Floating Robot Energy Ball Throw Animation [C+C][WIP]

[heyguy]

Hello all. I'm working on this animation and I'd like to get some critique on how the animation flows and how the poses look throughout the animation. So it's a robot throwing an energy ball like a baseball. I'm not done fully done with the character art (face and shading) but I think I've got the basic "shell" done... right? I know I've got some white/floating pixels to work on but how are the poses for each frame looking? Is this animation working in general? I'm actually pretty happy with how it looks so far and I think I'm going to start detailing now. I've added a picture of my original character drawing.

One of the things that's bothering me is the first part, where the character dips down a little before the "jump" and wind-up. Something looks off to me. Maybe I need an entire new pose/drawing for that part of the animation? I think the top part of the robot where it's thrown the ball might need some rework too. What does everyone think?

I'm also working on an energy ball. Preferably something I can use with this character and many others. I also plan on adding some sort of "whoosh" air effect as the robot throws the energy ball.

edit: one other thing bothering me is the characters left arm on its second pose. I guess the way I drew the lines create a tangent between the arm and torso.

[MysteryMeat]

Did a slight edit to reposition the arm some and give it slightly more motion during the throwing action.

[heyguy]

Thanks for the edit MysteryMeat! It really makes things more dynamic! I've fixed some of my problems and I've started to detail. Here's an update with the repositioned back arm.

[heyguy]

Small update. Any comments are appreciated. I feel that the face from the drawing isn't going to translate well into pixel art. I'm not sure, need to keep experimenting. Added one more drawing/pose at the beginning as the robot dips down to jump. I feel that whole part at the beginning should have a sort of floating swirly U-shaped curve up to the "jump/wind-up". Hope that makes sense. Haven't added that part yet though. Still a little stuck on the character art.

[MysteryMeat]

More lazy edits, whee!
Things I did:
-switched the pallete of the face area to a neon blue, to give it a sort of neon plasma-display sort of look while staying true to the original sketch
-removed one frame from the "pitch" part of the throw to make that part snappier and more forceful
-added an animation smear (the thing where the orb grows a comet tail, simulates motion blur) for the same reason as above



as I stated these are pretty lazy edits, and I reccomend toying with colors yourself to get it looking right as I am colorblind.

There's also a frame in there where I started to draw the arms in for the fly-up movement, though I forgot I was doing that halfway through. The point is to sort of exaggerate the motion though, imagining it as wind pushing the arms inwards as the droid shoots upwards.

[heyguy]

Thanks so much for taking the time to make some edits! I definitely like the more snappier, forceful look! I recreated your changes and I've also added the thing you talked about at the end. The arms are coming inward as the robot comes down. That really looks a lot better, it adds some much needed movement during that part of the animation. Still a WIP.

[heyguy]

Update. I'd really appreciate any critiques or comments on how I might improve this. I drew new arms for the second pose but I still don't think they work any better than the last arms. I actually think that part of the animation looked better on the previous GIF.  I can't seem to get that part of the animation to look pleasing to the eye. I'll keep working on that!

So I also updated the body. What do people think about the "anatomy" and "proportions" of the robot throughout the animation. I tried hard to make it so the model would all look the same throughout the animation. How's it looking so far?



Edit:



Minor update before bed. More body work and shading.

[zoekmath]

Update. I'd really appreciate any critiques or comments on how I might improve this. I drew new arms for the second pose but I still don't think they work any better than the last arms. I actually think that part of the animation looked better on the previous GIF.  I can't seem to get that part of the animation to look pleasing to the eye. I'll keep working on that!

So I also updated the body. What do people think about the "anatomy" and "proportions" of the robot throughout the animation. I tried hard to make it so the model would all look the same throughout the animation. How's it looking so far?



Edit:



Minor update before bed. More body work and shading.

Maybe it should show his head a little bit on the second and third pose? Also, on the second pose, his shoulders aren't shadowed.
Also, on the second and third pose, there aren't orange dots as there are on the first pose.

[MysteryMeat]

You've misunderstood a bit what I meant with the arms, my computer's bein a bit of a tit right now and crashes if I have too much open though so I have to do this in ASCII

When the character is going down, arms would move up, like so:    /[`.`]\  =>  --[`.`]--

When the character is going up, arms would be pressed against their body:   /[`.`]\  =>  |[`.`]|

The way you gotta think of it is as wind pressing against the bits of the body as the character moves, like when you go up wind would be pushing down, etc.

Another tweak that might help with the rising-up animation is to make the flame go for three frames sort of like this |   ^  -/\-, and start moving on the third. like, hard to illustrate proper through text but I'm picturing sort of a "flaring up" to build up to the movement and make the robot feel kind of heavy.

[heyguy]

Thanks for the advice folks. I looked at what you all said and made some changes. I added the head part to the other poses. I'm continuing to shade and reshape the geometry of the robot. There's still something about the third pose or the transition to the third pose, the wind-up, that seems weird to me. I'm not sure what it is, the proportions of the main body frame or something. The orange dots as you say zoekmath are the blast or explosion that propels the robot upward I think. That definitely still needs work.

So I've experimented with what you where saying MysteryMeat. It's a lot more clearer now thanks to your explanation! So I don't want to over-animate by creating poses for when the character goes down and up. My objective with this project kinda was to create something exciting, expressive and dynamic in just a few frames then tweak it a bit (like you've suggested) to give it some extra flair with easing in and out some limbs, effects and anything else.

I've drawn the hands in a few different positions that might be better when the robot goes down for the jump. These are pretty rough and WIP. I think I like the second one the best. I like the third one too. I also changed the rocket blast like you suggested Mystery. I think some of these poses could work for that part of the animation. What does everyone else think?



This one has the same animation as my previous post but with updated art. I kinda like this one too but it feels wrong to like it.