Some Simple Questions about Character Animation

[Cylix]

Hello,

I have a question about Animating a Character.(I'm fairly new to flash.. if you should know) You see, I've animated them before, but what I want to know is what I should use to make the animation run more smoothly.

I have drawen 2 stick figures fighting before, just by doing it frame by frame, but it doesn't seem to run that smooth. I have increased and dinked around with the fps and stuff, but with no luck its still not that smooth.

Would Motion Tweening or Motion guide work better? or are those just for shapes and stuff?

I don't understand actionscript that well yet, so I can't really do anything with the AS, as for I can't even figure out how to write my own code.(always gives me a damn error).

Also, I wanted to know if there was a way to, lets say...

My 2 stick figures are fighting and I want to slow a couple frames down to get it a slow motion effect, how would I do that?

Thanks

Cylix

[Cylix]

Wow... I would have thought I would have got some responses to this.. since its simple. Guess everyone here are Noobs....

Cylix

[splict]

Originally posted by Cylix
Wow... I would have thought I would have got some responses to this.. since its simple. Guess everyone here are Noobs....

Cylix
Yeah, we're all noobs.

[Dr Warm]

I am a noob too, is this the kind of smoothness you want to see (download my .fla) most of this is just simple motion tweening with only small amounts of actionscript telling stuff to stop. If u don't get what i've done just try mucking around with it its pretty simple really

PS if u want to get more responses put up ur .fla file of what ur trying to do so people can actually see what ur trying to do

[Mr.Moo]

hi,

i knwo u saidthat ur not to into AS but if u go to http://www.ultrashock.com/ nad go to the MOOSE tutorial it explains TIME BASED ANIMATION very well.. and time based animation is probely ur best choice if ur looking into makeing thing smoother in ur movies without speeding them up to a point where u cant see sh**... anywya give it a try.. u might need to work on it a bit... but it explains eveything well...

hope that helps

PS. ull probebly have to redo everything...

[ard0x]

hi Cylix,
If you are looking for "smooth" character animation, you would do well to read Richard Williams "The Animators Survival Kit" or "The Illusion Of Life", or another selection from the wide variety of animation books or online essays out there, before asking in a scripting forum.

Good character animation is all about timing and spacing and posing. And not about making software do things for you, like speed up frames, or improve your sense of timing. Bad, choppy animation will only play faster with a faster frame rate. It will still be choppy.

As for your specific question: "How do I make a slow motion effect."

A: The simple answer is draw more frames. More frames = more time = slower motion.
I suggest doing a google search for "Principals of Animation". Hopefully it will satisfy your thirst for animation knowledge.

[Cylix]

ok.. I guess there are some people here that know what there doin :D

I'll try ervything you guys said. I figured the slow motion out, I just relized yesterday, that if I animate them in more frames, equals slow motion. like you said ard0x. I felt like an idiot when I found out...

Dr. Warm, no that isn't really the smooth animation I was talking about. I attached my swf file of my short pratice stick fight. It's smooth, but I want it to get smoother.

Thanks to everyone who helped.

Cylix

[ard0x]

Cylix, no need to feel like an idiot. There are people that pay tens of thousands of dollars to learn basic animation principals in school, and then spend their entire lives mastering it.

One thing to keep in mind though is very often what you should be looking for is not "smoothness" at all.

For example, when your guy throws his knife, he throws it, and then the knife tweens towards the target very smoothly. And slowly. And weakly.

With animation principals, you could have 1 pose where he is standing holding the knife. And then with only two frames you pull back into a pose where he is holding the knife behind his head, ready to throw it.
And you hold that frame. Hold it, hold it, hold it, because he is getting the power ready to throw this thing.
And then WHOOSH! One more pose, where he is now leaning forward throwing everything he's got into the throw! All of his weight is forward into the throw, and the knife is already in the other guys body, which is bouncing slightly from the force. All in one frame. And the action still makes sense, and has force to it.

Just things to keep in mind. Good luck.

[Cylix]

yeah. I made the Knife frames before I even figured out that more frames means slower and less means faster. I'm thinking of removing a few knife frames, and making less so that the knife goes at more speed, as well as his arm motion. Which btw isn't right. lol Looks like h'es doing a 360 with his arm. I'm still learning how to do poses and stuff though. I was gonna add a motion blur behind the knife as well as its going fast.

If I get it right, I'll post it.

Cylix

[jubei]

I love animating, you can see my sort of stuff here (http://www.talesofthesamurai.com) (although look at the latest one, it's probably the best)..

I find to keep things smooth, i like to use a lot of motion tweening.. mainly because it forces the animation to move at a certain rate, which frame by frame guesswork doesn't always do. It also means that when you're retiming stuff, it's much easier.

Retiming is the best part i think. I tend to make the animation, then watch it, add or remove frames, watch it, add or remove frames.. and keep going until it flows the best. Like ard0x was saying.. especially with a fight scene, the timing is really important, you can extend out scenes and flash through others, and it'll give a really dynamic flow to it.

Keep up the good work, anyway :)

[Ricod]

yup, keep it up, but stop calling everybody noobs and such the second you don't get an answer. Leads to hostility, which isn't benefical to the forums, nor getting answers.