GR#176 - Running Knightman - Animation

[IvanX]

So animations are hard and I have no idea how this works.
Any C+C wold be appreciated

[yaomon17]

He looks more like he is angrily strutting. I think he should lean forward and bit more and have his legs extend all the way out at the extreme frames. Try to go for the cliche "infinity symbol" run with his feet and work off from there.

[d13f00l]

So animations are hard and I have no idea how this works.
Any C+C wold be appreciated

Hmm?
You could have a data structure to define your x\y\w\h in your sprite-sheet.  Then, for an actual animation, you can use a vector, map, or linked list to have a list of frames.
The easiest thing to do, if each frame is the same length, is to make note of when an animation starts and base the current frame off that

Then do framenum = ((currentTime - startTime) / timePerFrame) % totalNumberOfFrames
I...think this works?  It's been a while since I wrote my own animation code.

let's say you're 500 ms into an animation that has 5 frames at 20ms each.

((5000-4500) / 20) % 5
25 % 5 = 0
You're on frame 0 of 4 at the current point in time.

How about 750ms in?
((10000 - 9350) / 20) % 5
37 % 5 = 2
frame 2 of 4

789 ms?
(10000-9210) / 20) % 5
39 % 5
frame 4 of 4


Seems to work.

Or just use some library or engine that does animations for you.

Edit:  Haha, C+C != C++.  I'd say that's more of a brisk walk, and it looks pretty good for a brisk walk.  To run, he's gotta lean forward.

[PixelPiledriver]

The main thing missing is that for a basic run there is point where neither foot is in contact with the ground.
During a walk there is always at least one foot on the ground.
So what you have looks like a power walk.

Go outside and run around ----> no seriously.
Think about what it feels like.
Now power walk.
Think about what it feels like.
Why are they different?
Look up some videos.
Draw some stuff.

Here's a really quick edit.


Sorry, no time to edit drawings.
All I did was edit position.

Other things could be improved as well.
With the contact starting frame that you have his foot slides forward while on the ground.
I was able to remedy this by moving him off the ground, but it's not really an intentional solution.
You would have to change some of the drawings to better match the action at the current time.

[IvanX]

So I pushed his torso forward to eliminate the power walk look of things, but I'm still not content with the legs.
Something about the extremes and the frame before them seem off, but I can't figure out what looks so off about them.\

Also, sorry about responding late.
Work and dark souls have been eating up my time.

[yaomon17]

This was the frame the PPD added in.

This is an old run anim reference.
I think the main issue with the knight looking like he is power walking is that he is too grounded. He needs to bob up and down a bit more and really kick up at the extremes of the run.

[IvanX]

So at this point, I've reworked the extremes and added in 2 tweening sprites to smooth things out. I'm thinking it's good enough to start adding in details and whatnot, but any critique before I jump into that would be nice. 

[cels]

I think your mistake in the latest version is extending his legs so much. It's like he's leaping forward 2 meters at a time, almost doing the splits with every step. PixelPiledriver's version looked more like a person running with heavy armour, as it had smaller steps and more vertical movement.

[IvanX]

I had to step away from this for a while. It seems I was handling this all the wrong way and trying to add in more frames for more smoothness.


I dropped a few frames that weren't doing me any favors, including the  extremes, since the frame right before them served as a better extreme.

[r1k]

I think that looks better but I think he should have more weight in his steps, given that hes wearing a suit of armor.  I tried making an edit, but honestly I have trouble giving my animations weight too