Fire Dragon - Update

[kSeth]

Working on updating the firedragon, based off of Neoriceisgood's Red Wyvern.

[vonHalenbach]

I am no artist so you can pretty much ignore my comment, but in my opinion there is too much movement. It shakes like a tree in a storm and the wings seem not attached to him, because they move with another speed than the rest of his body.

A step backwards and head moving down would be enough.

[Baufo]

I am no artist either so can ignore this too but for me it appears like the dragon gets compressed to half its thickness in the middle of the animation.

[Iris]

Eleazar's job at this was starting to look good.

Feel free to ignore this comment.

[Sapient]

Working on updating the firedragon, based off of Neoriceisgood's Red Wyvern.

kSeth - this is excellent, and I'll go out on a limb here and say to disregard those comments which are telling you it has too much movement. The movement is good! One thing you should really be aware of, however is that the image IS allowed to be larger than the hex when it is animated! You will really need to break out into the surrounding hex to keep any sort of realism with the tail, etc.

Thanks so much for working on this, it's looking really good so far!

[Sapient]

Eleazar's job at this was starting to look good.

No... that image is being replaced!

[Jetrel]

I like this, a lot - I'd offer the same comment as sapient - movement is good; though the (possible) over-compression of the unit is bad.

Keep up the good work!

[jdsampayo]

Very impressive!
You must teach me how can you move all the body with that detail!

However, I don't see this as a dragon, you must first put the arms and hands, and then later try to animate it. But is a very nice animation for the wyvern.

The sprite 6 is the only one I don't like (for this animation), if you remove it, for me looks a little better. You can later use that sprite for another animation.

Excellent work.

[waw]

I'm am definitely no artist and couldn't do anything like this, but I would like a go at some constructive criticism.

I think frames three and four where the wyvern (missing a needed set of limbs to be a dragon, but no biggie) hunkers down and tucks his wings above his head... It looks like he got hit in the stomach and is doubling over. I think the overall shape, look and movement is good though.

When watching it move in fast motion, it looks like it might fall over.

The head bouncing was odd at first, but gave an overall reptilian feel. I feel that, like a snake, it is moving and tasting the air for its prey.

Again, I can't do half this good so I can't say its bad. But perhaps without those 'hunkering' frames it would move smoother?

In any case... outstanding job really!

[Rhuvaen]

Pretty good job!

Is it a defensive animation and an attack? I can clearly see a defense there, but if there is an attack, it's not as obvious as it needs to be (if there isn't then disregard this comment). If this is all part of one animation, then I'd say there is a lot of up and down movement of the snout. It sort of gives the impression as if he's dancing... (also, his right foot is doing a big stomp from one frame to another)

I think the problem is you probably need some concept art: the base frame isn't really showing us a lot about the creature because the wings cover it in a tent-like way - something you've kept for all your frames! We don't know how they're attached, what his back looks like or how the wings look unfolded. I'd try to conceptualize that first before making too many frames. Because really, a lot more movement is needed in the wings, too, to make this work.

[Qes]

Having no Artistic Talent, having taken a philosophy of art class, and read the "how to critique art" thread (and agreeing with it.)

I will only say the following:

Wow.

Ooo.

I want one.

I want many.

I want a faction of Dragons (not merely drakes, which are still hella cool)

Do they come in different colors/flavors?

Can they be house trained?


That is all.
-Qes

[kSeth]

Thanks for the encouragement and critiques, I really appreciate it. I recognize that there are issues with mass, timing, and compression and will adjust them later, when I do the revisions.

This character is fairly challenging: it has a lot of moving parts that need to look heavy but also move quickly. To give everyone an idea of my process I've put up one of my wip animations. I went through 3 of these before I got this one, and it probably still needs work.

Unfortunately, I have to take a break for a week.

edit: posted link to original concept art

[Boucman]

this should probably go in the wiki as a model of the sort of WIP that is needed when designing a new animation...

[Caiyln]

That's great! Well done! I would love to use something like that in my new dragon-based campaign, go check it out on the Campaign Development page. Keep it up!

[kSeth]

All rendered.