Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Starting an animation
An animation in case of games, which uses characters to drive the story is not a
simple tool to decorate a game scene and to make it attractive, but it is a way to ex-
press the game mechanics. A character moves his legs not because it looks realistic
and nice but because this demonstrates the idea that the character can walk as do
ordinary creatures on the surface of the Earth. In other words, he obeys certain rules
familiar to the player. Otherwise, the player has to invent new interpretations of what
he is looking at. For instance, there is a character whose graphic representation has
legs, but there is no walking animation sequence in the game, causing the legs to ap-
pear still. So, the character's movement on the game board can be read as sliding or
floating rather than as walking. This is a problem because such a process has its own
physical features in the real world, which differs from normal pedestrianism.
For example, the sliding implies longer and more uncontrolled deceleration, and the
floating can be interpreted as the behavior of ghosts. So, the player expects the char-
acter to penetrate walls and other types of obstacles and other properties from the
game. As you can see, the animation can give the player the right description of what
the character can or cannot to do.
The animation for 2D is not a very complicated task when it comes to illustrating the
basic phases of motion, not creating artistic dramatic scenes, which need some stage
feeling and well-balanced directing. Partially, the phases are pretty mechanical and
can be easily descried by geometric trajectories. I said
partially
because to create real
magic, you need to enrich the mechanical skeleton with some personal touches and
original details, which make the animated characters look truly alive. To find such ele-
ments, you need to become very observant and sensitive, look at the world around
you, try to notice how people and animals move, and perceive how they walk in differ-
ent situations and when affected by various conditions. For instance, have you ever
noticed that a person carrying a heavy bag always tilts his head in the direction op-
posing the arm holding the bag? Another good example is when humans step for-
ward with their foot, they usually lift up their toes. Some birds move differently on the
ground: pigeons walk by taking tiny steps, almost like humans do, but sparrows jump,
theymovetheirshortlegsinparallel.Catshavemanytypesofgaitsandsodohorses.
So, all of them have some unique detail. It is good to have a notebook (or a text file)
to note all your interesting observations. Before planning an animation sequence, try
to imitate the specified action by yourself, for example, take a few steps and note all
the peculiarities.
