GR#149 - Jumping Animation

[Zizka]

Hello!

The time has come again to seek feedback about yet another animation.
I thought I’d describe my process this time around (better safe than sorry!  ).

Well, I used this reference from Street Fighter 3 this time around.


After fiddling with this a bit I got this:


Which looked, really, really wrong. So I tried to find another reference. I couldn’t really find anything on Google except a video you had to pay for so I tried to salvage some frames from it for reference:
http://www.jasonryananimation.com/tutorials.html

So reworked the animation and I got this :


So, sure, it's a lot better than my first attempt but I'm not happy with it just yet.

As usual, you know the drill  . Tear it apart and I'll rework it over and over again until it's good enough for the game.

EDIT1:

So after I analyzed it further I started to see a couple of things which were bothering me:

* The hair was static, so I changed that.
* The arms were static, so I changed that.
* The timing was super wonky, so I tweaked that a bit.
* Modified other little details.

And I got this:



EDIT2: Then I figured, better do something about those legs really. They're too static too.

And I got this:

[Nameless Force]

I actually like the more subtle motions of your first attempt better than the more exaggerated motion of your second attempt.  The timing is definitely better in attempts 2 and 3 though.

Is this the player character for a platform game?  If so, you may want to nix the anticipation frame(s) and launch the character directly into the air.  I'd rather have responsive controls than ultra-smooth animation.

[Zizka]

Thank you Nameless force.

Yes, it's for a platform game. So you think I should skip the crouching part before the jump entierely?:

That's the fourth attempt:

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

I definitely think the crouch is pretty important. Anticipation is one of the most key parts of animation. I think your second edit on the first post looks basically right.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

I made a quick edit with my mouse. It's not perfect, but you can see the difference.

Big problem is frame timing, and to fast animation which occurs because web browser and animation program doesn't show animation at the same speed. In web browser is a lot faster.

I change some frames. If you can't find good reference make it yourself (you can jump, right?  ).

You still have black outlines. 

[Zizka]

@HarveyDentMustDie (man I have to find you a shorter nickname  ).

I noticed you didn't edit the fourth version (which is the most recent one). Is it because you feel that the second is the best one so far?

About the outlines... I honestly don't know what to do (as you can see, they're there sometimes and disappear otherwise). I've seen plenty of games with outlines and I find that it helps for the character to stand out more. On the other hand, it's uglier than without. So yeah, I don't know what to do about this.

Thank you for the edit.

The problem I have with it is that the crouching part (anticipation) before the crouch is too long. Players would complain that the controls are not responsive enough (Nameless Force brought up this point). This is why the crouching part is so fast in mine although in the end that might not be a good idea.

@Mr. Farhenheit: Yeah, I don't know anymore man. I feel that between a fast anticipating crouch and no crouch at all, the second option might be the best one for a game (although the first one would be better for the sake of animation). The SF3 only has one crouching frame for the jump, it's super fast.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

I edited that version because, at the time when I downloaded gif it was last one. 

This is the best crouching compromise (At least until PixelPiledriver show up  ).

IMO black outlines at small resolution can look very bad, and they occupy valuable space. If you want for your character to stand out more, you should choose different colors for background of your game.

EDIT: Another idea.

[Sardone]

The crouching frames are kinda weird, the head is moving foward ?
Also you should avoid setting frames with different timing.

I feel that between a fast anticipating crouch and no crouch at all, the second option might be the best one for a game (although the first one would be better for the sake of animation). The SF3 only has one crouching frame for the jump, it's super fast.

do Mario, Sonic and Megaman crouch before they jump ?

damn i got rusty .

[Kain Nobel]

What you got now is perfect for if the character was standing still prior to jumping, I'd keep those frames for that case. Now, if the character was moving, you'd probably just omit those anticipation frames and use the rest.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

Now, if the character was moving, you'd probably just omit those anticipation frames and use the rest.

I disagree.