First, you want to make powerful stride poses with limbs extended and the character tilted forward. In my practice I found a few keys to making a good 3-frame run cycle. This is the model I used for my own exampIe. Technically there are 4 frames in the loop but the same pass frame is used twice. With just 3-frames it captures more kinetic energy than most modern run cycles made with many more frames. I particularly admire the Mega Man run cycle. While they appear simple, finding just the right poses to create the illusion of motion is an art in itself. In the 8-bit era limited memory left little to no space for in-between frames, so developers were forced to create economical animations using only keyframes. Many good examples of pure keyframe animation can be found in older games. Even with the in-between frames removed the gist of the animation should be readable from the keyframes alone. Keyframes should be the most dramatic poses that capture the essence of the motion.
If needed I would then make the frames that fill the motion between, which are called in-between frames.
Pixen png animation full#
First I would make one keyframe of the character wound up before the punch, and one keyframe of the punch at full extension. For example, say I'm going to animate a character throwing a punch.
This is a good point to become familiar with keyframes. Keyframes are basically guide frames that determine the start and end of a specific motion. Now it's time to pick up the pace and go for a run.