Flame wrote:Combo 1: Hook, hook, uppercut, straight punch
Combo 2: High jab, gut punch, overhead chop, taunt
Combo 3: Shoulder bash, high kick, followup, stomp, return to fighting stance
Critique welcome
Ooooo this is quite the doozy you're contributing. I like it.
The first one is fairly simple. The attacks look powerful, your choice of poses look exaggerated which adds to your style which is pretty okay for the most part, the trails were also a nice addition and wow you actually added some foreshortening on this one, nice. the problems I mostly have is the uppercut , the way you move your boxing gloves, the even timing and the last boxing stance.
First off that's not how uppercuts work. You start from the bottom then strike up into the opponent. What you did is make it look like it came from the side due to the foreshortening. What WOULD be correct in your case is to make the guy like, do a neat long crouching anticipation and strike upwards with a
hueg amount of force. If you were to do a quicker uppercut I'd suggest still putting the arm in a much lower position.
Kinda like this idk I made this in 5 minutes. Maybe watch some references or something.
Okay now the next is the way you move your boxing gloves. there are some parts where the hands look floppy and you're not using your fists to punch. More like, the wrist or something. But this is due to the efficient way you animated the trails and the boxing gloves as one. You should add a separate figure for the trails of the hands and not stretch the hand itself lol
IDK but yeah it looks weird to me especially the non punching hand where it looks like he folded his wrist inward or something.
The timing is pretty even yknow, you should add some more variety into the attacks. Not every attack has to be very very powerful with plenty of anticipation
Okay... The last boxing stance. You kinda hunched it the wrong way honestly. If there's any hunch, it should be in the upper back whereas the lower back (where the stomach is) should be a bit more straighter. But yknow the hunch shouldn't be THAT big unless you're going for some super exaggerated thingy (but even still it won't look great in an actual fight without matching the atmosphere and making it a bit more exaggerated.)
All in all, yknow, looks pretty great. On to the next anim.
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Okay so the next anim is pretty nice. I love your use of shoulders and the boxing pose has improved. But yknow, it still has some flaws like how the boxing pose is unbalanced due to the jabs that aren't really jabs since you animated them in a way that isn't really how jabs work, the gut punch isn't exactly a gut punch it's more of a body jab most likely, again, with the even timing, the sometimes hard to spot poses without any sort of line of action whatsoever and the lack of fluidity in the overhead chop which looks pretty much like a haymaker to me tbh.
Okay so the boxing pose is unbalanced due to you having the head positioned beyond the front foot for far too long while executing those powerful attacks which should bring him forward and yknow, make him fall over. Since those first 2 attacks are "jabs" (I'll assume the gut punch was a jab) I should remind you that jabs are powerless are meant to be thrown in bunches so it kinda conflicts with your power heavy style. Also:
Firecracker wrote:The problem with the basic jab in animation is that aesthetically, it's very limited and not very dynamic. The torso barely moves, it doesn't "jolt" forward, and it doesn't bend at all. His back basically ends up parallel to the frame he started in. So it comes off as bland and powerless.
The reason the gut punch looked more like a body jab is because of the anticipation. Gut punches are like uppercuts in the sense of anticipation. You start from the bottom and strike hard semi upwards. But yknow, you're aiming at his gut.
Kinda like this. Yeah it's not that great tbh go watch some references lmao
There's also again with the lack of timing. Refer to the above cc.
Okay. Some of the poses I noticed, don't have any lines of action, meaning that the weight isn't distributed evenly towards the center axis. Like that one pose that basically caused the lack of fluidity in the "overhead chop" which, coincidentally is also the anticipation frame for the overhead chop that made it look more like a weird haymaker to me:
The red circle signifies the incorrect arm positioning for this so called overhead chop and it looked like a haymaker with the weird foreshortening. The black line signifies the lack of a proper line of action so it looks pretty much unbalanced and it really reduces the power of the attack. But yknow, you compensated for the exaggerated attack pose, the trails and the anticipation.
You should make it so that the hand travels a downward arc like how an overhand chop should be since it's basically a karate chop. Yknow, like The Great Khali in those WWE wrestling thingies.
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Okay so the last anim is pretty good. It has varied timing and the kick looks pretty nice. You're choice of poses were pretty nice as well.
The main problem in this anim is the lack of balance in the stomp, the shoulder bash and that...jump thing at the end there heh.
Okay so the reason that the stomp had a lack of balance is because of the leg positioning that didn't support the entire body. And you made his body stay in mid air for a few frames when in reality he should like, fell down already. It should be kinda something like this:
I used the stickfigure's supporting leg to balance him. Obvs. not as powerful as yours but you get the point?
The shoulder bash lacked more frames especially one where his torso overlaps with the arm with the attacking shoulder. I also feel like the stickguy should face the viewers more so that the shoulder will actually get emphasized.
Omg that jump tho. It looked like he was just dragged by some unknown force and it also seemed that he was pretty bogged down by his upper body. He should jump like that as if he's light on his feet namsayin?
All in all you did a pretty swell job on those combos but I feel that the attacks need more variety. Not all attacks have to be SUUUPER powerful with like, tons of exaggerated stuff when it's just a light attack. You should also take into the account of the weaker quicker punches and some grabs, yknow. Your choice of poses also needs improvement like balance and stuff. I recommend that you watch some references.
So uh...Yeah...Preety strounge stuf maen
EDIT:
I really can't combo tbh.