Attack Animations

[Rosier]

Wooooo it's been a minute. 

Been obsessed with the idea of flicking a marble with a thumb and ended up here.  Some marbles are called, "cat's eyes," due to the shape inside the sphere, so I decided to make it part of the flash effect.  It didn't quite turn out how I thought it did, but gotta go for style.

As for why there's two, the extra arm movement really isn't necessary, but why not add a bit more motion to it?

[daramon]

I really like the way you've handled cloth and hair movement. There's a great feeling of life and fluidity to it. It looks like a lot of love and skill went into that.

I prefer the one with the extra arm movement, but I can't help but feel that if I were playing this character in a game I'd get annoyed at waiting around for it to complete every time. I wonder if the first part of the animation (arm raise so forearm is vertical) could be made more fluid, so the impact only occurs on the flick?

[Rosier]

I really like the way you've handled cloth and hair movement. There's a great feeling of life and fluidity to it. It looks like a lot of love and skill went into that.

I prefer the one with the extra arm movement, but I can't help but feel that if I were playing this character in a game I'd get annoyed at waiting around for it to complete every time. I wonder if the first part of the animation (arm raise so forearm is vertical) could be made more fluid, so the impact only occurs on the flick?

A quick few frames to smooth it out a bit.

I think of these as standalone animations for something like an RPG, so the lead up and superfluous motion is all just for the sake of animation.  TBH, if this was in an action game or something, it'd be a pretty quick flick; the pose is totally unnecessary, but more dramatic.

[daramon]

I definitely get a more RPG vibe from this, yeah. I'm just an impatient action junkie.

The new one seems slower, which probably works if you're going for that drama. The sequence is itching my brain a little, though. Both the actions of "raising the arm to horizontal" and "Flicking the magic projectile" seem to cause a reasonably similar amount of displacement of clothing. While dramatic, I can't help but think that the first one takes away from the impact of the actual flick.

I'd be tempted to either remove the first "impact" from the animation and use a fluid motion all the way up until the flick, or add some particle or air displacement effects to the actual flick to give it more impact.

But... Well, see previous comment re: action junkie. I don't play games with turn-based fight sequences, mainly because they bore me to tears.

[MysteryMeat]

Would like to suggest an alternate flow for this:

rather than hold his arm bent, instead he first holds the marble out between two fingers then quickly rotates his hand for the marble flick

[Rosier]

Would like to suggest an alternate flow for this:

rather than hold his arm bent, instead he first holds the marble out between two fingers then quickly rotates his hand for the marble flick

I also added a bit of rubberiness to the thumb.  I felt the flash covered the motion, so thought it might look better with a bit of extra oomph.

[daramon]

Just a generally positive response. It definitely looks like the character is rolling a marble or similar between fingers now. Great work.

The thumb work makes me think of LucasArts Monkey Island animations for some reason. Not a bad thing by any means!

[Rosier]

Wanted to summon ghosts and wound up focusing on two separate motions that had different speeds.  The clutch is supposed to be slow until the grip, while the drawing is supposed to be incredibly fast.  I'm very happy with the magic circle, but I'm still wondering about the other side; I couldn't really decide what I wanted her to be doing, and that was what looked the best.

[Rosier]

Chaos.

I wanted to make something where the character summons up an energy he's forcing together rather than controlling.  It's supposed to be wild and amorphous, and I wanted to make the impact really sell.  It's not quite as powerful as I want it to be, though, but I'm kind of stuck.  I feel like it needs screen shake or something, but I don't know if that's exactly what I'm after.  The hair's also a little inconsistent, but I'm still working on that at least.

[MysteryMeat]

I think it's more the pose when he kicks isn't back enough, you might have a better time if you set the leg up hard-vertical instead of at a 45 degree angle like it is

[Schwee]

For the record, loving these!  Well animated and lots of character shown in each movement!

[Rosier]

I think it's more the pose when he kicks isn't back enough, you might have a better time if you set the leg up hard-vertical instead of at a 45 degree angle like it is

Definitely more in line with what I was thinking of!

For the record, loving these!  Well animated and lots of character shown in each movement!

^.^

[imonk]

Awesome stuff, you're pretty consistent with your work schedule. I think you have the leg angle correct now but the chaos ball was good how it was originally. I think when the ball is too close to the leg, the kick lacks anticipation.

[Rosier]

I originally tried to make it wrap around his foot a bit, but I went ahead and added the sparks when he makes contact.




And managed to throw this together pretty fast!  Probably one of my favorite things I've made in recent memory; the movement is definitely a bit more dynamic than what I've made, and it all came together pretty naturally when I was making it. 

[SilverBrick]

Wanted to summon ghosts and wound up focusing on two separate motions that had different speeds.  The clutch is supposed to be slow until the grip, while the drawing is supposed to be incredibly fast.  I'm very happy with the magic circle, but I'm still wondering about the other side; I couldn't really decide what I wanted her to be doing, and that was what looked the best.

I think the left part should spiral in the same direction as the clutch (clockwise), and maybe come upwards from the bottom-left and bottom-right before combining, to mimic the upwards movement of the hand.

By the way, did you purposely use the nonbinary flag's color scheme? If so, I greatly approve.

[Rosier]

Had the idea of just launching the heck out of a wagon-ish wheel and wound up with this.  He's supposed to sort of wind up and then lock the wheel before firing it, but I feel like something's off and I'm not sure what.  The hand sort of stutters, maybe?  The launch also doesn't feel as powerful as I want it to.

Wanted to summon ghosts and wound up focusing on two separate motions that had different speeds.  The clutch is supposed to be slow until the grip, while the drawing is supposed to be incredibly fast.  I'm very happy with the magic circle, but I'm still wondering about the other side; I couldn't really decide what I wanted her to be doing, and that was what looked the best.

I think the left part should spiral in the same direction as the clutch (clockwise), and maybe come upwards from the bottom-left and bottom-right before combining, to mimic the upwards movement of the hand.

I kind of want the hands to look like two totally separate motions, so making them sync up seems against that.  My thought process was drawing spectral energy together, which would just be floating around, so the same with it rising up.  The hand clenching is forcing it together, not raising it out of nothing.  Kinda weird to explain.

By the way, did you purposely use the nonbinary flag's color scheme? If so, I greatly approve.

No, accidental.  The outfit was based on a real one I saw that had a red tartan pattern, so I simplified it to solid purple because color-coding. 

It occurred to me that Pinky's actually nearing the trans flag since she's also a white mage, though she's actually bisexual.  :p

[MysteryMeat]

the movement to him standing back up is too slow, and the throw doesn't have much visual follow-through. Rather than leaning forward to aim the wheel, he should lean back. Creates a more believable "windup."

[Rosier]

the movement to him standing back up is too slow, and the throw doesn't have much visual follow-through. Rather than leaning forward to aim the wheel, he should lean back. Creates a more believable "windup."

Might go back to the drawing board, then...  He was supposed to lean forward, then sort of lock in like a winch before releasing.  That didn't really translate, plus you barely see the wheel, which was the whole point. 



Instead, legos.  I'm a lot happier with this, but I can't help but feel I either have one too many or one too few frames when she goes upwards. 

[MysteryMeat]

definitely one too few frames on the upswing, it makes hte movement feel a bit jilted/too sudden

[Rosier]

Added a bit of extra blur to smooth it out, too.