{"id":18689,"date":"2024-03-07T22:45:11","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T19:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.koloro.ua\/services\/game-animation\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T12:22:14","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T09:22:14","slug":"game-animation","status":"publish","type":"services","link":"https:\/\/koloro.ua\/en\/game-animation\/","title":{"rendered":"GAME ANIMATION"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Creating animations for the game<\/h2>\n\n

Animation is one of the main components of game graphics. No matter how good the models and effects are, if they are poorly animated, the game will fail. <\/p>\n\n

We will make animations of any complexity for your game: from button press effects in the main menu to cool movements in fighting games. And here we’ll tell you what our animators can do, how they make animations and how character movements affect the visual style of the game. <\/p>\n\n

\"Game<\/figure>\n\n

Animation concept development<\/h2>\n\n

Animation can’t be done without a clear plan and knowledge of the game mechanics. Our specialists first make a concept document, in which they describe all the necessary animations: what kind of action it is, who performs it, how it should look and feel. With a sound concept, we 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 should be taken into account when creating animations. <\/p>\n\n

Also in the concept we specify all additional animations: loading indicators, cursors and other interface elements. This helps to bring the animations together and make the game more memorable. <\/p>\n\n

\"Interface<\/figure>\n\n

GET ADVICE<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Creating 2D animation<\/h2>\n\n

2D animation is used in all games. First of all, animation is used for interface elements: various highlighting, movement and changing of icons when hovering the cursor over them. Using 2D makes interface development cheaper and improves game performance.<\/p>\n\n

2D character animation is the most demanded type of work. Characters have to move, otherwise the game will look boring. <\/p>\n\n

To animate the characters, animators use sketches with keyframes – the highlights of the entire movement. Animators draw intermediate frames that bring the character to the state of the keyframe. <\/p>\n\n

\"Keyframes<\/figure>\n\n

Another way to animate a 2D character is to use special software like Spine or Toon Boom. The animator redraws the character as layers-fragments: head, torso, legs, and arms. <\/p>\n\n

Game engines allow you to overlay these fragments on top of each other and set motion using code, without rendering individual frames. This method of animation is great for games where the player can change the appearance of the character. Like putting a new helmet on him or giving him an axe instead of a sword. Then you won’t have to redraw all the sprites to account for the new helmet.<\/p>\n\n

2D background and environment animation. If the game already has animated characters and interface, you need to animate the environment as well. The easiest way to do this is to add a parallax effect. To do this, artists draw the background in multiple layers, and animators make the layers move at different speeds relative to the movement of the main character. <\/p>\n\n

\"Background<\/figure>\n\n

Also animators can make other effects of the environment: moving leaves and grass, wind, snow or rain, movement of clouds in the sky. Additional effects and animations help bring the levels to life and make them more appealing to the player. <\/p>\n\n

Animating pixel art<\/h3>\n\n

Gamers are well-received for pixel-art style games, but drawing and animating pixel characters is much more difficult than working with sprites. The hardest part is keeping the proportions and recognizable silhouette of the character. For this purpose, we apply so-called internal animation, when the illusion of motion is created by changing the color of the pixels inside the silhouette, but not the silhouette itself. <\/p>\n\n

\"Animation<\/figure>\n\n

2D animation in Unity and Unreal Engine<\/h3>\n\n

Our work with 2D doesn’t end with creating a sprite atlas or a skeletal model. We can also implement and customize animations in the chosen game engine. We’ll make transitions between animations, pick timings and get the game looking beautiful. <\/p>\n\n

\"Game<\/figure>\n\n

3D animation<\/h2>\n\n

Two-dimensional animation is mostly done by artists, but three-dimensional animation is a task for individual specialists. Players often berate games with good mechanics for their snaggy animations. We try to do everything at the highest level to make the game a pleasure to watch. We have the experience and a team of excellent professionals to do this. <\/p>\n\n

Rigging and skinning of the three-dimensional model<\/h2>\n\n

Rigging is the creation and customization 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 do a skeletal brush animation, you’ll have to add another 54 bones. <\/p>\n\n

\"Rigging<\/figure>\n\n

Next, the rigging specialist adjusts the behavior of the skeleton: combines groups of bones and joints, sets maximum angles of inclination and rotation of joints, builds a hierarchical sequence of bones. This allows the animators to control the body like a marionette and not worry about the legs in the knees starting to bend the other way.<\/p>\n\n

When the skeleton is ready, the specialist starts skinning: “attaches” to each bone the corresponding parts of the model. He also assigns areas of exposure for each joint. In these areas, the model will flex with the joint so that other parts do not fall through the model. <\/p>\n\n

Skeletal animation in 3D<\/h3>\n\n

Animators describe the movement of a skeleton using features and tie these features to different character states. For example, if the player walks forward, the engine triggers the functions that are responsible for leg movement. <\/p>\n\n

Skeletal animation allows you to do so-called mixed states, where a character does several things at the same time. For example, the player can just walk, or can change or reload weapons on the fly. Animators don’t need to create separate animations for each combination of actions, just separate the functions and prescribe mixed states. <\/p>\n\n

\"Game<\/figure>\n\n

More mixed states allow you to create a continuous smooth animation. For example, stopping a character while running might look like abruptly freezing in place. A separate stop animation can be made for a simple game. But the best effect is the character’s natural transition into a resting state: speed smoothly decreases, feet smoothly return to the position to start the resting animation. This is only possible with skeletal animation. <\/p>\n\n

Animation of the character’s face and hands<\/h3>\n\n

Hands and face are the most mobile parts of the human body. The hand consists of 27 bones, which are moved by 9 tendons and 5 muscles. Making natural hand movements using skeleton and math functions is very difficult because the movement of one finger causes the rest of the bones to move. That’s why game developers rarely show brushes in close-up. But sometimes you can’t do without it, for example, in the animation of reloading a weapon or picking up an item. We animate the hands by hand using references and mocap – it works best that way.<\/p>\n\n

The face, on the other hand, is made up of two bones and 21 muscles that are connected to each other. Each emotion is a combination of different states of all the muscles that not only contract but also expand during movement.<\/p>\n\n

\"Facial<\/figure>\n\n

Facial animation is expensive because a lot of it has to be done manually, and even expensive mocap devices don’t always help. But if you want to show a character’s face in close-up, we can help bring it to life. When animating a face, we necessarily rely on references to convey the right emotions and if necessary to make synchronization of lip movement with the sound track. <\/p>\n\n

Animation of three-dimensional environment<\/h3>\n\n

The background in a three-dimensional game must necessarily be alive, otherwise there will be too much contrast between the animated characters and the frozen background. Working with the environment depends on the game’s setting. For a fantasy world, creaky signs are suitable, for the world of the future – flashing neon lights. <\/p>\n\n

\"3D<\/figure>\n\n

Also included in working with the environment are animations of opening doors, drawers and windows, turning faucets, pressing switches and working with animations of other interactive objects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13635,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[116],"tags":[],"services_cat":[183],"class_list":["post-18689","services","type-services","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apps-web-dev-ux-ui","services_cat-website-and-app-development-ui-ux-design"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/koloro.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/services\/18689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/koloro.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/services"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/koloro.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/services"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koloro.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/koloro.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koloro.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koloro.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18689"},{"taxonomy":"services_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koloro.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/services_cat?post=18689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}