Seagull guy test

[Rynen10K]

Hey, guys!

Decided to try a hand at animating a wing flapping seagull guy... let me know what you think!



It looks good to me, but at the same time, it feels like it's missing something...hmm...

I'm thinking of adding that "swoosh"y inbetween effect (I don't know the correct name for it  ) in frames 4 & 8... or will that ruin it?

Thanks!

EDIT: By "swooshy", I mean this:

The middle frame, where everything gets stretched...what's the real name for that?

[ndchristie]

It's part fo the rather vague set of  "squash and stretch" oldschool animation "techniques."  If there is a name beyond that, someone like ptoing might know.

[Rynen10K]

Ah, for some reason, I keep thinking this is different than Squash n stretch, but, yeah, I probably should've figured that out 

I've tried quite few times to get this to work, but I don't really know where to start... I've tried drawing it out on a larger scale, but it never flows properly...like, at all. I think it's the feather/finger things that are throwing me off...

EDIT: Here's my horrible attempt...drawn in flash

How can I make a stretched inbetween for these 2 frames?



Man, I'm really rusty on my basic animation stuff

[.TakaM]

'accentuated motion blur' ?

[ep]

I really don't think it needs that cartoon stretch in it, although I think the frame with wings down could be longer, showing a little glide time, as well as changing it so that the body doesn't move so much, it is probably just me but it seems off when it fluctuates almost a full body width up and down.

[AdamAtomic]

Something that I think works great on wings is to accentuate the motion of the...well i guess the "elbow" as it were - the middle of the wing.  Have that push down hardest and first, while the outer tip of the wing is still trying to catch up, and then the same thing on the upswing.  I think you'll find the stretch will come naturally once you exaggerate the basic motion in the first place.  I know they're tiny, but check out my avatar dragon's wings for a basic 4 frame wing-flapping animation (I don't actually use stretching really, but I do exaggerate the "elbow"s movement).  Not that these are the best wings ever, but just personally I've found that having the middle of the wing appear to be the center of gravity/center of motion for the wing seems to give a more weighty and fluid appearance to the wing.

Also, stretch motions don't have to (and generally shouldn't) start exactly where the first frame ended; try making it cover 1/3 to 2/3 of the distance instead.  The idea with stretch and squash is to give life to otherwise inanimate or inflexible (or, of course, flexible ) things, but also to fill some of the role that motion blur serves on camera - it helps your eyes and mind interpolate the motion and smooth it out.  If you stretch area just goes from where you started to where you ended, you're not providing us with as much extra information as you could!  If you look at your own example that you posted, that megaman-boss-lookin dude, you'll see that in the middle frame, the section of the sprite that has a stretch/swoop effect both starts and ends in between the first and last frame.  The swoop does not go from the beginning to the end - it exists somewhere in the middle, interpolating the motion for us.

Finally, i believe this term is just squash-and-stretch.  I think Pixar people use a shortened portmanteau form (squatch maybe) but that's the only real term for it afaik.

[big brother]

Rubber hose animation?

[AdamAtomic]

rubber hose specifically refers to the thin, rubbery limbs of characters like mickey mouse

[birkka]

this animation is good for you or not Rynen10K ?




EDIT:  I'm really sorry for my bad english 

[Rynen10K]

this animation is good for you or not Rynen10K ?




EDIT:  I'm really sorry for my bad english 

Yes, that was what I was thinking of! Cool!
However, I think there is one more frame than there needs to be... Frame 5, by the looks of it...



Although, now you can't even see the blur... hmm... perhaps it needs 2 frames of blur after all?

I was trying to actually replace the original 4th & 8th frames with the stretch/blur for a faster motion effect... I kinda like the cartoony stretch of it, too 

Hmm... I think I'll try it again in a while - kinda busy with other stuff right now. Thanks for the edit, though!


AdamAtomic: Thank you very much for all the info and advice! I'm gonna try out a few tests later on to see how that works out... I kinda wanted his wings to look kinda like hands, too, which I think works for this animation (probably just me, though), but I want to try that technique to see if it looks better...they seem kinda stiff right now.

Thanks again! 

Also, any advice on what to do with the body movement? It looks kinda weird without it, but it also looks really unstable with him bobbing up and down like that all the time...

(yes, I know the shading's off - it's an old version of the sprite)