Lead-ins, attacks, follow-throughs... There are various ways to refer to them, but these fundamentals of attack animations are the focus of today's video.
This is also a pretty good demonstration of how realism doesn't necessarily mean better gameplay. I've practiced longsword and martial arts for a couple of years and in both you're immediately taught how to minimise what would be considered the lead-in (telegraphing) and taking advantage of what is considered the follow-through. In computer games, telegraphing is actually used to communicate to the player, so it's still the same principle, but repurposed in a context where the fighter is disconnected from their body. After watching a few of these animation-focused videos, it seems that a general rule of thumb to keep is that reality isn't very fun.
Yea this video is talking about the animation principles of "exaggeration" and "follow through", these principles aim to emphasise the character's actions as much as possible so that audience understands what is happening. This is opposite of IRL combat where you're supposed to minimise action so that the opponent can't react and take advantage of the windows of opportunity.
Animations have to be exaggerated for clarity and fun. Real life sword fighting is kind of boring to watch. Fun in it's own way, but its much cooler to see giant slashes with a lot of force behind them for a beefy hit, rather than a smaller quick slash with barely any movement.
Another way smash ultimate feels better by breaking normal physics is how characters fly across the screen when they get hit and then slow down dramatically once the player can act especially compared to previous titles where the deceleration feels less dramatic.
Yes! I've fenced with a saber for years and your only way to react to an opponent is knowing the distance they can threaten you in and the subtle cues they transmit not by sight but through feeling. The best fencers have lesser tells, but in saber fencing you are blade to blade, always aiming your point at the opponent's throat and maintaining a guard. During this, you are applying subtle pressures to each other's weapons to manipulate their blade into your openings or close your own openings. When someone dedicates themselves to an attack, the pressure changes, the "standby" goes to a "lead in," but you cannot see it - you have to feel it. This is why you often see fencers sort of "tap" each other's blades before doing anything. You want to get a feel for your opponent and develop a strategy. Attacking into an opponent who's cues you don't understand can be risky - though this need lessens with experience. But if you're simply observing fencers, their attacks are lightning quick and you cannot see them coming. A cut comes from a flick of the wrist, a thrust comes from the backleg and forward arm springing forward with surprising speed. The whole point is that there is no tell, no wind up. Obvious tells come from either inexperience, feints, or set ups - where experienced fencers manipulate their opponent into a response. Translating this requires slowing down and breaking down a lot of this stuff you cannot otherwise communicate! And even then, it's fast!
@@personallyunknown4670 At the end he directly connects it to frame data, using the graphic that says "Total frames" at the bottom. It's true that he never says "frame data," but he references frames enough that it's clear that how many frames each phase of animation takes is really important to him, and that's what frame data is all about.
It seems so obvious but I had never thought that it could be detrimental to have a smooth transition into an animation. Glad I saw this now rather than later
It’s like Sakurai said in the previous animation video, too much is just right. Attack motions should be exaggerated and obvious since they’re integral to the player experience.
Yeah, that was an issue with kh3 combat. Sora's attack animation was too detailed. So, all of the moves felt way slower than it should be. In kh2, you go from pose to pose and moves just felt way snappier.
"Immediately seeing that your input was recognized" is something I never considered, but makes a _massive_ difference in good game feel. I can think of so many AAA games where my inputs felt "off" because the animations were made for realism first and gameplay second.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a good example of this, where player input can feel laggy. "Feel" is a genuine term used in game animation to design how actions respond.
No, even heavy moves with long wind-ups snap a little into the wind-up animation, because it just helps with readability in general. Some other games that have big, long special moves sometimes use realistic, full wind-ups and then rely on big, loud special effects or UI elements, camera zooms, and/or even take the entire game into slowmotion, to get that same readability and to show the player that the game has read their input quickly and properly. Hyrule Warriors comes to mind. But no matter what, the player must not feel like the game itself is sluggish, or has high latency. Games must always be snappy in some way, because players expect the actions to happen instantly after the button press. Gameplay function comes first, natural motion comes second.
I love how Sakurai's referring back to things he mentioned in previous videos, aware that we now understand the concepts through his videos. That's just amazing.
