Work in progress assorted game sprite animations Yipee!!

[Mike]

After seeing that "The ol' one two " thread I was inspired to put my work up to get critiqued.  I hope I can get as much good info as mozzy.  Well here they are!  A culmination of a few days work.

4 animations to start:  "Attacks are lined up in the order the combo will take place in game"

(I added the shake after I saw the ol' one two thread)

and the jump



I consider the jump and attack1 to be finished but I would still like some critiques on them to make them better. 

[Souly]

The multiple legs are really sticking out for me in the attack1.
I think the hand off the bat is too much really, sure the pose is cool but it makes no sense.
Also your hand is upside down on the weapon, the only way his thumb would be on top would be if the top of his hand was facing us.

I find in Attack2 the knee is really not doing it's job , though it could be that when his foot lands it should already be flat not ball of foot and then flat like you have it.
Also the final raise of the sword his hand placement doesn't make any sense.. His bottom hand isn't attached to his arm.
And the elbow is much too high on his body, it'd be lower you'd see more arm.
I think you need to take a stick and pose in all of these key frames.

I'm trying to pull off said attack combo here, since I'm assuming each animation is to be added to a combo since the start of each one is where the sword was last on the previous one.
And I have to say that second swing after the one handed release just feels wrong like it's coming from too low which is impossible on the wrists...

In Attack3 the shake at the end just isn't doing it for me.
Your feet wouldn't just slide around because of vibration, sure the whole body might contract, but his feet wouldn't move slide like that.

His back foot gets pretty big when it goes back in the jump animation.
Also when he jumps his left arm raises with his left leg, which is wrong.
It should be back at the start much like a walk would be you want the opposite limb to raise.

Hope this wasn't too much of a read, but I don't feel like editing them all to point out what I see wrong.
I do however like your hair flopping.

[tehwexxl0rz]

Hair movement is generally pretty great. Good job in that regard.

Souly raises a lot of good points. Additionally, I'm noticing a lot of detailed slashing effects that interrupt the fluidity when motion blurs could really be utilized effective. Some detail is fine, but it seems you could strike a better balance.

Keep it up!

[Mike]

The multiple legs are really sticking out for me in the attack1.
I think the hand off the bat is too much really, sure the pose is cool but it makes no sense.
Also your hand is upside down on the weapon, the only way his thumb would be on top would be if the top of his hand was facing us.

I find in Attack2 the knee is really not doing it's job , though it could be that when his foot lands it should already be flat not ball of foot and then flat like you have it.
Also the final raise of the sword his hand placement doesn't make any sense.. His bottom hand isn't attached to his arm.
And the elbow is much too high on his body, it'd be lower you'd see more arm.
I think you need to take a stick and pose in all of these key frames.

I'm trying to pull off said attack combo here, since I'm assuming each animation is to be added to a combo since the start of each one is where the sword was last on the previous one.
And I have to say that second swing after the one handed release just feels wrong like it's coming from too low which is impossible on the wrists...

In Attack3 the shake at the end just isn't doing it for me.
Your feet wouldn't just slide around because of vibration, sure the whole body might contract, but his feet wouldn't move slide like that.

His back foot gets pretty big when it goes back in the jump animation.
Also when he jumps his left arm raises with his left leg, which is wrong.
It should be back at the start much like a walk would be you want the opposite limb to raise.

Hope this wasn't too much of a read, but I don't feel like editing them all to point out what I see wrong.
I do however like your hair flopping.

1. Holy hell the hand is upside down!!  That was not supposed to happen.  It won't happen again because I just bought a full body mirror so now I won't have to go to my bathroom mirror.  I normally don't make hand mistakes...I'll fix that right away.

2. Yeah I think you are right about the foot part, I'll make it stay planted firmly on the ground.  Also for the first combo I'll try an edit where both hands are holding onto the bat.  However I will say that when I tried to do the swing sometimes my other hand just naturally let go and it became a one handed swing.

3.  I'll make it so both hands are where they need to be for the second swings start

4.  As for the shake are you saying I should keep the feet planted on the ground and instead move his body left to right a few pixels for a few frames?

5.  I'm not sure what to do about the jump I didn't really have reference for the jump besides myself.

And finally I'm glad you liked the hair movement, I had a hard time with that.

Hair movement is generally pretty great. Good job in that regard.

Souly raises a lot of good points. Additionally, I'm noticing a lot of detailed slashing effects that interrupt the fluidity when motion blurs could really be utilized effective. Some detail is fine, but it seems you could strike a better balance.

Keep it up!

I wanted to have a motion blur with the swing but I'm not really sure of the mechanics that make a motion blur work, So instead I made the ice trail act like a motion blur.  Since I can't do it myself would anyone be able to offer me an edit and maybe a detailed explanation.


Welp I'm gonna work on these edits now and will have an update posted soon.  Thanks for the comments!

[Ben2theEdge]

You are really improving as an animator, Mike!

A motion blur can be described as summary of everything that happened between two frames. It is *not* an object growing in length because of its velocity, rather it is the illusion of several frames of animation blending together because they happen too fast for the "camera" to capture in frames. There is a streaking effect being caused because the sword or hand or foot or whatever it is that's moving is touching each of those points over the course of one frame. It isn't duplicated or leaving a trail - to our eye it looks more like it's stretching.


