New animations

Post by **Jetrel** » February 4th, 2007, 6:31 am

Redeth: if you wish to polish it further, I do have one suggestion; however, it is very good as-is, and if you don't want to keep working on it, you can declare it finished and I'll have kbaskins commit it.

That one suggestion is - because of the trajectory, the dagger embedding itself like that looks a little funny. I think I would have the dagger do most of the motion it currently makes, but at the end, instead of burying itself, it clatters across the ground.

From my own "kinematic memory", objects of that general shape/heft take directed, intentional force to plant themselves like that - you have to literally throw the knife, with force, at the ground; just dropping it will will almost never result in it landing upright like that. I think that's the only thing currently making this feel "weird/wrong".

Post by **Redeth** » February 4th, 2007, 2:01 pm

Jetryl's advice, as usual, proved quite useful. I was clinging to the idea of the dagger burying itself on the ground, despite common sense and the laws of physics telling me otherwise. I tried to force the animation into representing this unrealistic movement. My bad, lesson learned.

Woodwizzle was also right about the "rocket ship" effect. The thief is dying so he has no reason (and not enough strenght) to apply the kind of force necessary to make the dagger elevate or rotate in such a manner.

The idea was cool and I may use it for other animations (heavier swords, longer trajectories), but in this case, the thief dropping his blade in the most simple way was the right thing to do.

I do call this one finished.

Committed by kbaskins 02/06/07

Post by **Jetrel** » February 5th, 2007, 3:13 am

Perfect. That fixed everything.

What's the timing on this, btw?

Rev. V! · Post by **Rev. V!** » February 5th, 2007, 2:00 pm

The bounce of the dagger makes everything come together.
AWESOME job man!!!!!!

Rev. V!

Post by **Redeth** » February 5th, 2007, 10:41 pm

Jetryl wrote:Perfect. That fixed everything.

What's the timing on this, btw?

100ms/frame. Having the dagger and the thief falling at different speeds was trickier than I'd expected, but keeping the same overall framerate helped a lot.

For death animations the final frame could remain visible longer (150 or 200ms, subtle dramatic effect), but that's my personal taste... 100ms should work fine too.

Thanks everyone for the support/praises/comments/criticisms/debates/flamewars(!!)/etc...

Post by **zookeeper** » February 5th, 2007, 10:48 pm

Looks great.

Redeth wrote:For death animations the final frame could remain visible longer (150 or 200ms, subtle dramatic effect), but that's my personal taste... 100ms should work fine too.

I'd imagine the default fade-out (which lasts for what, a second or something?) of death animations would be enough and that the last frame doesn't thus need to be made any longer than the rest.

cactusse · Post by **cactusse** » February 8th, 2007, 8:45 pm

Hello

To test how hard is to create this pesky little animations

, I tried with fencer attack (no cloak or shadow yet).

Comments ?

Post by **zookeeper** » February 8th, 2007, 9:03 pm

cactusse wrote:To test how hard is to create this pesky little animations , I tried with fencer attack (no cloak or shadow yet).

That's awesome.

However, it looks rather different to the fencer base frame in style...more cartoony and cell-shaded, and the hair is different. But the motion itself is very good. Perhaps you could adjust the angle at which he thrusts slightly so he'd thrust straight to the side or slightly at a downwards angle, instead at a slight upwards angle?

Whatever you do, at least don't stop doing animations.

Post by **Jetrel** » February 8th, 2007, 9:30 pm

zookeeper wrote:
cactusse wrote:To test how hard is to create this pesky little animations , I tried with fencer attack (no cloak or shadow yet).
That's awesome. However, it looks rather different to the fencer base frame in style...more cartoony and cell-shaded, and the hair is different. But the motion itself is very good. Perhaps you could adjust the angle at which he thrusts slightly so he'd thrust straight to the side or slightly at a downwards angle, instead at a slight upwards angle?

Whatever you do, at least don't stop doing animations.

I'll say the same thing - the biggest area where the style discrepancy hits is in the hair - if you can make the "locks" of hair as clear in the animation as they are in the sprite, I believe this would be perfect.

Seriously - that's an awesome animation!

Post by **Boucman** » February 8th, 2007, 10:50 pm

just be aware of the "moonwalk effect" it's ok on that particular anim because the fencer sliding forward won't look bad, but you shouldn't forget that units move within their hex when the animation is played...

JW · Post by JW » February 9th, 2007, 4:19 am

Wow, more impressive animations!!

Rev. V! · Post by **Rev. V!** » February 9th, 2007, 9:54 pm

Cactusse, the motion in that animation kicks butt!!!!!!
Very dynamic!
Play with the shading and hair a bit though.

Great job!

Rev. V!

Post by **Redeth** » February 10th, 2007, 12:31 am

cactusse wrote:Comments ?

Amazing

It would be great if you could provide us with any piece of advice on animation methods and graphic tools necessary to reach such a professional level of quality.

Did I mention I want to see more?

Gus · Post by **Gus** » February 10th, 2007, 1:35 am

Just posting to say how amazing this animation is.

Post by **Jetrel** » February 13th, 2007, 8:44 am

Rev. V! - I've committed the two hero images you made; they fit into the animation nicely.

I need to do a little bit of cleanup to the one captain image you made with the turned shield; the other image really isn't suitable, since it's so close to the standing frame. The most useful thing in images like this is to really *tween* frames; the hero ones were good because the sword motion was a good halfway point between other sword frames.