SwordSwing Pixel Animation
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6532
Printed Date: 10 June 2026 at 11:18am
Topic: SwordSwing Pixel Animation
Posted By: Shougi
Subject: SwordSwing Pixel Animation
Date Posted: 19 May 2008 at 3:22pm
Trying to breakdown an animation of a woman swinging a huge sword. Right now it's in very rough stages and I see that I tend to make the character change volumes a lot, which I will try to fix as time goes by. Plan is to also add a few more frames after the character stutters to regain balance. Other than the things I said above any tips or suggestions I could have to improve the animation? I am quite new to animation and I am more or less winging it. No references were used, but the character was inspired by the anime character Gutz from Berserk. Below is what inspired me to do this animation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserk_%28manga%29 http://www.justmanga.com/jmcover/berserkgutBDpvc.jpg |
Replies:
Posted By: Shougi
Date Posted: 20 May 2008 at 3:41am
Here's adding the second half of what I intend to do I want to add an enemy to the right side getting cut in half on her first swing and when she pulls the sword out of the ground and starts walking away the enemy will split in two. This is still extremely rough I only started fixing the first two frames so far. |
Posted By: Shougi
Date Posted: 20 May 2008 at 8:57am
Last update for today tried to make sure she didn't magically transform into a muscle bound superhero. I added some basic shading to some frames of the sword, cut down on the volume she was gaining and cleaned up some of the earlier frames. Still tons of work to do on this, but it's pretty fun trying to figure out. |
Posted By: M.E.
Date Posted: 20 May 2008 at 9:10am
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Hi Shougi, What a rough animation you have there. There are some nice ideas and interesting executions (*pun intended*) going on here. The most important thing you have to look at before you are using colorblocks to differentiate the frames is to check the action where the swords 'falls in the ground' The falling is too slow and the ladies action after the fall is really strange. I think you want her to almost fall over but the action doesn't read quite well. I would avoid hair and all that before you have the animation where the volumes remain the same. Best regards from M.E. ------------- http://www.kunststukken.nl - KunstStukken.nl M.E. Art |
Posted By: Metaru
Date Posted: 20 May 2008 at 10:52am
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indeed. the best way to work with this is to make a wireframe to secure the animation stages and then work in detail. but a defined wireframe, because for me and for the rest of us is quite hard to read some parts of the action.
------------- I ate leel's babies |
Posted By: Shougi
Date Posted: 22 May 2008 at 4:45am
Decided to break it down to more or less linework for only the first 11 frames to help people critique. I'm working on the part where the sword plunges into the ground and the force of the swing causes her to be uplifted right now i'll post that when i find a plausible solution. Anyways I left the bikini green just because some of the lines were only 1 pixel in size and they just vanished. |
Posted By: M.E.
Date Posted: 22 May 2008 at 6:59am
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Hi Shougi, A good way for so many frames is to set the framespeed to 1 second and show us in 'slow-motion' what happens. The volumes still change radically. Frame 4 makes me cry (she breaks her arms) Watch out for the length of both arms and legs. Instead of editing lines I found that it is good practice to first use colorblocks. It is much easier to change volumes and position of the limbs using something like that. Best regards from M.E. ------------- http://www.kunststukken.nl - KunstStukken.nl M.E. Art |
Posted By: Metaru
Date Posted: 22 May 2008 at 10:24am
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and avois these muscle details. it makes her looks horrible.
------------- I ate leel's babies |
Posted By: Aleiav
Date Posted: 23 May 2008 at 7:04am
| She does look rather mannish. But if she's a barbarian lady then I think it's okay that she looks mannish. |
Posted By: Peach
Date Posted: 23 May 2008 at 9:05am
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Originally posted by Aleiav She does look rather mannish. But if she's a barbarian lady then I think it's okay that she looks mannish. but at least don't let the steroid-power prevail! :D |
Posted By: Shougi
Date Posted: 23 May 2008 at 10:03am
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I actually want to sway away from her looking too feminine and show that she has alot of power via muscles. The muscle details are also placeholders for later shading so most of those will stay, but I will try to fix alot of the inherent problems with the animation ie the broken joints, volume changes and timing. |
Posted By: Metaru
Date Posted: 23 May 2008 at 7:47pm
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yet it is still a woman. don't forget that. or else it will turn into a gayish transexual barbarian.
