Moho Forum

I made this with the help of jorgy and it is just a small 2 second animation of a knight swinging his sword.
The purpose of this animation was to test out drawing characters and animating them.

knight animation

Please tell me what you think. Enjoy!!!

Dan

Do you used image layers?

Yep!

Hey Dan,

That looks really good! It looks like you're really starting to get into it. I'd like to see you do a longer animation. Lot of work, I know, but you seem to have the interest and an understanding of how it works. Did you draw your knight on paper with a pencil and then scan the image and bring it into Moho? How many images did you make and scan to get this to work for you?

Nice job!

jack

Excellent! You're probably (certainly!) too young to remember Captain Pugwash, but it's very much like that style. You should develop it further...

J

Thanx for the feedback guys!

JCook: To get the animation moves look good, I scanned in one picture (which i drew on a sheet of paper in parts and edited them in Gimp) and it made 19 image layers altogether! Alot I know, but it looks great!

Jahnocli: I have heard of Captain Pugwash, but haven't seen it.

I think i will develop it into a full animation because i have 6 WEEKS holiday off of school! YAY !

Thanx for watching it.

Dan

By the way i was thinking...
Would it be good to have colour added or just black and white?

Please give info because i am going to make an animation about it.

Thanx

Hello Crazy Dan,

I just wanted to comment on your animation a bit.
Right now, the swing of the sword makes it look as if the sword is made of, well... paper.
Of course easy in, ease out is a great thing to do, but the ease out at the end kicks in way too early. You'd have to be mighty strong to handle a big, heavy sword like that with such grace.
Also, if it's a sword swing, like he's going to chop someones head off, he wouldn't hold back, like it looks like he's doing now, he'd swing all the way, then he'd slow down.

I'd make his arm go down faster, move all the way down, then slow out as the arm passes the lowest point and moves up, to the right, then pick up a little speed again as it moves left, like a pendulum, and then come to rest in the final pose.
Also, it might be a good idea to have the sword have the ability to rotate separately from the hand, for that extra fluidity, and realism. You could argue that the design isn't meant to be realistic, but the movement is what sells it in the end.
But that's up to you.

I hope I've been of any help, and I wish you good luck with your project.

Would it be good to have colour added or just black and white?

My two pennies: you should keep it black and white, but have more contrast. Drawing is a little flat at present. Maybe you could also experiment with thicker lines around some objects (to differentiate foreground from background for example).

Good luck!

J

Jahnocli: I was thinking of keeping it black and white aswell because if i used colour it would look to much like a normal cartoon drawn in moho. Also, Thanks for the drawing tips! Much appreciated

Trondheimfan: !WOW! Those tips are absolutely GREAT! Thank you for telling me about that i will remember that next time i animate him.

I may draw another character today and put it up for you to see.

Dan

That's cool Dan, but I think that would be even better to learn how to solve these things for yourself, than to just remember this one tip.
Before you start animating, even if it's just a paper cut-out, first act out what he's going to do.

Example: like if he's swinging his sword around, get a sword, or something that's about the same size and weight, and start swinging it yourself. Try to feel where the weight goes, and how all the part of your arm, the sword, and even your entire body move, and respond to each other.
That way you can figure out in advance what the animation should look like, and what kind of problems or difficulties you could run into.

Good luck.

Quote: "That's cool Dan, but I think that would be even better to learn how to solve these things for yourself, than to just remember this one tip."

What do you mean?

I was talking about you saying:

Thank you for telling me about that i will remember that next time i animate him.

Oh right!

Whoops! wasn't done posting yet (wrong button ),

I wanted to go on to say that it's probably a good idea to remember that piece of advice, if you want, but you still have to think before animating, because you can only apply that particular piece of advice in that particular situation (the sword swing).
When it comes to walking, talking, jumping, or whatever, you have to figure out all the weight and speed etc. all over again, whilst remembering your characters character and motivation.

It's just a lot of stuff to keep track off, and it's all very difficult. You can't just rely on one trick.
I hope I've made myself clear this time.
If this sounded preachy, or something, it's not supposed to be. Just trying to help.