AuthorTopic: Resonance  (Read 18002 times)

Offline Overkill

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Re: Resonance - A metroidvania-style sidescroller

Reply #10 on: December 01, 2008, 04:33:56 am
I started to draw out some walking frames, but it doesn't look very natural at all, both from stills and in motion.

I was embarrassed by how awkward this looks when animated with 10ms between frames, and "ping-pong" animation, so I decided maybe I'd better just post some stills. (also I don't actually preview the animation as a gif, I just open it in my game engine and I don't really have nice gif exporter right now :/)

So here you are! Some pointers on what in particular I can fix would be nice.



I'm thinking of redoing the animation, I'm thinking I'd better slow down, try and get the form correct before I draw over with details. Only thing is my old attempts at using stick figures to animate have failed sort of... badly. :(

Animation and sideview are two of my biggest weaknesses, and I'd like to overcome this. Any advice is very helpful. And yes, yes, I have looked at Idleworm's animation tutorial, and tried (but failed) to follow it. Thanks though.
« Last Edit: December 01, 2008, 04:47:29 am by Overkill »

Offline Willows

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Re: Resonance - A metroidvania-style sidescroller

Reply #11 on: December 01, 2008, 07:01:14 am
Graphicsgale got inspired to do wierd things with colour when I saved it as a .gif



I think the biggest problem with that animation is that it isn't all there :D

You've currently got 4 frames of an 8 frame animation, which is why the legs and arms pop. The arm swings forward, but never back. Add another 4 frames that complete the cycle of legs and arms and I'm willing to bet it'll be a rather workable walk animation.

Offline Overkill

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Re: Resonance - Now with animation (kind of)

Reply #12 on: December 01, 2008, 07:48:02 am
Well, except I had the frame order go reverse back to the start after it reached the last frame. I'm guessing that's a no-no? :(

Yeah. I'll see about drawing the other 4 frames, so I'm not being cheap (especially since my cheapness doesn't look proper).

Also srsly, what free software do people use for gifs.

EDIT: I see... ImageReady is tolerable I guess.

Anyway, this is the way the animation looks with the "ping-pong" playback I was using:

« Last Edit: December 01, 2008, 08:11:07 am by Overkill »

Offline TrevoriuS

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Re: Resonance - Now with animation (kind of)

Reply #13 on: December 01, 2008, 08:13:21 am
He's not really bending his knees, which is the problem, and makes him look walking backwards. Though the arm and torso movemetns furtherly suggest forwards movement.

Offline Willows

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Re: Resonance - Now with animation (kind of)

Reply #14 on: December 01, 2008, 09:27:08 am
Yeah, that's a fairly large no-no.

Though you -can- still be cheap, just not that cheap. And I was wrong, it's a 6-frame animation you've got here, not 8.

Take frames two and three, duplicate 'em and stick 'em on the end, so your sequence goes 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 2 - 3

Now reverse the legs, so the further away leg in 2 (the duplicated one) is the closer one, and do the same for the duplicated frame 3.

Copy the entire upper torso from frame 2 (original) and paste it to frame 3 (duplicate).

Copy the entire upper torso from frame 3 (original) and paste it to frame 2 (duplicate).



Ta-daaa! Much better result, only about 5 minutes of doing! Much tweaking needed to make it better, but it's still a solid building block to go from.

Offline Atnas

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Re: Resonance - Now with animation (kind of)

Reply #15 on: December 01, 2008, 03:01:33 pm
When his legs make a ^ he should bob down and when they are like |> he should bob up. It's because his legs never change length, but the angle does.

Offline Overkill

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Re: Resonance - Now with animation (walk cycle almost done?)

Reply #16 on: December 01, 2008, 06:11:37 pm
Thank you Willow! Your edit there was very helpful.

I took your advice, and this is what I came up with:


I also tried to correct the hop/drop to the walk so it'd correspond to the right part of the cycle, I don't really know how successful I was.

Also I noticed the hero's head was tilted fairly unnaturally back, so I leaned his neck forward a bit.

But I'm at least glad that this sprite is slowly being cured of its weirdness.
« Last Edit: December 01, 2008, 06:19:30 pm by Overkill »

Offline Willows

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Re: Resonance - Now with animation (walk cycle almost done?)

Reply #17 on: December 02, 2008, 01:25:34 am
Cool things, cool things.



The beauty of animation is that you get to start simple, and can keep adding and adding and adding all these different motions to acheive a better and better effect. It's a friggin' tweak and adjust party.

What atnas is saying is this:

When your character is in its pass position(Your frames 3 & 6 are pass positions), one leg will be bent and passing, and the other will be straight and straight up & down. At this position, the character is at its tallest. When your character is in "contact" position, its legs will look like an upside-down V (your frames 1 & 4 are contact positions) and the character, in your case, will be at its lowest.

In walk cycles with higher counts, you'll have a "recoil" frame right after the "contact" frame, and the "recoil" frame will actually be lower than the contact, as the recoil frame is the frame where all the weight is transferred to that one leg.

Having said that, I actually screwed it up in my edit. I've got the pass positions as the highest, but I have the frames right after the pass positions as the lowest. In yours, currently, you've actually got the pass position as the lowest, which ain't so good.

Another thing I gave a go at demonstrating is that everything that isn't actively getting propelled by a muscle or something will want to stay where it was in the previous frame. So, basically, for the hood and the hair you have the action one frame behind the rest of the animation, so while the entire body goes up at frame 4, the hood should go up at frame 5. When the entire body goes down in frame 5, the hood, one frame behind, will go down in frame 6.

This theory works for anything limp and hanging, so use the same idea for the hair and anything else you want to bounce for a more natural feel.

Another thing:

We rotate our shoulders when we walk around. I believe our shoulder movement is opposite the rotation of the foot, but I don't reaaally know. Simplest is to have the shoulders move forward and back with the movement of the arm.

Another thing:

Keep your shading simpler. Not only is it easier to work with simpler shading, it also makes it easier to look at. Less for the poor ol' brain to figure out. If you're determined, you could always add details after the motion itself is good and done.

Also watch that you don't stretch any bones!

(Why is it that people always forget the S in my username?! :D)
« Last Edit: December 02, 2008, 01:27:14 am by Willows »

Offline Tobe

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Re: Resonance - Now with animation (walk cycle almost done?)

Reply #18 on: December 02, 2008, 01:46:47 am
I'm always impress by  programmer that do all the artwork themselves. I'm an artist, but it's not like I can manage to learn programming.

C&C wise, I'm not sure if I'm right (again), but the upper body seems to lean slightly towards the camera. It almost looks like a 3/4 top view, rather then a 2D platform view.... that, or you can just try placing the eye more towards the nose.

Offline Overkill

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Resonance

Reply #19 on: May 22, 2009, 01:41:36 am
Hello! It's been a while (about six months) since I updated. Recently, I decided to work on Resonance again.

I updated the hero sprite to have more crotch room, and less squished of a head. Fixed the scarf to have improved shading.
EDIT: Improved shading on the hair to be less flat and attempted nicer AA on the edges of the face.
EDIT 2: Improved shading on the jacket.
-> -> ->

I decided to start over my walk animation, since I really wasn't planning my old walk cycle at all, I was just randomly moving limbs. I started reading the Animator's Survival Kit. Man that was useful!

So I present you with this 8-frame animation (arms and legs feel short, but they're sort of shrunk on the original sprite):


Crits appreciated.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2009, 02:23:56 am by Overkill »