WIP PSA Workshop

[Velen]

PM me thy skype, por favor.
Post Merge: March 27, 2015, 11:03:07 AMI'm very unhappy with the feet/leg movement, but I don't know what to do about it...



Otherwise, it's done imo. I'll probably make it a taunt, it's too long to be a wait animation (about 160 frames)

Make his left foot slide back to it's original position along the ground, then have him step his right foot back into it;s original position afterward.

[Large Leader]

Here's two more. One where I want him to look like he's dragging his feet

And one where his left leg is sliding. Think I could have made the sliding and the hip translation much better.

[TheShyGuy]

Although the legs are wonky, it looks great. I like the change to the arms. It looks a lot more natural.

The legs looks weird because you failed to convey balance and weight shifting. You cannot lift a leg and remain balanced until you shift weight onto the grounded foot. All that means is that you begin moving the upper body over to the other leg before lifting a leg.

[Large Leader]

Although the legs are wonky, it looks great. I like the change to the arms. It looks a lot more natural.

Not used to hearing that lol.

The legs looks weird because you failed to convey balance and weight shifting. You cannot lift a leg and remain balanced until you shift weight onto the grounded foot. All that means is that you begin moving the upper body over to the other leg before lifting a leg.

I'm usually on top of shifting weight on legs. I almost always do...
But a problem I had was that I don't want to make Link move side to side too much.
Aaaaand, just performed the animation myself. Guess I'll just have to deal with movement lol.

Wish there was an easy way to record myself at different angles.
More animations that I'd love critique on.

Originally, I wanted to make them 1:1 replicas of TP's animations. But I decided that making them my own animations would feel more rewarding.

Shield Bash

Helm Splitter *Needs work! Will add the flip in BBox and will make it transition into the fall in BBox as well. Want critique on the jumping part. TP was very... bad at that. Link literally goes from standing into jumping in the game.

Don't worry about the speed of the jump either. That will be fixed in BBox

Mortal Draw Start *Will probably make Link's foot be closer to the ground as he moves it back'

Sword Salute (When Link and the Hero's Shade are training for a skill, they start the session off with this) *Ignore the stuttering, it was a mistake made while recording the gif*

[ABloodyCanadian]

Helm Splitter *Needs work! Will add the flip in BBox and will make it transition into the fall in BBox as well. Want critique on the jumping part. TP was very... bad at that. Link literally goes from standing into jumping in the game.

Don't worry about the speed of the jump either. That will be fixed in BBox

I'd work on the posing here as he rises up. When making animations, consider the camera. As it is right now, it could use more omph to the animation by having a more clear silhouette. Press 7 on the Perspective view, which will enable lighting... Assuming you have none, your character will go black. This is a good way to look at a silhouette version of your animation. With every frame you make, you need to be clear of what the character is doing even in silhouette with camera in mind. Exaggerate the pose if you need to.

[KingJigglypuff]

-[Snipping Intensifies]

The shield bash needs to be a bit faster in movement. And like with what Bloody Canadian said, you can exaggerate the movement a bit.

You said you'll touch up on Helm Splitter in BrawlBox, so I'll wait for that.

The start of Mortal Draw could be a bit slower.

The Sword Salute is just fine.

[Velen]

Although the legs are wonky, it looks great. I like the change to the arms. It looks a lot more natural.

The legs looks weird because you failed to convey balance and weight shifting. You cannot lift a leg and remain balanced until you shift weight onto the grounded foot. All that means is that you begin moving the upper body over to the other leg before lifting a leg.

Huh, I didn't take that into account when I gave my critique...

[Large Leader]

I do thoroughly enjoy getting feedback lol

-I'd work on the posing here as he rises up.
-When making animations, consider the camera.
-As it is right now, it could use more omph to the animation by having a more clear silhouette.
-Press 7 on the Perspective view, which will enable lighting... Assuming you have none, your character will go black.
-With every frame you make, you need to be clear of what the character is doing even in silhouette with camera in mind.
-Exaggerate the pose if you need to.

Hope you don't mind me splitting up your post like that lol

Thanks for the feedback! And your last sentence is the reason why I strayed away from making it 1:1 replicas of TP. But I'll see what else I can do.

