anime style

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sun Jan 02, 2011 7:01 pm

I am challenging myself to animate a scene in an anime style and I just finished designing the first character (using a lot of references). This would be the final pose in a sequence where she pulls an arrow out of her bag and strings it in the bow and then aims. I've done a test animation with a stick figure to sort out the timing and basic poses.

I'm trying to plan the best way to do this in AS. I think I can manage using bone and point animation on everything except the hands where I'll use switches. The best way I can think of is to duplicate the rig for each key pose and toggle the visibility. Then animate straight ahead between the poses. Is this an efficient overall approach?

Any tips for the animation or design would be great! I have been told that the pose looks unnatural, I'm trying to get it convincing, but still cute-sy.

Impact · Post by **Impact** » Sun Jan 02, 2011 9:10 pm

The pose looks fine to me. If she reaches back to grab the arrow than he hand will be blocked by her head and body so I dont think that should be too much of a problem. For hand movement your method seem fine to me. Usually what I do for subtle changes is just animate the vector points, or scale the hand using the scale bone tool.

Good luck

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Sun Jan 02, 2011 10:45 pm

nice character design - you've chosen quite a complex action to work with!
I'd love to see your stick figure animation... please post

I think your proposed workflow sounds reasonable - I would probably plan to use point motion rather than bone motion for things like the back hand pulling back, but then i'd probably use a bone rig to help with the animation of the arm going behind the back and into position so swapping rigs out via switch layer or visibility seems logical... it's one of those things you just have to start doing before realising why it is or isn't the best way of doing it - if i knew for sure i'd tell you.

in other news:
maybe another idea for a challenge is to set an action, like this one, that people can try to animate to the best of their abilities using any character or stickmen, whatever. I think an important thing for people to learn is how to construct characters for their workflow - EVERYONE rigs differently, it depends how and what you plan to move... just a thought

will be keeping an eye on this one!

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 2:22 am

Thanks for the tips on how to approach this. I think it will definitely be a combination of techniques. Of course I made it harder on myself by adding some body turning.

I have created a separate rig for each of the 6 key poses: http://vimeo.com/18418308. Before I start in-betweens, I'd love to hear any suggestions to improve the keys or the timing. I want it to feel fast but speeding it up makes it harder to tell what's happening. I also plan to have the bow "bounce back"/"react" a tiny bit at the end so maybe that part will be snappier and have more vitality.

Funksmaname--My stick figure experiment is not the same motion or poses, er... and the bow gets flipped around in the middle. But here it is: http://vimeo.com/18444418. I'll be taking this down soon. ;)
Good idea for a forum collaboration! And if people use their own characters, the animation might fit right into their projects.
PS--I just watched your shape stacking tutorial and I never thought of stacking the outlines to get rid of gaps in outlines. Brilliant! :D

neeters_guy · Post by **neeters_guy** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 2:38 am

It looks good already even without tweening. Did you use a video reference or did you just work out the poses yourself? Sweet work!

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:16 am

Thanks Neeters! I watched some reference video of Legolas from LOTR when I first tried to figure out the motions. The stick figure's final stance is based on Leglas's. And I tried drawing two different characters in that pose, but I scrapped those and went with this character and this final pose worked better with the style. I tried to get the last pose to pop out from the previous one, so I tried the opposite curve technique in Animator's Survival Kit p. 170. Then I kept working backwards through the poses. When i played them in sequence I realized I didn't have an arced motion so I went back and made a lot of adjustments. I also had to adjust some of the poses to accommodate the turning motion.

funksmaname · Post by **funksmaname** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:23 am

wow, i also think it's great as is... you could change the pose where she first puts the arrow to bow so that the bow is pointing down at the ground? that will make it arc. I would probably also slow it down at the end so that there is strangth and force being used to pull back the string, add another pose with the arrow even further back and a more strained facial expression?

