How to Animate a Sword Fight: Full Creative Process

I'm going to animate a character and we're going  to do an action sequence Michelle Yeoh is pretty   popular right now after the Oscars and I feel  like this is an appropriate time to kind of use   this fight sequence as a reference so this is the  sequence that I basically grabbed and I'm using as   my reference point and what I'm looking for are  the main action poses that the characters have   so in the starting pose I can see that it's very  stoic she has a very strong kind of stance and   then it counters with her hand and then the sword  kind of comes out what I'm doing is I'm looking   at this Michelle Yeoh and I'm looking for the kind  of line of action for in each of these references   so as she takes a step forward all her weight  is in the front but then she is kind of leaning   forward a little bit with her foot trailing back  and then the next step he is launching forward   more kind of thing so I'm looking at the line of  action and I'll notice that there's a lot of these   Dynamic curves that she's making so I'm looking  at her line of action but I'm also looking at her   sense of weight so this is why you know like we  recommend doing a life drawing and we recommend   doing like really quick gesture work because it  allows you to really quickly analyze sense uh a   sense of weight and balance in your characters so  when I was studying this I was essentially just   looking for the line of action and the main sense  of weight in this pose if you look at her sequence   she's essentially walking this is the contact pose  so we got a contact pose and then this is the up   the up pose where now her her leg has moved to  the back and it's pushing upwards and then now   it's back to a down or contact pose can of think  so she's constantly taking these steps and I was   keeping an eye on this and I was like huh okay so  it's essentially a walk pose so two things that I   had to keep an eye on which is line of action  and then two uh uh placement of the feet we'll   just call it that and the placement of feet is  really important because it makes your character   especially if they're taking step forward and  if they're walking it makes it look like their   character's actually moving forward and it'll  also make it look like your character's not   sliding footwork is kind of important it can make  your fights and movements feel really Dynamic so   these were the two things that I was like really  really keeping an eye on and the next thing after   that is I then put the reference images like those  screenshots on my second Monitor and I essentially   did a rough blocking of the sequence I'll flip  through them first and then afterwards I'll play   it so I'm going to show you my rough block and you  can kind of see what it kind of turned out looking   like now this is a rough block meaning that it's  not meant to look really refined or anything but   just a way for me to see whether the action in  the motion is Flowing properly and get a good   sense of consistency so this is her initial step  and you can tell that like this is based off of   that original pose so it's based off of this one  where she's just holding her sword but because I   changed up the angles a little bit and basically  the camera position's different I can't exactly   follow this completely so I took the idea of this  pose and then I made it my own so I wanted because   in the second pose right after uh after I move  the image I bring it back so so you can see in   the next pose that I've screenshotted she has her  foot her left foot is in the front what I noticed   is that her left foot is in front so because in  this first image I can't see where her leg is   but I love this pose I'm like okay in order for  her leg to be like this her left foot probably   has to be in front so that's what I did is I just  had the exact same pose where she's holding the   sword out and she has her left foot in front and  then the next pose is that initiating pose right   where she's taking a step forward she's starting  to move down and so you can look at the trail and   you can see that it's kind of moving down and her  body is Shifting down so there's now this kind of   curve motion and she's starting to start the swing  and then after that she takes a step forward and   so this is where beat placement gets really  important because now if her foot is planted   and she's taking kind of like a leaping skip of  a step forward her foot needs to stay in the same   place so I can't move it or else it'll look like  her foot sliding and that's kind of the case for   this first pose as well when she takes the step  forward she needs to the front foot needs to stay   in place and then the back foot it's just about  to lead off so it's the tip of the tough foot   is just hovering over the ground to give a little  sense of weight and momentum and then on the next   one I want it to be a big change in Direction and  so that's why now she's taking a big step and her   body is slightly floating in the air but she's now  swung the sword forward and then in the next one   she kind of whipped the sword around so the sword  is going like