The Daily Wray: animated skateboarding

[wrayayrton]

I'm gonna try to keep and maintain a daily thread of skate animations to keep myself in practice. I like to animate tricks usually but sometimes I do small combos or lines. I make a point to try not to use a reference for a specific movement to keep everyone looking original, yet I strive for realism so please comment and criticize and tell me what you would do different.

KickFlick Pre Alpha footage
AOTD1: 360 flip
AOTD2: Nollie Double Kick Flip
AOTD3: Hippy Flip
AOTD4: THE WIDOWMAKER (Nollie Double Ghetto Bird)
AOTD5: Inward Heel Flip
AOTD6: Kickflip-BS Boardslide-Switch Body Varial Kickflip
AOTD7: Rick Flip
AOTD8: Blunt Kickflip out to Fakie 360 flip
AOTD9: Nollie Hardflip to Smith Grind, Bigflip out
AOTD10: Frontside 540 double hardflip
AOTD11: Nollie 360 flip
AOTD12: Double Big Flip
AOTD13: 360 Hardflip
AOTD14: Varial Kickflip to 50-50, Varial Heelflip out
AOTD15: Kick Flip

[HCH Media]

aaaaaaahhhh yeahhhhhhh :-)

[PoppySquidJr]

I know this is supposed to be about the animation, and the animation was really cool, but I have to comment on how much I love the visuals and colors of the environment. Reminds me of Jet Set Radio but with a more modern and subtle feel. Especially the "Level Design"

[Antwan]

So sick man.
I am really interested in your process as an animator too.
How do you attack the realism factor?
Do you watch skateboarding videos, video games, what does it for you?
I learned my first Ollie by watching the Tony Hawk Pro Skater's game animations.
If the animators do motion capturing, even back then, they seem to be able to branch out realistically.

[wrayayrton]

when I animate i really just think of a trick or combo regardless of how realistic it is and then sit down and keep animating it till i'm satisfied.

usually I get stoned, parent the character and skateboard to a large dummy that i move through the scene like an action figure, auto-keying the general motion path of the skater, then I animate the board completely, followed by the feet, then the rest of him to follow. once I have a pretty good animation blocked in (a key every 5-10 frames) I take a break, get more stoned, and sit down and painstakingly do the detaily bits like fingers. most of the time the anim is done but I go back and pretty much completely redo the arms at least once just to see if i could do it better.

If I were a better rigger I'd do the board so the wheels roll and deck flexes, with real IK on the feet to the board and not just sliding keys butttttt I can't rig for shit.

Here's today's AOTD:


btw: thanks poppysquid! level design lighting, and propmodelling is one of my other hobbies.

[saunders420]

I love the visuals and colors of the environment. Reminds me of Jet Set Radio but with a more modern and subtle feel. Especially the "Level Design"

really tho. nostalgia to the max over here haha.

For you to animate such intense skating. All the tricks and flips in the lines. I couldn't imagine how many times you got up to smoke haha lol jokes.

you should try replicating lines from skate videos. People would go banana's.


That tre. that scoop was fresh. stomped the shit outta it with your back foot. nice!

[Tabloid]

definitely keep posting this stuff, it's a great watch

[wrayayrton]

saunders420- if you got a line from a skate video you want me to animate, dont hesitate to put the video here and tell me what you wanna see and I'll give it a go. I typically animate lines that I make up since I think that's more fun. I notice it kinda takes the fun out of animating to basically trace/rotoscope something

sorry tabloid ive decided to never post anything here again suddenly :P
jk. here's today's AOTD:

[Antwan]

Man, that sounds like a long process haha.
I'm shocked to read that you don't watch anything.
I often watch skateboarding videos, interviews with skaters and famous artists just for inspiration's sake.
I don't set out to copy anyone's path but often find myself relating.
A bit out of context but I think it can still apply.
Were you a skateboarder at any point?
Just seems a bit out of place that you would be so good without study.
Not to degrade your work, it's top notch.
I just see skating now as an endless resource to grab inspiration and ideas from.
There's the legends, the incredibly technical skaters, the creative skaters, the Hollywood stunt men skaters (William spencer) yeah I found that out, dude does stunts for movies.

