Character Animation

An important aspect of video game development is the animation. As well as making the game look smoother, it also adds interest. If the user were to control a character where their arms and legs didn't have any motion when they move left and right, it would be boring!

Games have used animation on their characters for years. Take Super Mario Bro's for example. When the user moved Mario, his legs and arms move to create the motion of walking. As a preview, here is the first level of Super Mario Bro's being played.

Mario has simple animations when he walks, jumps or shoots fireballs. So how would we achieve this? Animation is done frame by frame, as is all of Mario's motions. Multiple images of the character are created displaying each individual step (or frame) of the motion, and then those images are brought together as one.


Here is the walk cycle of Mario. The image on the left shows his right arm up and his left foot forward. The middle image has his arms and legs coming back towards the centre of his body. The final image shows his left arm up and his right leg forward, thus completing his walk cycle. The cycle is repeated over and over again whilst Mario moves to make him appear as if he is walking.


When we design our own characters, we will start by creating a motionless image with their different body parts separated into layers. These layers will act as the characters "joints" of which we can move into different positions to create any different positions for the character. All the positions will be saved as separate images, of which we will eventually bring together into a cycle to create the motion of walking or jumping.

- Kat & Chris