The
research is done, and this week it's time to start blocking out the first few animations for our hero character in Maya. Last week we filmed reference footage using move breakdowns of great fighters like Mohammed Ali, Israel Adesanya, and Tony Jaa. My focus animating this character is to keep the attacks quick with short wind-ups and longer follow-throughs.
It’s been super fun trying to bring this character to life. For this project, I decided to create all the animations in one scene in Maya, isolating each animation in its own animation layer. This allows me to switch between animations quickly without having to record timeline keys for the start and end of animations or having to switch to a different file for every animation. This also makes it easy to check the transitions between each move.
This week I thought I'd treat this post as an informal animation critique session. I'll show some playblasts that I presented to the class on Friday and paraphrase some feedback I received from my tutor. I'll also include my own thoughts now that I've had some time away from the animations and can look at them with fresh eyes.
Note: These animations are far from finished: the goal was to get them functioning as soon as possible and implemented in the game for Alpha. The character mesh is also not final so skinning is not final either.  |
Idle
|
Class Feedback
- Try adding variation and multiple loops.
- Maybe try to get some more hand movement in there?
My Thoughts
I completely agree with this. I would love to add some variation to this bouncy idle as it's very repetitive. I'm also not totally happy with the groundedness of his steps. I'm looking forward to building blend shapes for the face and giving them some expression, too.
 |
Run
|
Class Feedback
- This run makes no sense at all in the real world, but for a game, it does its job: it shows off the character's armour and emphasises the weight of his right arm. I would make the head focused more forward, feet and head stay towards the opponent while the torso is twisted.
- Really good. There seems to be a slight jolt when the animation loops although that may just be SyncSketch.
My Thoughts
I'm pretty happy with how his run turned out. It's not looping perfectly here and I think the smoothness of the loop could be improved for sure. I've held the feet at the passing pose to try and prevent sliding but I think they are holding a bit too long perhaps? There is a jerkiness in the middle of the loop that I would like to clean up.
 |
Basic Jab Attack
|
Class Feedback
- I like this attack: it's fast and impactful. Watch his head again here, he's looking away from his opponent for most of the attack. Could even reduce the amount of wind-up for the attack as well.
- It seems odd that during the windup the left foot is the only part that moves. Try to get more movement in the upper body or if you want the player to freeze in that pose make sure their entire body is frozen.
My Thoughts
I also think that the front foot is too snappy. I want to try and emphasize the hit pose for longer and improve the arcs on the left arm as it extends.
 |
Heavy Sweep Attack
|
Class Feedback
- Watch the head here, make sure your character is facing the camera as much as possible.
- Try keeping the aiming hand in the frame longer to show emphasise the wind-up of the attack even as it transitions into the hit pose.
My Thoughts
I have offset this animation using an animation layer to keep the character "in-place". This makes the animation look pretty weird as he slides his feet on the spot. When we add translation in-game it should look better. I like the power the attack has, but the line of action in the 'hit' key pose could be stronger. His arms make a broken line where they might look better as a straight line.
 |
Jump
|
Class Feedback
- You might need to reduce the amount of wind-up at the start of this attack for the input to feel precise in-game.
- His feet do slide a lot during the windup. If possible it would look good if his feet stayed plated when he crouched.
My Thoughts
I'm really not sure about the jump animations I've made. And what do you know, they are the only animations we didn't record reference for... Lesson learned. While this animation might do the job 'fine' I don't think it reflects the characters intended personality as much as the other animations. The raised fist is also just sort of a rip-off of Mario which is not a very creative choice. The falling part of the animation is fine.
 |
Double Jump
|
Class Feedback
- This might serve its purpose. Get it in the game and see how it feels before remaking it.
- I think this animation could do with having the player push off at the start. This seems to be the way most double jumps behave in Smash Bros. At the moment it's not really clear where his momentum is coming from.
My Thoughts
The rotation here is bad, I know. I moved on from this animation pretty quickly because it was just so time-consuming rotating every control 360 degrees. I need to work out a better solution for rotating characters and have been looking at CGMonks Locinator tool. A flip like this is also just a very boring way to animate a double jump. It's been done a billion times.
 |
Hitstun
|
Class Feedback
- I think at the moment this animation reads as more of a balancing animation than something to indicate the player is stunned/in pain. You may want to think about making the player tense up or throw their head back or something similar. It's worth taking a close look at the hitstun animations in Smash to see what they do.
My Thoughts
This animation is too long to work for our game, but I might be able to chop it up in Unity and make it work. Adding facial expression here is crucial. I think my classmates are right in that it would work better as a ledge balancing animation
 |
Armour Break (Special)
|
Class Feedback
- Pretty solid. Maybe he could do a small hop off the ground at the start rather than lifting his legs up.
My Thoughts
I need to get more impact on this animation. It's supposed to be one of his most powerful moves and right now doesn't feel like it. I think I should face him to camera more: extend his left leg forward more perhaps. I need to focus less on my reference and exaggerate his movements. And adding a jump as suggested could sell the wind-up more.
 |
Heavy Ground Attack
|
Class Feedback
- Fun fact: this attack is called a lariat. You use your whole forearm to smash your opponent. I really like this animation.
- I think this attack could do with having the player lean back during the windup and holding the attacking hand higher to emphasise where the attack is coming from. You might want him to extend his hand further and rotate his torso more at the point of impact to make the pose read more clearly.
My Thoughts
I like this attack, it feels powerful and gives the character a cool personality. He's this fragile-looking flower but he'll throw his whole weight into a punch. There is a hitch on his movement from follow through to recovery which can be smoothed out.
 |
This scene from Ong Bak was my direct inspiration for the character's aerial attack below
|
 |
Aerial Attack
|
Class Feedback
- Seems odd that the player's upper body moves downward and his legs stay in place. You would expect his centre of mass to stay in a similar point if he is attacking in midair. Try moving his legs up at the start of the animation instead.
My thoughts
I really like where this animation is going, but I think I can improve the transition from wind-up to hit-pose. The line of action is clear and strong, but the timing should be weighted more towards the hit-pose. The recovery to falling pose is too smooth and is mostly being handled by the computer's interpolation. Bringing the legs up to the torso is crucial as my classmate pointed out.
I plan to update this post with other feedback that I get from friends and other animators. It will be a great resource for when I go back to improve them, and it's a good way to record my learning process.
Next week is my favourite part of game development: when you finally get to pull all your collaborative efforts together in-engine and get a build ready for Alpha. I can't wait to see how the art and systems interact in this early test build.
