Animation is the most significant element of game graphics. The game’s success depends on the quality of animated effects and models. They can be great, but your game won't be competitive if the animation quality is poor. Animation concept development isn’t as easy as ABC. It cannot be done without a clear plan and knowledge of game mechanics. It’s one of the key reasons many companies outsource game animation.
When you order game animation services, you can be sure that specialists first create a concept document. It’ll describe all the necessary animations: what kind of action it is, who performs it, and how it should look.
Why Is Smart Concept So Important?
Thanks to a smart concept, you can come up with the best solutions for your game. For example, in a first-person shooter, powerful weapons should take a long time to reload – this must be taken into account when creating animations. Experts can also specify all additional animations in the concept: loading indicators, cursors, and other interface elements. This helps keep animations consistent and makes the game more memorable.
The Creation of 2D Animation: How Does It Take Place?
It’s used in all games. First of all, the animation is used for interface elements: various highlights, movements, and changing icons when you hover over them. Using 2D reduces the cost of interface development and improves game performance. 2D character animation is the most requested type of work. Characters must move. Otherwise, the game will look boring.
To animate the characters, the animators use sketches with keyframes – the highlights of the entire movement. Animators draw in-between frames that bring the character to a keyframe state. Another way to animate a 2D character is to use special software like Spine or Toon Boom. The animator redraws the character in the form of fragment layers: head, torso, legs, and arms. Game engines allow you to overlay these fragments on top of each other and set the movement using code without drawing individual frames. This kind of animation is a good choice for games where the player can change the character’s appearance.
For example, put a new helmet on them or give them an ax instead of a sword. Then you don't have to redraw all the sprites with the new helmet. If the game has animated characters and an interface, you need to animate the environment as well. The easiest way is to add a parallax effect.
To do this, the artists draw the background in several layers. The animators make the layers move at different speeds relative to the main character's movement. Also, animators can make other environmental effects: the stirring of leaves and grass, wind, snow, or rain, and the movement of clouds in the sky. Additional effects and animations will help bring the levels to life and make them more attractive to the player.
Pixel Art Animation: How to Create It?
Gamers are good at pixel art games, but drawing and animating pixel art is much more difficult than working with sprites. The most difficult thing is to maintain the proportions and recognizable silhouette of the character. To do this, experts use the so-called internal animation, when the illusion of movement is created by changing the color of the pixels inside the silhouette but not the silhouette itself.
3D Animation: A Clear Picture of It
2D animation is mainly done by artists, but 3D animation is a task for individual specialists. Players often criticize games with good mechanics for clumsy animation. Professionals will do everything at the highest level, so the game is a pleasure to watch. Entrust this to the companies that have a team of excellent specialists.
Have you ever heard about rigging and skinning a 3D model? Rigging is the creation and adjustment of a skeleton within a 3D model. The complexity of the skeleton depends on the needs of the animator and the complexity of the model. For example, it takes 21 bones to create a simple human skeleton. And if you want to make a skeletal brush animation, you have to add 54 more bones.
Animators describe the movement of the skeleton using functions and bind these functions to various states of the character. For example, if the player is walking forward, the engine will run the functions responsible for the movement of the legs. Skeletal animation allows you to do so-called mixed states when a character does several things simultaneously. For example, a player can simply walk, change or reload weapons on the go.
Top-Quality Game Animation Requires Extensive Experience
The background in a 3D game must be alive. Otherwise, there will be too much contrast between the animated characters and the frozen background. Working with the environment depends on the setting of the game. For the fantasy world, creaky signs are suitable, while for the world of the future, flashing neon lights will be a good solution.
As you can see, the creation of game animation takes much time and effort. You’re recommended to entrust this process to skilled specialists if you want your game to be on the top list. They will help you to make your game bright and realistic. Let players of your game get an unforgettable gaming experience and enjoy cool effects.
Just share your ideas with an animation guru and get a top-quality product. Any of your fantastic ideas can become a reality. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Don’t waste time and combine your creative mind with the experience of talented artists to get striking results.