my knife in my home (no it did not look psychotic in the slightest), I realized I wasn't moving my head (not much anyway). Which is why I opted for a rather ''static''. Having him twisting more might help giving more dynamism so I'm going to give your suggestion a shot and see what happens.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

 There's no parody here. I'm glad that you invested more of yourself into this, and now this is officially yours. That was the point of the whole argument. This time you used references as they should be used. 

The new version doesn't look as good as the second one

but maybe it will be even better at the end.

He shouldn't make such a big step forward. It's like fencing, and it's to graceful for a knife attack.
 

I think that his left leg should be up front, like the leg of character from your second reference. This is side view, and characters is turned away from the user (more or less) during the whole gesture, and that's not very good. His final posture should be like the one in the second reference.

His left arm is very strange. Maybe arm should go back at the beginning (while right one is positioned like in your animation) and at the end should be in line with the body, or very little in front of it. Try it yourself, it's easier to understand. 

Knife motion blur should be more narrow, because now his weapon is smaller. Also you should remove one pixel from each side of knife handle (or change it) because it's to big for a knife. Now the weapon looks like a short sword.

When I was slashing my knife in my home (no it did not look psychotic in the slightest), I realized I wasn't moving my head (not much anyway). Which is why I opted for a rather ''static''.

If it makes him look better, use it. 

I hope that I was "most helpful".

[Zizka]

Alright you guys : 

Elements added based on Coffee’s criticism:

- Added an animation to the hair.
- Twisted the body some more in the pre-slash animation.
- Fixed the dislocated arm.

Elements changed on HarveyDentMustDie criticism:

- Final frame now “faces” us.

His left arm is very strange. Maybe arm should go back at the beginning (while right one is positioned like in your animation) and at the end should be in line with the body, or very little in front of it. Try it yourself, it's easier to understand. 

I didn’t understand this. Could you exemplify with a picture? Well I think I understood. I’ve modified the left arm entirely.
- Made the handle of the knife narrower.
- Made the slash animation narrower.
- Reduced the free space between the two legs.

My own modifications:
- Made the character look slightly down as he is about to swing (see ref):
- Modified the ending position of the knife. I felt it was unnecessarily too high before.
- Changed the position of the arm on the torso on the pre-slash frame. It didn’t look right to me.
- Also removed the blur for the arm, it was unnecessary. I made this decision after analyzing Wolfennoctis gif higher up the thread.
- I modified the blur animation after playing Prinnie’s last night.
- I added some blur on the first slash of the animation (this idea also came to me after checking out the animation by Wolfenoctis.
- Fixed the width of the legs.
- Changed the background color to something slightly darker so that the animation stands out more.

And here's the result:

V.3: (previous version)



V.4 (current version)



Alright, what’s next guys, hehe  . You can’t say I don’t take your input into consideration huh?

[HarveyDentMustDie]

This is very raw and sloppy edit (only 4 frames ), but good enough for you to understand what I was saying.

Also maybe you should consider removing black outlines, that way you will gain more room for details.

[Zizka]

Oh I see thanks. I kind of like the hand the way it is now though. 

Alright, I added another slash to the animation. It's actually faster than shown here, I think I'm having speed limitations because of the browser. That's too bad, I'd like you guys to see the *real* speed.

I added a "trail" to the slash, I think it looks nicer that way.

As always, your comments are more than welcome, I use them to improve.

Also, on HarveyDentMustDie recommendation, I removed the outine and change the direction on the face on a frame.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

I said this many times

I think that his left leg should be up front, like the leg of character from your second reference. This is side view, and characters is turned away from the user (more or less) during the whole gesture, and that's not very good. His final posture should be like the one in the second reference.

but I will repeat it again, you should look leg positions in my edit, you'll see that the front leg is "dark one". Leg positions of your character implies that he is turned away from user (user can see his back instead of his front) which is not good.

Example:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0wNb3DHMmY
Character never turn his back to user even during the attack.

You still have outlines on his head and legs.

About animation, recommended minimum time for browsers is 0.02s per frame.

[HardcoreBadger]

The first one is very good for a "fun" motion

but the last one you made is awesome, better than the Chasm gif for me

and about the legs, I don't see any problem with the char "showing his wonderful back", seriously this is only more work for "nothing". Is it a rule ? "never ever ever show the back of your character when making an animation else the player will feel very sad"



Why not making more frames describing the motion ? i mean the motion between the frame 4 and 5, you only see the beginning and the end but the motion blur is kinda replacing it.
So I wonder if the motion blur is also a way to gain some frames ? I must draw something like this and its very hard for me, and on my model there is no motion blur so I thought I'd need to draw the missing frames but if i can replace it exactly as you did, it will save me 2-3 frames for each attack animations !!
My animation is much more realistic than this and it's like 20-30* bigger (or even more) and has a realistic perspective too (yes it's higher level than my skills are lol).


I analyzed the chasm gif and your animations and saw there is no frames between the beginning and the end of the slash (and thats why i post here, dunno if its a good idea though).

[Zizka]

@HarveyDentMustDie:

Arrrrrgh! Sorry, I didn't understood what you meant (English isn't my first language). I checked the video and now I get it. Thanks!

Will remove the border too.

@HardcoreBadger:

but the last one you made is awesome, better than the Chasm gif for me

Wow, for real? Thanks! It means a lot to me! 

and about the legs, I don't see any problem with the char "showing his wonderful back", seriously this is only more work for "nothing". Is it a rule ? "never ever ever show the back of your character when making an animation else the player will feel very sad"

I don't know. My guess would be that the front of the character is more interesting to look at than the back.

Why not making more frames describing the motion ? i mean the motion between the frame 4 and 5, you only see the beginning and the end but the motion blur is kinda replacing it.
So I wonder if the motion blur is also a way to gain some frames ? I must draw something like this and its very hard for me, and on my model there is no motion blur so I thought I'd need to draw the missing frames but if i can replace it exactly as you did, it will save me 2-3 frames for each attack animations !!
My animation is much more realistic than this and it's like 20-30* bigger (or even more) and has a realistic perspective too (yes it's higher level than my skills are lol).

Well, the way I understand it, ''skipping'' frames and using blur is a way to give a stronger impression of speed. Look at Wolfenoctis example higher in the thread, I think it gives a good idea.