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
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.