[wrayayrton]

don't get me wrong, I watch skate videos, but really just to get an idea for how tricks are done so I can later animate them and combine them myself. I like to think of animating as playing skate 3 but with much more finite control and limitless trick possibilities. That's why I so desperately want to be a part of a skate game. since I got kicked out of college I kinda gotta find a dayjob or prove to the art industry that I deserve a career, and a fairly popular slenderman fangame along with one not-so-popular original horror title, albeit a good start, does not set me apart from other applicants at robomodo's THPS5 department :P

a dope indie skate game would though.

I suck ass at skateboarding but attack it with unrelenting enthusiasm anyway. I ollied a 3 stair one time. best day of my life. I am pretty good at getting the board to do the flip with my feet but not so good at landing on it all the time (or even some of the time), which leads to pain, and sometimes I'd rather just apply my technique to a 3d rig and watch it play out perfectly

also, I have been animating since I was 13, so I have a pretty good knowledge of the biomechanics of movements and whatnot of a bipedal character, as those are my favourite kind. that maybe why I am good without study

[PoppySquidJr]

don't get me wrong, I watch skate videos, but really just to get an idea for how tricks are done so I can later animate them and combine them myself. I like to think of animating as playing skate 3 but with much more finite control and limitless trick possibilities. That's why I so desperately want to be a part of a skate game. since I got kicked out of college I kinda gotta find a dayjob or prove to the art industry that I deserve a career, and a fairly popular slenderman fangame along with one not-so-popular original horror title, albeit a good start, does not set me apart from other applicants at robomodo's THPS5 department :P

a dope indie skate game would though.

I suck ass at skateboarding but attack it with unrelenting enthusiasm anyway. I ollied a 3 stair one time. best day of my life. I am pretty good at getting the board to do the flip with my feet but not so good at landing on it all the time (or even some of the time), which leads to pain, and sometimes I'd rather just apply my technique to a 3d rig and watch it play out perfectly

also, I have been animating since I was 13, so I have a pretty good knowledge of the biomechanics of movements and whatnot of a bipedal character, as those are my favourite kind. that maybe why I am good without study

You should watch some of the weird dudes like Mullen, Richie Jackson, Kilian Martin, It'd be neat to see some animations of weird creative tricks that people don't really do :P

[Antwan]

@Wray
So you do have a skating background. Good stuff.
I used to be heavy into fliptricks and all of those modern things. Been reverting lately to try and expand from the fundamentals of skating. So I'm right there with you Haha. I can break down those tricks in grave detail but I don't do much more than an Ollie these days. I'm not saying you should do animations differently, just saying there is more you could do if you wanted to. Thanks for sharing man.
If this starts getting too crowded let us know. I often hop in after I've had some coffee and the brain is at full speed haha.


@Poppy
That's what I was thinking haha.
I've watched a few interviews with richie, doesn't seem to be a ton. He is a product of the people he skates with. He has his own ideas aswell but there are skaters he feeds off of in sessions. It's an incredible growing collective thought process.
Which makes me think about these skateboarding animations. To have no limits and come up with things that would seemingly be unthought of or un attempted. You could do so much more than grinds, manuals and fliptricks but I do see why it would be satisfying. I grew up with the Sega Genisis and taught myself to make sprites, eventually I was animating them. I've never gone beyond the 8-16bit realm, but seeing it come to life was sick.

[wrayayrton]

there is no such thing as a forum thread that is too crowded. I love forums.
also rodney mullen is my favourite skater. others I take influence from are daewon song, luan oliviera, chris cole, leticia bufoni, evan smith, JP from majer, chris chann, stevie williams, matt berger and lacey baker (there is nothing sexier than a woman who can nollie inward heelflip :P). Each one of these skaters has such an immediately recognizable style and bodyshape, and I like to see how different shaped people control a skateboard differently and represent that in animation. It's like 3d caricatures lol

I've done a lot of street stuff and grinds and manuals since that's my favourite style of skating. I had done some cool mini ramp stuff on my laptop but I was living in a trap house for a while and got robbed and they took that, so my next order of business is probably more miniramp/half pipe/funbox stuff. The way I see it, that's god telling me that I could've animated it better :P. I'm kinda hesitant to try to animate mega-ramp stuff simply because I've never skated a mega-ramp and would be way too pussy to try so IDK if i'd be able to make that look as convincing as some of the street tricks I actually understand, but I'll give it a shot at some point I'm sure.


