2D animation: 5 tips for the artist

There are enough tutorials and forums on the Web about the technical aspects of pixel animation. Therefore, Jonathan Kim and Paul Robertson, the authors of the animation for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game, give some general tips on how to make sprites that will stand out from the general background and attract the attention of players.

1. Make the animation as expressive as possible

Kim believes that most animators who work on 2D games don’t try. There are many reasons for this – tight deadlines, a limited budget, a desire to finish one sprite as soon as possible and do the next one as soon as possible. But the result is always the same – dull poses and boring animation.

“Every time I try to draw the coolest and funniest picture I can imagine,” comments Robertson. – All the time I imagine how the audience reacts to my drawings, and if I drew something not interesting enough, then I work on – until I myself think that it finally turned out well. In fact, this advice applies to any art, not just pixel art.”

Animation from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game
Of course, it is important not to overdo it and not overload the animation.

Therefore, it is necessary to have someone nearby to whom you can show the finished work and who can advise you to slow down or, conversely, make the animation more expressive.

2. Make the character look alive

In the process of working on animation, it is important to make sure that the character does not freeze and does not look as if it consists of separate parts. Even if you do an elementary animation – the character’s breathing – it’s not enough just to draw how the chest moves and calm down on that.

It is necessary to make sure that the character is constantly moving – even if he is standing still. Let the hero blink, move his hands a little, frown, sigh – in a word, he looks like a living person.

Animation of the boss from Mercenary Kings
“You need to animate the hair, make the folds of clothes develop in the wind or while moving, make the character make faces and make all sorts of cute or funny movements.

Do everything so that the character acquires an identity,” adds Robinson.

3. Work on key phases and silhouette

Robertson advises paying special attention to the key phases. “The most important thing is the expressive key phases. It doesn’t matter if the animation is neat or not. If the key phases are featureless, then everything else also looks miserable,” comments Robertson.

A character from the Super Gem Fighter Mini MixHe notes that in many old-school games there is one- and two-phase animation, but the movement is still readable.

A good example of such animation is the Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix from Capcom. In this game, characters strike, take out weapons or completely change their appearance in just a couple of expressive phases.

4. Do not abuse additional phases

Artists periodically overdo it with additional phases and believe that they do not harm animation. But this is not the case. It is better not to overload the animation, and limit the number of additional phases. If you want to make the movement more spectacular, it is better to resort to other techniques – “blur” (smear), for example. Otherwise, the expressiveness of the movement is lost.

Animation of characters from Mercenary Kings5. Don’t get hung up on the details

Animators sometimes tend to attach too much importance to the details of the drawing than to the animation itself. Kim thinks it’s wrong. “People are like, hey, there’s too much color in this effect. And I told them, no, guys, you’re stuck on the details instead of evaluating the picture as a whole,” the artist shares.

In order to learn more about good 2D animation, Robertson advises playing old-school games or viewing cartoons by frame (especially old Disney or the first issues of Tom and Jerry). And read the book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas.

A source: http://gamasutra.com

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