combat game systems, animation, and flipbook making workshop

Animation in Combat Systems

Emmeline Dobson visiting workshop for BA Game Cultures

SESSION OVERVIEW

Learning objectives

• Understand combat or action systems through their animation component

– Animation

• Technical

• Artistic

• Design

– States in a combat move animation

Session structure

• Technical / artistic / design overview

• Demonstration with Playstation 3

• Flipbooks workshop

– Guidance

– Making animations

– Review

– Intro’ to states in combat animations

– Revisit flipbooks

OVERVIEW: A COMBAT MOVE ANIMATION

Frames

Frames

Frames

Silhouette

Silhouette

Silhouette

Silhouette

12 Basic Principles of Animation

Three stages of a combat animation

• Wind-up (or “pre-strike”, or “anticipation”)

• Strike (or “active”)

• Recovery

Wind-up

Strike

Game input loop

Strike

Recovery

Three stages of a combat animation

• Wind-up

• Strike

• Recovery

Wind-up Strike Recovery

Keyframes

Keyframes

COMBAT DEMO

Wind-up

• Fast-wind-up for player avatar

• REALLY slow wind-up for enemy character / “READ”

• TRANSLATION on player avatar’s attack moves

LET’S ANIMATE!!

Making your animation – design

Making your animation – key points

• Choose to do a player avatar move OR an enemy character move

• Design your KEYFRAMES

– Wind-up (FAST for player, SLOW for enemy)

– Strike

– Recovery

• Strong SILHOUETTES

• TRANSLATION (player moves towards target)

Making your animation – tips

• Plan which page of the flipbook has which keyframe. (Suggest marking these pages *.)

• Lightly pencil in the GROUND PLANE

• Plan how to use the space on the page

– Room for TRANSLATION (for player avatar)

– Leave room for, if you want to, drawing an enemy REACTION to being hit!

• Start at the BACK and work lightly at first

FLIPBOOKS – REVIEW!!

Review

• What choices did your classmate make?

– In the design?

– In the animation?

• Did they make a slow or a fast wind-up? Why?

• How do you think this move would feel for the player to do?

• OR How do you think a player would react to this enemy move?

Learning objectives

• Understand combat or action systems through their animation component

– Animation

• Technical

• Artistic

• Design

– States in a combat move animation

Hit boxes

Throw / grab box

Video

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOvUxKnGidc

Aerial frames

Ground Air Ground

Learning objectives

• Understand combat or action systems through their animation component

– Animation

• Technical

• Artistic

• Design

– States in a combat move animation

RECAP

Wind-up Strike Recovery

Game input loop

References

• http://art-eater.com/2010/07/test-1-darkstalkers/ -- 12 Principles of animation in Darkstalkers

• http://aztez.com/blog/2014/01/06/anatomy-of-a-successful-attack/ --interactive demo of combat impact effects.

• http://www.zweifuss.ca/ -- Street Fighter III: Third Strike interactive character animation library

• Book: The Illusion of Life -- Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston -- the 12 Basic Principles of Animation

• Book: Character Mentor -- Tom Bancroft -- an excellent resource on character design

• http://www.liaf.org.uk/ -- The London International Animation Festival had a flipbook workshop and flipbook competition in 2013. See one of the animations here: https://vimeo.com/78173238

• http://aztez.com/blog/2012/12/26/links-to-great-articles-re-combat/ --Want more resources on combat animation? There's a long list in this article from the developers of Aztez.