As it slows down at the end on the very last pose you could ad a littl shake on the hands as though there is a lot of stored energy, then when you let go you could have quite an extreme or v.fast

this is inspiring work! keep it up.

p.s. you're right about the stickman, it doesn't do the piece justice, although interesting for people to see how rough things need to be in initial stages!

PARKER · Post by **PARKER** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 7:33 pm

Nice looking design iwaxana, the pose looks natural for me.
I hope you have it animated soon, i would love to see it.

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 1:06 am

Thanks Parker and Funksmaname! Here is the tweened version: http://vimeo.com/18549478. I still have to add the secondary motion, but I'll probably keep that subtle. I'm more interested in the bow part.

funksmaname--I used your suggestion to point the arrow downward. I think it looks much better that way. I also put in another pose with the arrow even further back, and then forward again, to make it more forceful looking.

Impact · Post by **Impact** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 3:03 am

It looks nice. One thing is in your earlyer movie the arrow swung around as the bow was raised, I really liked that movement and it all sort of flowed were as with this video wile it was animated well it still looked a bit too sped up, it just didnt flow as well.

neeters_guy · Post by **neeters_guy** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 9:18 am

It's a bit fast. I'd try slowing in, hold for 4-6 frames, and slowing out of the middle key poses, ie., when she's reaching for the arrow and when she's nocking. Just a suggestion. I don't know if this'll actually look better or fit what you want, but I'd experiment with different timings to see if the action reads better.

Anyway, I really like it. The blinks were a nice touch.

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 3:41 pm

I had no time to comment this thread, but I really liked the drawing and the animation so far. Maybe you should tray separating the legs a little bit on the first step, it looks weird how she changes her gravity point almost without moving the legs.

DarthFurby · Post by **DarthFurby** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 4:11 pm

There are really just two things I focus on in my animation: key poses and timing.

You have good key poses, that is the hardest part to get right in my opinion. A good way to tell if your key poses are working is if they animate and read well without any inbetweens, which is the case in your earlier video. You have good pose contrast with a standing, crouching, standing position.

However, the timing needs work. The inbetweens almost appear random. I would make a deliberate decision to go fast to slow, or slow to fast, or slow to fast to slow, etc. Maybe start fast, and slow in to the final pose, but it doesn't really matter, just experiment, but be deliberate with your choices in the timing.

If you have both the key poses and timing down, that's pretty much all there is to the animation side of things.

I think I'm going to animate a stick figure from start to finish provided I can get it done in under 10 minutes for youtube. I think that might be helpful for some people, since watching others is how I learned. Books never really worked all that well for me.

Anyway, you've got more than half the battle won. I feel key poses are much harder to get right than timing, so you should be picking that up quickly enough.

neeters_guy · Post by **neeters_guy** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:34 pm

neeters_guy wrote:...but I'd experiment with different timings to see if the action reads better.

Williams discusses "holds" much better on p. 368 of the expanded edition of Animator's Survival Kit (not sure if you have that edition).

lwaxana · Post by **lwaxana** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:58 pm

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions and tips! I added a few more frames to give more time to the reaching for the bow action, but I will experiment with the timing more.

Darth Furby, I was trying to make the grabbing the arrow part fast and then then nocking the arrow a separate motion that starts slow and speeds up to show the force. But I guess without a hold in the middle, they are one motion and they should be more continuous? If you do have time to make an example, that would be wonderful!

Neeters guy, I don't have the expanded version of Animator's Survival Kit. I'll see if I can find some good info online or in one of my other books.

Selgin, thanks for the advice, I tried to create leg movement fitting with the center of gravity in this version.

Impact: I see what you mean about the arc. I won't be going back to an outside arc in this animation because it would be a completely different scene at this point, but it seems to tie in with the idea that it should read as one continuous motion if there is no hold between.

In addition to the timing and leg movement, I added the secondary animation of the hair and skirt. I'm also trying to work out how this shot will fit into a scene. Everything is preliminary right now except the music. The backgrounds are just some photos I took because I haven't drawn anything for this yet.

http://vimeo.com/18567751