this around this way and because   it's a really quick and fast motion uh it's like  the next big pose so I don't want to draw any   transitions I don't want draw any like real inets  when I'm blocking this sequence out or it's going   to be a bit too much and so it's a quick change  of Direction and because it's such a big Quick   Change uh you'll read it when I play this out  you'll read it as like a really fast kind of   swing and so then we go to the next pose and this  is another big step and again foot I'm keeping an   eye on the feet making sure that it's staying in  place and I'll bring the image up so you can kind   of see a side by side comparison and you can see  that I've exaggerated a little bit but not too   much and what I wanted to exaggerate was like her  really like leaping forward to kind of block this   the sword hit so she's really taking a big step  forward and so I wanted to stretch the foot and I   want to maybe have the body lean forward a little  bit more in the back and then afterwards she it's   kind of like a leap and she plants her both her  feet down kind of scrunching up it's kind of like   a building up momentum she sticks out her sword  in the previous one and then she lands on her   feet and it holds in all that momentum and then to  the next one she not quite doesn't quite release   it but it's another sword block and then sets up  for another one so this is where I've ended it   off uh and so today because I've already blocked  it out today is pretty much just going to be me   cleaning up this sequence now that I have the  rough Block in down I'm just gonna be kind of   animating and following this kind of sequence you  can help support us as we continue to make free   Arts education by becoming a member on Patreon  or YouTube this will give you access to special   perks like critiques and classes now I'm going to  try to clean up and so right now I'm not going to   actually start adding any details necessarily but  I want to start making sure everything is lined   up proportionally so just making sure that the  position of the head how it's moving down feels   consistent with the hips as well so right now I  feel like the hips might be a bit too high on the   second drawing so I'm just going to lower it I'm  going to switch to my my chunky chunky pencil and   I'm just going to lower lower the hips a little  bit uh the other thing is I might try to clean   up also the figure itself as this is essentially  the figure I am going to be basing off my final   drawing on I need to make sure that it's clear  for me like I know what I drew and I can kind of   translate what it is and I know what I'm drawing  so I know what to attach my drawing to this is   essentially like a very quick model sheet that  I'm using it's just like a guide to give myself   a reminder as to what the character what I want it  to roughly look but I just need to make sure that   when I'm drawing that this kind of figure matches  so right now she's holding the sword and I know   it's really messy right now but for me as long  as it's clear to me so maybe you guys might be   looking at this and be like what in the world what  is this supposed to look be or what is it supposed   to look like but as long as it's clear to me and  I know what I'm drawing and what it's supposed to   be and what it's supposed to lead up to I think  that's okay cuz everybody has a different drawing   style uh so right now you might approach the body  differently from me but as long as it works for   you when you're you're animating I think it's okay  I'm still trying to keep this loose cuz I want to   do this quickly uh and not lose a any sense of  momentum and just be able to pull it off and get   an idea as to where the shoulders are I like to  treat them as kind of like spheres but don't draw   them as spheres if that makes any sense but I I  don't like like when I'm drawing the figure like   this this is the body I like to think of it as a  sphere first and then the arm is a attached to it   the reason why I think of it as a sphere first is  that it allows me to understand the thickness that   an arm might have and if you want to start off  with a mannequin first I think that's okay you can   it allows you to quickly map out what it is that  you're drawing some people like to draw the legs   really long it gives them a kind of nice elegant  look so if you're going for stylized anatomy then   yeah you know I think having really long legs is  okay so I'm just just cleaning up the mannequin so   this is going to be my base mannequin to reference  from and I just want to make sure that the rest of   them all follow at least a general size for it  and I'm going to have my reference in front of   me so that I can at least see it uh let me see so  I'm using this as a way to gauge and judge what   the pose was originally and again because she's  moving down I want to make sure everything else   is also moving moving down she's kind of squatting  her legs which means I need to bend them this is   what the cleanup is it's not the most exciting  things sometimes but it's important it's kind of   like laying down the foundation and the groundwork  of your drawing or