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This week, I primarily worked on these three animations, in the order left to right.
The design and base images was already created by my teams Lead Artist, Nisse. What I did with them was modify the the parts and then put it into different frames. I did however use different techniques for each one. The first one I worked on, the leftmost one, I kept the base image as the first frame, Then I copied the same image into a new layer, used the lasso tool in photoshop to select the outer foot, and moved it slightly to the left. I then redrew the ankle and thigh so that it connected to the foot feasibly, I also added a heel for the right foot of the character. I then copied the picture for this frame and used it as the next frame, But this time also repeating the process for the heel. I did this until I had four frames of the left foot moving forward, after which I copied the previous frames and put them in reverse order to create an effect of the left foot going backwards and the right moving forward. I then repeated the process but moving the left leg backwards and the drawing and moving the toes instead. After the animation was finished I noticed that the highlight on the thigh was unnatural, so I repainted it on each frame so that it looked at least slightly better.
For the middle picture I took the leftmost one, inverted it, and put the Lead Artists right facing version of the same character in a layer on top. I then erased the topmost images’ legs, and the bottom layers top half. This saved hours of work.
The rightmost animation I created by taking the arm holding the axe, cutting it off the original image, repainting the character without arms, and then moving the axe to that the characters arms were holding it further down the handle.
I then put the arms back into place, but pointing upwards, and then drew a second hand so that it looked more realistic. I then created a new frame, used the armless version of the Logger and the disembodied arms holding the ax, this time pointing slightly more up and forward. I repeated the process until I had a full arc. I then did some touch ups to the shoulders so that it didn’t clip in an unrealistic fashion.
The reason for the walking animations shuffling manner is that the characters themselves have quite a low movements peed in game, so I mimicked that with a slow and slouchy gait. The reason the arms and head are not moving in a corresponding manner is that we needed only a simple animation for alpha, and it will be updated in beta.
The reason for the choppy attack animation was that I was asked by teammates to use fewer frames, so that the attack wouldn’t be to slow. We will probably change this to find a middle ground. It also has a lot of other problems that will be addressed in beta, but will not be addressed now due to time constraints until alpha.
Let me know in the comments if you have any tips in how to improve the animations.
 
About Pontus Hassis
2014 Graphics
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