Frames in Game Animation

edlucas3rd

Hey, so one thing that I think would help everyone looking to develop a game reel is to give some basic frame lengths for game animation. For example, one thing I've seen is that your basic attack usually takes anywhere between 5-7f with antic included. If others can give basic frame ranges for an idle, heavy attack, 2 combo attack, 3 combo attack, etc.  I noticed that many critiques when it comes to people doing game animations are that they don't work in the engine, due what gamers would consider 'lag' or unresponsiveness even though the animations are amazing. Many games I've noticed cheat this quick motion by overselling the settle animation during the end of the frames. 

Einar

This is a very interesting topic. I guess different employers look for different things when they look for a games animator. 
Some focus a lot on you knowing body mechanics, interesting poses and character. Other look for someone that technically understands how game animation works and understand the timing of game animation. It might even depend on the type of game the studio is making. The sad thing about that is that it often game animations take away from your overall result and polish, to be more functional, which isn't always the most impressive. Nothing really limits you when animating yourself so you shouldn't handicap yourself too much. Setting a basic frame range for animation, should be a limit you set yourself according to what you want to showcase. 

Game timing may also vary a lot. An enemy shouldn't always be responsive, but often telegraph their attacks well so they are readable and they can react. 

A good Game Reel i think if you focus on game animation you should have a good amount of animations that are based on something that could be launched right into a game showing you understand it. It should also have more cinematic pieces that catches the viewers attention and tell a story. People remember storytelling, and flashy fun stuff more than regular moves, so taking away that element completely from a reel might hurt you aswell. 

Now i don't really follow this as much as i want to but ideally i think it should end up that way.

AGoodFella

It's tricky if you're just animating in Maya and can't get in your anims into an engine to test yourself. You also want to your demo reel to look as good as possible. I think you try to explain in the interview process that you would cut down some of your anims or edit to be better work in-game.

Hito

best way to see is download some reels by game animators you like, and count the frames in their timing. Take Nier: Automata for example, the shortest fist attacks are around 3~4 frames. Attacks with two handed sword range between 5 to 13 frames. I think Platinum Games is the standard when it comes to responsive attacks. Ric Lico's player melee attacks in Destiny are around 5~6 frames. Tom Bailey's Disney Infinity attacks, 4~6 frames whether it's Yoda or Anakin. Stephen Vyas' latest fight loop with DOTA2 characters 5~8 frames for most swing attacks, adjusted from 24fps to 30. Starwars Clone Wars TV show, 4~6 frames, adjusted from 24 to 30fps. Joe Han's animations in Gigantic, 3~6 frames. I only counted the frames of what I think is the action proper, not the antic or follow through. As far as total duration for combos, that's kind of moot since # of attacks per combo is only limited by design. Some fighting games lets you string combos pretty much infinitely.

What seems consistent is not absolute duration but arc sweep per frame, which is around 60~90 degrees per frame.

If you're aiming for specific studios, find their senior and lead's animation reels and study their style.