AuthorTopic: Running animation  (Read 2892 times)

Offline jahasaja

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Running animation

on: August 27, 2018, 10:26:57 am
Hi all,

Long time no see. I am have mostly other artist working on the pixel art for my next game (wolfenoctis and Cyangmou and more)

I am trying to do a running animation for the main character but I feel like it does not have the correct weight. Not sure if I need more frames or what is the issue:

Any feedback welcome!

Offline HarveyDentMustDie

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Re: Running animation

Reply #1 on: August 28, 2018, 12:45:53 am
Hi, I didn't had enough time to polish this one out but I've tried to provide some directions and what you can correct. Maybe my edit doesn't fit game idea but points are the same.

1. In order for sword to have weight you need to give him some better motion during strong action like run
2. Because animation have low number of frames most of the frames can be considered key frames and you didn't get all important poses here. In "animator's survival kit" there's ton of useful notes on that. Generally there are frames which are strong and they define action and inbetweens which are less important but they give animation smooth and defined look. So you have mixed kind of poses here and you loose action there.

In edit poses require further refinement but they are closer to key poses.

3. You can include some horizontal motion in waist cloth along with vertical one since hips move during the run action, and also your cloth poses are the same in opposite frames for example 1 and 5, 2 and 6 etc. which makes all this a bit more stiff than it should be.

4. Regarding hair I know that you wanted to portray dreads and define them but you can do that with color instead (brighter and darker colors) and then give hair better motion since you don't have to worry about the gaps.

5. Shadows can help you in this kind of cases to better define area where legs overlap, especially in pants area.

I hope that this was helpful. :)

I wish you best luck with new game, previous one was quite interesting and unusual. :)

Offline jahasaja

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Re: Running animation

Reply #2 on: August 28, 2018, 12:53:04 pm
Wow, that was an amazing edit. You really gave it the weight I was looking for!

it is actually a she. I know that is not so clear from only this animation.

If you do not mind, I will your use you edit as a base and try to refine it more with the help of all your points. then I will post it here.

I am happy that you like my first game! This one is similar but I am trying to make it more accessible and hopefully more fun. 

Offline HarveyDentMustDie

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Re: Running animation

Reply #3 on: August 28, 2018, 05:16:33 pm
Feel free to use it how ever you want. :)

Offline jahasaja

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Re: Running animation

Reply #4 on: August 28, 2018, 07:46:58 pm
Here is a cleaned up version. I tried to follow you advice but might have lost some of the flair of the waist clout. 


« Last Edit: August 28, 2018, 08:14:31 pm by jahasaja »

Offline HarveyDentMustDie

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Re: Running animation

Reply #5 on: August 28, 2018, 09:00:27 pm
I've helped a bit with cloth here, just to push you back on the road. Basically I can polish this one completely and define everything but it's best that you do it on your own since it will help you with future designs.

When you add shadows on the cloth it's not idea to just put it on the bottom. Darker shade represents something that's underneath in this case since light source is mostly up and behind, but there are positions where you can't see what's underneath, in such frames you don't have to use dark color just to keep it consistent, it destroys motion.

Also same situation in legs, in order to keep consistency you keep adding shadow on top of the leg even when it's in front of the character and more or less a bit better lighted than when that area is in position under the body. Maybe I've reduced it too much, but you get the point.

There's one thing here which should be solved as well if you want realistic rendering. Shadow on the chest area is caused by light from behind, which is ok, but then legs don't match that since close leg doesn't change tone as it goes front to back and opposite, but that's now design decision. Nobody can force you to be "realistic". ;)

Offline jahasaja

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Re: Running animation

Reply #6 on: August 29, 2018, 05:56:03 pm
Thanks a lot again HarveyDentMustDie!

I tried to refine but I did very little. I feel like my skill level cannot really make it much better.

I agree with the shadows on the legs is better the way you do them. I think because the character can turn in the game (but with the same shadow) I did not want to make it too realistic but I think it looks better your way.



(and BTW HarveyDentMustDie did you see my PM?)