I just thought I'd make this for anyone who might be struggling with this very tedious system. Drop any tips that you can think of as well.
1stly, learn to copy and paste. Load a preset character as your 2nd player. and everything you can get away with copying, copy it and exit out and paste it onto your character.
If your character isn't very eccentric, you can copy almost every basic animation. I mean, how crazy do you need a friggin' crouch to be
But if you want to experiment with some crazy stuff, like maybe a guy who does a split instead of crouches, you'll have to try this on your own.
The main things that you are going to have to come up with yourself in order to fully exhibit your characters uniqueness, are standing animations, attacks, and throws.
Animating:
Personally, I only use those body axis wheel thing, that is those little red wheels you spin for each body part. Fool around with everything to see what you like best. I would suggest moving thighs, upper arms, hip and neck, before you move the other body parts, because these body parts cause a bunch of other body parts to move with them. You'll constantly be switching back and forth to get it right though.
Try not to focus on moving the chest if you need your character's midsection to move. if you move it too far it will look unnatural. Move the hips along with the chest. The same goes for the neck and head, and also the shoulders and upper arms.
Standing:
Unless your character is non-human, I suggest you tweak your body parts to make him look like he is breathing. While Standing, you character should not be completely still. There are many ways to create a decent animation for this. After you've got your pose, edit a frame after that, but on this one, shrug the shoulders SLIGHTLY, and tilt the chest back SLIGHTLY. Note: you will have to adjust the head back to how it originally was, because moving the chest will cause the head to move with it. then, copy your original frame, and paste it after the new one you made. Insert as many frames inbetween and you need, but be sure to insert roughly the same amount of frames in between the first two as you do the the middle and last one. you don't want your character to look like he is hyperventilating, and you dont want him to look like he's drowning, so just keep working till its right.
Attacks:
There are lots of attacks from different styles of martial arts preset on the game with animations for you to copy. other than that, just keep working at it. one thing i want to emphasize is, don't be a wimp with these animations. EXAGGERATE. If your character is going to throw a haymaker punch, make that dude **** his WHOLE body WAYY back before he throws the punch. it will look good, I promise. Also note, that in almsot every animation you do, SEVERAL body parts should be moving. I suggest you get up in front of a mirror and emulate what you are trying to animate (if you can), and note what your body parts do.
Throws:
i LOVE throws. You can do whatever you want with throws. you can make your character fly 20 feet in the air and drop a heavenly elbow drop. you can go into matrix style slow motion. let your imagination run wild. Thats my advice, don't get caught up in the simple judo flips from every fighting game. Be creative.
Other Random Ideas
Dissapearance: Say you want to make a move where you character dissapears and reappears, a neat way to pull this off is, make sure the frame you want him to disappear is immediately after another yellow frame (one you have edited), and on that frame, adjust yoru characters Y-position so that he is completely under the ground. the animation will be so fast that it will look like your character dissapeared.
Beginner Ideas.
Too impatient to created a Drunken Master? try these ideas.
Robot: Creating a robotic character is probably the easiest thing you could do. you don't have to bend many joints and it actually can be pulled off pretty well. you pretty much never have to move the neck, chest or feet (if you dont want it)
Psychic power: Making a character that can fly and use telekenesis also takes the strain off. your walk animation can simple be your character tilted forward a bit and moved forward. Throws are simple, make your character move his hands around a bit, and then have your opponent react without having been touched.
Oh another thing, dont go into this expecting to be able to created Goku or Akuma or any character you have dreamed up...you may get lucky, but odds are the costumes and looks on here are too limited.
the final tip i have is that THERE ARE NO RULES.
you can make someone who fights like a boxer, someone who flies, someone who hps on one leg, someone who floats in a yoga post, someone who's stance is lying on the ground, someone who attacks without throwing punches, basically everything you can come up with, you can do. so do it!
1stly, learn to copy and paste. Load a preset character as your 2nd player. and everything you can get away with copying, copy it and exit out and paste it onto your character.
If your character isn't very eccentric, you can copy almost every basic animation. I mean, how crazy do you need a friggin' crouch to be
But if you want to experiment with some crazy stuff, like maybe a guy who does a split instead of crouches, you'll have to try this on your own.
The main things that you are going to have to come up with yourself in order to fully exhibit your characters uniqueness, are standing animations, attacks, and throws.
Animating:
Personally, I only use those body axis wheel thing, that is those little red wheels you spin for each body part. Fool around with everything to see what you like best. I would suggest moving thighs, upper arms, hip and neck, before you move the other body parts, because these body parts cause a bunch of other body parts to move with them. You'll constantly be switching back and forth to get it right though.
Try not to focus on moving the chest if you need your character's midsection to move. if you move it too far it will look unnatural. Move the hips along with the chest. The same goes for the neck and head, and also the shoulders and upper arms.
Standing:
Unless your character is non-human, I suggest you tweak your body parts to make him look like he is breathing. While Standing, you character should not be completely still. There are many ways to create a decent animation for this. After you've got your pose, edit a frame after that, but on this one, shrug the shoulders SLIGHTLY, and tilt the chest back SLIGHTLY. Note: you will have to adjust the head back to how it originally was, because moving the chest will cause the head to move with it. then, copy your original frame, and paste it after the new one you made. Insert as many frames inbetween and you need, but be sure to insert roughly the same amount of frames in between the first two as you do the the middle and last one. you don't want your character to look like he is hyperventilating, and you dont want him to look like he's drowning, so just keep working till its right.
Attacks:
There are lots of attacks from different styles of martial arts preset on the game with animations for you to copy. other than that, just keep working at it. one thing i want to emphasize is, don't be a wimp with these animations. EXAGGERATE. If your character is going to throw a haymaker punch, make that dude **** his WHOLE body WAYY back before he throws the punch. it will look good, I promise. Also note, that in almsot every animation you do, SEVERAL body parts should be moving. I suggest you get up in front of a mirror and emulate what you are trying to animate (if you can), and note what your body parts do.
Throws:
i LOVE throws. You can do whatever you want with throws. you can make your character fly 20 feet in the air and drop a heavenly elbow drop. you can go into matrix style slow motion. let your imagination run wild. Thats my advice, don't get caught up in the simple judo flips from every fighting game. Be creative.
Other Random Ideas
Dissapearance: Say you want to make a move where you character dissapears and reappears, a neat way to pull this off is, make sure the frame you want him to disappear is immediately after another yellow frame (one you have edited), and on that frame, adjust yoru characters Y-position so that he is completely under the ground. the animation will be so fast that it will look like your character dissapeared.
Beginner Ideas.
Too impatient to created a Drunken Master? try these ideas.
Robot: Creating a robotic character is probably the easiest thing you could do. you don't have to bend many joints and it actually can be pulled off pretty well. you pretty much never have to move the neck, chest or feet (if you dont want it)
Psychic power: Making a character that can fly and use telekenesis also takes the strain off. your walk animation can simple be your character tilted forward a bit and moved forward. Throws are simple, make your character move his hands around a bit, and then have your opponent react without having been touched.
Oh another thing, dont go into this expecting to be able to created Goku or Akuma or any character you have dreamed up...you may get lucky, but odds are the costumes and looks on here are too limited.
the final tip i have is that THERE ARE NO RULES.
you can make someone who fights like a boxer, someone who flies, someone who hps on one leg, someone who floats in a yoga post, someone who's stance is lying on the ground, someone who attacks without throwing punches, basically everything you can come up with, you can do. so do it!
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