[Ninja Dodo]

I sometimes forget why I'm doing stuff - it took playing Gothic 2 for the best part of January to remind my why I'm getting into games again - and animation is another one of those things... and all I have to do is create a character and make it move to remember why animation is so awesomely excellent.

Incidentally, this is a little test I did just now with a character I've been working on for a while:

http://ninjadodo.com/temp/guardjump2.avi (DivX)
... or http://ninjadodo.com/temp/guardjump2.mov (Quicktime)



(In case you're wondering... the character is supposed to be an ancient Egyptian guard. The above still is a facial test.)

The satisfaction you get out of taking a lifeless bunch of pixels and turning it into a living breathing character is just incomparable... and I can't wait to get better at it.

Anyone else here do character animation at all?

[lumi]

That's pretty cool. In case you want any critiques, I'd say that his landing looks a bit too smooth. The legs look good, but I think the upper body should should whip forward a bit faster/move more foward. I'm basing that off of what happens to myself whenever I jump from heights.

[Erwin_Br]

Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo

Anyone else here do character animation at all?

Yep, but not 3D modeled yet.

--Erwin

[Ninja Dodo]

Awesome... for your point & click game, I suppose?

[Starflux]

Looking swell, Ninja Dodo! I'm dabbling in 3D Maya animation too, but I won't be going any further in it beyond basic animation. I've made a few animations, but nothing reaching the level of your Egyptian guard. I really love it, but it's not something that I'd want to spend all my time with. I'll just stick to drawing my animations ^_^

That said; go you!

[Erwin_Br]

Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo

Awesome... for your point & click game, I suppose?

Yeah



The walkcycle has been improved, though. There's a small hick-up in this old animation that I fixed. I didn't feel like making a new animated gif of it.

--Erwin

[Ninja Dodo]

Nicely done!

I don't know whether you've already changed this in the tweak but I would make the head move a bit more, the up and down of the body aside...

[Simon]

I love the satisfaction of animating something that just flows and looks right. It can take a lot of frustrating tweaking to get there, but it is rewarding. I fiddle around in Flash and have created animation for (unfinished) AGS games before. I also plan to dabble in Maya and at least understand the workings of 3D modelling and animation.

I want to work in games or animation, but my skills are really more stylised 2D cartoon/graphic art. Also I haven't gone to art/animation/game design school, so breaking into the industry will probably be ultra-difficult, but I'll always do sketching, cartooning and animating as a hobby, I love it.

[Bastich]

Keep up the good work!

This reminded me of your pigeon short, so I just looked it up on my HD and watched it again. I absolutely LOVE that one. It cracks me up every time. LOL!

[Ninja Dodo]

Here's another short I completed recently btw:



http://ninjadodo.com/anims/aca1.avi

[Wormsie]

Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo

Love that expression!

Don't forget people, you will see more of Ninja Dodo's animation in the game Curves of Danger. Once we get the few last animations implemented...

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by deadworm222

Don't forget people, you will see more of Ninja Dodo's animation in the game Curves of Danger. Once we get the few last animations implemented...

I swear, if I have to read another unsubtle plug outside of game-specific topics, I'm going to spam this forum hard with adverts for a certain fantastic games site (relaunch coming oh-so-soon, don'tcha know!)...

Nice animation, though .