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Do any of you guys watch videos to get an idea of how to do a specific animation? I generally try and find a video clip online of someone doing what I want to animate, and then I can just skip through it frame by frame and use it as a guide. The point is, it's an absolute nightmare trying to find clips of what you want.

Does anyone else do this, and if so, have you got an suggestions of where to look? I was thinking maybe picking up a few kung-fu action movies might work, cos there's generally a lot of running, climbing, fighting etc. Ideally an online source would be great. Any thoughts?

I can't help much I'm afraid, but I'll try to help as best I can.

When you say animation, do you mean a video, or for low-poly game characters?

I plan on making animated movies at some point, and when the time comes, I'll probably do the following (the top ones, I'd do for in-game and movies):

I'd look at real life sources. It depends on what you want to make. You mentioned kung-fu movies, so I'll assume you want to make an action vid/game.

Look at how people move-not just the punch, but the rest of the body aswell. Try to act out the motion yourself when no-one's home(unless it happens to be a triple backflip spin-kick type thing ). Try to get a feel of which muscles move and which don't.

Watch alot of action films for inspiration. If you already have them, watch action films. I also reckon the action scenes in Buffy are pretty good too. It's on during the day on sky I think (not sure though-I don't have it).


Mainly a movie point:

Finally, remember 3D doesn't require stunt actors-your only limitations are time and imagination. Go crazy. Why have someone kick the bad guy in the face, when they can somersault it? There are no wires involved, so you don't have to worry about it looking all Crouching tiger-like. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is a great example of how this is put to use.


If you're talking about game animation, there are probably tutorials, but they're pretty rare unless you want a simple walking animation. I wouldn't bother studying the movement frame-by-frame either. It's low poly, so you can ignore slight movements. Watch out for major things like footing and what the other hand is doing though.


Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Maybe you could ask on the forums of the 3D software you use?

Thanks matey. That's some good points. Yeah, this is for low poly characters, and specifically ones seen from a distance, so really high accuracy isn't that important. I'm gonna get the video camera out tomorrow and film some of the movements I'm after. I'm a bit surprised it didn't occur to me before that I could film most of the movements I'm after myself. I'm too quick to get on Google!

For people animations I use Poser to get the right movements, then use those frames as a guide.

Another small point I forgot is it helps to know your human biology. A good understanding of how the body works is really usefull when making realistic looking animations.

Just basic knowledge like knowing which joints can do what can be really useful. Bone structure, and knowing how the joints work isn't so important, but is pretty useful.

The wrist can't rotate for instance - the forearm is made up of two bones, (the Radius and the Ulna for those who are interested). It is these two bones that rotate. The pivot is pretty close to the elbow-I don't think it is the elbow (not sure on that), but in low-poly animation, it could be considered as such. The point is, that the rotation is not not in the wrist or anything in the hand.

It's also worth noting that the elbow has only one plane of movement.

There are loads of scientific papers available on the net with pretty diagrams and everything.

I know it may not seem like a big deal, but I always find it so distracting when game characters (normally in cutscenes) move limbs in unrealistic ways. It really depends on how much time you have to spend on it really.

Yeah, Poser does all that automatically.

I just got FF7 (movie) and the animation is amazing! However, I wanted to save a few bucks and just got the japanese version with subtitles but I can't get the english to work so its in japanese with sweedish words Anyway, I got a little off topic, but yeah. I recommend you check it out if you havent already.

Is this what you were looking for?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJfbiyDRSo4