WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:01.660 --> 00:00:07.160 Gildedguy is a character within a universe full of people with circular heads and bizarre 00:00:07.160 --> 00:00:08.160 powers. 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:12.680 There’s a small series of videos featuring this golden-armored guy, but they focus on 00:00:12.680 --> 00:00:15.740 battles instead of storyline, so you can watch them in any order. 00:00:15.740 --> 00:00:19.390 I’m going to talk about the most recent one, Gildedguy vs Bog. 00:00:19.390 --> 00:00:25.619 Now’s your chance to watch it. 00:00:25.619 --> 00:00:30.619 The Gildedguy videos are part of an animation community where two animators agree to duel, 00:00:30.619 --> 00:00:33.640 and then both participants animate their characters fighting. 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:37.340 The audience watches both animations and then votes on who should be the winner. 00:00:37.340 --> 00:00:41.800 Matches can be part of official tournaments, or, like in this case, only one of the animators 00:00:41.800 --> 00:00:43.440 drawing the fight for fun. 00:00:43.440 --> 00:00:48.789 The particular group Gildedguy fights in is called RHG, and every animator has to represent 00:00:48.789 --> 00:00:51.160 themselves with a stick person character. 00:00:51.160 --> 00:00:55.730 If this is your first time hearing of an animator vs animator battle, they’re tons of fun 00:00:55.730 --> 00:01:01.010 to watch, and there are battles in different communities for non-animators, too. 00:01:01.010 --> 00:01:06.100 Those competitions rely on comics or still art for the fights. 00:01:06.100 --> 00:01:09.410 Okay, so let’s look at the animation itself. 00:01:09.410 --> 00:01:14.690 Michael Moy, aka Gildedguy, aka the animator himself, writes that he didn’t employ any 00:01:14.690 --> 00:01:16.910 new techniques to make this. 00:01:16.910 --> 00:01:21.500 If you watch his past two Gildedguy fights, yeah, that seems to be the case. 00:01:21.500 --> 00:01:27.020 The improvement in Gildedguy vs Bog is due to more creative scene planning - like tricky 00:01:27.020 --> 00:01:32.890 camera angles and perspectives - and general improvement in drawing this character. 00:01:32.890 --> 00:01:34.860 Everything is animated in Flash. 00:01:34.860 --> 00:01:39.390 The Bog fight uses pencil and pen lines for the line art, something Michael did not do 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:42.870 in the past fights, which are brush tool drawn. 00:01:42.870 --> 00:01:47.090 While I usually favor the brush because it changes thickness depending on how hard you 00:01:47.090 --> 00:01:52.150 press down while drawing, the consistency of the lines make this animation look a lot 00:01:52.150 --> 00:01:54.930 more polished compared to the others. 00:01:54.930 --> 00:01:55.930 I like it. 00:01:55.930 --> 00:02:01.190 The new line style in Gildedguy vs Bog still has the gritty, alive feeling of the other 00:02:01.190 --> 00:02:06.050 animations because it is loose and sketchy instead of formulated and perfect. 00:02:06.050 --> 00:02:07.050 So. 00:02:07.050 --> 00:02:09.910 How do you animate a good looking fight scene? 00:02:09.910 --> 00:02:15.000 One of the most important things is an animation principle called spacing. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:19.140 Spacing is how the character changes position across every individual drawing. 00:02:19.140 --> 00:02:23.920 If you have big spacing, the character moves a lot from drawing one to two. 00:02:23.920 --> 00:02:29.780 If you have tight, short spacing, the character doesn’t move very far. 00:02:29.780 --> 00:02:34.090 Big spacing is for fast movements, short spacing is for slow movements. 00:02:34.090 --> 00:02:38.920 Now, the trick for a great fight sequence is not to use big spacing everywhere. 00:02:38.920 --> 00:02:43.390 That’s crazy, and the viewer can’t follow what’s happening. 00:02:43.390 --> 00:02:48.260 Instead you use big spacing and punctuate it with critical clash moments between characters 00:02:48.260 --> 00:02:50.770 using small spacing. 00:02:50.770 --> 00:02:55.290 In this scene, Bog is flinging Gildedguy all over the place and he’s moving like crazy, 00:02:55.290 --> 00:02:58.480 but whenever there is contact, the animation stops. 00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:00.880 Big spacing. 00:03:00.880 --> 00:03:04.500 Small spacing - or - really - no spacing at all, it’s a still frame. 00:03:04.500 --> 00:03:07.460 Fast slow fast slow does great things for your viewers. 00:03:07.460 --> 00:03:11.960 The fast action is a whirlwind, but then there are spaces where we get to see the smash, 00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:15.350 a slow spot where our brain can interpret what is happening. 00:03:15.350 --> 00:03:20.200 Here Bog swipes Gildedguy across the stage and then crushes the empty armor between his 00:03:20.200 --> 00:03:21.200 jaws. 00:03:21.200 --> 00:03:24.440 Big spacing, huge changes in movement between two drawings here. 00:03:24.440 --> 00:03:28.160 It slows down for a few drawings and then bang, a big jump in movement again, and another 00:03:28.160 --> 00:03:29.160 slowdown. 00:03:29.160 --> 00:03:33.310 The pieces hurtle into space and then slowly, slowly reconstruct themselves in an ultra 00:03:33.310 --> 00:03:36.530 smooth, skin prickling scene of triumph. 00:03:36.530 --> 00:03:41.080 If you watch this reconstitution section slowed down, by the way, you can see it’s not all 00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:45.200 the same spacing because there are moments where pieces suddenly fly together faster 00:03:45.200 --> 00:03:46.200 for more impact. 00:03:46.200 --> 00:03:48.780 Bam, chest, bam arms, bam head. 00:03:48.780 --> 00:03:54.700 Again, that slow fast slow fast pattern really gives action scenes punch. 00:03:54.700 --> 00:03:58.260 Compare that with a normal non-action scene, and you’ll see the animation has a more 00:03:58.260 --> 00:04:00.730 constant, even movement speed. 00:04:00.730 --> 00:04:03.700 Just going to casually remove that sword. 00:04:03.700 --> 00:04:07.550 But here every hit is slowed down so you can see. 00:04:07.550 --> 00:04:10.130 The bigger the impact, the more slow motion. 00:04:10.130 --> 00:04:13.349 That’s my tip on fight scenes for today. 00:04:13.349 --> 00:04:15.610 Gosh this animation is so neat. 00:04:15.610 --> 00:04:19.820 The art style breaks into something different a couple of times to show the psychotic nature 00:04:19.820 --> 00:04:24.630 of Gildedguy fighting Bog inside his own mind. 00:04:24.630 --> 00:04:31.110 For the main animation style the lighting is what really makes it stand out. 00:04:31.110 --> 00:04:43.169 That Michael puts all the time in to draw all of the highlights really shows. 00:04:43.169 --> 00:05:00.790 It’s great.