Honestly, considering I don’t really do animations, I feel a little bit proud of myself. Although, I know there’s always something to improve on. Most of these animations aren’t bad, but I most definetely know that I can improve them on/be better. I want to make it more impactful, and then add the VFX (which I’m clueless on honestly, I have never been a huge vfx scripter.)
The Anims in order-
Punch,
Kick,
Spin-Kick/Aerial Kick,
Elbow,
Grab.
I like where they’re going, but the same movements on an R15 rig would look much better. Rather limiting to swings and kicks when your arm is one piece, and you can’t depict things like preparing a punch and extending an elbow.
Fair. I’ll look into trying to switch it over to an R15 rig. I always wanted to do it, but I had an animator at some point and he made rather well-developed R6 combat animations, so I was always very skepetical to switch over since he wasn’t on the team anymore.
Personally I advise not changing them to R15; you can still utilize good animation principles on R6 and if you’re newer to animating, having to work with more parts is just going to make it more difficult for you.
One of the first things I think you could improve on with these animations is how you’re easing them. Currently, the movements start and end quite abruptly instead of easing gradually to and from full speed. If you utilize different EasingStyles and EasingDirections on the keyframes based on how they’re moving, I think the animations will already look considerably more natural.
You can actually do this in R6 if you move the character’s full arm based on the position of a real person (or R15 character)'s forearm during the animation. It just requires being willing to disconnect the “shoulder” of the arm from the torso.
Is it possible to use easing styles with the Roblox Animator, or would I have to change over to the Moon Animator to utlize such features?
You can use EasingStyles with the default animator by right clicking on a keyframe.
I decided to go for an attempt to make the ending of the animation to be a bit more rigid, and hold a little more recoil, whilst trying to make the start-up/wind-up animation have a bit more energy. Don’t know if I achieved it besides with the spin kick, which was already decent, but now it seems faster, and I like it a bit more.
The issue I have right now, which might make me remake something is with the grab. It looked awkrawd to me, and it doesn’t even seem like the character is grabbing something.
The way they just cut out of the move lessens the impact.
Google “Follow through in animation” and use it.
I would suggest either filming yourself doing these moves or finding a video to replicate.
What’s missing is the natural preparation for a move that humans have (you pull back slightly before punching for example). At the end of the move, there should also be some follow-through before slightly recoiling. Think about the momentum of each part you’re animating, and how it influences parts it’s connected to (if you’re throwing a punch, it will make your upper body lurch forward, but the motion will be a frame or two behind the arm).
I was using a reference for everything besides the grab,
