Atalanta Animations

[NaCl]

Hey everyone,

This is an animation of the Greek hero Atalanta, shooting her bow. I tried to keep the animation brief but smooth and readable, as it would be used in a game. In the game, you can hold down the shoot button to charge up the shot, so when you see the delay between the bow being drawn and her shooting, it is the frame that will remain displayed until the player releases the button. I haven't drawn an arrow or anything yet.

->

All crits and comments are welcome, especially about the animation itself. Thanks!

Update:

->

Added the bow. It's starting to come together, how exciting.

[dekutree64]

Looks good. I'm working on a game with this exact same mechanic   Except my animation uses very few frames because I needed so many variations.

For the animation, maybe you could add a little change to her right leg. Since her left leg moves out and bends a bit, then the other leg should bend too. Nothing too noticeable, just not nothing. Also, maybe the bow string could vibrate a bit after it snaps.

As for the drawing, I think some darker shadows would be good. It's good that you put dark stripes periodically so she won't be totally invisible in front of a light background, but for a player character she still doesn't stand out quite enough, IMO. The overall proportions/shapes look good as they are though, so just one more shading level on her robe and some palette fiddling should do it.

[Corsair]

Just an observation - she isn't...pulling any arrows from that quiver.

Edit pending. I'm definitely not used to working on that scale!

before anyone says anything, this is a really quick and "dirty" edit here,
And i'm feeling a bit too lazy to add the pulling form the quiver mvoement so i just assumed she already had an arrow in hand.



The front leg movement makes it seem as though it's actually growing in size. if you're stepping forward , the rest of your body moves in tandem, it's not just that leg. if the other leg stays in the same place, then only the foot is going to do that, the rest of the leg will stay with the rest of the body. well more like the waist, but anyways,i'm rambling.

If you need a reference, look for a mirror and pose in front of it. observe how *you* move.

now as for archery in general, watch some youtube vids of archery. there are a few of them.

And just from my own personal experience, it's much easier to draw up a very simple model and animate -that- before adding in details, that way you've already got the motion down. chances are if the animation is fast/fluid enough a good number of the details are going to be lost anyway.

[NaCl]

Yeah that's true, but to have her reach up and grab an arrow, then shoot it may take too long for a game scenario. It would certainly look better though.

I also agree with Deku that the other leg should move somehow, but I can't think of what it should do that wouldn't look ridiculous.

[Corsair]

Edited my revious post, adresses someof the leg movement. I'll freely admit that animating legs...i somethg im sill working on, so take my advice wih a grain of salt.

[NaCl]

Hey Corsair, thanks for that insightful edit. I can see now that the body needed to move, and was one of the things that I could not figure out. I've tried to make her tilt her leg a bit, and move her body forward with the step in this edit:



Thanks again.

[Zenobia]

I have some non pixel-art related comments if that's ok. I'm sorry, I can't help it.

I just have to point out, that if you're making this because you played Rise of the Argonauts: Atalanta was not one of them. They got it so, so wrong. She is in fact known in the story of the Argonauts for them refusing to let her become one.

I'm sorry. That said, she's still an awesome herione. For realism however, her hair should be dark brown or black since that's what most people in ancient Greece looked like.
At the moment she looks more like the virgin goddess Artemis gone blonde. A nice thing for your game might be that Atalanta was known for her great speed and she could run faster than most men. If you'd like to add more detail, some myths say she was raised by wolfs, and the most well-known myth about Atalanta is about golden apples. So you could use either of those themes for decoration. I like how it's simple right now though.

I like the character by the way, despite my inner historian.

[NaCl]

I have never played Rise of the Argonauts, but there are conflicting accounts on whether Atalanta sailed with the Argonauts. Some believe that she initially did, but the story was revised over time to Jason talking her out of going with them. Regardless, the game will not be taking place on the Journey of the Argonauts, it will be following her on other adventures, namely the Calydonian Boar hunt, and her battle against the two lusty Centaurs. Also, there will be "race" levels between the regular platforming levels where you have to race against suitors (if a suitor beat her in a race, she vowed to marry him). I could have sworn Ovid's description of her included blond hair, but I just checked and it doesn't. I will try making her brown or black or something, but I will probably just take creative license here.

So, I am making this game out of love for Greek mythology, not because I saw the character in another game. As for using common symbols like the golden apple, I was thinking about having golden apples be lives or something.

Thanks for the input.

[Zenobia]

That's really great to hear ^_^

Do we get to see the finished game?

[TrevoriuS]

The problme in the leg movement is that the toes seem to actually draw closer to the body before getting lifted. Make them keep their position, and don't darken the very toes, as the foot doesn't bend much before the ball. Now other things in your animation are, where is she going to get the arrow from? Why is it suggested the arrow slides into it's position, in theory straight through the hand holding the bow. Find a bow, modern hand bow will suffice, and see how it works before doing this.