Another fine example of an unconscious gameplay experience, even if the player is not fully aware of the concept of different animation states, which actually has a strong impact on muscle memory and intuitive gameplay reactions - especially in games with a combat system where only a few seconds of reaction time and every pixel of the range/attack area affects the course of the fight through a hit or miss. It also helps visually to get a feel for the distances between the player character and enemies, as well as the trails that can be seen when animated characters swing their weapons or body parts after a hit.
3:27 i’m sure this is just a generalization, but Melee has a check for canceling tilts in the game, often called IASA. It can be seen very clearly in Marth’s down tilt. Just a small moment for trivia that I noticed, great video!
Sakurai really just explained attack animation in terms of startup, active, and recovery frames, and it makes so happy to hear a dev talk about it directly. Frame data for the win!
One thing I’d love to hear is how developers go about making patches after a game is released. Not the performance problems, but adjustments to intended gameplay. How much is player feedback taken into consideration? How do they go about choosing what changes to make? I’ve always wondered about that.
I do wonder about the impact of player feedback and where it is collected. I've been talking about the infinite loading glitch in Smash 3DS for a while now, on several different videos, and I've yet to receive an answer on the matter, whether it's from developers or fellow players. I know it's been a long time since the last patch, but I just can't let this issue go. I need a solution for this.
I'd say the amount of player feedback taken into consideration varies hugely between projects/teams/etc. so it could be kinda hard, unless you just mean for stuff Sakurai has worked on.
I'd say for smash the team does take in a fair amount of player feedback, but one thing to note is how much they take tournament results into consideration. For example, Ike used to be all over the scene early on, but now he's been nerfed so much you barely ever see him at a major. Meanwhile pikachu, a character believed to possibly be best in the game, has hardly ever been nerfed because nobody has really been able to fully utilize pikachu in tournament yet. Meanwhile Zelda, a character who is probably the best at a casual level due to her insanely spammable, projectile based moveset and final smash has only ever received one nerf, and it was to the shield damage of her down special.
I think that player feedback is only taken into consideration when the devs have data to back it up. They won't merely change something because players want it to change. They will do the tests first.
If you're new to programming and the like, I'd suggest using something like Scratch to dip your toes, but if you're somewhat familiar, Game Maker Studio is pretty intuitive and beginner friendly. You can even make full games in that one. Rivals of Aether is a great example of a game made in there.
Too bad he is currently spending so much time analyzing all those old 8-bit FF games one at a time even though they are really similar and look or animate barely differently. It's his choice and he has the freedom to do what he wants of course but I personally would like to to see him tackle other topics or at least streamline which games he features in a single video.
I always appreciate videos where fighting game character animation are broken down frame-by-frame like this. It really let's you get a better look at how expressive characters can get in less than a second.
This is an EXCELLENT way to explain not just animation for games like this, but especially fighting game tech and moves. I would love to watch Sakurai go more in depth on this subject in the context of a fighting game!!
I feel like Sakurai would be nice to work for as an animator simply because of how organized and concise he would be with his notes. Maybe it's like this in the industry in general, but he just gives off that vibe based on what we've been seeing from this channel
For those interested in learning more about animation, Dan Floyd (formerly of Extra Credits) has done several videos on the principles of animation on his channel, PlayFrame, several of which using Super Smash Bros. as his example. As a former Pixar animator, he focuses more on the animation side of things, rather than the gameplay side, so it makes an excellent follow-up to this video, particularly if you're interested in the anatomy of Link's sword swings.
Most of the words the Smash scene use now and call things were just coined a long time ago and have no origin, mainly because there were no official names. Even when they tried implementing official names to things later on, the scene was already so used to what they were using, they didn't stick.
I think the "dramatic pose" early at the beginning of an attack is very important, especially for multiplayer games, because the player knows what they are inputting, but for the opponent to feel like they can fairly react they have to be able to quickly and reasonably identify what action/attack the opponent is doing. Also important in the same way for enemies in single player games. If the enemy attack animation doesn't clearly telegraph what is happening, it will feel very unfair to the player who is expected to react appropriately by the game.
This is such a good lesson condensed to a super simple form! I learned animation from skullgirls and street fighter, and seeing the same methods for animation but just for smash is super neat. Kinda like seeing cooks make similar dishes but with their own flair or favorite spices. Thanks a lot for the lesson Sakurai!