ANYWAYS HERE IS TODAY's AOTD: Hippy Flip

I made this a few days ago for tintachi6, who hit me up after I joined the forum and asked if i'd make him an intro to his youtube channel. I did, and here's the animation I made for it (the one for his channel stops when the board graphic comes up for a moment)

[saunders420]

yeeaahh hippy flips allday

How many frames are rendered for these animations 30/60/120.... Im just realizing how smooth everything is.

I have no clue how the process goes; but it seems incredibly smooth. that slight motion blur is sweet too.

[wrayayrton]

for motion blur it does 5 passes on one frame, so usually 400-500 frames for 1 3 second clip even though it's only 30 fps. for slow motion ones I do no motion blur but quadruple the frame rate.

[Antwan]

Those are awesome skaters to take influence from for sure.
Daewon and Haslam might've done every fliptrick stall variation possible haha.
If not its on the way!

Surprised me with the hippie flip.
Man, I'm curious how your game would feel.
Even if these were all synced up as animations to be triggered by button combinations the way you talked about freedom of the board flipping it sounds like it would be endless fun.

It never even crossed my mind to have a skater animation as a channel intro.
Dope. Good looking out.
You should try more stuff like it if it isn't too difficult for Ya.
I was doing hippie shuv to grinds in ea skate 2.
This is also a wonderful teaser into what's possible for other animators.

Sucks about being robbed, I've had it happen.
It can be tough but I'm trying to learn not to be so attached to possessions for that reason.
What kind of PC setup do you need for all this?
Is it hardware intensive? Probably, still had to ask.

[saunders420]

for motion blur it does 5 passes on one frame, so usually 400-500 frames for 1 3 second clip even though it's only 30 fps. for slow motion ones I do no motion blur but quadruple the frame rate.

thoroughly explained, thanks man!! Completely understand the amount of time required now o.O Holy smokes pun completely intended. talented AF, looks real sweet man.

been trying to find a line something short, but full of motion. Looking for that balance.

Antwaun Dixon opening line from Baker 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQU10wApsBQ.

That would be crazy to see animated. unreal to be honest.

[wrayayrton]

hah, my pc is my life. any money i dont spend on food or drugs or rent goes right into it. It's a 6-core FX6300, 8gb ram, and a ATI R9 270x. 3ds max likes to overheat it pretty much daily anyways since it's still aircooled.

I'm curious how my game would feel too. I downloaded UE4.8 today (hahahahaha here i was with UE BARELY 3 for mirrors edge). it looks MUCH less complicated like I may someday be able to learn how to make a skateboard controller for it, but I really doubt I could possibly make something even close to the tony hawk level, let alone with more serious close control.

as it is, I'm still considering how I'd be able to best make a game like Kickflick. I'm not even totally sure that side-scrolling isn't the best route for me, but It's really hard to make games with no programmer. In the past I have been only an artist so i'm moving very slowly towards just being like "fuck it" and doing it myself. I'd much prefer to try and keep a dayjob and just hire a freelancer to get me to a good starting point engine-wise, but before I can even do that I have to have a detailed plan as to what the controls are and how the game should work exactly. originally my plan was to go the extreme realism route, but project session seems to be covering that fairly well as is. I also had an idea to go a more SSX route with it, with each level being a line, or series of spots that can become a line, and different characters having very different stats and tricks and specialties, but all of those things are kinda hard to picture when I don't know the first thing about the math and whatnot that goes into making a skateboarding game.

when it comes to FPS and TPS games, engines have built in modules that make that stuff pretty easy, as those are common methods of controlling games, but there is no PC skateboarding game engine, because the whole point of a new skateboarding game is that it has its own unique controls and systems. not knowing how to make these controls and systems leads to a hard time knowing where to go from here. I had considered the kickstarter route but I just don't feel like an animated skateboarding video will net me the necessary XX,XXX dollars it takes to hire a team to make something really awesome and distinguishable from the competition.

I have tried to get the dude that made slendermans shadow with me to do it but he's pretty tough to get to do anything and hes still in uni, but maybe I'll try again

EDIT- just saw the antwuan dixon part. I LOVE HIS STYLE. he reminds me of the tony hawk project 8 animations- very nonchalant and minimal use of his arms. I'll keep him in mind for future anims ESPECIALLY THAT noseslide varial heelflip out at 1:09-1:13

[saunders420]

Yeah the difficulty in making a skateboarding game is bonkers. A lot of factors to consider. I couldn't possibly imagine someone doing it by themselves/ then there is On a Roll. crazy

Glad you liked something from antwuan. that nose varial heel out is boss. His style is heavy as fuck. yet So clean. Dude rips for sure.

