Character Animation
Episode 6: Character Animation
In this video, animators discuss the goals for character animation in a game. They explain how you should think about animation as a series of poses over time. That means an animation is really only as good as its poses. Learn what makes a strong pose, as well as some of the basics of timing and spacing—the keys to believable, satisfying movement.
There's also a huge technical component to animation when it comes to implementation in games. The animators give an overview of state machines and parametric blending, explaining how different animations work together and overlap, reacting to whatever is happening to and around a character at any given time in a game.
Additional Resources
If you’re interested in learning more about animation, here are some additional resources the animation team likes!
Books:
The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams
The Illusion of Life by Ollie Johnston & Frank Thomas
Character Animation Crash Course! by Eric Goldberg
Timing for Animation by Harold Whitaker & John Halas
How To Cheat in Maya by Various Authors (multiple editions)
Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfield
Videos:
New Frame: Plus. A video series that analyzes animation in video games!
Tomas Jech’s ballbounce. An exploration of the foundational ball bounce exercise
Skylar’s Personal Animation Pinterest Page! Full of awesome animation reference to get you inspired!
Fighters Generation. Another great source for reference material!
Tips for navigation.
Navigate to the main page then select CHARACTERS from the navigation bar on the left.
Find and select a character you want from the menu.
Scroll all the way down and click on the giant ANIMATIONS button at the very bottom of the character page.
Bask in animation glory.
Animation Schools/Classes:
Downloadables
Here are some League rigs for you to play around with in Maya if you’re interested (be sure to follow the plug in instructions to get set-up)!