So Sakurai is kind of telling a half truth about animation canceling in Melee. He did add 'Allow Interrupt' (IASA) flags to moves, they are just not as generous as later games, often being useless. In fact, poor IASA frames are the biggest reason for half the cast being mid-low tiers. I've had a lot of fun using Crazy Hand (it's on smashboards) to edit them, and things like "turbo mode" are basically just instant IASA frames.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I watched this video last night and redid some very janky animations using this framework. They now feel a lot better and I have a path forward. Thanks, Boss Sakurai.
Mr. Game & Watch is an extremely interesting character in smash, and that's in part due to breaking all of these rules (and being built around it). the lack of visual effects to clearly show hitboxes and the animations being only a few frames long each both make him unpredictable and hard to read, which ties in perfectly with his weird hitboxes and generally tricky "bait and punish" centered playstyle.
funny how Ultrakill uses Hitstop to really emphasize the craziness going on. parry something? hitstop. parry your shotgun? hitstop. nail a ricoshot? hitstop. the list goes on and it's a perfect demonstration of how hitstop is a key part of gamefeel.
Very important stuff. Also in terms of frame data for fighting games the translation becomes: Lead-ins as StartUp frames, Attack as Active frames, and Follow-Throughs as Recovery frames.
I love Sakurai videos, especially the ones where he talks about animation. I'm pretty much starting on the "becoming developer" journey, but I can already see that one part I'm gonna enjoy the most.
2:26 The concept IS in Melee, but a lot fewer characters have it. Marth Down tilt has this, and that's really the main one that comes to mind. You can interrupt the ending lag of Marth Down tilt with other moves. Also, I *think* it had to be interrupted with another move; I don't think you could walk/run out of it. But it has IASA frames (Interrupt As Soon As). EDIT: Seems you can walk out of Marth's dtilt IASA.
No, you can walk and dash out of them but cannot shield. Because of this it is optimal to hold left or right + shield after a down tilt so you will buffer walk for a frame which then buffers into shield on the next.
Sakurai-Sensei teaching classic animation principles! Also, yes, anticipation doesn't need to be emphasized in player animations, as the real anticipation is the player themselves pressing the button. They don't need to read anticipation from animations as much for that. It's best to prioritize these animations to be immediate and snappy.
I like to think of it like this. In the actual attack animation the focus usally lies on a weapon or similar. That is the part of the model that will move the most and towards the opponent. The Lead-In then focuses on the rest of the model, it keeps the weapon relatively still and movement will happen in the rest of the body in preparation for the attack. So the other legs and arms and body posture are the focus here. Often it's about building up and storing energy, like in a spin top or a spring.
Movement speed also correlates to these poses quite a bit, with the same kind of windup/cooldown you'd expect from the inactive frames and inclination towards natural flow
When I watch super pretty Nintendo 3d platformers like Kirby or Mario, these games seem to have a ton of lead-in frames, making the game look really pretty and smooth. And to make up for that "slow" feeling, it looks like the bosses and enemies are also telegraph SUPER early, to make up for the "player nerf."
a really neat touch in this video (that was almost perfect): 0:13 - overview, brawl theme 0:27 - standby, melee theme 0:44 - lead-in, smash 4 theme (acoustic) 1:19 - attack, smash 4 theme (full) 1:47 - follow through, ultimate theme this couldve been perfect if it was every smash game in order!
I am currently animating for a project me and a friend are doing, we are basically making our own smash bros game called Super Smash Bros Recoded, so these videos are very helpful, thank you!
Not only does "snapping to" a move help it stand out more for gameplay purposes, but it also helps to convey the action-honedness of the characters. Lacking perfect smoothness with snapping isn't a big deal as our passive minds are good at imagining the in-between motion.
True. If we look at Pokemon. Let's Go looks so much better, due to the more cartoony artstyle it has, than what i've seen so far in V/S or when playing Legends Arceus. Even when actually stopping and analyzing stuff in Persona 5, you can see a lot of very odd textures, models or so. But the hyper stylized artstyles hides a lot of it (like the actual 3D models faces) Artstyle can hide SO MUCH and is imo way more important than graphical fidelity.
@@Shakzor1 No kidding, Art styles can make or break a game's immersion imo. So many times have games gone for that default realistic art style (sonic frontiers) where the game could've fit alot better with a more distinguished look that match's the game's personality.