[wrayayrton]

The WIDOWMAKER.
yes this is not brand new, but I have a new one that I made that I may post today. I just wanted to get some opinions on this movement specifically as it's one of my favourites so far

[emericaridr11]

looks dope as fuck, the trick is wild as all hell.... not sure if I like the wild tony hawk tricks
but SLICK AS SHIT!!

love the feet set up

[Antwan]

Glad to see you making things up.
What the hell was it.. Fakie pressure double back to regular?
I could see Haslam nailing these haha.
He does this crazy fakie double laser pressure trick and also a 180 landing regular.
Wild! Keep branching out.

[wrayayrton]

nollie double ghetto bird. so like think hardflip that you catch and rotate back around with a late 180, but it's a nollie and it's a double. It could be fakie technically but the character is based on me and I ride goofy so it would be nollie here.

I appreciate the comments too, I animated an actual AOTD for today as well not just a rehash of something from an old vid. think of that one as a memorial, I accidentally saved over the .max file for that one haha
when I get back from lunch I post an inward heelflip

[Antwan]

Oh rad, I see it now that you mention it.
The wind up in nollie.
So you would flip in the 180 motion I take it.
The trick I was thinking of was actually switch to regular.
Link for reference sake: https://youtube.com/watch?v=y0cgfZw0Wio
That idea of yours is wild haha I was trying to break it down.
Schooled me.

[wrayayrton]

ooh I liked that it looked like a 360 hardflip body varial but faked me out and somehow became like an odd late laser flip

heres a much more simple one to break down since its a real trick :P

[saunders420]

that top down angle really showed off the animation quite nicely. cruising into the pop with that sway(loose trucks)to accentuate the flip was butter. dem feet too. love the catch

[thomasw2172]

All these clips are so dope man. keep it up

[wrayayrton]

thanks! I dont know if im gonna be able to get one done today but that's because I'm working on a new scene for a kickflick trailer

[wrayayrton]

Took a little extra time but has a new character model!



I know it's a kickflip to backside boardslide, the trick done out I consider a kickflip but friends have said body varial kickflip so idk

[HCH Media]

yeah nice i really like the bs flip motion onto the rail really good .. just a lil question is it possible to make tricks really clean in this early build ? or is it just so hard to make it and it needs lots of practice to do better ? if this would be the case im totaly down for that :-)

[wrayayrton]

this is not a game build, these are just animations to get an idea for the style of each character. just for you, the next AOTD I make is BOLTS AS FUCK CLEAN

[Ephyr]

These animations are top notch mate.
I like the catch on the kickflip bs lip how it's like really tweaked but then you rock the board on the rail to compensate, looks really realistic.
The body movements are spot on aswell, like the subtle jolt on the switch varial flip out landing, really sick stuff dude.
Do you animate these frame by frame? That seems like a hell of a lot of work especially with you doing them daily, damn.
also, it'd be dope to see the way you animate a rick flip(fakie bigspin heel).

[wrayayrton]

Super clean bolts rick flip- comin up

I keyframe these, but not frame by frame. I usually make one every 5 frames, then go back and do in betweens. so i animate them at 15 FPS and they come out at 30 :P

[wrayayrton]

This character's style is a very precise clean techniqued one with tight trucks. I tried to make the rickflip so on point that it looks like he's barely even trying :P

[Ephyr]

Too fuckin' dope.
The effortless style is sick, reminds of Chris Cole and Wes Kremer.
Good stuff man, looking forward to seeing more.

[wrayayrton]

nicer mental ray render of all characters used in this thread so far. this is going to be my avatar

[wrayayrton]

and, 3 hours after midnight, AOTD8:
blunt kickflip out to fakie 360 flip

[thomasw2172]

I look forward to these so much. Fucking rad

[wrayayrton]

AOTD9- Nollie hardflip to smith grind, bigflip out

ALSO: updating the first post to list all AOTDs for quick viewing

[HCH Media]

This character's style is a very precise clean techniqued one with tight trucks. I tried to make the rickflip so on point that it looks like he's barely even trying :P

oh :-) nuts clean . thanks alot bud

oh and that mini ramp clip looks crazy good too