How to make smooth animation?

[Sir donks alot (rip my grandpa)]

My animations always look so robotic. I dont know how other sfms have such smooth movement. Is it the pose to pose stuff? Like have multiple keyframes just for one movement or something?

Like this

https://youtu.be/BQVcG6ql6BM

[Zappy]

One thing you may want to consider is that if you want to turn the head of someone, you should also turn their spine.

And also consider that it might be smoother if you make the second spine bone move a little after the first one, and the third one a little after the second one, and so on.
(Of course having them move simultaneously, just making the second one start and end moving a fraction of a second later than the first one starts/ends, or such.)

But yes, having multiple keyframes for a single movement can be pretty beneficial if you want it to be smooth.


However, I'll say that one of the best ways to have smooth animation is to practice it a lot. Experience can do a lot, both when playing games and making images or videos or such. There may be some tutorials or guides that will help you on the way to the experience in question, but experience still often takes a long time to get.

[Sir donks alot (rip my grandpa)]

Originally posted by Zappy:

One thing you may want to consider is that if you want to turn the head of someone, you should also turn their spine.

And also consider that it might be smoother if you make the second spine bone move a little after the first one, and the third one a little after the second one, and so on.
(Of course having them move simultaneously, just making the second one start and end moving a fraction of a second later than the first one starts/ends, or such.)

But yes, having multiple keyframes for a single movement can be pretty beneficial if you want it to be smooth.


However, I'll say that one of the best ways to have smooth animation is to practice it a lot. Experience can do a lot, both when playing games and making images or videos or such. There may be some tutorials or guides that will help you on the way to the experience in question, but experience still often takes a long time to get.

Ive worked with sfm for a while now and I havent learned a thing. That's why im here....I cant figure out how professionals make it so smooth while mine is robotic

[Scoot]

[quote=uber gaming (YT) (G.E.W.P);1621724915777811604

Ive worked with sfm for a while now and I havent learned a thing. That's why im here....I cant figure out how professionals make it so smooth while mine is robotic [/quote]

I'm very new myself (been learning it for about 3 days now) and the first few I did were like those funny GMod vids where everyone flaps around like a bad puppet.

The way I've improved so far is to think of the animation a bit like a cartoonist would. Being an artist anyway perhaps this is easy for me, but look at it like this:

- Think of the FPS of your movie. Mine is 24 frames per second. This is important, because the more FPS, the more keyframes, which means you have to consider this when pacing out your animation.

- Think of how fast people actually move, and what impact you want the movement to make. Is it slow and dramatic, or fast? On animated characters, timing is key to prevent that super slow mechanical movement, or snappy, rigid movements

- Record yourself on your webcam, or watch videos, of people actually making a similar movement to what you want to make. When they turn their head, what else do they do? Raise an eyebrow? Rotate their shoulders? Perhaps they shift their left foot to maintain their centre of balance?

- Now for the art part: keyframes. Try to pace your keyframes properly. Rememer in the graph editor you can drag a keyframe further away or closer to the others to drag out or shorten a motion, meaning you can also add MORE keyframes in between to smooth out the animation.

- Using the 'smooth' render (in the motion editor) helps to blend your moves a little, which will polish off some nice animation BUT the animation needs to be good, clean and well timed first.

Keep at it! We'll both be rivalling Pixar one day ;) haha

[EmperorFaiz.wav]

Look up "12 principles of animations". That's how thr pros got the idea how to make good animation other than smooth.

[Sir donks alot (rip my grandpa)]

Originally posted by Scout:

[quote=uber gaming (YT) (G.E.W.P);1621724915777811604

Ive worked with sfm for a while now and I havent learned a thing. That's why im here....I cant figure out how professionals make it so smooth while mine is robotic

I'm very new myself (been learning it for about 3 days now) and the first few I did were like those funny GMod vids where everyone flaps around like a bad puppet.

The way I've improved so far is to think of the animation a bit like a cartoonist would. Being an artist anyway perhaps this is easy for me, but look at it like this:

- Think of the FPS of your movie. Mine is 24 frames per second. This is important, because the more FPS, the more keyframes, which means you have to consider this when pacing out your animation.

- Think of how fast people actually move, and what impact you want the movement to make. Is it slow and dramatic, or fast? On animated characters, timing is key to prevent that super slow mechanical movement, or snappy, rigid movements

- Record yourself on your webcam, or watch videos, of people actually making a similar movement to what you want to make. When they turn their head, what else do they do? Raise an eyebrow? Rotate their shoulders? Perhaps they shift their left foot to maintain their centre of balance?

- Now for the art part: keyframes. Try to pace your keyframes properly. Rememer in the graph editor you can drag a keyframe further away or closer to the others to drag out or shorten a motion, meaning you can also add MORE keyframes in between to smooth out the animation.

- Using the 'smooth' render (in the motion editor) helps to blend your moves a little, which will polish off some nice animation BUT the animation needs to be good, clean and well timed first.

Keep at it! We'll both be rivalling Pixar one day ;) haha [/quote]

I do try to pace the keyframes properly. It NEVER gets to how I want it. No matter what its still robotic. Its so confusing. instead of 1 keyframe does there need to be several? Im not getting it at all. I loo kit up and there's no tutorials either.

[Scoot]

Originally posted by uber gaming (YT) (G.E.W.P):

Originally posted by Scout:

- snip -

I do try to pace the keyframes properly. It NEVER gets to how I want it. No matter what its still robotic. Its so confusing. instead of 1 keyframe does there need to be several? Im not getting it at all. I loo kit up and there's no tutorials either.

I highly recommend you pop on YouTube and check out the 'meet the Medic outtakes' video. That kind of animation is how most newcomers/struggling folk tend to animate. It ALWAYS starts out looking crappy. You just gotta take a LOT of time (I spent about 5 hours today working on a five-second clip, and it STILL doesn't look as smooth asI want) just learning and practising.

Also check out books and videos relating to animation in general; there is a huge change it's simply that you're not timing your keyframes right, are spacing them too much/little and/or are just under/over exaggurating your movements.

Good luck! :)

[Fluboon]

my anwser to this

watch a lot of tutorials and try that what they told you
then get to more complex tutorials then try that out
Then add me for master SFM advice

[Sir donks alot (rip my grandpa)]

Originally posted by Igor Master of the Velvet Room:

my anwser to this

watch a lot of tutorials and try that what they told you
then get to more complex tutorials then try that out
Then add me for master SFM advice

There isn't alot of tutorials and some are joke tutorials and are completely useless

[MiniMe]

Originally posted by Obvious Jojo reference:

Originally posted by Igor Master of the Velvet Room:

my anwser to this

watch a lot of tutorials and try that what they told you
then get to more complex tutorials then try that out
Then add me for master SFM advice

There isn't alot of tutorials and some are joke tutorials and are completely useless

I recommend making posters first.Just keep practicing and test out some random things.Tutorials are completely useless. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCPiZnhQzAI&ab_channel=Kodran . This is the only tutorial that actually made me understand. Hopefully this will help you.

[ZergSquad]

nice necro genius

[Sir donks alot (rip my grandpa)]

Originally posted by GndBs:

Originally posted by Obvious Jojo reference:

There isn't alot of tutorials and some are joke tutorials and are completely useless

I recommend making posters first.Just keep practicing and test out some random things.Tutorials are completely useless. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCPiZnhQzAI&ab_channel=Kodran . This is the only tutorial that actually made me understand. Hopefully this will help you.

Yeah im doing that and it's still not smooth. I mean it looks good but it still feels off