AuthorTopic: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)  (Read 6295 times)

Offline Tsugumo

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Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

on: February 22, 2007, 12:29:15 am
I don't even know if I'll get around to doing more with this, my CPU at home is pretty shitty for doing art so I stayed late at work for like 2 hours to make this, heh:



Just getting the motion down for him...in an ideal world where I have time to do this step I find it saves a lot of frustration later.  If the block figure looks good, odds are the rest will.  I was watching an anim with SF3 sprites so I threw in more frames than I normally would and gave the guy some cloth and baggy pants to flop around.  On the actual kick frame I'm shooting for having his leg bigger/longer/stretched a bit and if I do this up that's going to be motion blurred with color...SF3 does this (at least the stretchy limb part) and it looks sweet so I tried messing with it.

Nothing exciting, critique if you like, I'm just throwin' it up to convince myself to do SOMETHING in my spare time, haha  I don't do much personal stuff these days.

- Tsugumo

Offline templargfx

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #1 on: February 22, 2007, 12:37:46 am
Very "another world" I like it. nice fluid motion. finish it!

Offline AlexHW

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #2 on: February 22, 2007, 12:50:45 am
nice, it took me a while to realize he is spinning(first thought he was sidekicking), but after I figured that out it made sense.
I think the initial hop could use some clarifying near the legs as its hard to read them useing just one tone.
looks smooth though
nice to see some work from you again

Offline Tsugumo

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #3 on: February 22, 2007, 01:39:04 am
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it took me a while to realize he is spinning(first thought he was sidekicking)

haha I actually did that too when I got home just now...looked at it and was like "wtf??"  but it works in my head, I just colored his arm 'cause I couldn't keep track of it (I started with him all one color, then did the arm after, then the cloth after that), but I know how the legs are moving so I didn't mark them different colors.  Ideally I'd take this, size it to whatever size I'm going to animate in, retrace all the frames using actual line-art, then retrace that clean version pixelized and do it up.

I'm happy with the motion 'cause I don't normally do this many frames but there's something with his leg when he kicks I'm not digging and I can't tell what it is...it's when he pulls his leg in, the shape is doing something weird.  bleh, I'm too tired to figure it out now, heh...

hoping to do this guy up 96-ish high Capcom style but I'm scared of how many frames it is, haha

- Tsugumo

Offline Helm

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #4 on: February 22, 2007, 03:53:29 pm
It has a very good release frame. I feel perhaps the anticipation frames are illsuited for the attack that follows, though. They seem to be anticipation for jumping up, not a front kick. Though it's interesting visually, I wouldn't say it's a very rational start to the animation. I'd instead make him lean a bit back and then kick, if you have to have anticipation in this animation.

I personally wouldn't have any at all though, since martial arts kicks are supposed to be snappy, not 'here it comes, block me!'

Offline big brother

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #5 on: February 22, 2007, 03:58:01 pm
Will you scale this up before you put the color and details down?

Offline AdamAtomic

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #6 on: February 22, 2007, 04:09:29 pm
sweet!  I agree that the initial frames seem slightly out of place, though cool-looking.  My main concern would be a gameplay issue.  Not so much "here it comes, block me!" but "man i'm gonna kick you eventually so punch me in the face right now".  Great motion though, fluid and clean!

Offline Feron

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #7 on: February 22, 2007, 04:12:48 pm
I agree with helm.  Whilst the actual impact frames are good, however when i first watched it - the arms made me think he was jumping.  I suggest pulling the arms in with bent elbows closer to his chest will also help the emphasis of the weight of the torso acting on the kick.  At the moment his arms are flailing in all directions and would make him a bit unbalanced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4fwpm1G_fE

Offline mangust

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #8 on: February 22, 2007, 04:25:08 pm
Very good animation, but for this form kick i think must be faster and jump. I some edit you animation and remove some frames.

Offline Rox

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #9 on: February 22, 2007, 08:30:31 pm
Ohh my goodness. I just opened all the unread threads in tabs like I always do... and this sweet animation shows up from nowhere. I read the title, then gaze at it for a while. A few minutes, actually. Around three or four. Then I read the post, spot the signature, and finally realize who the hell made it.

Welcome back, honored warrior of the pixels! We've missed you. Well, I have, at least. With Tsu and Bruce all back again (again (again?)), I even imagine my mind painting the forum a gentle tone of blue... Ahh, nostalgia.

Anyhow, really nice animation. Powerful and otherwordly, as templargfx put it. Say, have you ever seen Otogi (or Otogi 2) for the Xbox? This animation reminded me of parts of that game. It's got some really nice attack animations with dramatic, Japanese timing, such as extremely powerful sword swings that just stop suddenly once they reach a certain point - exactly like his forward motion. I love that! Actually, I think I should study the animation in that game some more and see if I can apply it to traditional animation sometime...

