quick wardancer animation sketch

[turin]

Last night I had this idea for an animation for the Wild Elf Wardancer unit, so today when I had an hour of free time I cobbled together this animation. Each of the images is really rough - I spent less than an hour on the entire thing, and there are nine frames, so that's around six minutes a frame - but I think I did a decent job with the basic concept.

If you can't tell, the idea is he does a full 360* over a series of two jumps into the air.

[edit]
I just realized no one could see it because the image server is down. So here it is hosted on imageshack.

Shot at 2008-01-17

[Urs]

six minutes a frame

dang. Chunkiest animation ever

Other than that, I like the concept of the animation. Very nice. The only real problem is my fault - and that's the hair. However, I should be able to fix that pretty quickly.

BTW, this animation is super cool because it can be used on all of the directions.

[zookeeper]

An unrelated comment: for a unit which is supposed to do really flashy moves, another good idea would be to do variations of the attack animation (2 would probably be good, 3 excellent). In one, the unit would hit and spin once clockwise, and counter-clockwise in the other. Would result in flashy spinny combat, without the same move repeating over and over again (such a unit presumably would have a lot of strikes on its attacks).

For this one, I'd suggest that he'd retract the swords for parts of the spin. If you'd spin around with a sword (which would be silly, but WINR), you wouldn't hold it extended all the time and try to look like a helicopter, but instead would hold it close to yourself (or at least not pointing outwards) while your back is towards the enemy, and only when spinning back to face the enemy would you extend and strike. I haven't seen how your animation looks in-game, but here it looks a bit like he'd try to take off.

Still, it's surely rather impressive considering the time you've spent on it!

[turin]

An unrelated comment: for a unit which is supposed to do really flashy moves, another good idea would be to do variations of the attack animation (2 would probably be good, 3 excellent). In one, the unit would hit and spin once clockwise, and counter-clockwise in the other. Would result in flashy spinny combat, without the same move repeating over and over again (such a unit presumably would have a lot of strikes on its attacks).

A good idea. Although it wouldn't look good to run this one in reverse, since his cloak, hair, etc, flow according to how he moves... it would be easy to adapt it for going in reverse though.

For this one, I'd suggest that he'd retract the swords for parts of the spin.

I'll see how it looks. Of course, one of the benefits of this kind of animation is it works for all directions, which wouldn't be true if I implemented this.

If you'd spin around with a sword (which would be silly,

Shhh....

[Cuyo Quiz]

He seems to jump in place. I think it would be better with a more acute leaning and knee-bending, since the sprite will move towards the enemy when attacking.

[The Doctor]

I don't like the double-jump thing. I think you should make him do one jump and spin 360.

Also, the hair looks really strange. You need to work on that.

[thespaceinvader]

The concept's nice, but it needs more...animation. The cape should fly out a lot more, the hair should move, the legs should move a LOT more, the head should move (when doing an attacking move that way, you keep your gaze fixed on one point for as long as possible, both to keep the enemy in view, and to keep from dizziness - the latter being the same reason that ballerinas do this whilst pirouetting). And since she'd be moving forwards during the animation, it needs to be directional - i'd go for a big jump/strike going forwards, and then a little step back to return, maybe with a retreating strike with the offhand rapier while doing so. If she's going forward, she also needs to lean into the jump.

Like i say, concept's good, but the animation's too static. When i've a little more time to spare, i might put together a stickfigure animation to show what i mean =)

More frames would be good, too, of course =D

[turin]

Many of these suggestions aren't usable if I'm keep trying to have this animation valid for all directions; perhaps that's a bad idea.

I don't like the double-jump thing. I think you should make him do one jump and spin 360.

Then he would reverse direction mid-air. He needs to land on the ground halfway through the animation.

[The Doctor]

What? Why? I don't understand. It looks to my like he's spinning 360 degrees in two jumps. Isn't that what it is?

[Zhukov]

What? Why? I don't understand. It looks to my like he's spinning 360 degrees in two jumps. Isn't that what it is?

Think about it.

When a unit does a melee attack in-game, it moves toward its opponent, strikes, then moves back to its original position.
(The first two parts are often combined in a lunge or thrust motion. The third is often neglected)

If Turin's animation were to involve just one jump as per your suggestion, then you would have the little fellow leaping into the air, then moving forward and executing some sort of cut/stab, then reversing direction and moving back to where he started without touching the bloody ground. I'm pretty sure physics says "no". Common sense certainly does.
(Unless of he's using the swords as rotor blades or somesuch. Which, given that we are talking about a "wild elf wardancer" with two swords who kills in the fashion of an airborne spinning top, seems entirely possible.)

I presume the idea behind Turin's current version is that he jumps forward, lands, then jumps back. The actual strike occurring somewhere during the jump forward or landing part. Could easily be wrong though.

Moving on...

Turin:
I feel unkind saying this, but the concept seems sorta fundamentally flawed. 360º spins belong in Jackie Chan movies.
Other then that, the best advice I can give is to take advantage of the cape and long hair. Make them flair way out. Also, add plenty of motion blur (you know, 'swooshes') to the swords. Combined, those two things should make it less like humanoid lawnmower and more like pixel dervish of slicey death.

[pauxlo]

Many of these suggestions aren't usable if I'm keep trying to have this animation valid for all directions; perhaps that's a bad idea.

It seems so, also since ...

I don't like the double-jump thing. I think you should make him do one jump and spin 360.

Then he would reverse direction mid-air. He needs to land on the ground halfway through the animation.

... in your animation, in the middle of the attack, when he lands, he is nearest to, but turned away from the enemy, at least in the SE-case. Looks a bit dangerously.

[Urs]

In some ways this guy is an elven humanmower:

"Wardancers are legends among the sidhe. The skill of a bladespinner may seem unbelievable, but he is an amateur compared to a mighty wardancer. For a man will be killed 3 times over before he touches the ground."

[turin]

Turin:
I feel unkind saying this, but the concept seems sorta fundamentally flawed. 360º spins belong in Jackie Chan movies.

1'm 100% aware of this. IMO this is one of those situations where coolness matters much more than realism.

I personally like Jackie Chan movies.

Other then that, the best advice I can give is to take advantage of the cape and long hair. Make them flair way out. Also, add plenty of motion blur (you know, 'swooshes') to the swords. Combined, those two things should make it less like humanoid lawnmower and more like pixel dervish of slicey death.

I've added motion blurs; I'll work on making his cloak and hair fly out more.

[The Doctor]

What? Why? I don't understand. It looks to my like he's spinning 360 degrees in two jumps. Isn't that what it is?

Think about it.

When a unit does a melee attack in-game, it moves toward its opponent, strikes, then moves back to its original position.
(The first two parts are often combined in a lunge or thrust motion. The third is often neglected)

If Turin's animation were to involve just one jump as per your suggestion, then you would have the little fellow leaping into the air, then moving forward and executing some sort of cut/stab, then reversing direction and moving back to where he started without touching the bloody ground. I'm pretty sure physics says "no". Common sense certainly does.
(Unless of he's using the swords as rotor blades or somesuch. Which, given that we are talking about a "wild elf wardancer" with two swords who kills in the fashion of an airborne spinning top, seems entirely possible.)

I presume the idea behind Turin's current version is that he jumps forward, lands, then jumps back. The actual strike occurring somewhere during the jump forward or landing part. Could easily be wrong though.

Oh, okay. Now I understand.

What about a 360º spin forward, then a step back. Because this way, when he lands, his back is facing the enemy. Besides, that would be cooler.