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grievousfan — Animation Test: Discord vs. the Cursor
Published: 2013-06-29 04:43:42 +0000 UTC; Views: 16420; Favourites: 581; Downloads: 131
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Description
Some critique would be awesome kthnx
Animation test to see if I'm any good at animating ponies Discord
Hopefully I'll finish this, but I would appreciate some critique on the sketches before starting on the lineart :V Been staring at it for two days and some fresh eyes would do a world of good.
Discord, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic © Hasbro/*fyre-flye
EDIT:
Fixed the motion of the cursor and some minor areas with Discord's walk, made the tail slap more whip-ish.
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Comments: 159
great movement! I can't wait to see this if/when you finalizae it. please!?
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wow, so smooth, i really liked it. can't really say anything bad about it
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So smooth... No errors that i can see. Looks good!
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lol looks great so far :} if anything, make the tail swat more noticeable. I didn't realize that's why the mouse disappeared at first 
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Haha, awesome. And now this would look awesome fleshed out. If you want to bother putting in the time of course.
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god damn thats nice smooth animation you got there!, would love to see a fully rendered discord. or any type of "completed" animation from you.
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man I could stare at this forever (been 15 min Im not going anywhere
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Here's a suggestion: Extend the animation with Discord fidgeting into different poses while sleeping (not too much effort needed, since he'll be asleep most of the time; maybe just 1 more pose would be enough), until finally he's in the same pose as before the cursor appears. Loop it and you have a great screensaver animation. But if this is suppose to be a movie, then that suggestion need not apply.
Otherwise, the animation is nearly perfect. I kinda think Discord's head should move a slight bit faster just before he whips the cursor away, like he's taking aim before the Waaa-Pish! I wouldn't get too carried away making that tail look more whip-ish, it's fine where it's at. I don't see any errors in his walk, so I think you got that fixed.
The animation flows, even for a skeleton I'm thrilled by the animation. I can easily see your vision. But perhaps one more re-sketch fix before you start adding his body? I mean, after you consider all the comments/suggestions. I'll be watching my inbox because it's exciting to see what you'll do with this animation.
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This made with Flash or Photoshop? I'm assuming Flash because of the smooth motion.
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This is Flash 
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Ahh, ok. I've heard of the "onion skin" function since i've watched animation videos, but didn't know what it was exactly. Photoshop has potential as an animation tool. The only sad thing is you have to go really "old school" with it, and treat it like you were doing animation during the dark ages of drawing 1 frame at a time on paper before you move to the next one. Cool thing is you have the export to video layers function in Photoshop.
Can't wait to see how Discord vs the Cursor turns out.
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This is onion skin: [link] . The paler drawings are the previous/next few frames, and you can adjust it to see more or fewer frames at once. If it were traditional on paper it would be like using a lightbox
I much prefer Flash just because Photoshop does things with individual layers >_> urgh
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Yea, there's limited things you can do in Photoshop. ;-;
Love to animate with it, but I have little to go on to help me out. Not to mention I have 0 experience animating stuff in a 2D environment. Have only minimal skill with a 3D animation program which gave me the basic concept of Key Frames and In-betweens/tweens.
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I use Photoshop for drawing and for the Brushes 
Well in my experience, if you can draw a character from different angles/make comics then animation isn't that much different 
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one more thing: in the moment before he swats his tail, he turns his head to look at where he's aiming? I think that head-turn should be a bit faster, closer to the speed of the tail-swat itself. that way, the motions seem more related, more cause-and-effect if that makes any sense?
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sorry if the review below is a bit disjointed:
i really love the tail movement and the little jolt he does with his wings when he gets poked. he has a lovely smoothness to his movements and good pacing.
howver after that jolt, there doesnt seem to be the kind of agitated body language i'd have expected as he moves to get away from the cursor, like more wing ruffling or more movement suggesting he's trying not to let it touch him again. (something like his head/neck moving backward the closer the cursor comes to him). also, i think the jerk after he gets poked by the arrow should be more exaggerated in his back and neck. i mean, how annoying is the cursor to him? is he apathetic to it or more on the pissed off side?
overall I just think there could be some more decisive body language coming from discord, some stronger emotion displayed in his response. the little swat of his tail at the end was a great example of you already going down this path.
(unless this is meant to be part of a longer segment in which he gets progressively angrier at being disturbed and this is only the first instance of poking?)
also there is a nice moment in which his ears come into the picture. i think more ear contributions would add to conveying his attitude. another wing ruffle as he settles back down to sleep would help sell the idea that he is settling down for a long snooze and doesnt anticipate being disturbed again...which would set up the humor in another unwanted cursor-poke.
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Oh god, that is really well done. What program did you do that in? I'd love to see it finished.
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cool 
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This was made in Adobe Flash CS6
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Baahhh. How can people animate so good and I try and it is just...
Anyway, great job with this c':
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The one thing you're missing is Anticipation; which prepares the Audince for the whip. It'll also show how annoyed Discord is.
I think if you add the cursor poking Discord more AND THEN the whip it should be fine.
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I like the walking bit, I think you've got the movement down.
His head seems a bit small, but maybe that's just me.
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can't spot anything to critique, the motions and timing are spot on!
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My only critique is that he seems to be missing most of his body.
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These are just the armature sketches 
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Just kiddin' around. I know. 
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Pfft, I like it! The motion is great and I like how he goes back to sleep before the loop ends ^^
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Love how fluid Discord's animation is... on a side-note, it took me about 5 watches to realize that it was a loop xD I kept thinking Discord was gonna get revenge on the cursor... maybe he does, after 20 watches or something...?
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I might extend it
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Hmm... maybe a little bit more of a whipping motion to the tail as it whips the pointer away. It's already there, but more emphasis could work, I think. Right now it's a little lazy and doesn't signify enough annoyance with the arrow nor the proper... "whack" I guess to whip it away. Other than that, neat ^^
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Have you ever done anything regarding animation before this? Because overall this quite well done and fluid. It looks and feels natural as well!
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I'm in school for animation but haven't actually done any 2D animation in...almost a year?
Thank you~
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this is really good so far ^^ Really like the movements of how he walks and the way his tail moves. What did you use to make this btw?
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Thank you~
This was made in Flash CS6
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No problem, and thanks ^^
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can't wait to see it!! it's so funny how long he is when he gets up, it seems so sudden xD
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Rather clever animation! It would definitely be suitable as an animation, and seeing how you draw Discord it would be an excellent animation... Screensaver perhaps?
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