How I fixed my game's animations! | Unity Game devlog

hello guys my name is John stay skull I'm a game developer and designer currently working on a Viking adventure game called blood and Mead in this video I'm going to discuss and show how I used some of the twelve basic principles of animation to fix my player characters animation frames and in so doing dramatically improved the overall quality and feel of my game so looking at these older animations what is it exactly that what's the problem you may think these animations look fine yeah I thought so too I posted blood and meets teaser trailer online it was received very well of thousands of views and a massive positive responses which was absolutely amazing I went through all the comments carefully looking for constructive feedback this one particular comment caught my eye your character lacks some basic animation principles that is making him seem stilted anticipation and follow-through but mostly the fact that your character never changes their overall shape as they jump land an attack if you say your eyes out of focus the characters shape is exactly the same no matter what they're doing and he makes them seem very stiff and detached from the environment stretch skew and squash the overall shape of the character as they act and react if that's not the Holy Mother load of constructive feedback then I don't know what is so anyway he was completely right look at these animations the jump has no weight the axe throw feels weak also lacking weight and inertia and as they mentioned the player feels completely detached from the environment now that's a big one in my opinion I started by refreshing my knowledge on the twelve classic animation principles created by Disney paying special attention to concepts like squash and stretch arcs and follow-through before proceeding to painstakingly reconstructed my animations animation in games is a balancing act between form and functionality they should look slick without compromising the game's responsiveness overly frame dense animations can also generate large sprite sheets which can have a negative effect on performance especially on mobile but nobody plays mobile games right unlike some games that use animated bones using software like spline I use a more classic frame-by-frame approach with Adobe animate mixing keyframe interpolation with custom in-between frames I prefer this look it's no cuphead but I do have some distinct animations that would not be possible with a ripped skeleton you can typically spot an animation that is using a rig bone setup they have a particular look to them that is rather iconic both igood and have their place it really just depends on the style of game you're going for and your animation skills of course and your time because frame by frame can take well time after quite a bit of messing about I finally got to something I was happy with a ready drum roll [Music] I think you'll agree there's a huge improvement the new jump has a lot more squash and stretch and general playfulness the throw now has a lot more weight and fluidity this new turn transition is well and finally the new run has a nice vertical up and down motion let me now show you exactly how I made these fixes starting with a run I added more vertical movement between steps having the head and torso bob up and down during the jump he squashes and stretches into a ball in traditional animation this principle is by far the most common and arguably the most important I also use code to add a dynamic squash when he lands on the floor so that the greater the jump height the more he will squash combining coded animations with frame animations like this can be very powerful I've broken my jump up and jump down states into two separate animations for convenience and functionality I can then use code to check when the player's velocity is going up or down and play the correct animation this ties the characters jump States more accurately to the game's physics the mustache is by far my favorite it floats in a counter direction to the player's general movement with a air resistance wobble on the down state further selling the illusion that the player is connected to the environment these kind of peripheral animations can add a nice whimsical flair to your game unlike cartoon animations on TV in games you typically want to avoid pre jump anticipation which can lead to sticky controls jumps should be immediate and responsive you can compensate by lifting the knees in a having peripheral movement like I've done with the arms which move into a position that gives the illusion he's balancing himself during their time the throw animation was a little bit more straightforward I use the principles of follow-through arcing and exaggeration to give a weight and force to the throat I lean the players entire body and heading to the throw scaling up the players arm dramatically this is the exaggeration principle I then added inertia to the helmet and mustache this is the follow-through principle and finally you can see the entire body flows in an arc this is of course the arcing principle without the webbing sprite this looks like an awfully good slap take it come on or it could be like a sensuous beard stroke that's really not take on a game while I was in animation mode I decided to add a cool directional transition animation this particular animation adds a huge visual appeal to the characters overall animation set however it's not the easiest animation to implement requiring quite a bit of code tweaking to get right and can have a significant effect on how the play controller works it's also vital that this animation is snappy and does not lock the player route from attacking jumping or running it should be interruptible oh and by the way blood and Mead and now has a steam page up this game is going to be freaking crazy by the time it's done so make sure you wishlist it to see how it turns out it also helps to support this channel so I can continue making videos for you so help me to help you to finish off the upgrade I added improved jump and run puffs as well as some dirt being kicked up behind the plays feet using a shuriken particle system I'm actually working on a tutorial on how I made this effects so make sure you sub to the channel so you don't miss out so after adding these fixes I discovered the game's overall feel to be much more premium I essentially took it from having a definite indie field to something that may have perhaps been made by a small team in a nutshell the old animations were dragging the entire project down it's like having a great book with a horrible cover they must complement each other especially if you're planning to sell it so thank you mysterious reddit colors are for your impeccable constructive feedback skills and let that also be a lesson to be open to feedback I know game developers can be very sensitive sometimes but you never know whose advice might transform your game for the better so try to keep an open mind thanks for watching guys if you found the video useful or interesting make sure you give it a like and I will see you in the next video bye you

Channel: Lost Relic Games

Views: 49,357

Keywords: unity game devlog, game devlog, animation principles unity, unity 2d game devlog, game dev devlog, dani unity, unity3d devlog, indie devlog, indie game devlog, unity 3d, animation, indie game developer tips, game development for beginners unity, player controller, 2d animations, platformer, game dev vlog, how to, fix animations, how to fix animations in unity, good animations in unity, key frame unity, principles of animation, unity tutorial, player controller 2d

Id: Syxtvu9cIY8

Length: 7min 10sec (430 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 06 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/IndieGameGod]

What an Incredible difference! The 'in between' frames you describe are so important to selling fluid animations. Really impressed with how the game is progressing. Can you do a video on your full animation tooling setup?

[u/PeteBabicki]

I love this sort of content, because these are the sort of things a lot of us overlook, especially if you're a small team or working solo.

[u/Clam_Tomcy]

This is fantastic. The mustache movement really sells it IMO.

Have you seen this video Why your death animation sucks? He talks about foregoing sprite sheets somehow that I didn't understand, but it reduces file size. Maybe something to investigate if you're worried about devoting too much to animations.

[u/BerkayDrsn]

"Hello guys my name is John Wick"

[u/Zaptruder]

It's definetly improved.

But. You're probably going to hate me for pointing this out.

You throw from the back hand, not the fore hand. You can't get power jabbing an axe forwards - you get power from swinging your hips and pushing off the ground.

It's... probably worth fixing, because it'll be one of the more used animations in your game - after running and jumping.

[u/SickCarBro]

dude, this video is so important to consider. I had to watch it twice to let it sink in. What a big difference a few animations made. P.S I've followed your mega man tutorial series!

[u/scopa0304]

You may have done it already, but I often find it helpful to go even more extreme with the squash and stretch and then dial it back if necessary. I think your animations are much better, but I wonder what would it look like if there was even more squash and stretch? Even more weight to the landings and more anticipation to the jump and throw? At worst, you can always revert to this version, but try going big!

[u/lindeak]

To think a reddit was behind your motitvation. I agree with what you said at the end about game developers being sensitive to feedback. I dealt with this for a long time; not being able to distinguish between constructive and critical feedback. It's a skill. Love your game btw, on my wishlist.

[u/OhMyBulldong]

you are breathtaking