Two words, kids: horror games. Wether realism benefits a game's art style or not DEPENDS ON THE KIND OF GAME. Or do you really think a game like Silent Hill or Resident Evil would benefit from minimalism and flat textures? It's a case by case basis
Hi, Masahiro Sakurai, I hope you get a chance to read this. There is a common problem I see all the time in our community: people don't really know how to break down a jump animation into its various parts. Pre-jump, jump start, jumping up, jump end, falling, jump pre-land, jump land, jump recovery... Since this is an engine-agnostic problem, I think it would be the perfect topic for a video.
Would be great to hear more details about the process that goes into deciding frame counts, when things can cancel, etc. in the macro of the gameplay experience.
that is correct. since my game is still stuck in the planing phase, I didn't check plans for animations yet but the only thing from here that (mostly) doesn't apply to round based RPG's is canceling out of the returning phase.
Someone referenced this video talking about the lack of readability in animations for Lies of P. That game have purposefully designed animations to not have a clear lead in or finish. Not communicating enough with the player through visual means just for the sake of making difficulty is artificial and bad game design. This is the case for a lot of souls games and soulslikes, giving enemies non-distinct animations just to throw people off and punishes players for having reactions and attempting to read the animations. Dying because you're actually a good fighter is very counterproductive... Very informative video and it explains why things feel off when game developers fail to do this well.
![Assigning Animations [Animation]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fV8xIP480qk/mqdefault.jpg)
![Assigning Animations [Animation]](/img/tr.png)
![Eight Hit Stop Techniques [Design Specifics]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tycbMSjDDLg/mqdefault.jpg)
![Jump Physics [Design Specifics]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/noKsDZ-UPq8/mqdefault.jpg)
This is also a pretty good demonstration of how realism doesn't necessarily mean better gameplay. I've practiced longsword and martial arts for a couple of years and in both you're immediately taught how to minimise what would be considered the lead-in (telegraphing) and taking advantage of what is considered the follow-through. In computer games, telegraphing is actually used to communicate to the player, so it's still the same principle, but repurposed in a context where the fighter is disconnected from their body.
After watching a few of these animation-focused videos, it seems that a general rule of thumb to keep is that reality isn't very fun.
Yea this video is talking about the animation principles of "exaggeration" and "follow through", these principles aim to emphasise the character's actions as much as possible so that audience understands what is happening. This is opposite of IRL combat where you're supposed to minimise action so that the opponent can't react and take advantage of the windows of opportunity.
Animations have to be exaggerated for clarity and fun. Real life sword fighting is kind of boring to watch. Fun in it's own way, but its much cooler to see giant slashes with a lot of force behind them for a beefy hit, rather than a smaller quick slash with barely any movement.
Another way smash ultimate feels better by breaking normal physics is how characters fly across the screen when they get hit and then slow down dramatically once the player can act especially compared to previous titles where the deceleration feels less dramatic.
Brawl Meta Knight was pretty much this, no telegraphing, amazing mobility and recovery, go figure
Yes! I've fenced with a saber for years and your only way to react to an opponent is knowing the distance they can threaten you in and the subtle cues they transmit not by sight but through feeling. The best fencers have lesser tells, but in saber fencing you are blade to blade, always aiming your point at the opponent's throat and maintaining a guard. During this, you are applying subtle pressures to each other's weapons to manipulate their blade into your openings or close your own openings. When someone dedicates themselves to an attack, the pressure changes, the "standby" goes to a "lead in," but you cannot see it - you have to feel it.
This is why you often see fencers sort of "tap" each other's blades before doing anything. You want to get a feel for your opponent and develop a strategy. Attacking into an opponent who's cues you don't understand can be risky - though this need lessens with experience.
But if you're simply observing fencers, their attacks are lightning quick and you cannot see them coming. A cut comes from a flick of the wrist, a thrust comes from the backleg and forward arm springing forward with surprising speed. The whole point is that there is no tell, no wind up. Obvious tells come from either inexperience, feints, or set ups - where experienced fencers manipulate their opponent into a response.
Translating this requires slowing down and breaking down a lot of this stuff you cannot otherwise communicate! And even then, it's fast!
Sakurai teaching the kids about frame data. Great video.
We're all kids compared to Sakurai
@@Dzztzt why did you feel the need to add this
@@cheers9430 why did you feel the need to add this
@@TheGamingAnole55 why did you feel the need to add this
@@personallyunknown4670 At the end he directly connects it to frame data, using the graphic that says "Total frames" at the bottom. It's true that he never says "frame data," but he references frames enough that it's clear that how many frames each phase of animation takes is really important to him, and that's what frame data is all about.