I do disagree with the people who think it looks like he'd jump. The entire animation - the whole concept actually - is stylishly exaggerated. It makes perfect sense to me that one would crouch down like that if the following attack would be powerful enough to make one's entire body slide forward several feet. A jump would make it look more like something from, say... one of them old Karate games for the C64/Amiga/NES. And I really like the exaggerated otherworldlyness, so please don't do that!
« Last Edit: February 22, 2007, 08:37:17 pm by Rox »

Offline Tsugumo

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #10 on: February 22, 2007, 08:56:40 pm
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I feel perhaps the anticipation frames are illsuited for the attack that follows, though. They seem to be anticipation for jumping up, not a front kick.

rock on, y'all...you guys must've been sitting over my shoulder when I was drawing it.  I started out wanting to make him do some jumping attack (basically what mangust's edit is, which is an awesome edit, I think that matches the duck/jump motion better) and got the duck frames done then went "shit, I don't know what I want to do with this even..." and THEN planned it out...so ya, the first half is for a jump attack but I couldn't sneak that by you guys haha  I'll try to get him to raise up a bit or change that first part of the anim to something that makes more sense with the kick.

I'm gonna' keep the flailing arms more just 'cause I like the motion/look for them even though it's impractical as far as actually fighting goes...

I was watching this:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/276650

skip to the Street Fight scene if you don't want to watch the slow plot part at the start (although it's pretty cool, I love Ryu's stage BG graphic and the menu boxes gradienty stuff, I want to do that shit in a game someday with the glowy panels and all).  It's an awesomely choreographed fight between SF3 Ryu and Scorpion from MK.  I love Ryu's anims in it, so that was the inspiration for this (if you watch my dude's leg you can see his pant leg chasing after his foot when he kicks, there's a frame where it's bunched up and then shoots down to the end of his foot, SF3 does this a TON).

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Will you scale this up before you put the color and details down?

Thinkin' I will...I'm eager to do a bigass sprite instead of a little tiny one.  Been working on cel phone stuff for a while so I've had my fill of tiny sprites...even though I'd be more likely to get it done if it were smaller, haha

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Welcome back, honored warrior of the pixels!

haha thanks, I don't know if I'll be around at all but I'm trying to get my ass doing a bit of side stuff.  I haven't gotten to do anything fight-game-ish lately so it's fun to see if I can still do it.

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have you ever seen Otogi (or Otogi 2) for the Xbox?

I know OF it, but haven't played it.  Crazy cool style in it though, heh

Quote
I do disagree with the people who think it looks like he'd jump. The entire animation - the whole concept actually - is stylishly exaggerated. It makes perfect sense to me that one would crouch down like that if the following attack would be powerful enough to make one's entire body slide forward several feet.

This is partly what I was thinking in my head as far as why I didn't just change the duck motion at the start when I couldn't think of where to go attack-wise with it...if I made him lean forward more during the duck, that might get the best of both worlds (exaggerated build-up, plus making sense with the forward motion of the attack).

Anyway thanks for the crits!

- Tsugumo

Offline Helm

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #11 on: February 23, 2007, 12:26:01 am
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you guys must've been sitting over my shoulder

Please don't mind me. I am stalking you discreetly.

Offline Kable

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #12 on: February 24, 2007, 03:24:45 am
So the question is Tsu, did you make it big in games? nose to the art grindstone... or do you clean up product images for some generic online retailer or something like that ;)

Offline ndchristie

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Re: Fighter guy anim, first draft (just a block figure)

Reply #13 on: February 24, 2007, 05:36:15 am
I think that the animation will be much clearer with full detailing, it is hard to follow right now a bit.  It looks like a back-kick, but there are a few things im not sure about.....

traditionally, back kicks are executed by the rear foot, not the leading, so the entire thing takes longer, forfeigting accuracy, power, and, more importantly, speed.  Going stright in from idle with reverse footing makes the back-kick, already an obvious attack, even more obvious; its chance of success all but nothing.  The chance of taking a hit straight to the face (or, if this is tae-kwon-do, where face-hits are not allowed, a hit to the stmoach) when you through your arms out wide before the hop.

suggested solution: start in ready stance (bounceshifting weight from foot to foot).  Begin instead of a hop by switching from reversed to standard, a move which is highly ambiguous (it could be an advance, or most likely a setup for a roundhouse).  This entices the enemy to guard their front left, and if they take the bait, they will find a full-force back-kick hitting them square in the liver.  Here is a crappy animation showing top-down of what im trying to suggest:



without speed, stability, and fluidity, the kick would most likely be blocked or dodged, which is why i suggest ready stance, not idle, and changing footing instead of hopping.

the kick itself is great, although it might seem more realistic if the body was tipped to a near-horizontal level during it.
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