The VG Resource

Sorry for the double post.


Well I tired giving it an animation, this is my first attempt in animation, so I am not entirely sure how ell I did. Also, I use GraphicsGale, the free version, so I can't save animations as GIF files, but I can preview them, and well it seems alright. Any tips? Oh, and any methods for me to save this as a GIF for better future presentations?

Check your PMs.

Alright, well thanks to Viper I got the technical problem fixed. And here is what I came up with, I will try and maybe add more of a fluid animation, but I want to still fit the simple style that I started out with. Any thoughts?

It seems kind of odd to me that he's putting so little pressure on his back leg that he can actually physically slide his foot forward and back while at the same time putting so much weight on his front leg that it's completely stiff and unmoving.

...in other words, the animation doesn't make much sense. Bend his knees. Make him crouch a bit.

Edit- On closer inspection, is his foot rotating back and forth? That makes a bit more sense but he's still way too stiff. Stand up and try doing that yourself. Put all your weight on your front leg and then bounce up and down while rotating your back foot, making sure your front leg doesn't move. It's not very easy to do.

Also, I have to admit that I'm honestly not really sure what position the arms are meant to be in. I tried holding my own arms like that and it really wasn't a fighting pose, relaxed or not,

Yeah in the second and third frame I made it so that his right leg rotates a bit to show some pressure. I will edit him in a bit to bend his knees for better pressure. As to the harms and hands, I tried going for something like this, sorta the same idle that Mario360 made for his character. Any tips about the arms? I mean, I am not really sure how "relaxed" fighting stance should look like.

Unfortunately I'm not really sure how to put improving the arms into actual words, aahahah
Maybe someone with better anatomical knowledge can help you with that one. I DO think the forearms are a bit short, though.

The arms slightly bouncing out of synch like that kind of bug me, but that probably isn't a problem, per se. The other thing I notice is that the upper arms or shoulders stay static (well, at least the one in front) while the lower arms move and I feel like they shouldn't.

Maybe that's just my opinion though.

Well here is what I have so far, I added better movement to the hair, and the torso. I tried to bend to knee much more, but I am still not happy with it, I will be editing it later, I am going to try and make the right shoulder move up and down.

The movement of the feather and hair doesn't feel natural, and the movements of the legs bugs me. Not a big fan of the arms being glued to the body, either.

Try to make more of the hair and feather move, not just select parts and try to give the legs more defined knees.

Well, I'm no animation buff, but see if this helps you out.

That jitter on his right leg is pretty distracting, so you might want to remove that.
I think you might be onto something with the other leg, though you should probably manipulate the upper leg more when he lowers, since that's the part that actually bends.
At the lowest part of the bend, you can put some pixels around the upper leg of his right leg since that part is more foreshortened, then make it transition back to the highest part.
You should probably make the fists bounce together, where they are highest at the highest point of the animation, and transition to the lowest.

Not sure if that makes any sense, but hopefully it helps somehow!

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention, maybe you can study some fighting game stances to learn some of animation trends. You know, take frame by frame, and observe how parts change position, and take note of the timing.

This is kinda getting difficult, any tutorial or reference that you guys may know of that can help out? I am having a terrible time with the legs, and the hair, the arms and fists I can try and play around until I make it the right way.

Edit

How is this? I highlighted the knees to to show the legs bending (It's kinda hard to notice if they are not marked out). I also tried to give the a hair a more fluid movement, same with the feather, and the arms now move a bit more.

-The body bounce looks like his heart beating through lol.
-The hair above his face doesn't animate at all. Don't be afraid to let some hair overlap the face a little during a few frames.
-Gotta agree with the arms, they don't give off the relaxed feeling. I'm still sticking with what I said before and just having his arms more extended (read relaxed) and down by his side pointing more towards his feet. He's got a confident smile, but you also want a relaxed personality. In my mind, that only means he has to come off as a bit cocky too. If you want a relaxed and laid back attitude, then you might wanna think about getting rid of the smile and maybe relaxing the eyes too.

Well I can't have him to be completely relaxed, he is going to be in fighting game, having his arms up shows that he is at least ready to pull them up for a quick defense, or move his arm back for a fast punch, or maybe another trick up his sleeve *Wink Wink*. I will try to edit the hair a bit and see what I can do

Heres a quick edit I just did.



Yours is the first.

-The first one of my edit has his right arm relaxed, the other a bit more ready.
-The second edit is the same deal, except is left arm is more ready.
-The third edit has both sides being pretty relaxed, but shows little to no intention of attacking.

I like the second one most as it comes off the way I wanted it too. He looks lazy/relaxed yet ready too. For the animation, you could have the closest arm swaying back and forth very subtly. The back arm bouncing. I dunno about how the legs should be tho ahah. It could be more subtle movement, but then the further arm might also have to have subtle movement. Or the legs can be bouncy and the closest arm sway would be turn into more of a fist flex + subtle arm bend or something. Err basically, the energy of the legs(core?) would have to show throughout the character too.

Hmm, well what I had in mind was having him in the position I then to charge up a special punch, lower one arm, leaving him open, then taking a deep breath, then release the attack with the relaxed arm, and the way you showed it, seems kinda what I was thinking about, I may use it for that.

Edit

I gave it a more "relaxed" mouth, less grin, and more of a quiet fighter. I also tried making the hair on the fore-head to wave up and down, not sure how happy I am about it.