It seems so obvious but I had never thought that it could be detrimental to have a smooth transition into an animation. Glad I saw this now rather than later
want a good example of that? the original Shaq Fu.
Every animation is meticulously smooth that, everything feels slow lmao
It’s like Sakurai said in the previous animation video, too much is just right. Attack motions should be exaggerated and obvious since they’re integral to the player experience.
Yeah, that was an issue with kh3 combat. Sora's attack animation was too detailed. So, all of the moves felt way slower than it should be. In kh2, you go from pose to pose and moves just felt way snappier.
I made a game a long time ago where I animated a whip attack. The windup took 0.8 seconds. Combat was basically impossible, haha.
Hi Spinel! ^^
"Immediately seeing that your input was recognized" is something I never considered, but makes a _massive_ difference in good game feel.
I can think of so many AAA games where my inputs felt "off" because the animations were made for realism first and gameplay second.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a good example of this, where player input can feel laggy. "Feel" is a genuine term used in game animation to design how actions respond.
Exactly! I totally agree with this. I could never get into those triple A realistic games.
Yep, every rockstar game has this exact problem
That quick jump to the start up animation is super important. Nothing worse than a move that takes ages to start up (unless that's the intent).
Yeah, I can see that working for some kind of "Big risk / Big reward" move, but for normal attacks is better quick and easily readable
No, even heavy moves with long wind-ups snap a little into the wind-up animation, because it just helps with readability in general.
Some other games that have big, long special moves sometimes use realistic, full wind-ups and then rely on big, loud special effects or UI elements, camera zooms, and/or even take the entire game into slowmotion, to get that same readability and to show the player that the game has read their input quickly and properly. Hyrule Warriors comes to mind.
But no matter what, the player must not feel like the game itself is sluggish, or has high latency. Games must always be snappy in some way, because players expect the actions to happen instantly after the button press.
Gameplay function comes first, natural motion comes second.
@@3lH4ck3rC0mf0r7 That makes sense, youre right.
@@TheJosethemaster FALCON..
PAWWWNCH
@@kreeperkiller4423 GAME!
I love how he explain such complicated work and make it so that everyone can understand, truly a legend
"If you can't explain it so that a 6-year-old can understand it, then you don't understand it, yourself." - Albert Einstein
I love how Sakurai's referring back to things he mentioned in previous videos, aware that we now understand the concepts through his videos. That's just amazing.
0:30 This Mario animation will stay rent-free in my head
Lmaoo 😂
Mario can hover if he flaps his arms really hard
You should see the Luigi one
The 12 fundamental principles of animation working as always
Another fine example of an unconscious gameplay experience, even if the player is not fully aware of the concept of different animation states, which actually has a strong impact on muscle memory and intuitive gameplay reactions - especially in games with a combat system where only a few seconds of reaction time and every pixel of the range/attack area affects the course of the fight through a hit or miss. It also helps visually to get a feel for the distances between the player character and enemies, as well as the trails that can be seen when animated characters swing their weapons or body parts after a hit.
3:27 i’m sure this is just a generalization, but Melee has a check for canceling tilts in the game, often called IASA. It can be seen very clearly in Marth’s down tilt.
Just a small moment for trivia that I noticed, great video!
Whenever the summary music starts up, I get sad that the lesson is coming to an end. ありがとうさくらいさん。
Sakurai really just explained attack animation in terms of startup, active, and recovery frames, and it makes so happy to hear a dev talk about it directly. Frame data for the win!
One thing I’d love to hear is how developers go about making patches after a game is released. Not the performance problems, but adjustments to intended gameplay. How much is player feedback taken into consideration? How do they go about choosing what changes to make? I’ve always wondered about that.
I do wonder about the impact of player feedback and where it is collected. I've been talking about the infinite loading glitch in Smash 3DS for a while now, on several different videos, and I've yet to receive an answer on the matter, whether it's from developers or fellow players. I know it's been a long time since the last patch, but I just can't let this issue go. I need a solution for this.
I'd say the amount of player feedback taken into consideration varies hugely between projects/teams/etc. so it could be kinda hard, unless you just mean for stuff Sakurai has worked on.
