Explosion animation - Part 1
I began production of the shot with the most simple part: the characters. I think this little still of them looking at the explosion with their faces obscured really sells the horrified reaction in the next shot, and I'm happy with how clean a line quality I was able to achieve (I can afford higher quality drawings on a shot like this which requires less frames). If I get more time I would like to have them be blown back by the explosion a bit, but we'll have to wait and see what kind of explosion I ultimately go for.
This was my first real attempt at actually animating an explosion, and the end result is... rough. While this is a good start, and I like the cluster effect on the smaller explosions, there's a lack of fluidity to it, and relies heavy on just the same shape expanding and retracting. As well as that, I want to utilise more impact frames, which requires more research into how they are used than just throwing them in like I have done here. I'm very happy with the numbers pinging out like damage counters in an RPG, really helps sell the video game aspect to the world.
I decided to try and mock-up a test still to try and figure out how the explosion should look rendered, and I'm mixed on this result as well. The circles could be an interesting shape to go with, but here it looks way too flat. As well as that, I don't care for these colours. I want to try and wrap up this shot soon because its taking up more of my time than I would have liked.
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