I don't mean to sound like an ass, but I'm assuming everything else is fine? If there's something off in the others, I'd really appreciate your feedback on it. If you're busy, don't sweat it. College sucks and we all have to deal with it (aside KJPls, of course <:V)

The shield bash needs to be a bit faster in movement. And like with what Bloody Canadian said, you can exaggerate the movement a bit.

You said you'll touch up on Helm Splitter in BrawlBox, so I'll wait for that.

The start of Mortal Draw could be a bit slower.

The Sword Salute is just fine.

Holy [censored], KJP didn't say robotic once <:V

-Currently, I think the Shield Bash is somewhere at like 90 frames. I didn't want it too fast because it would stun the opponent (I'll probably be using the Deku Nut stun effect, not the freeze or blaster paralyze) before allowing Link to use Helm Splitter.

-That still won't affect a majority of the animation. Only think I'll change in BBox is adding the spinning along with changing how fast he goes up. The rest is still in Maya.

-It's a Smash Attack. They're supposed to have like a 16-30 frame start up or something, right? Either way, I plan to slow it down more anyways. The swing itself will be really fast.

-I'm happy about this one. Had Maya crash on me for the first time yesterday and didn't save before it happened. I was struggling with how I wanted the arm to look before the actual salute pose. But I guess I got it.

Huh, I didn't take that into account when I gave my critique...

Shame on you >:V

Thanks for all the critique guys! I really appreciate it.
Post Merge: March 28, 2015, 03:31:48 PMThe only thing that's confirmed for complete/close to complete is the Up Smash

Jump Strike (Needs a lot of critique. It'll be his down smash. Distance that he'll jump forward is determined by the control stick. Is meant to be a fast, GTFO move)

Mortal Draw (I know the foot is messed up during the spin and that he doesn't really go low enough after the slash, but then it really messes up the interpolation of the transition to Wait, and I can't seem to fix it)

Up Smash (Link shoots a bomb arrow upwards. Depending on what direction the Control Stick is held, the arrow will either land infront, behind, or right next to Link causing high KB but low damage to people hit.)

[ABloodyCanadian]

If you say so...

Shield Bash

Needs more speed on the bash. As it is now, it's more like a push. You said you don't wanna speed it up for balancing reasons? Simply extend the startup, and then make the actual bash a fast one! We say it's too slow because the actual bash it too slow. Be more specific, guys... lol...

-It&#039;s a Smash Attack. They&#039;re supposed to have like a 16-30 frame start up or something, right? Either way, I plan to slow it down more anyways. The swing itself will be really fast.

I'd broaden that range to about 5 - 30 (2 in Zelda's case) cause you also have to take into account on which frame the hitbox will start at when doing the actual attack.

Jump Strike (Needs a lot of critique. It&#039;ll be his down smash. Distance that he&#039;ll jump forward is determined by the control stick. Is meant to be a fast, GTFO move)

Legs stay in the same position even in the Air. There's no force driving him to actually jump.

Up Smash (Link shoots a bomb arrow upwards. Depending on what direction the Control Stick is held, the arrow will either land infront, behind, or right next to Link causing high KB but low damage to people hit.)

Some recoil when he shoots the arrow would be nice...

Every other one suffers from the same thing I mentioned before. Your poses are too stiff. It's good to exaggerate your key poses to make it read better, and to add more omph to it.

This is an Animator thing in general. Before you even think about animating in Maya, it's a good idea to draw out your animations first. Make a few sketches, draw some pictures as to what the motion will look like, and be sure you can push poses to make it read better. No, you don't have to have the artistic ability to draw realistically, nor the knowledge to draw cool animu waifu characters. As long as you can do some gesture drawings on some medium to help you get an understanding as to how to pose the character, and break down the motions, you'll get some results.

[Large Leader]

If you say so...

Of course I say so! I can't improve without someone telling me what I'm doing

Needs more speed on the bash. As it is now, it's more like a push. You said you don't wanna speed it up for balancing reasons? Simply extend the startup, and then make the actual bash a fast one! We say it's too slow because the actual bash it too slow. Be more specific, guys... lol...

Got it!

I'd broaden that range to about 5 - 30 (2 in Zelda's case) cause you also have to take into account on which frame the hitbox will start at when doing the actual attack.

By start up I meant like the AttackS3Start animation

Legs stay in the same position even in the Air. There's no force driving him to actually jump.