I'd say for smash the team does take in a fair amount of player feedback, but one thing to note is how much they take tournament results into consideration. For example, Ike used to be all over the scene early on, but now he's been nerfed so much you barely ever see him at a major. Meanwhile pikachu, a character believed to possibly be best in the game, has hardly ever been nerfed because nobody has really been able to fully utilize pikachu in tournament yet. Meanwhile Zelda, a character who is probably the best at a casual level due to her insanely spammable, projectile based moveset and final smash has only ever received one nerf, and it was to the shield damage of her down special.
I think that player feedback is only taken into consideration when the devs have data to back it up. They won't merely change something because players want it to change. They will do the tests first.
Mr Sakurai really is making me want to try making a game at some point.
If you're new to programming and the like, I'd suggest using something like Scratch to dip your toes, but if you're somewhat familiar, Game Maker Studio is pretty intuitive and beginner friendly. You can even make full games in that one. Rivals of Aether is a great example of a game made in there.
@@aurora_x86 Already did, remade the first level of Super Mario Bros with it ^^
Two game animation CZcamsrs named Dan are going to be really happy to see this.
I know New Frame+… who’s the other?
@@FedoraKirb VGAS
If I had a nickle for every Dan animator on CZcams i follow... i'd have 2 nickles. But it's still odd that it's more than 1.
Too bad he is currently spending so much time analyzing all those old 8-bit FF games one at a time even though they are really similar and look or animate barely differently. It's his choice and he has the freedom to do what he wants of course but I personally would like to to see him tackle other topics or at least streamline which games he features in a single video.
@@teero121 I was quite happy with his older videos and I'm a fan of JRPG pixel art, so I'm quite content seeing how he tackles the FF games.
I always appreciate videos where fighting game character animation are broken down frame-by-frame like this. It really let's you get a better look at how expressive characters can get in less than a second.
I’d love to hear more about the specific animation states. This has already been really helpful.
This is an EXCELLENT way to explain not just animation for games like this, but especially fighting game tech and moves. I would love to watch Sakurai go more in depth on this subject in the context of a fighting game!!
I feel like Sakurai would be nice to work for as an animator simply because of how organized and concise he would be with his notes. Maybe it's like this in the industry in general, but he just gives off that vibe based on what we've been seeing from this channel
Greatest teacher
Thank you for this simple yet detailed instruction on attack animations.
For those interested in learning more about animation, Dan Floyd (formerly of Extra Credits) has done several videos on the principles of animation on his channel, PlayFrame, several of which using Super Smash Bros. as his example. As a former Pixar animator, he focuses more on the animation side of things, rather than the gameplay side, so it makes an excellent follow-up to this video, particularly if you're interested in the anatomy of Link's sword swings.
Another great video by Sakurai! I enjoy seeing the animations of Smash and those little details of how cancel works.
Thank you again, Sakurai! These videos are all very appreciated!
Very thankful for this entire channel
The devs behind Nickelodeon All Star Brawl could really learn from this vid
Anything about fighting games or Smash Ultimate in general is so satisfacing to see, thanks Sakurai!
The frequency of these videos is unreal... each one a massive bomb of authoritative content for new game devs. Amazing resource.
It's interesting to see Sakurai talk about frame data, but use words different from the words competitive Smash community use.
Most of the words the Smash scene use now and call things were just coined a long time ago and have no origin, mainly because there were no official names. Even when they tried implementing official names to things later on, the scene was already so used to what they were using, they didn't stick.
I think the "dramatic pose" early at the beginning of an attack is very important, especially for multiplayer games, because the player knows what they are inputting, but for the opponent to feel like they can fairly react they have to be able to quickly and reasonably identify what action/attack the opponent is doing. Also important in the same way for enemies in single player games. If the enemy attack animation doesn't clearly telegraph what is happening, it will feel very unfair to the player who is expected to react appropriately by the game.
Attack animations are cool.
I love that you made this channel. So cool to see this stuff!
Another wonderful topic that will make me re-examine all the attacks in games I play
Once again:
New Frame Plus' gonna love this.
Mockrock as well
This is such a good lesson condensed to a super simple form!
I learned animation from skullgirls and street fighter, and seeing the same methods for animation but just for smash is super neat.
Kinda like seeing cooks make similar dishes but with their own flair or favorite spices.
Thanks a lot for the lesson Sakurai!
