*Hand drawn and Animated skullgirls character
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Fighting Game Headquarters |eSports| 4444 Life
- Thread starter notworksafe
- Start date
*Hand drawn and Animated skullgirls character
wat
notworksafe
Member
sounds like he was just high
Cosmo Clock 21
Banned
EVO Japan Sai trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zXTCIzlsqQ&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zXTCIzlsqQ&feature=youtu.be
Spuck-uk
Banned
How dare you level this baseless accusation. Smoking weed is no bueno.
He's not talking about the start of their releases though.
He's not talking about the start of their releases. He concludes the video by stating that the animation style is a (poor) choice, a choice they shouldn't be making with their huge budgets and excellent animation in cinematics, intros, fatalities, etc.
This video really nails what I find offputting about NRS games and why I can't derive any joy from playing them. Animation quality is one of the most important things to me in a fighting game but despite NRS nailing numerous other aspects in their games, the poor animation renders the game pointless for me. His comment about how the animation should give you insight into the character's personality is absolutely true. Not only are MK characters mostly devoid of personality but the animation they have often contradicts what personality they do have.
The sad part is that this issue will never be fixed because their games sell extremely well so it clearly doesn't matter to most people. It makes sense, too, because the casual audience is watching cinematic trailers and what's likely sticking out to them are the intros and super moves which are extremely well animated. Everything between that looks like garbage but when one of a two minute character trailer is cinematic fluff the ugliness doesn't stick out.
lucebuce12
Member
NRS animations do tend to be a bit of a mixed bag, even Injustice 2 suffers from this issue.
You have characters like Dr. Fate, where every attack is actually done via magic. No normal,special or super of his actually has him touching the enemy, it's always magic coming from his hands. Even his clash animation has magic.
Then you have Swamp Thing who again, shows off his personality in his moveset really well. His crouch animation is him literally sinking into the swamp below. You have moves where clones of his literally come out from the ground and take his place.
Then you have Poison Ivy who uses her fists for some reason and has a weird yo-yo thing that she spins for.... some reason.
It's thematically inconsistent , and as mentioned that binary changes in degree of turning is a real problem.
You have characters like Dr. Fate, where every attack is actually done via magic. No normal,special or super of his actually has him touching the enemy, it's always magic coming from his hands. Even his clash animation has magic.
Then you have Swamp Thing who again, shows off his personality in his moveset really well. His crouch animation is him literally sinking into the swamp below. You have moves where clones of his literally come out from the ground and take his place.
Then you have Poison Ivy who uses her fists for some reason and has a weird yo-yo thing that she spins for.... some reason.
It's thematically inconsistent , and as mentioned that binary changes in degree of turning is a real problem.
Lmao, didn't Kitana have that squatting kick since MK2(think most characters had a kick like that back then) it's amazing. I really hope Cammy's air throw animation doesn't make it to the game the way it is, it really sticks out in an otherwise well animated game.
Also, Baiken's animation is pure love. <3
Spuck-uk
Banned
Her skulking backwalk, and sassy forward stroll are brilliant
MikeBreezy92
Member
Or it literally doesn't bother people or they think it looks good. And how is there no personality in MK's characters animation? That sounds like complete BS tbh
Watch the video for examples. The majority of the idle animations don't really represent the characters and are interchangeable. 90% of them are the characters weirdly hunched over while waving their arms around with their feet locked in place.
MikeBreezy92
Member
I watched the video and I don't agree at all.
Great video. I always wondered why there was something about NRS animation that I disliked and this video got it spot on. They simply don't want to spend money on better animators.
I think some characters do a good job with animation/style expressed, but a lot is pretty interchangeable. They managed to make their personalities stand out and more than technicolor ninjas in terms of dialogue and voicing, but the animations don't evoke the sense in the same way.
I don't think it's a problem necessarily with the skill of their animators, but rather constantly trying to pay homage or keeping the games like the old ones.
Prism Sentence
Banned
Wow, that video was way more insightful than I thought it would be.
I've always appreciated Netherrealm's efforts despite not playing the games much, because I grew up playing MK. I considered the animation inarticulately bad, and just dismissed it as the ol' "MK Charm", but this video demonstrates why it's objectively bad. I found it so weird that the character portraits after selection looked so magnetic and the gameplay animation couldn't replicate anything like that.
