AuthorTopic: [WIP][CC] help with run animation  (Read 4005 times)

Offline KaiserPixel

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[WIP][CC] help with run animation

on: August 16, 2019, 08:38:08 pm
Hi everyone, so far I have only drawn static things or some idle animations, I have tried to make a running animation (this is a second attempt, the first version I did not like :(), what things you recomend me modify?

this is the character

and here his running animation


It has become difficult to draw hands :-[, and there are still some details to be added such as the cape or poncho.

Offline Chonky Pixel

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Re: [WIP][CC] help with run animation

Reply #1 on: August 18, 2019, 08:20:36 am


Some things I learned on this very forum about run/walk animations:

 - When in contact with the ground, the feet should move the same number of pixels per frame. I've counted them as you can see above, and your guy's feet are accelerating sharply. This will make it impossible to marry up the speed of the character with the platform he's on in-game.

 - A run animation includes an 'air' phase. In all your frames the character is grounded. Do a Google image search for "run cycle animation" and choose one to base your frames on. I like the Preston Blair cycles, but you may want something a little less cartoony:

http://www.angryanimator.com/word/2018/03/20/preston-blair-deciphered/

I find that it looks like his legs are scissoring rather than running, unless I look really carefully. The points above should help, but you may want to differentiate the front and rear legs and arms a bit more. Make the rear ones darker, the front ones lighter. It will help sell the idea of depth and allow our slow brains to pick out which is which when it's moving quickly.



Offline KaiserPixel

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Re: [WIP][CC] help with run animation

Reply #2 on: August 19, 2019, 03:54:14 pm


Some things I learned on this very forum about run/walk animations:

 - When in contact with the ground, the feet should move the same number of pixels per frame. I've counted them as you can see above, and your guy's feet are accelerating sharply. This will make it impossible to marry up the speed of the character with the platform he's on in-game.

 - A run animation includes an 'air' phase. In all your frames the character is grounded. Do a Google image search for "run cycle animation" and choose one to base your frames on. I like the Preston Blair cycles, but you may want something a little less cartoony:

http://www.angryanimator.com/word/2018/03/20/preston-blair-deciphered/

I find that it looks like his legs are scissoring rather than running, unless I look really carefully. The points above should help, but you may want to differentiate the front and rear legs and arms a bit more. Make the rear ones darker, the front ones lighter. It will help sell the idea of depth and allow our slow brains to pick out which is which when it's moving quickly.

Hi Chonky Pixel thanks for the help

I've done some edits, I just need to put into practice what you told me about the feets. I have darkened the back leg  and changed his arms and legs a bit.



for animations I'm reading the animators survivor kit and for this case I have taken as a reference of this tutorial
https://www.slynyrd.com/blog/2018/8/19/pixelblog-8-intro-to-animation

I wanted to make an animation of running but that this was not as fast or cartoony as you say

thanks :)

Offline Chonky Pixel

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Re: [WIP][CC] help with run animation

Reply #3 on: August 20, 2019, 09:20:47 am
I'm reading the leg movements a little easier now, but the scissoring effect is still there. I'd really like to see what happens when you do the foot work.

So if you look at the example animations in the tutorial you'll see that the artist is careful to move the feet similar distances when they're on the ground. I haven't run the numbers, but I'd be willing to bet they're close to pixel perfect, if not exact.



And if you're reading the Animator's Survival Kit, you'll be learning a lot about key frames. If you want to think about things that way, your keys here could be the extremes of movement: foot on the floor extended fully forwards, foot on floor extended backwards, opposite foot on floor extended fully forwards, opposite foot on floor extended backwards. Similar to the 4 frame animation in the image above. Now you can choose how many frames go between each key, but space them evenly between the keys. This should automatically space the foot positions evenly. As per the tutorial above, you probably won't need many extra frames.

There is a bit of a conflict here as this tutorial shows the character as always grounded, but IIRC the Animator's Survival Kit shows a lot of air time in its run cycles. It's up to you which direction you want to go in of course, but an air frame or two might help to sell the idea of running and give my eyes even more of a chance to separate the two leg movements.

Offline KaiserPixel

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Re: [WIP][CC] help with run animation

Reply #4 on: August 20, 2019, 11:56:44 pm
Hi thanks  :y:
I was trying some things, I created one of 8 frames and another of 12 frames, this time I followed the advice for the foot.

just legs

8 frames
in the animation of 8 frames I changed the sequence of the frames to "up,air,contact, pass", in this I still notice a strange movement in the back leg :-[
edit...full body

edit 2... test ground


12 frames
while in the 12 frame one I followed the Animator's Survival Kit as a reference (in this animation only the "up" frame the foot moves a little more than the others)


« Last Edit: August 23, 2019, 10:44:48 pm by KaiserPixel »

Offline Chonky Pixel

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Re: [WIP][CC] help with run animation

Reply #5 on: August 21, 2019, 01:03:55 pm
This is looking a lot better IMO.

Personally I like the 12 frame animation more out of those two. There may not be quite enough difference between frames 1&2 and frames 7&8, but it's minor and anything I do to it makes it worse! ;)

In frames 3 and 9 his lower leg is way too long compared to the surrounding frames. This could be causing a bit of a disjointed feel. I may have a play with those frames later to see if shortening it could help.

There is some odd flickering on the gun holster (if that's what the 3 orange pixels on his leg represent). Between the last and the first frame it mirrors horizontally and goes from 3 to 2 pixels for no reason. The result is a bit flickery, which doesn't help with the smooth leg movements.


As an aside, this is interesting. The following tutorial:

https://twitter.com/i/status/829350756004175874

seems to suffer from the same leg issue as your 8 frame animation, until it flicks to showing the character as block colours. Then the animation looks a lot more convincing. I don't think the author is using enough shadow to differentiate the legs, so for me it's a good demonstration of the importance of this technique.

It also points out an interesting technique at the end: displacing the rear leg and arm to avoid a completely mirrored look.

Offline KaiserPixel

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Re: [WIP][CC] help with run animation

Reply #6 on: August 22, 2019, 12:30:58 pm
Thanks for the tips :), now I think it looks a little better, I made some changes, I fixed the flickering on the gun holster, also this time I changed frames 3 and 9. I also played a bit with the frame rate between 80 ms and 100 ms for the 8 frames animation and some things I saw from the tutorial. :y:

8 frames                                                     
Old New

12 frames
Old   New

A few days later...... :crazy:

After spending the weekend trying to improve the animation, I think it looks a little better, after redoing some things, with a little consistency  and a better transition in each frame, I think I initially had many defects in the character's anatomy (maybe still). If anyone has any advice. Thank you! ;D

I've done a clean up I have tried to draw each area as defined as possible, for someone who does not know how to draw by hand what advice do they give me to have an anatomy book or something?

8 frames full body 8 frames full body (with "passing" frame)

« Last Edit: August 27, 2019, 01:30:57 am by KaiserPixel »

Offline Mistajaye

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Re: [WIP][CC] help with run animation

Reply #7 on: November 05, 2019, 08:58:45 pm
Looks good, only the front and back leg shouldn't be pixel by pixel meaning the same. Unless you want a Robotic unnatural feel. if that makes any sense. The Original imo is Solid work my Man. I just added the Hat trick and took away some pixels to the back foot to make it look fluent.


 
« Last Edit: November 05, 2019, 09:34:54 pm by Mistajaye »