So Sakurai is kind of telling a half truth about animation canceling in Melee.
He did add 'Allow Interrupt' (IASA) flags to moves, they are just not as generous as later games, often being useless. In fact, poor IASA frames are the biggest reason for half the cast being mid-low tiers. I've had a lot of fun using Crazy Hand (it's on smashboards) to edit them, and things like "turbo mode" are basically just instant IASA frames.
As a new animator, all of this info feels super important, so thank you Mr.Sakurai, I hope you cover the other parts of each animation as well
2:26 I'm pretty sure Marth's down tilt is cancellable in Melee
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I watched this video last night and redid some very janky animations using this framework. They now feel a lot better and I have a path forward. Thanks, Boss Sakurai.
Mr. Game & Watch is an extremely interesting character in smash, and that's in part due to breaking all of these rules (and being built around it). the lack of visual effects to clearly show hitboxes and the animations being only a few frames long each both make him unpredictable and hard to read, which ties in perfectly with his weird hitboxes and generally tricky "bait and punish" centered playstyle.
funny how Ultrakill uses Hitstop to really emphasize the craziness going on. parry something? hitstop. parry your shotgun? hitstop. nail a ricoshot? hitstop. the list goes on and it's a perfect demonstration of how hitstop is a key part of gamefeel.
Very important stuff. Also in terms of frame data for fighting games the translation becomes: Lead-ins as StartUp frames, Attack as Active frames, and Follow-Throughs as Recovery frames.
I love Sakurai videos, especially the ones where he talks about animation. I'm pretty much starting on the "becoming developer" journey, but I can already see that one part I'm gonna enjoy the most.
I’d love to hear more about this topic.
thanks for the cool insightful information, sakurai!
2:26 The concept IS in Melee, but a lot fewer characters have it. Marth Down tilt has this, and that's really the main one that comes to mind. You can interrupt the ending lag of Marth Down tilt with other moves. Also, I *think* it had to be interrupted with another move; I don't think you could walk/run out of it. But it has IASA frames (Interrupt As Soon As).
EDIT: Seems you can walk out of Marth's dtilt IASA.
No, you can walk and dash out of them but cannot shield. Because of this it is optimal to hold left or right + shield after a down tilt so you will buffer walk for a frame which then buffers into shield on the next.
Being able to jump cancel shine has lead to so much tech, that's another huge one
yeah, I dont understand why Sakurai said that this concept isnt present in melee
Beautiful. It helps to immerse a player.
I love that these videos don't only explain the main idea, but also mention what they chose for smash and why.
Another game series that does this amazingly is King of Fighters. I can see why he put Terry in smash bros. Haha.
Interesting.i wonder how any small changes affects the whole move?
Sakurai-Sensei teaching classic animation principles!
Also, yes, anticipation doesn't need to be emphasized in player animations, as the real anticipation is the player themselves pressing the button. They don't need to read anticipation from animations as much for that. It's best to prioritize these animations to be immediate and snappy.
I like to think of it like this. In the actual attack animation the focus usally lies on a weapon or similar. That is the part of the model that will move the most and towards the opponent. The Lead-In then focuses on the rest of the model, it keeps the weapon relatively still and movement will happen in the rest of the body in preparation for the attack. So the other legs and arms and body posture are the focus here. Often it's about building up and storing energy, like in a spin top or a spring.
I'll start studying your videos. Thanks for everything.
Great video!
Missing your Smash Directs!!
Movement speed also correlates to these poses quite a bit, with the same kind of windup/cooldown you'd expect from the inactive frames and inclination towards natural flow
When I watch super pretty Nintendo 3d platformers like Kirby or Mario, these games seem to have a ton of lead-in frames, making the game look really pretty and smooth. And to make up for that "slow" feeling, it looks like the bosses and enemies are also telegraph SUPER early, to make up for the "player nerf."
This channel is the great of the Internet.
I really thought the melee video would be highlighted next and still looking forward to it!
So beautiful 😭
a really neat touch in this video (that was almost perfect):
0:13 - overview, brawl theme
0:27 - standby, melee theme
0:44 - lead-in, smash 4 theme (acoustic)
1:19 - attack, smash 4 theme (full)
1:47 - follow through, ultimate theme
this couldve been perfect if it was every smash game in order!
Smash Bros: Standby, Lead-In, attack, Follow-Through.
Multiversus: Attack.