The point about core engagement is so illustrative it's making me look at FGs in a completely different light.
I've always appreciated Netherrealm's efforts despite not playing the games much, because I grew up playing MK. I considered the animation inarticulately bad, and just dismissed it as the ol' "MK Charm", but this video demonstrates why it's objectively bad. I found it so weird that the character portraits after selection looked so magnetic and the gameplay animation couldn't replicate anything like that.
The point about core engagement is so illustrative it's making me look at FGs in a completely different light.
lucebuce12
Member
This, it's fairly visible in command grabs and supers,etc that they CAN animate them well but having to stick to this rather archaic system just forces them to make weird looking stuff to make it "legible"
I think it's a bit of both. I'm not saying thier animators are completely useless but they can certainly study more on characteristics, personality and the physical form when it comes to animation. Maybe in future iterations it will have improved but I doubt it.
Yeah, their problem seems to be animating moves that have a specific gameplay function. Anything that goes into a "canned" animation looks fine.
MiniBossBattle
Member
Its the flat-footed bit and how they don't put weight into their attacks that gets me. The fall hit juggle too.
I'm kind of amazed that this video hadn't already been made dozens of times before. He nails it, and even points out how grating it is because the cinematic animations are sometimes fantastic.
MKXL was the first NRS game I gave an honest shot, and I even enjoyed it, but every character swinging their arms like pendulums bothered me way more than I thought it would.
Yeah, its weird that this is the first thing I've seen to widely explain the inconsistencies with it. And made by some random dude who reviews harem anime of all things.
I think it may be hard to articulate what was wrong with it despite many people, myself included, could recognize something about the animation looked really off.
Animation in fighting games can be a difficult subject to discuss. For instance, the animation for getting juggled in MKX looks really bad and I'd even describe it as being "unrealistic" but using that word just sets up people to go "oh, the game where a hellspawn shoots chains out of his hand is unrealistic?" Cartoon physics still have a basis in a reality and the farther animation gets from that reality the shittier it looks.
This video, although not about videogames, explains this concept pretty well.
https://youtu.be/TzCGknQg1vk
ShinMaruku
Member
That video shows a lot of love to doa.
I feel like every few months there's a post that nails an additional reason for why NRS games look/feel so unpleasant, and this is another.
I didn't watch that video bc I don't know JoJo, but I am watching the OPM one by the same guy and it's pretty interesting to think about,
This video should get its own thread. Perfectly explains NRS's issues with animation.
Those fucking crouching kicks.
What the fuck.
MiniBossBattle
Member
Aris' Grandma is wise.
Lucky Magic Pixel, aaaAAAaaa!
Thanks for that video, that guy has a great sense of honour lol. I think this video nails it. It's the impact and force of the animation that makes a particular scene or frame stand out, that and what you said about cartoon pyshics still having a basis in reality is very important - especially for a fighting game. One of my favourite fighters of all time, X-Men vs Street Fighter, still feels great to this day because Capcom applied those rules to thier animation.
Makes me wonder if there's tier list for anything before MVC1.
Don't know about I2 but MKX cinematics wasn't made by NRS.
Wait, it's not? Also, which cinematic are you talking about, the X-Rays or thier story mode?
The prerendered stuff. Fatalities and story mode are mostly motion capture.
shaowebb
Member
Kinda been saying this for awhile man.
The further we got from that vs title the more folks would kind of chime in and point it out after awhile as more busted things would happen in the vs series. Lately folks are just coming out of the woodwork on liking TVC because MVCI is like an evolved TVC and folks are able to point out this as a plus. TVC had its faults and flaws mind you. Giants, bein one of the first to try online and thus getting it bad, poor in game training mode and move lists, fire stage causing frame issues and making folks invisible to Keits, a few glitches, and all that mish mash of very samey sounding goofups that we usually end up having after a few years of any Capcom fighter. Thing is, out of all the vs, it really was one of the most balanced because its systems allowed for more opportunities, less TOD, more tags and footsies and a lot of the roster to remain useful.
I gush. It was great. TVC was just in the wrong place at the wrong time or it could have gone over much better.
It even gave us this psychopathic wonder to remember!
