AuthorTopic: [C&C]Idle animations for main character  (Read 4113 times)

Offline RedSuinit

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[C&C]Idle animations for main character

on: September 04, 2015, 12:24:57 pm
This is a joint piece by myself and Royale (http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?action=profile;u=47680) any thoughts?



The sprites were designed by Royale, and I animated them with the exception of the  fire state, I only did some minor tweaks to that one.

Offline 32

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Re: [C&C]Idle animations for main character

Reply #1 on: September 04, 2015, 01:46:12 pm
My first critique is that your ice doesn't really look like ice, more like metal. I realise you didn't design the sprite but you could definitely improve the effect of the ice version by introducing some darker "transparent" spots and rim lighting. Here's an animation of an frozen character I did a while back that shows what I mean and might serve as some inspiration:


In animation terms I think you would be well served by increasing the number of frames. I think even just one more would really help since they're quite jerky when you loop back. On the hair for the normal guy I'd suggest having the flick point downwards on one frame as he rises and then flip back up. Right now you have two frames exactly the same and that really kills the animation. Same for the head motion in general, you want to try your hardest to keep it always moving. I would also say that his arms and particularly shoulders rise up a bit too much. The fire in the animation looks too solid, the key to a good fire is that parts of it will have to come off the top and dissolve, as the flame "whips" the tip of it could break off for example.

I think if there's one thing that would really help you it would be to take all of the parts individually and decide what their cycle is, the head for example moves in a circle, the body moves up and down etc. And make each of those cycles looks as smooth as possible. If you get each individual part right it should all come together into a nice animation.

Anyway I like the designs and concepts, the spinning ice magic is very cool ;D Good luck with these. Also you should post them at 1x zoom to make editing of them easier.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2015, 01:49:39 pm by 32 »

Offline RedSuinit

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Re: [C&C]Idle animations for main character

Reply #2 on: September 07, 2015, 03:28:15 pm
My first critique is that your ice doesn't really look like ice, more like metal. I realise you didn't design the sprite but you could definitely improve the effect of the ice version by introducing some darker "transparent" spots and rim lighting. Here's an animation of an frozen character I did a while back that shows what I mean and might serve as some inspiration:


I'm not real sure I understand what you mean here.

Offline 32

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Re: [C&C]Idle animations for main character

Reply #3 on: September 08, 2015, 02:39:54 am
Ice is transparent so it doesn't really have a single solid colour to it. The colour you see is influenced by the shape of the ice, where it's thicker/thinner, where planes on the opposite side of the object are, what's behind it. It's hard to explain but I would suggest looking up images of ice and ice sculptures and observing what makes them look transparent. You'll find that often the parts of the sculpture which are in the inner parts of the shape are the darkest (or technically the most transparent) because these planes are usually facing you, and then as the forms curve away at the "outlines" they get brighter as the light channels around here. There's a lot going on when you're rendering transparent materials but I find the simplest short cut is "there should be dark parts in the centre".

Offline RedSuinit

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Re: [C&C]Idle animations for main character

Reply #4 on: September 08, 2015, 05:34:09 pm
Ice is transparent so it doesn't really have a single solid colour to it. The colour you see is influenced by the shape of the ice, where it's thicker/thinner, where planes on the opposite side of the object are, what's behind it. It's hard to explain but I would suggest looking up images of ice and ice sculptures and observing what makes them look transparent. You'll find that often the parts of the sculpture which are in the inner parts of the shape are the darkest (or technically the most transparent) because these planes are usually facing you, and then as the forms curve away at the "outlines" they get brighter as the light channels around here. There's a lot going on when you're rendering transparent materials but I find the simplest short cut is "there should be dark parts in the centre".

So you think he is too flat and one dimensional? That he should have a darker "core" to simulate the effect that ice thickness has on color? I've been looking at a lot of photos of ice sculptures, and don't really see any evidence of the effect you are talking about. I feel kinda dumb saying this because I feel like I am missing something obvious. But apart from making him transparent, I don't know how to make him look transparent, because everything I have seen on ice sculptures looks similar to this outside of being see through like glass. All other effects giving off depth come from lighting/reflections or a texture they add to the surface of the ice.

Offline 32

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Re: [C&C]Idle animations for main character

Reply #5 on: September 09, 2015, 02:09:14 am
It's not necessarily that he's flat, just that it looks more like a reflective surface like metal than a transparent material like ice.

Yes you're essentially correct. You have to imagine the images in terms of value. Obviously the reality is that the dark spot is just whatever is on the other side but if you just use a dark colour it simulates that effect to enough of an extent that your brain says that the object you're seeing is transparent.

Offline yaomon17

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Re: [C&C]Idle animations for main character

Reply #6 on: September 09, 2015, 02:58:53 am
Searching up pictures of ice cubes can give you a pretty good idea.
We can look at this swan sculpture here:

You can see, even though the necks are curved cylinders, they are darkest toward the center. now one can argue of course that that is on a dark background, but generally, the colors compared to the lighter blues in the ice will be darker. Since you obviously can't know the background beforehand, it is a general good idea to just have some dark in the center to simulate the transparency seen in the swan.

Offline RedSuinit

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Re: [C&C]Idle animations for main character

Reply #7 on: September 09, 2015, 04:18:33 am
It's not necessarily that he's flat, just that it looks more like a reflective surface like metal than a transparent material like ice.

Yes you're essentially correct. You have to imagine the images in terms of value. Obviously the reality is that the dark spot is just whatever is on the other side but if you just use a dark colour it simulates that effect to enough of an extent that your brain says that the object you're seeing is transparent.

I get what you're saying, I'll have to try an edit tomorrow. Thanks!