2D Walk Animation - Feedback welcome and desperately needed!
polycounter lvl 5
Hello Polycount!
I recently started working on a small 2D game in my free time and wanted to have my character actually do something while sliding over the screen
Now it needs to be said that this is my first ever animation (well technically the third draft thereof, but who's counting) and I really have no clue as to what I'm doing and what I need to look out for. I've certainly watched and read a few tutorials, but I still don't really have a feeling for it. Obviously this will change with practice, but I'd rather get advice early on before I internalize bad practices.
I'm therefore posting here in the hopes of getting some pointers in regards to my animation as it is now. Feedback of any kind would be greatly appreciated!
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/33f9a263b48f/#504053
I recently started working on a small 2D game in my free time and wanted to have my character actually do something while sliding over the screen
Now it needs to be said that this is my first ever animation (well technically the third draft thereof, but who's counting) and I really have no clue as to what I'm doing and what I need to look out for. I've certainly watched and read a few tutorials, but I still don't really have a feeling for it. Obviously this will change with practice, but I'd rather get advice early on before I internalize bad practices.
I'm therefore posting here in the hopes of getting some pointers in regards to my animation as it is now. Feedback of any kind would be greatly appreciated!
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/33f9a263b48f/#504053
Replies
I'll try to give you some draw-over suggestions on your syncsketch when I get out of work, but I will make some quick suggestions for you while I have a minute.
The main thing that stands out is that when you run/walk/trot your upper body and lower body normally counter each other to maintain balance. For example, in your animation the leg and arm on the back side (black) should not move to the back and front at the same time. When the arm is rotating in front of the body the leg should be behind the body. Fixing this should make it feel more correct.
You could also try adding one more frame on the contact of each foot landing and see if that improves anything.
I guess the rest of my advice really depends on how detailed are you wanting to get with this particular animation? Is it a place-holder animation? Are you wanting feedback that will be easy to implement or more advanced things that may cause you to backtrack a little bit?
Here is an example of a basic run animation's key poses. Note the twisting of the torso and the slight twisting of the head.
Regarding further advice, while it's definitely placeholder animation at the moment I'd like it not to be. So advice that causes me to backtrack really isn't an issue here and would in fact be very welcome
As of now I corrected the arm movement and tried to add a bit of rotation to the upper body and head, though there's some timing issues there at the moment.
Regarding the arm in front, the character is supposed to have one hand on her sword, which is why it's angled like that. I just haven't gotten the sword to move in a convincing manner, so it's missing at the moment.
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/33f9a263b48f/#504053
I also noticed that Syncsketch seems to swallow the last frame of my animation. As you wrote, it's there if you play it, but I can't access it on the timeline