Excellent use of motion blur on Remy in Street Fighter 3 - study it frame by frame and see why it works!
http://www.zweifuss.com/remy/remy.htm

Also your ice texture needs some work; right now it looks more like scales or feathers than ice, it's an abstract approximation of ice that isn't really grounded in reality.

Here's some real world references:
http://www.edholden.com/images/wallpaper/20070120-012%20-%20Rochester%20-%20Icicles%20on%20Bakerdale%20Road-1.jpg
http://www.kuryosity.net/photography/2000.icicles.jpg

And here's two nice in-game examples from Megaman:
http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/mmx/sheet/3106
http://www.spriters-resource.com/psx_ps2/mmx4/sheet/1256 (about halfway down the sprite sheet)

[Mike]

You caught me Ben...I had no idea what ice looked like so I just took a dark blue color and just started drawing spikes then I just added 2 shades, 1 for base and 1 for highlights.  You totally nailed me on the abstract part not based on reality.  Funny thing is that is exactly how I thought of it too    Thanks for the references I will check them out post haste.

Oh and Ben is there a way to study motion blurs in real life?  I can move my hand fast enough that I can see the motion blur but it's kinda hard to redraw what I have seen.  Thanks!

Sorry I haven't updated with an edit yet I've been busy with Math homework as well as procrastinating on the math homework.  As soon as I'm done with it I'll get to work

[Ben2theEdge]

Best way to study motion blurs is to pop in a DVD (live acted, not animated) and watch a scene with a lot of fast motion but steady camerawork frame-by-frame. Live action film has a lot more blurring than animation so you'll be able to study it in depth (just don't overdo it when you go to animate!). You'll pick it up in no time.

[allaze-eroler]

You are really improving as an animator, Mike!

A motion blur can be described as summary of everything that happened between two frames. It is *not* an object growing in length because of its velocity, rather it is the illusion of several frames of animation blending together because they happen too fast for the "camera" to capture in frames. There is a streaking effect being caused because the sword or hand or foot or whatever it is that's moving is touching each of those points over the course of one frame. It isn't duplicated or leaving a trail - to our eye it looks more like it's stretching.


Excellent use of motion blur on Remy in Street Fighter 3 - study it frame by frame and see why it works!
http://www.zweifuss.com/remy/remy.htm

Also your ice texture needs some work; right now it looks more like scales or feathers than ice, it's an abstract approximation of ice that isn't really grounded in reality.

Here's some real world references:
http://www.edholden.com/images/wallpaper/20070120-012%20-%20Rochester%20-%20Icicles%20on%20Bakerdale%20Road-1.jpg
http://www.kuryosity.net/photography/2000.icicles.jpg

And here's two nice in-game examples from Megaman:
http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/mmx/sheet/3106
http://www.spriters-resource.com/psx_ps2/mmx4/sheet/1256 (about halfway down the sprite sheet)

i think you could add this one because it show clearly how the motion work better

http://www.spriters-resource.com/ds/megamanzx/sheet/89

[Jad]

- >

EDIT TIME

Err, if there's one thing that I can't stand in an animation, it's something keeping completely still for several frames. Keeping that in mind I made this edit. First of all, don't be afraid to turn his body around, or obscure his head in any way (although I didn't do that in the later frames, only the wind-up)

Speed is good, I like speed so I added speed. Will help in-game also!

Some twirly snowflakes for chillyness or something, I kinda feel that ice particles should be bright rather than dark, since, well, that's how ice works, right? Snow, etc. Reflections and so on.

I made his bat brighter just because I like readability! If you want structure and texture, make it more subtle, I'd say!


Oh also I think you should reverse the two attack frames, because he has way too much (IMO) wind-up in his first attack, if it's supposed to be his standard attack I'd be annoyed everytime I hit attack and saw that wind-up. Having a kinda slower second attack is okay,though, since that makes more sense game-wise(?), because if you hit with the first attack, the enemy would be stunned, giving you room for the second wind-up, but if you miss, you're more vulnerable during wind-up. See what I mean? Just a suggestion.

tl;dr

Everything should move, make the most of your frames

Fast attacks are good in games

Ice is very dark and blue and flat in shading (in your sprite), try to build up some forms and get some highlight action going on in there (so that it looks more icey)

Generally very good, I love seeing you animate, it's great seeing you progress! Keep it up, guy!

(as usual no polishing has been done, so be sure to kinda look at the general look of my edit, not the details)

[Mike]

Jad I love your edit so much!!  Originally I wanted to turn his body around but I admit I was afraid to do it because with the first attack I had to rotate his head and hair and Oh my god was it hard for me to comprehend.  Therefore I copped out...you can also see me cop out on the hair for the other 2 attack animations.  I completely ripped them from the first attack.  I'm not sure if that is a good thing to do or just lazy   
 
I really like how you sped it up, not sure what you did to speed it up though.  I have more to say but I gotta go!!!  I will comment more soon!!