Overly exadurated broad swordsmen (Attack animation updated)

[sharprm]

I meant to say varying line widths, like sometimes it is one pixel wide, other times 2 or 3 etc. My observation might not be correct - I just noticed when I was transforming one of my pictures with varying line widths to single line widths, there was a lot of work fixing it up and shading was more important.

I always found if I tried to fix a colored animation, I could never do that, its only when its black and white that you can efficiently fix things. In case u r getting frustrated, consider going back to line art.

The legs look like they flip all over the place, like his left leg goes up but his right leg goes down. I also wouldn't know how to do this anim properly. funny idea: you know if you pushed something heavy on a slippery floor with socks, your feet would be doing alot of cycles but you would only be moving a little bit, maybe u could have a comic anim with that same effect and this massive sword.

[ndchristie]

i just can't see this as a walk animation, the legs are just a jumble to me.  not the most useful crit but......hmm.

[Arachne]

I think the problem is that the leg furthest away is lower than the leg closest to us in the third frame, when it should be the other way around. The leg closest to us in the third frame is also almost identical to the leg furthest away from us in the first frame, so your mind reads it as the same leg again. Use perspective and shading to add a sense of distance. If you adjust the length of the leg in the third frame and add some highlights to the dark parts of the legs so that it's easier to tell them apart, I think it should look much better.

[Souly]

->
I found a lot of the problems in the animation.
The legs got too long in some frames.
I also decided to add an extra frame, 4 seemed too little..

Edit: Decided to leave him leaning to give it more of a pull feel.


This will be the stance he will be in after swinging his sword.

->
Still needs a motion trail inbetween the tip of the lift and the fall.
And there is still much to be done but this is what I have as far.

[Ichigo Jam]

I like the sword, but your attack animation really isn't communicating the weight effectively.
In general, try looking at the position of only part of of his body while stepping through to see if they describe clean movement paths - currently his feet jiggle around meaninglessly, and the head position isn't much better..
This is most important with the sword - heavy objects cannot (without enormous force) make sudden changes of movement. Once they start moving or rotating one way, they're probably going to carry on like that.
If you want him to finish in that frame after swinging, he needs to be taking a step forwards during the swing - currently his right foot is sliding back a lot in between frames 5 and 6 (which also makes it confusing which leg is which, since they more or less swap position at that point)
I don't understand why he rotates the sword as he lifts it before the swing - it would make it require even more strength. And you'd get more air resistance, trying to start swinging it like that.

After thinking about it a bit, I reckon you'd want him to lower his body a bit at the start - this way he can start the sword rotating, and crouch down to start lifting its weight at the same time.
Maybe also move the frame before the impact point back a little, so the impact frame has the biggest motion (and have the most motion blur on the impact frame)

This stuff's hard to describe, so here's an incredibly messy () edit to hopefully clarify what I mean:


It would also be good to add some sparks or something to the impact frame to emphasize the blade smashing into the floor.

[ndchristie]

this over the back thing makes no sense to me, quick marker drawing (didn't get to see it in moton until it was scanned, so i might actually change a few things - hang time in the middle is for an extra frame you might want)



by breaking it up into two parts like this, you also allow the possibility of a gameplay bit - his enemy can hit him before the swing falls.  this would be matched against maybe a lower, faster swing.

for even more effect, and some frames between hitting the ground and regaining control of the blade - adding in the frames at the top and at the end can easily make this a nice 12-frame anim.


also i culdnt find any examples but if my memroy of yore serves me, Fable has some great handling of heavy objects if you equip them too big too soon.

[Souly]

I now regret doing this animation without a wire frame.
If worse comes to worse, I'll just make one and edit this animation accordingly.

I think I get the leg motion now, but the arms are way off.. 
->



Thanks for the animation edits guys, they are helping me quite a bit. 
Edit: Added an extra frame in the pull up, and motion trails on the swords final swing.
Edit2: Made him actually step forward, also fixed up the first motion trail to appear less strong.

[Rydin]

Take a broom or something and go into a hallway or outside and then swing it and pause at every frame.
In some frames, you've got the sword too far ahead and at a further angle of than where it should actually be, and it's making it look almost like the sword is falling out of his hands.


The red lines are what I'd say are a safe, realistic angle for the frame, and the green lines are where I would put them if it where my piece .

Then, there's an issue with the legs.  Right now it looks like he's just sliding the foot in the rear forwards as he swings.  I think more realistically that he'd lift it and bring it down as the sword hit--for more "umph", you know?  Do the broom exercise and you'll see what I mean, I think.

And also, just want to say that there's a frame where it's almost as if his hand is upside down; it's pointed out on the edit-thingy.

Good luck

[Souly]

Fixed the frame in question, his arm was bent the wrong way. 
Fixed the sword I believe, it's been pushed back to about the red line, it's also been angled so it looks more like he's finishing the rotation of the sword.

[ndchristie]

how on earth does one accomplish either of these frames?