Vissy Can Animate! (sorta)

[Vissy]

This would be the place to look at my moving stickfigures! I'm not a great animator, probably worse than average, but I'm constantly looking to improve my stuff - and I think I've made some improvements. Look at my stuff below.


Soccer Kick Saga

Spoiler:

A try at a realistic soccer kick (tried to get the arm movement right, it could be snappier):
v1.1:

Walk cycles

Spoiler:

An old walk cycle. It's pretty horrible, but I've never really gotten those right anyway.
v1.1:

Fight sequences

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

[Reseen13]

Well, I mean. The walk cycle is a bit iffy, there is no head body and the back is pretty stiff looking, the arms move to fast as well. For the first one, it's too slow up that fps and add more frames and try to fix your foot placement, that makes an animation look way better. And if its a soccer kick, I would imagine it having more force than it has, maybe delete a few of the inbetweens during the kick to make it look faster. And his arm just kind of snaps into position, get some easing on that arm.

[PG da boi]

i`ve seen some problems in the footing, try to use markers for the foots to make a good footing. your animations are a little shaky and need some easing in some parts. By the moment keep practicing and asking for cc.

[cheddarjalapeno]

I like the walk really. The soccer kick needs a soccer ball obviously. Try 4 frames for the kick (with realistic buildup if thats what your going for) and focus on the swing of the arm about 40 percent for you and the rest is pose and itll all turn out! :)

[Vissy]

Well, I mean. The walk cycle is a bit iffy, there is no head body and the back is pretty stiff looking, the arms move to fast as well. For the first one, it's too slow up that fps and add more frames and try to fix your foot placement, that makes an animation look way better. And if its a soccer kick, I would imagine it having more force than it has, maybe delete a few of the inbetweens during the kick to make it look faster. And his arm just kind of snaps into position, get some easing on that arm.

I agree, it's really stiff. I'm only really satisfied (as a building block, not as a finished product) with the sort of sliding leg movement, stylistically. I tried a few other walk cycles just now but I notice I run into the same problem with the too-fast arm movement and nonexistent or unrealistic head/body movement. I'll need to look at more walk cycles to get a better idea of them. Just to give you an idea, I'll attach below the better of my attempts:



Any tips on the rhythm for this? Should the arm move in rhythm with the legs, or should the arms intersect only half as often as the legs, that sort of thing? It would help me plot the movement better. When I walk, for example, my arms intersect at the same time as my legs. When I animate it, the movement is too quick. So I must be animating it wrong.

i`ve seen some problems in the footing, try to use markers for the foots to make a good footing. your animations are a little shaky and need some easing in some parts. By the moment keep practicing and asking for cc.

I did some fixing on that front, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I don't really know what markers are or how to use them, so I did it by eye.

I like the walk really. The soccer kick needs a soccer ball obviously. Try 4 frames for the kick (with realistic buildup if thats what your going for) and focus on the swing of the arm about 40 percent for you and the rest is pose and itll all turn out! :)

In terms of skill, mine is very limited - I can do the kick itself, with a bit of buildup, but the way I animate is I look at how a thing is done in real life and then mimic it. Maybe I don't have enough visual imagination to do that from memory.

Thanks for the encouragement :) I'll have to look up arm movement and that kind of stuff later, as it's pretty late now, but I'll add below what little I managed to fix up in the soccer kick. I gave the animation more FPS as suggested, removed one inbetweener to speed up the kick, added a ball, tidied up the movement itself (and replaced the exaggerated leg-drag with something more realistic). I also did try to get a bit more of head/body movement, though it still seems too subtle to me. I want the movement to have a snap to it, right now it's only 40% there as you say. Anyway below is version 1.1.

[Vissy]

Updated OP with new animations, namely a short fight. What do you think of the movement in the sequence? I made a conscious effort to exaggerate the movements more. How should I proceed from here? What areas do I need to work on the most? Were the poses better?

Spoiler:

[FrozenSoulHD]

You're off to a good start with animation.
But the animation where he kicks the ball is, eh.
Once his foot connects, his body stops, losing all previous momentum.
And his leg does the same, stopping as if he just hit a wall.
Work on physics, you're on your way!

[Vissy]

Well, the thing is, I play football myself and that is more or less how you'd do a more casual shot, which is what I was going for. Maybe in terms of animation it is good to exaggerate more (the earlier version at the OP is a more exaggerated version but it has other faults) but I was more going for realism. Good point on the body momentum, but not sure how to implement it.

[FrozenSoulHD]

Well, the thing is, I play football myself and that is more or less how you'd do a more casual shot, which is what I was going for. Maybe in terms of animation it is good to exaggerate more (the earlier version at the OP is a more exaggerated version but it has other faults) but I was more going for realism. Good point on the body momentum, but not sure how to implement it.

Well, if you know what momentum itself is, you would know how to implement it.
His body just stops after he connects with the ball, losing nearly all the momentum.
Maybe after he kicks the ball, continue the animation with a run or something. That way, he keeps all previous momentum, and retains the flow of the animation.

Hoped I helped!

[Vissy]

Got a continuation to the fight sequence! Featuring clunky fall sequences, a power-kick, a short run cycle and a trip.

Spoiler:

[isettox]

One thing you need to work on in your fights, I do the same thing often, is make the actions and attacks flow together more smoothly. Don't make a character stop after doing an attack, make them move back into a stance, or continue to combo. Avoid Stop & go-like stuff.

Another thing is your follow through, after doing a hook for example (or an overhead punch? Can't tell quite which one) You want the body to continue moving after the initial impact of the hit, and for the arm to curve back into the body to resume your fighting stance, kind of like right here.

Spoiler:

Another thing you could work on is your stances/poses, but there are tutorials here that can explain that far better than I ever could, so read up on those.