else you're going to come into   trouble once you start adding the details in and  you realize that the drawing is inconsistent I'm   just trying to lay it down as best as I can at  least as much as I can that will make sense for me   when I'm doing this and I realized that I changed  the position of her arms from the reference   actually so I'm going to just redraw it again so  in the reference she has she's kind of raising up   her shoulders so I'm going to have her shoulder  come up and it's covering her face a little bit   and this is why we say do figure drawing cuz now  I can quickly just map out what her body is doing   and and how it's kind of turning and adjusting  there is a lot of motion blur so it's actually   kind of hard tracking exactly what's happening  underneath but I think this is what's going on   so I'll draw the sword here and again this is  a motion trail just taking the step forward   and I think I need to move the drawing a little  bit more cuz there's a little bit of a shifting   yeah now that feels a bit better cool what is  the purpose of frames in between the drawings   uh so if I play it if I had them all really like  right next to each other it's going to you know   zip right by it's going to be really really quick  but if I space them out it helps actually put it   in a proper timing so I can actually see how  it's playing out so that's why I spaced them   out the way that I have some of them are spaced  out a little bit more you can see that frame one   runs for three frames in between before it hits  frame five and that's because I want this first   position to be a bit of a hold holding position so  that it's not as fast in the transition and then   these ones only have two frames in between cuz  I want this to be a fast energetic sword swing   and because this is the major uppercut again I  want it to hold a little bit so that there's a   little bit of slowing down in motion and then we  immediately swing over and again very quick quick   swing so that's why there's less space but that's  why I do it um I know that if you're doing this   traditionally um well obviously you wouldn't have  these gaps but that's where you would start making   notes to tell the animators under you if you were  the supervising animator to just let them know or   give them the animation planning chart sheet  just letting them know like this is what the   sequence is and this is how long this pose should  be how long you should hold it and all that kind   of stuff uh but yeah so I'm trying to recapture  this phase but in terms of exaggeration what   I'm trying to do is capture this like weight in  the leg just like a little bit more and also the   sword movement even though it's blurred I want to  C capture that sense of her bringing and flipping   that sword really quickly to capturing that  momentum so I think the sword is actually here   so the hilt is here but I want to have a bit of  motion Trail so and maybe have one put that one   there for now it is definitely like a bit tricky  cuz the photos that I'm using can only show so   much so I have to actually extrapolate a little  bit so even though I'm just essentially copying   the um footage there's a lot of um unknowns you  know there's a lot of things that I'm like oh   where is the head what is the arm doing over  here what is happening what is going on so I   have to kind of infer and make decisions on my own  as to like what is exactly happening but I want to   make sure that this motion with the leg in the  back is there and I want to make sure that they   line up and that it's captured properly at the  very least and then here's the knee let's going   this way I think this should be good enough so I  wanted the foot to just be touching the ground I   don't want it to be exactly like there so I'm just  going to move this up again so lines up with the   momentum and this is what we have so far I hope  you enjoyed this part of animating with me up   to this point we've cleaned up the main keys and  blocked in what the movement should be like in the   next part I'll be refining the movement further  and really making sure the movements flow from   one to the other if you enjoyed this walkthrough  check out our virtual classes where we have tons   of classes taught by our amazing instructors we  provide feedback as well as informative lessons   and engaging projects our classes range from  drawing painting to digital drawing as well as   an animation mentorship class that I teach we run  through 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Channel: Winged Canvas

Views: 6,929

Keywords: how to animate, how to animate for beginners, animation tutorial, winged canvas, winged canvas animation, how to animate a sword fight, how to animate fighting, how to animate fighting scene, how to animate action scenes, animate, how to animate on procreate, krita animation, krita animation tutorial, animation in krita, how to use krita animation, how to make animation in krita, animation tutorial for beginners, 2d animation, animating sword swing, animation fight scene, krita

Id: ZTH3meW3o4E

Length: 15min 39sec (939 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 31 2023