------------- I ate leel's babies |
Posted By: Saboteur
Date Posted: 23 May 2008 at 9:34pm
 The body would pivot on the contact point, not at the hips. ------------- "I was minding my own business and walking across a pebbled path, and a Duck started giving me the business." |
Posted By: Shougi
Date Posted: 24 May 2008 at 5:29am
Thanks Sab, didn't realize that at all I'll try to adjust my animation to pivot in a similar manner. Edited the characters pivot point on the swing to be at the balls of her feet as Saboteur suggested. Here's where I may go with the animation, I think I either will have her do a flying side kick to the guy after she regains her balance and or a matrix style kick which splits him in half after he is cut. After which she will pull her sword from the ground and walk away. Rough animation of where I may go with this.  |
Posted By: Aleiav
Date Posted: 26 May 2008 at 6:15am
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I think that in terms of making her look more like a woman, one thing that could be done is not to make her feet so big and to widen her hips a little. These are things that don't have anything to do with muscular strength and are just your basic differences between male and female body structure. I do like the animation! Much more complicated than I can do. |
Posted By: Shougi
Date Posted: 29 May 2008 at 1:01pm
Thanks Aleiav I made her feet smaller and her hips wider where I could. Changed the animation up a bit, this may or may not be where i'm going with it. I also decided to shade in the frames that I felt weren't too bad to vary stuff up a bit. |
Posted By: QuaziGNRLnose
Date Posted: 29 May 2008 at 1:32pm
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i dont know why, but it feels pillow shaded a bit in some areas, probably just the background, and anim sped messing me up
[edit]
its the shoulder that looks pillowed
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Posted By: Aleiav
Date Posted: 29 May 2008 at 2:19pm
| It's hard to tell, you should post a static frame shaded so we can see. Or do one slow mo. |
Posted By: Shougi
Date Posted: 29 May 2008 at 5:04pm
Okay here's a slow motion version with darker colors. Obviously the monster is not anywhere near being resolved and if it is pillowshaded please help me on how to avoid doing it, i'm a novice at shading atm. |
Posted By: Souly
Date Posted: 29 May 2008 at 5:24pm
It's funny that Berserk inspired you as well to make a character with a gigantic sword. Doubt this will help you with anything but I thought I'd post it anyways since you can always use it for pointers if you choose to do an over head swing. First off; The handle is way too small no way anyone could lift that without any kind of leverage. Two; her feet make her look like she's some kind of dog. What is up with her stomach? It seems she gains a good beer belly in mid swing. Why do her elbows cross? Try swinging a broom stick like this. Tell me if your elbows cross. ------------- 
I am the jesus of PJ. |
Posted By: Metaru
Date Posted: 29 May 2008 at 6:19pm
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its everything we already said you shougi. its juts that everything is more evident now: the anatomy is messed, and you're lacking frames to make the animation as smooth as it needs to be to make it effective and credible. also, you need some sort of reference ofr that sword swing. i suggest you to make an study on some videos or games(Youtube Sigfried-soulcalibur), study them carefully and apply what you learn on how, for example, the trajectory of the sword is really affected by the centrifugal force, and how the body of the barbarian is pulled by this force. you could see this if you look for some videos of the sport called hammer throw. ------------- I ate leel's babies |
Posted By: Saboteur
Date Posted: 29 May 2008 at 6:57pm
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Absolutely love the blocking for the monster (It has motion curves and beautiful flow), even though it changes forms like a mad fool. It almost works for it, the changing forms. As for the swordschick, I think you're leaning too far toward cool and ignoring what's physically possible or even logical in terms of momentum and force. And flow. She does this massive swordswing, chops the monster up the middle (which doesn't make sense in itself, seeing as how she orbits with the sword near a 45 degree angle), ends the sword swing by mashing the sword into the ground with one hand, then STOPS the twisting motion she has (seems impossible and removes the illusion of weight on the sword and warrior) and does this big, badass kick afterward. And the kick IS badass. Love the blocking for it as well, I just don't think it fits at all with the actions preceding it. I'll try make an edit, gimme a while :) [EDIT] Eff me, I have a whole new respect for how much work you're putting into this. That crap takes forever, and I sure as heck wouldn't have the patience to even THINK about putting muscles and stuff in an animation this large.  That's what I came up with, and I believe it comes close to solving a lot of issues. ... oh... wow. Just took another look at the ending, and I realised that she DOES cut him in half horizontally, though that also is not possible with your latest animation. I opted for the vertical cut, as I got confused by the line down the monster's middle when he gets kicked. Ahh well :/ ------------- "I was minding my own business and walking across a pebbled path, and a Duck started giving me the business." |
Posted By: Souly
Date Posted: 29 May 2008 at 9:12pm
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Also in my honest opinion you shouldn't start getting so far into detailing until you are FOR sure you are happy with the animation. Believe me, much easier editing the animation when it's just plain lines or color fills. Right now since you've already began detailing and shading editing is going to be more time consuming and overall harder for you to achieve what it is you're trying to do. You should try designing her in a single frame and getting her final draft before you try and replicate into different frames. Right now I think this could be done if you put more effort into the simple things before you start getting too far ahead of yourself. Trust me, it's what I did with the animation I showed earlier. Totally redesigned it so now I have to do a new animation. Her sword hardly cuts through him. At most his belly would slice open horizontally and his intestines would pour out. IMO I think you've gone too manish. I personally like this one better then any of your new ones. It feels like it has more weight to it and she looks better then some ugly ass monster behemoth barbarian women. She spins this sword as though she can't even lift without spinning it yet she has all this muscle. -------------
I am the jesus of PJ. |