Strategy Battlegame

[Andy Tran]

 Now I comment on what they look like when shaded. They look pro, Adrias. GJ.

[Conzeit]

just a more indepth description of galloping

Animal Locomotion index

Looking at the sprite, I still cant quite pinpoint it yet, but I think there's something wrong with frame4, may edit with more info later.

EDIT: nevermind, where the hell are all the frames when the Horse is suspended on the air? they are supposed to be 3 out of 15, but you have none out of 8.

I understand you are simplyfing the sequence becaues you have less frames than the stages of horse galloping, and the frames where he has cntact with the floor seem more complex, but you just cant cut the suspended phase, that's what makes it a gallop!!, just like with humans there must be frames where he isnt touching the ground at all, otherwise it's like an exageratedly energetic walk.

Anyway, you're doing great, the model sillouethes are great and I've done worse animal galloping than that, I just want to make harsh critique because this looks like one of those indy project where there's more to it than the deadline to be met.

In general, I think you are focusing too much on making the correct poses for the legs, and too little on the balance of the horse and where the force should be more visible...

[ndchristie]

thanks for all the help, ive done some tweeking (including reversing a mistake i made when i put in the ground, it wasnt supposed to obscure the last row of pixelsthe way it did)....

could you elaborate on that last bit about balance though?  animation is my weakest point and i really jsut dont understand how to improve it.  sorry if it feel like im asking you to hold my hand

[ptoing]

Looking good so far. If you wanna learn about animation, go buy this book, it will teach you more about it than anyone here on this board can.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0571202284/sr=8-1/qid=1154475215/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-9864617-7150365?ie=UTF8

[Conzeit]

well, that wasnt a crit per se...it was more of something to keep in mind, I meant that when you edit the sprite the focus should be on where the weight should be or how the impulses should flow trough the horse.

I guess I was just trying to say that you shouldnt focus so much on what should be where by which frame, rather on what's being pulled down, what's being pulled up...what forces are working on the Horse's body. thinking of what should be where is more of sequential image, comic thinking, but if you think of forces that is more adequate to animation.

I think it is completly usable the way it is now, what you do with it now just depends on what you want to emphasize on this horse's run.

here, I made a GIF of the gallop with correct axis


compared to yours, I think you still need to show more force on the pre-suspension/suspension part of the gallop, try to make the head counter the height shifts of the shoulders (whatever they're called), if the shoulders are down, put the head up and vice versa, same for the butt.

....all that's really left in the anim is fixing balance details like those, analyze the gif on your own and compare it to yours, maybe you can even try to chop frames until you have an 8 frame muybridge gallop so you can compare it with your own.

[Gil]

You missed the most important muscle of a horse, the neck. Look at the head jerk. The trapezoid (or deltoid, dunno) muscles of a horse and the back muscles pull up the entire back body during the leap. It's not a push from the legs, but rather a pull from the neck. Compare your curved spine to the straight one in the muybridge picture...

[Conzeit]

there's something else I'm not sure you have considered yet, as a run anim it should have a constant number of pixels the anim is supposed to be moving every frame, unless of course you plan to have the programmer move the horse by a specific amount of pixels every frame

[ndchristie]

there's something else I'm not sure you have considered yet, as a run anim it should have a constant number of pixels the anim is supposed to be moving every frame, unless of course you plan to have the programmer move the horse by a specific amount of pixels every frame

knew i forgot something....




....shit

[miascugh]

there's something else I'm not sure you have considered yet, as a run anim it should have a constant number of pixels the anim is supposed to be moving every frame, unless of course you plan to have the programmer move the horse by a specific amount of pixels every frame

knew i forgot something....




....shit

you know, the mere thought of the horse floating in with this animation at a constant pace makes me become all nostalgic about an early 90ies game that never existed (though i was immediately reminded of civilizations town-view screen for some reason). i wouldn't write that off as bad at all.. well yeah, imo

[ndchristie]

actually, i got the civilzation vibe too after i posted it.  not sure why since theres really no resemblence

it looks ok at 4pxper frame, (32 px in the whole cycle) which i can live with.  this whole animation feels a bit beyond my ability so i think im just going to move along with the rest of things