Game combos (October-November 2012)

A trio of shots focusing on quick and punchy animation for games.

Lessons Learned

1. Spacing

            My goal for these series of shots was to focus on animations to be used in a brawler game. I wanted gameplay to take precedence over animation so when the player hit a button the character would have an immediate reaction. This was certainly a challenge as it left a small amount of frames for the blending of animations and due to my workflow spacing turned out to be an issue.

Working on future shots I will certainly take spacing into consideration much earlier in my workflow when working with animations that are short.

2. Interacting characters

            I specifically chose a shot that had character interaction to challenge myself. Having three characters all introducing their own weight and momentum into each movement proved tricky. Encountering such shots in the future I will exaggerate the motions early in blocking so it’s easier to see and understand how the interactions are taking place. It’s easier to tone down a motion later in blocking plus than to amplify it.

Things that went right

1. Keeping it simple

            As I learned from some of my previous shots, I wanted to keep the action easy to follow and not drawn out. Especially in the last shot with three characters, it originally was about twice as long as it is now, but I cut the shot to what I thought was overall the most interesting section. I made these decisions during my rough-blocking phase so very little time was lost.

Credits: 

Leticia and Rod rigs provided by AnimationRigs.com

Ogre rig provided by Animation Mentor