I don't suppose I ever thought about that, it's always interesting to see behind the curtain.
This is indeed useful. Thank you.
Good one Sakurai!!!!
Byleth has fantastic follow through animations
Very good!!
I am currently animating for a project me and a friend are doing, we are basically making our own smash bros game called Super Smash Bros Recoded, so these videos are very helpful, thank you!
Excellent presentation. I wish this frame data was available to the player in game.
Thank you for the lesson.
Very important concepts
Good video! 👍
Not only does "snapping to" a move help it stand out more for gameplay purposes, but it also helps to convey the action-honedness of the characters. Lacking perfect smoothness with snapping isn't a big deal as our passive minds are good at imagining the in-between motion.
1:26 Oh! During hitstop, _both_ characters shake around. Nice detail, good to know.
I will call the entire total frame segments SLAF for short I think it sound neat
Why? There's already standardized terms for them:
Neutral
Startup
Active
Recovery
@@budgetcoinhunter because sakurai describe it in a different names so I decided to name it short for this and SLAF sound better than NSAR in my head
that's interesting that the main idle statemachine state is falling but it makes sense if people jump a lot.
2:15
In smash terms they call this: IASA "interruptible as soon as" or FAF "first actionable frame"
that's the secret of a natural action, so cool
It wows me how fast Sakurai's team puts out so many of these videos.
I cannot wait until Mr Sakurai talks about art styles in games, I hope he does at least haha! Art styles are so important.
True.
If we look at Pokemon. Let's Go looks so much better, due to the more cartoony artstyle it has, than what i've seen so far in V/S or when playing Legends Arceus.
Even when actually stopping and analyzing stuff in Persona 5, you can see a lot of very odd textures, models or so. But the hyper stylized artstyles hides a lot of it (like the actual 3D models faces)
Artstyle can hide SO MUCH and is imo way more important than graphical fidelity.
@@Shakzor1 No kidding, Art styles can make or break a game's immersion imo. So many times have games gone for that default realistic art style (sonic frontiers) where the game could've fit alot better with a more distinguished look that match's the game's personality.
Two words, kids: horror games. Wether realism benefits a game's art style or not DEPENDS ON THE KIND OF GAME. Or do you really think a game like Silent Hill or Resident Evil would benefit from minimalism and flat textures?
It's a case by case basis
@@roskiart8750 Of course, there are plenty of games that do alot better with having realism. Red Dead Redemption II did that masterfully.
Awesome👍!
Early!
Finally a series where can talk about Smash Bros frame data without apologizing for it :P
Hi, Masahiro Sakurai, I hope you get a chance to read this. There is a common problem I see all the time in our community: people don't really know how to break down a jump animation into its various parts. Pre-jump, jump start, jumping up, jump end, falling, jump pre-land, jump land, jump recovery... Since this is an engine-agnostic problem, I think it would be the perfect topic for a video.
I've been playing Bloodborne lately. A prime example of fantastic animation utilizing these concepts as well.
Would be great to hear more details about the process that goes into deciding frame counts, when things can cancel, etc. in the macro of the gameplay experience.
Sweet!
I'm so excited for his eventual smash melee video.
Smash Ultimate is a perfect example for attack animation. Keep up the good work.😀👍
Good video!!!!
that is correct. since my game is still stuck in the planing phase, I didn't check plans for animations yet but the only thing from here that (mostly) doesn't apply to round based RPG's is canceling out of the returning phase.
pure gold this lection
Thank you
alright. Ill keep this in mind if im ever working on a fighting game.
He is very logical and good at explaining somethings. We're happy to take wonderful lessons how to create games in free!
Thank you.
Foro-suru is a key part of animation
Hello from Algeria 🇩🇿
You are the best sakurai
Cool!
His thing on melee is interesting, since iasa is still on some moves in that game.
I wonder if thats different from what he is talking about
Someone referenced this video talking about the lack of readability in animations for Lies of P.
That game have purposefully designed animations to not have a clear lead in or finish. Not communicating enough with the player through visual means just for the sake of making difficulty is artificial and bad game design.
This is the case for a lot of souls games and soulslikes, giving enemies non-distinct animations just to throw people off and punishes players for having reactions and attempting to read the animations. Dying because you're actually a good fighter is very counterproductive...
Very informative video and it explains why things feel off when game developers fail to do this well.