AuthorTopic: This stuff really pi55es me off...  (Read 15940 times)

Offline baccaman21

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Re: This stuff really pi55es me off...

Reply #10 on: November 22, 2007, 08:48:41 am
Hmmm... well I'm glad i'm not the only one.

Thanks peeps, I just needed some resassurance.
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Offline Helm

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Re: This stuff really pi55es me off...

Reply #11 on: November 22, 2007, 08:56:54 am
However, please alert that user of this threads' existence for two reasons: not nice to talk behind the back of someone, and also he might find the critique in this thread useful for his art.

Offline baccaman21

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Re: This stuff really pi55es me off...

Reply #12 on: November 22, 2007, 09:04:48 am
yeah... I'm intending to helm... I've got less than a 48 hours wait until I can post on the Indiegamer forum...
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Offline ndchristie

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Re: This stuff really pi55es me off...

Reply #13 on: November 22, 2007, 02:48:07 pm
If he hears anything, it should be that a better attack can be made in 3 frames than his one that takes 30.  He's shrewd in knowing that people are attracted to smoothness, but it will catch up to him in the long run when he tries to get a real job and can't animate.

I almost said i can see simple animations like this being used in an RTS, where individual characters are less important, but then i remembered that no, characters with 30 frames every second can't be used en masse, so there's no practical application and it ends up looking.....cheap.

EDIT: not to mention the fact that rts characters benefit greatly from snappy animations which add a sense of excitement to what would otherwise look like a big brown game of jacks.
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Offline Conzeit

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Re: This stuff really pi55es me off...

Reply #14 on: November 22, 2007, 04:08:13 pm
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/11/flash-vs-traditional-vs-asia.html  ...=) who'da thunk I'd become such a suckup for someone?

In short.....

"non-creative types believe that having a lot of inbetweens is what makes quality and they are willing to spend a lot of money for drawings that no one sees. At the same time telling the artists who do the key poses to not ever make anything new up."

"Computer animation is perfect for producers who fear creativity, because it is so hard to make customized poses in the first place. But it's easy to make it smooth. It's all about the "tweening"."

Offline Faktablad

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Re: This stuff really pi55es me off...

Reply #15 on: November 22, 2007, 04:15:01 pm
In my opinion, the attack animation is much better than the run.  It's got great balance and nice motion.  It still looks like the sword has no weight, though.  And it's way too slow, maybe not for real life, but for a game.  The blurriness combined with the black outlines makes the whole sprite take on an ugly shade of gray. 

I don't like the run at all.  It looks like the sprite is cross-country skiing in slow motion while submerged in a pool of molasses on the moon.

Offline MrMister

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Re: This stuff really pi55es me off...

Reply #16 on: November 22, 2007, 10:00:23 pm
The ones on his site are even terribler.
This guy has no morals. Those really couldn't be used in any game..
it might be a one shot deal

Offline robotacon

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Re: This stuff really pi55es me off...

Reply #17 on: November 22, 2007, 10:18:55 pm
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/11/flash-vs-traditional-vs-asia.html  ...=) who'da thunk I'd become such a suckup for someone?

In short.....

"non-creative types believe that having a lot of inbetweens is what makes quality and they are willing to spend a lot of money for drawings that no one sees. At the same time telling the artists who do the key poses to not ever make anything new up."

"Computer animation is perfect for producers who fear creativity, because it is so hard to make customized poses in the first place. But it's easy to make it smooth. It's all about the "tweening"."

Sorry to highjack this thread but John K having a blog is like sweet candy poured straight down my eye sockets. And interesting enough he bring up buffer colors in this post. (If I've understood the term correctly that it)

Offline baccaman21

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Re: This stuff really pi55es me off...

Reply #18 on: November 22, 2007, 10:50:17 pm
The ones on his site are even terribler.
This guy has no morals. Those really couldn't be used in any game..

I don't agree. Morals isn't the word. It's fair enough for him to have been trained by 'ex disney/pixar' animators... (I can lay claim to at least one of those) - but if it's games that these anims are supposed to be aimed at then it's not animators from the movie industry that are relevant... sure they have their place, but there's more to game animation than being able to render a squillion tweens in 3.5 hours.

The 3 Words I've always used to explain what I consider to be quality, well designed and well crafted pieces of games - and these words can be used interchangabley across the mediums and disciplines be it a 2D or a 3D environment, the Characters within that environment, the backgrounds that make up that environment, the animations of the characters or environmental effects... and those 3 words are SCALE, PACE and DYNAMISM.

This should be a fore of you mind whether you're trying to create a swooshy anim or a snazzy camera intro, or even the style of the font. If you lack any one of these then the overall result is weakened.

SCALE is applied to the Size of the piece and can be wholey subjective... to big though and it can overwhelm - too small and it can be insignificant.
PACE is applied to the overall feel of the peice, timing, weights, and so on, generally within the animation context but equally so in the overall FEEL of a product. (I'm talking beyond the realm of Pixel art here and moving into game theory)
DYNAMISM is applied to the overall movement and whether it has FLAIR or is ambitious in what it's trying to acheive. (a great example of this recently that really broke the mode, was the camera shake in Gears of War - it added a great sense of dynamic reality)

But back to these pieces... There's a certain amount of Dynamism I suppose, but the Pacing is all wrong.

I think the thing that disturbs me the most is that all I see is a load of separate sections that are hinged and rotated and flipped in order to create an idea of movement... but the movement itself is bland and uninspiring. And sloooooow.... Granted, I suppose the thinking is, well, you can play them at 30 fps and the movement will look fantastic... that's the theory... and I suppose in some respects that might be true... but with respect to video games... memory restrictions amount for a lot.

And with all that in mind... it's not morals that I believe is missing... It's experience.
« Last Edit: November 22, 2007, 10:54:27 pm by baccaman21 »
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Offline Jad

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Re: This stuff really pi55es me off...

Reply #19 on: November 24, 2007, 03:24:07 am
Man, I dunno, I'm not very fond of JohnK's blog. He just disses about everything I like and tops it off with 'Flintstones is the only good show there ever was' kind of opinions.

Can someone please explain why I should try to wrap my head against this guy, me, who totally loves anime, pastel colours etc.?

.. And I absolutely loathe the flintstones :(
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