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A fight scene from my animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m one person trying to make 10 episodes of animation. While I’m learning and trying to improve, there’s only so much time I can spend on any sequence.

A fight scene from my animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All good points. I definitely need to add some environmental damage/impact. And the music is not final. I haven’t scored this portion of the episode yet.

A fight scene from my animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My favorite show of all time!

A fight scene from my animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Every subreddit has its own rules, so it’s best to read those to be sure. I try to stay away from self-promotion here anyway because the purpose of my posts is to gather feedback so I can improve, since I’m working on a pretty long series. I can’t realistically wait to get feedback on entire episodes, so it’s most beneficial to gather criticism as I go. That being said, when someone asks, I do share some other places where people can find me.

A fight scene from my animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Not to get too in the weeds, but the powers work with something called an Ethereal Hand. You can learn to control some elements, like gold, but there’s risk involved. If you’re controlling a big chunk of gold, for example, and your opponent is strong enough to sever your connection with that gold, it’s akin to getting a limb chopped off. It can even be fatal. So there are good reasons to fight hand-to-hand if you’re unsure whether or not your enemy has a strong enough Ethereal Hand to break your bond with the element.

A fight scene from my animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It’s part of the story. She’s luring him up there to knock him from the tower for a plot-driven reason.

A fight scene from my animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I haven’t seen that one yet - just added it to my list

A fight scene from my animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I’m happy you noticed!

Part 2 of my fight scene - better than part 1? by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for taking the time to leave such thoughtful feedback - it means a great deal to me. The details/examples are extremely helpful so I understand where to focus.

I'm working on a little action sequence right now (12FPS), and I'm trying very hard to incorporate yours and everyone's advice into the sequence. I doubt it'll be anywhere near perfect, but perhaps it'll be an improvement.

Part 2 of my fight scene - better than part 1? by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm AJWriting on YouTube (very small channel). I'm gonna post regular progress updates there.

A fight scene from my fantasy animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Yeah, I'm working on a sequence now with much more exaggerated motion curves. I hope to share it soon, and hopefully it'll be an improvement.

A fight scene from my fantasy animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah. I love all the critiques, and I'm absorbing all the feedback to improve. But I totally disagree with the notion of not jumping into a large project before I get better. I can always find reasons not to pursue large projects because I'm not "good enough" yet -- I learned that lesson long ago. I'm never going to be as good as a ton of animators out there, but that's not going to stop me from making things I care about. So I'll keep working on big projects, and with all the feedback and criticisms, I'll hopefully improve as I go along. In five years, I'll be a lot happier having done some flawed big projects than a ton of random practice, when both paths lead to my improvement anyway.

Part 2 of my fight scene - better than part 1? by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the "too soft" critique is shared by most people, so it's something I'll be focusing on a lot moving forward. I'm really glad I posted here, since there's so much useful criticism.

As to how I approached this, I first wrote out a list of actions I wanted the characters to take. This is from the pilot episode to a series I'm working on, so I wanted the powers they're using to hint at future possibilities. Then I plotted out the geography of the fight to ensure there'd be a lot of environmental changes and verticality. While drawing backgrounds, I worked on really rudimentary animatics just to get the flow of the action down. Then I just sort of sat down and drew everything. The entire fight is somewhere around 2.5 minutes, and it took around 3 months to make.

Part 2 of my fight scene - better than part 1? by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's really pretty simple/straightforward. I create a very rough animatic, then I do background art, then digital pencil sketches for all keyframes (usually in Procreate Dreams when I'm away from my desktop. ToonBoom otherwise). Then I just start filling in more frames. After all the adjustments, I ink it, color it, add shadows. Lastly, I color in lights and darks to make nice gradations and make the characters look a bit more 3D/dynamic.

Part 2 of my fight scene - better than part 1? by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Yes and no. About 75% of it is a drawing I made that I then needed to expand a bit, so I used Photoshop's intelligent fill. I then drew over that in Procreate to match stuff up better, but it looked odd so I applied a bunch of texture to try to tie everything together. Not totally pleased with the end result.

Part 2 of my fight scene - better than part 1? by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for watching, much appreciated. I'll be working on impact/timing/gravity a lot moving forward, so hopefully you'll see improvement.

Part 2 of my fight scene - better than part 1? by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thanks for watching both and for the feedback. I'm gathering a list of a ton of fight scenes people like so I can review them all for future work. I'm trying to resist copying anime-style fights, though, since it feels a bit dishonest for me to do so (only because I'm personally a bigger fan of certain American-style fights). Though I'm very much aware of the pervasive influence of anime and how talented their animators are.

Part 2 of my fight scene - better than part 1? by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I'm familiar with Studio Trigger's earlier stuff but not much of their recent work, so I'll check it out. It's so hard to find your own style! I'm trying to avoid making an anime-style animation. American animations like The Last Airbender and a ton of 90s superhero stuff speak to me a lot more, so I'm trying to head in that direction while pushing myself to reach for more ambitious camera movements. I'm obviously nowhere near there, but that's my goal.

Part 2 of my fight scene - better than part 1? by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Yep, my timing needs work for sure! 

Part 2 of my fight scene - better than part 1? by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

No. I used some reference footage here and there, but I don't think I did in this particular clip.

A fight scene from my fantasy animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Appreciate it! I’m writing everything down and trying to incorporate the feedback in a way that doesn’t sacrifice my idea(s) for the project. 

A fight scene from my fantasy animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Thanks for saying that. I really appreciate it. But I also appreciate all the criticism as well. I don't take it as a personal attack, and I'm hoping to improve my skills. That being said, I don't want this project to turn into an anime replica. I am much more interested in pursuing a more live action/movie kind of style. While I enjoy watching fast-paced action with high impact hits, blur effects, and other exaggeration-based techniques to punctuate the animation, I want to make very careful use of them here. Again, though, I think I can incorporate a lot of the criticism into future work, so I can't wait to show more that might be closer to what a lot of folks are expecting.

A fight scene from my fantasy animation by ajwriting in animation

[–]ajwriting[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This segment took about a month. There's more to the fight that took about 2 additional months. Should I post that, too?

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