Chibi Archery Chick Shooting

[Ambivorous]

Making a shooting animation for a chibi-ish looking archery girl I made to blatantly and unashamedly copy the style of a sprite Conceit made, which I later found out was actually in the style of some Brazilian guy named Fe or something.



So that's the base.
Now I'm trying to animate.



Original.
Initial reception asked for more action during release.



Added terrible-technique hand flick after release. Her foot even moves for no reason.
I thought they'd be happy with this. I was wrong.

Current Advice for next animation:
TWICE AS MUCH SWOOSH.
Shaky hands while fully drawn.
Bow's arms swinging in front of the riser after release.
Add recoil.
Push hips out even more for less reasons.
More hair flow (not just during release).
Add foreshortening sweep to ponytail.


Forgot to mention: the reason for doubling the swoosh is because it's easier to tone down than up.
Here's the result:



I'm gonna move on to detailing now.

[Gil]

I feel like the hips shouldn't just move back, but rotate to open up. Nearly all movement originates from the hips and for back motions, you probably want to open the hip first.

[Ambivorous]

I tried to turn the hips first. Not entirely sure how it turned out (got the staring too much at a thing thing).



Detailed.




Added a break so my eye could rest because staring at it felt too rushed.




Fixed the feet that were doing a jumpy thing and fixed the hair. Thanks Cyangmou for all the help with that!
Calling it done here, but do feel free to add more. It's always useful for the next time.

[Gil]

When at the point of drawing the bow, the shoulder muscles contract to hold the weight. There should be tension there and the chest will expand (as the back contracts. Try standing up and pulling your muscles in your back in a way that brings the shoulder blades together, you'll feel it). The tension of the drawing/holding will be just a bit more powerful if you manage that I feel. The little shiver already works wonders near the release to suggest tension too. Coming along great

[Seiseki]

I'm not an expert on bows, so tell me if I'm wrong. But doesn't a bow return to it's inital shape when you release it. This animation suggest that the initial shape is an almost straight stick.
The way the bow bends when she draws it, is the shape I'd imagine the bow would be in before she draws it.
And the way it bends forward feels completely unreal to me.

(very cute sprite though, love the colors of her clothing)

[Ambivorous]

Yo Gil. I really did try to make it a back movement, but I was quite overwhelmed by all the other movements I was trying to add.

Seiseki, thanks man. Man, don't even get me started on the amount of things that are wrong with this animation as far as real archery is concerned. You're quite right the bow (or at least my bow) doesn't flick all the way, because it has really good dampening, but it was suggested that I do it this way, because non-archers would apparently not notice the inconsistency, but it adds extra swoosh to the piece.
You're quire right about the shape as well, Friend also raised this, but all I needed was to have two different states of the bow (one drawn and one at rest) to imply the movement, so I just used my artistic licence on that one. The whole shape of a bow and her short arms and massive head all created quite a few problems really. Chibi archers are silly.

More information for anyone that cares: there are a few more inconsistencies with real life archery.
For one, you can't fling your releasing hand back like that - it needs to be left in place, but for extra swoosh I made it flick back.
The hair wouldn't move that much, if at all. There would be no recoil, hips would be square and not move during the process.
She wouldn't be so weak that she's start shivering before release (unless she just upgraded in bow strength, but even then it would have to be near the end of a competition or something for her to be that tired).
Finally, she'd not be loosing her bow without an arrow because that damages the arms.

[Gil]

->

I'm not even sure that works, it might just make her boobs bigger instead of suggesting more power :/

[Seiseki]

Yeah, I figured the bow shape was due to her short arms..
Doesn't seem like there's a way to solve it, other than making it a recurve or composite bow of some kind.

[Pix3M]

I've learned the hard way through working with somebody else's project, that the more exaggerated your chibi proportions, the harder it is to animate certain weapons and design them "large". The maximum size of your bow is basically constrained to a character's arm span. Larger heads in general will also dilute your lines of action, from personal experience

[Decroded]

Aww cute character 

I've learned the hard way through working with somebody else's project, that the more exaggerated your chibi proportions, the harder it is to animate certain weapons and design them "large". The maximum size of your bow is basically constrained to a character's arm span. Larger heads in general will also dilute your lines of action, from personal experience

What about putting a recurve or whatever u call it in the bow?
Might be able to fudge some extra size out of that.