Thanks guys. I'll remember to put the frame counts on next time. I'm focusing more on finishing animations now instead of being too critical so expect some more pretty soon.
The Wait looks like he's off balance and should fall over. The Dash attack is waay too slow to be effective. He also teleports at the beginning of the dash attack...
The limit isn't strict, but I don't want people requesting long and complicated animations. I'll do Idles or Taunts longer than 60 frames if it isn't too complicated.
If the aerial and the grounded animations differ enough, they'll be considered two requests. But if it's something like changing the leg poses, I'll count it as one. I'll try to be reasonable.
Guidelines: -I will not accept any animation request over 60 frames long (longer than one second). -When making a request, info about the character plus a few references of the requested animation is required along with the necessary files. I will not accept any request without references or the necessary files. -I will only accept one request per person per batch.
it's just become harder and harder to use lower quality animations that I usually just get stuck after doing a few because I want to go back and keep fixing them.
The biggest issue you have is bad timing. Once you understand that, you'll realize how much less you actually have to animate (and fix). Fast movements, like attack releases, can only take ~5-15 frames. Since it's so fast, you can cheat a little bit. Slow movements, like idles or ending attack recoil, can take a 30-200(idles) frames. You have to ensure that the everything looks good because the viewer can easily notice issues. Arguably, slow movements are harder and require more work.
Anyways, good luck with whatever you're moving onto.
Oh, thanks for the clear reference, Br3! Dins Fire is so much different than what I remember (I haven't looked at a ref since about a year ago and went off what I started =/ ) I might make an alternate animation afterwards since it's different enough.
Thanks for the crits, I'll take it all into account went I make more progress.
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How do you always get the arm swaying to look so nice?
By making sure that they follow a smooth motion without noticeable jittering - attention arcs.
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It's a shame you're not making psas,
I don't mind doing requests for PSA-ers, but that'll have to wait until the summer. Though, I failed to complete requests the last time. It was so frustrating because I couldn't get the quality animation I was happy with.
I may split the animation later into a start, charge/wait, and release/attack. When I finish it, I'll probably upload the animation in case someone wants to use them for anything.
Thanks. I wrote a Maya script that offset the HipN HumanIK controller while keeping the feet pinned. The shake was basically a sin wave oscillating on the values -1,0,1 with the magnitude varying overtime (though unnoticeable here since it's so low).
Drogoth, I considered what you said about the left leg bending front too much, but it doesn't snap or break his leg or anything. It's a natural bend (if you saw it from the side). So I figured that was the assumed main issue and left it alone.
Yeah, the skype name is TheShyGuy along with the same avatar.
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About the left leg: Forward in what direction (image left or image right?, toward viewer or back into the distance?) and around what frame?
1) Yeah, I playblast using PNG, File->Save Animation to a folder, open all images as layers in Gimp, then export as a gif, then set the correct delay time and disposal type.
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2)I don't understand what you were trying to say with the example =/.
First, I haven't animated in a while so er that's my disclaimer.
Second, from what I've come across from animation "research", it's preferred to first block animations out. That means you "turn off" interpolation (use stepped tangents) and create all the important key poses. You'd then make all the necessary intermediate poses. After all that, then you can turn on ipo and work on the final touches.
Why not just work with linear or splines right off the bat? Because the computer isn't going interpolate between keys exactly how you'd like it to. Usually, you're going to be fighting with it to get the correct keys.
Instead, it's usually better to block out *enough keys so that once you turn on linear/spline tangents, the program can't possibly screw things up...- and thus you'll have less to clean up.
*This doesn't mean you have to key every single frame. If there is a significant change between frames, it might be better to make your own intermediate frame instead of letting the program screw it over- and you'd have to clean it up. If two poses are pretty close, then there's no point.
If you use HumanIK, at this point, I stop setting full body keys and set it to specific body parts.
... I guess that explains my current workflow, actually. Block out key poses. Block out enough intermediate poses. Turn interpolation on. Clean up.
Making each necessary pose isn't as daunting as it sounds though, especially compared to traditional 2D animation, where that's a must. Plus, you'd have to make those poses anyways.
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3) From what I remember, I thought TransN moves(translates) characters in game without the character teleporting back or does the HipN bone also allow translation?
Feet sliding is acceptable when it looks good animation-wise. Looking good takes higher priority than anything else.
As for how to go about moving the feet....uh I don't really know =/.
But, I'll tell you how I go about things, maybe it'll help. I uh...hmm. I just make key poses without trying to align anything to the previous frame. For the Gannon animation, I made each of the 3-4 key/main poses starting from the T-pose (mostly because working for the previous pose was too distracting/tedious). After that, I move the entire model with HipN to align the foot with the most weight on it(Though, I should probably use TransN....).
That'll give you blocked poses where, if the feet should move, it already is. Now, you just gotta animate the inbetweens so the step or slide looks natural.
Uh...I hope that helps.
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Edit:
Now, I'm going to move onto messing with tangents, unless there are any glaring issues?
Also, drogoth, you ever hear of how you should "have nice smooth arcs" in animation? The phrase is more of a simplification of the idea that real life objects move smoothly unless abruptly acted on (getting hit, pushed, etc). So, if anything ever "jerks" in your animations, you should make sure it theres a good reason for it. Otherwise, it's very distracting.
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