Yeah, I'm not really sure how to animate the jump X.X

I blame Nintendo for this one. Velen will understand <:V

Some recoil when he shoots the arrow would be nice...

Aaaaand I knew I forgot something lol

This is an Animator thing in general. Before you even think about animating in Maya, it's a good idea to draw out your animations first. Make a few sketches, draw some pictures as to what the motion will look like, and be sure you can push poses to make it read better. No, you don't have to have the artistic ability to draw realistically, nor the knowledge to draw cool animu waifu characters. As long as you can do some gesture drawings on some medium to help you get an understanding as to how to pose the character, and break down the motions, you'll get some results.

I personally act out my animations instead of drawing. Helps me understand how the character might move or slide.

[Velen]

Of course I say so! I can't improve without someone telling me what I'm doing

Got it!

By start up I meant like the AttackS3Start animation

Yeah, I'm not really sure how to animate the jump X.X

I blame Nintendo for this one. Velen will understand <:V

Aaaaand I knew I forgot something lol

I personally act out my animations instead of drawing. Helps me understand how the character might move or slide.

One of the rules of being an animator as told by my animation instructor at JCCC:

"Throw away your dignity, act it out!"

[TheShyGuy]

You work fast drogoth.....

Think about how long you want an action to take. Then match your main key frames to that. The new batch's timings are all odd, where small actions take forever to happen. For example, the startup of JumpStrike, Link takes too long to grab his sword. If you want to keep the overall action slow, make the jump anticipation last longer instead.

For the jump strike, you didn't give much details on the mechanics, but I wanted to give a little input. There could be a "minimum" movement allowed that's in the animation already. That way, no matter what the player does, it looks good. Then, the toggle stick would only allow a small influence to either increase or decrease strike distance. The influence values should be less than or equal to the default change in horizontal distance per frame of the animations strike. This means that if the player holds back, they won't actually go backwards and look broken....

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I just started this animation today. It's a requested grab animation. It looked simple enough so hopefully I'll finish it =/.

[edit:old]
http://i.imgur.com/lOXDEGK.gif

These are just the main key frames. The fingers are not keyed yet.

[ABloodyCanadian]

By start up I meant like the AttackS3Start animation

My statement still stands...

Yeah, I'm not really sure how to animate the jump X.X

When animating a jump, think of the legs like a spring. The legs spring up so the person can jump in the air.

I personally act out my animations instead of drawing. Helps me understand how the character might move or slide.

"When in doubt, act it out." That's something I wouldn't say I'm against, but you need to be able to visualize the poses as well. And when acting it out, you're aware that you're acting it out, and you tend to pause to get the pose right. Sadly, it may not be the best pose. And this is why drawing it out is good, cause we have the ability to exaggerate poses when we need to.

[Large Leader]

You work fast drogoth.....

I wish I worked more efficiently

Think about how long you want an action to take. Then match your main key frames to that. The new batch's timings are all odd, where small actions take forever to happen. For example, the startup of JumpStrike, Link takes too long to grab his sword. If you want to keep the overall action slow, make the jump anticipation last longer instead.

I guess I just wanted to make sure that the player could actually tell that Link is moving to hold his sword.

For the jump strike, you didn't give much details on the mechanics, but I wanted to give a little input. There could be a "minimum" movement allowed that's in the animation already. That way, no matter what the player does, it looks good. Then, the toggle stick would only allow a small influence to either increase or decrease strike distance. The influence values should be less than or equal to the default change in horizontal distance per frame of the animations strike. This means that if the player holds back, they won't actually go backwards and look broken....

The Jump itself will be stationary without any controller input. The only direction you can go is forward.

I just started this animation today. It's a requested grab animation. It looked simple enough so hopefully I'll finish it =/.

These are just the main key frames. The fingers are not keyed yet.

My statement still stands...

I... didn't even know what I was trying to make a point about.

Just for funsies, I checked what the Start animation length was (10 frames). Mortal Draw and the Jump Strike have about 20 frames and... looking back at it, I could make the jumping look much better (making his legs bend more before he jumps

[TheShyGuy]

More progress:

[edit:old]
http://i.imgur.com/xXfzBmi.gif
http://i.imgur.com/aixMLrs.gif
[/old]

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Edit:



Imagine him using his triforce powers for the grab