Thing (GIF animation series)

BunnyWithStick · Post by **BunnyWithStick** » Wed May 30, 2007 7:56 pm

Do you want to get banned or something?

BunnyWithStick · Post by **BunnyWithStick** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:44 am

Er, anyway, I'm probably not going to be using flash any time soon, especially with the problem of making an entirely new graphics set.

The good news however is that a new and longer than ever before (Though this isn't saying much. Dammit, whenever I make something that seems longish it comes out short. I guess I did cut it off a bit though.) animation is here!

Magefight: Two mages battle it out in a closed arena. Features: Finally the lightsaber gets used (Albeit only for cutting through a magic wall), Telekinesis, A bunch o' magic and a bit of scenery-blasting-up too.

I'm a bit disappointed at how it came out though. At least it's got exactly 90 frames, not including delays (Delays don't count as frames anyway, unless you're using extra frames for delays, which I'm not.)

P.S: The rather strong kick the blue Thing does is actually that Tornado Kick I was talking about, but without the distinguishability between a star jump kick and the strong spin. (As I don't really know a thing about move names, I'm just using my own names)

As usual, comments appreciated.

Ultimatum479 · Post by **Ultimatum479** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:24 pm

BunnyWithStick wrote:Do you want to get banned or something?

Meh. It's not like it's anything a quick Google can't get you right on the first page. search engine is your friend.

You're definitely improving. The blue guy's walk towards the green guy looks very awkward, though. He's lifting his feet far too high when he walks. Try to keep his feet closer to the ground. Other than that, the animation seemed pretty fluid.

Colicedus · Post by **Colicedus** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 4:51 pm

I like that mage one, It was easier to track compared to your other ones.

BunnyWithStick · Post by **BunnyWithStick** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:04 pm

Colicedus wrote:I like that mage one, It was easier to track compared to your other ones.

What do you mean?

Ultimatum479 wrote:Meh. It's not like it's anything a quick Google can't get you right on the first page.

Yes, it's true that if you google it, you can find 100 or more piracy sites, but why do we need the Wolfire forums plastered with them? If someone wants 'em, they can get 'em, but not here.

Ultimatum479 · Post by **Ultimatum479** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 1:07 am

Bah. Whatever.

Oh, and he means that the other ones were too fast-paced and slightly confusing to tell what was going on, I guess. They were a'right for me, but I can see his point; your animation's a bit...cleaner here, I guess that's only way I can describe it. I'd still like to see his walk fixed, though. ^_^

BunnyWithStick · Post by **BunnyWithStick** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 1:52 am

Yeah, another problem I'm having is running, so far it's just really fast walking. I bet it'd look weird if it was anything else though, so I'll stick with that.

How about this?

I think that'll do for an avatar too.

Ultimatum479 · Post by **Ultimatum479** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 12:28 pm

The lack of arm movement is awkward. Since you seem to be mimicking the basic idea of the Madness series (Krinkels = genius), watch some of them more closely when the characters walk or run and see how the subtle parts of movement -- especially arm movement in your case -- make the animation look so much more real and fluid. It really comes down to the details in the end, which is why I prefer Flash to most GIF-making programs. (Flash can still record files as GIFs, just so ya know.)

Post by **David** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 4:56 pm

I didn't think that these animations were really striving for realistic human-like character animation, but we could start a thread about that. I have a fair amount of experience with character animation (mostly 3d). The last time I made a 2d animation was when I just got my Wacom tablet and wanted to test it out.

BunnyWithStick · Post by **BunnyWithStick** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 6:01 am

It's just a demonstration of leg movement, not arm movement.

It looks weird if the arms are at his side, so they just stay up there most of the time. And I don't plan on going so far into arm movement as to make them jiggle around slightly like in Madness Combat (Love the new episode, too)

Also, this is more of a Xiao Xiao style series than a Madness style series if anything.

Ultimatum479 · Post by **Ultimatum479** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 8:39 am

David wrote:I didn't think that these animations were really striving for realistic human-like character animation...

BunnyWithStick wrote:It's just a demonstration of leg movement, not arm movement.

I understand, but animations are much more enjoyable if you get a bit more immersed, and since these are so short, you can only let your viewers do that by paying attention to detail. Your call, but I'd still suggest incorporating arm movement into the walk animations.

Again, it'd be easier in Flash.

BunnyWithStick · Post by **BunnyWithStick** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:57 pm

Only if I do it unconventionally, which I don't want to do. (Tweening rotation and movement after changing the center of gravity).

As I said before, I don't really want to change much about the hands as they don't look right if I put them at his side, not to mention the fact that they've always kept their hands by their shoulders like that. It's like the style of the Madness characters, they've always had funny little wiggling feet, just as mine have always used that pose.

I will try putting a bit of movement into the hands, though.

Also, I just noticed that nobody commented on the demonstration's feet, does anyone like the new walk style?!

P.S: "Walk style" doesn't include hands, I was just testing out new feet movement!

Ultimatum479 · Post by **Ultimatum479** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:05 pm

I dunno...it seems like it's missing a frame in there, somehow. His back foot comes off the ground fine, but as it lands again in the front something seems to be a bit jerky. If you're trying to save frames, it'll do, but if you don't mind increasing the frame count then adding one or two in there near the end might make it look less abrupt.

Post by **David** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:56 pm

I don't know if it is relevant to what you are going for, but I found a good walk cycle tutorial

BunnyWithStick · Post by **BunnyWithStick** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:12 am

No, that isn't really relevant unless I want an avatar. So far I'm happy with what I've got, anything more would be tedious. Oh, and the fact that it's frame-by-frame means I can't use walk cycles.