Animation Help, please... :)

[Willyam1]

Hey,

So, I'm not too good at Flash. I know the basics and I'm learning a bit more.

However, I like to do stick-man fights. I've seen videos and they keep the stick-men the same size constantly. How is this done?

I assumed they might create a body-part for each stick-man, but I find that to be too much work.

I've done mine by drawing it again and again frame by frame. I don't use the line tool.

Anyways, this is what I've done so far:

Stick-man Battle

I know there's a lot of improvement.

Could some point me in the right direction please?

Also, criticism is most welcome!

Thanks. :)

[bl00db47h]

Well, first of all sometimes it is a bit choppy. If you haven't already try upping the frame rate from 12 to 18-30 do so in the properties box. And to fix the problem you were having just erase the part of the body you don't want, and redraw it in a different position. Keep everything else.

Also, they seemed to keep a decent size to me. But they were a bit stiff, try to make them bend their back a little more, have more freedom, you know? Like for instance, there is this one part where one of the guys does a backflip and lands behind another guy. Well, it was really stiff and it kinda seemed like he just flew. Try practicing only what you see is flawed. Like, the backflip. Try studying how other people would do it in someone else's animation and try to do it like them.

And next your walking cycles. These are the hardest. I think that you can do it if you try hard enough, but to be honest, yours weren't the best :P I would suggest looking up a few tutorials. Some may not help, but there will be that rare moment where one seems like it's speaking directly at you, pouring knowledge into your brain! As I said just practice what you have trouble with and you'll be good in no time.

keep practicing and having fun, you'll be a pro in no time!

[Willyam1]

At 2/9/10 08:19 PM, bl00db47h wrote: Well, first of all sometimes it is a bit choppy. If you haven't already try upping the frame rate from 12 to 18-30 do so in the properties box. And to fix the problem you were having just erase the part of the body you don't want, and redraw it in a different position. Keep everything else.

Also, they seemed to keep a decent size to me. But they were a bit stiff, try to make them bend their back a little more, have more freedom, you know? Like for instance, there is this one part where one of the guys does a backflip and lands behind another guy. Well, it was really stiff and it kinda seemed like he just flew. Try practicing only what you see is flawed. Like, the backflip. Try studying how other people would do it in someone else's animation and try to do it like them.

And next your walking cycles. These are the hardest. I think that you can do it if you try hard enough, but to be honest, yours weren't the best :P I would suggest looking up a few tutorials. Some may not help, but there will be that rare moment where one seems like it's speaking directly at you, pouring knowledge into your brain! As I said just practice what you have trouble with and you'll be good in no time.

keep practicing and having fun, you'll be a pro in no time!

Hey, thanks a lot for the feedback.

Oh I see, I do draw them differently every time, but I wanted to do a fight scene which would be a whole lot bigger and the differences between the character/s would be noticeable. But I'll just try and make it as perfct as I can.

Yes, my characters are very stiff. I'll workon bending them a lot more and making it look more realistic.

I sometimes get confused with the FPS, when I did it, it looks way too fast than I would've liked. I also want to do some slow-motion scenes, but I really struggle with them. Any tips?

My working cycles are terrible. Infact, I don't even use a cycle. I just use the same body and just put it forward a bit. I hope people don't notice because it's so fast, obviously they do. :P

I'll improve on them.

I'll look upsome more tutorials.

Thanks again, for the feedback. :)

[bl00db47h]

With slow mo, I would suggest maybe tweening them. Just as long as they don't move TOO much throughout the scene or it could get complicated. Just remember to keep everything on a different layer though! That's one of the things I don't like about tweening. But if you hate tweening like I do, you could always just move them, like, a few arrow key hits a frame. Though it would take much longer and it might not produce the same effect.

Jesus, you have no idea how many red lines under my words there were when I look up.

Also, for the FPS thing. You just usually have to add more frames to get it good, and keep it consistent. I noticed sometimes that your characters would almost jump from one spot to another, them be smooth. You don't keep your frames at a consistent number! It'll take some time and a few tries but keep correcting yourself if you don't think there are enough or too many frames, or something looks odd.

[Willyam1]

At 2/9/10 08:47 PM, bl00db47h wrote: With slow mo, I would suggest maybe tweening them. Just as long as they don't move TOO much throughout the scene or it could get complicated. Just remember to keep everything on a different layer though! That's one of the things I don't like about tweening. But if you hate tweening like I do, you could always just move them, like, a few arrow key hits a frame. Though it would take much longer and it might not produce the same effect.

Jesus, you have no idea how many red lines under my words there were when I look up.

Also, for the FPS thing. You just usually have to add more frames to get it good, and keep it consistent. I noticed sometimes that your characters would almost jump from one spot to another, them be smooth. You don't keep your frames at a consistent number! It'll take some time and a few tries but keep correcting yourself if you don't think there are enough or too many frames, or something looks odd.

Thanks again. :)

I'll do some research on tweening and see if I can pull it off.

Also, on my animation, when they oved really fast. That was my attempt to make it look extra fast. At the start, I useda blurring effect, but it took too long so I just hade them move around really fast. :P

I was trying to emphasize their power. :P

Thanks again. :)

[narf]

for a first starter stick animator don't attempt slow mo, and i'd refrain from tweens.

You don't provide any realistic movements at all. You need to study up for yourself how an actual human body moves. On top of that there no real indication of physics. A some point even if these people fighting were able to levitate it still looked completely unnatural.

Remove the blur effects completely because it only hinders the animation and makes it look sloppier.

All and all i think you need to further research the basics of animation and flash effects before you set out in trying to create an entire battle scene. Your aiming too high too fast.

sounds rough because it is