Art Animated Banners (Experimental)

[Wondershot]

Well, I've tried getting a little back into banner making, and, unfortunately, had to try making my first good animated banner after seeing some other animated artwork. In this case, I've been having quite a time trying to make an Armored Core banner (so much screen capturing is giving me carpal tunnel syndrome), and here are the results. Unfortunately, I can't really add much text or interesting effects like that just yet, but here is the first step.

[img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=21328[/img]

I know it has no border, and over-optimization makes it look ugly. It's 50 frames at 7/100/sec, except for the end, which is 126/100/sec. If I try and optimize it any more, the colours will become far too grainy. Therefore, I ask...should I try and optimize again? Or perhaps make it a bit smaller? Would it still look right if it was any smaller?

The images were from an Armored Core Nexus trailer, and as soon as I get some better equipment I can proabably make an animation of live combat. If you have anything to add or suggest about what you see right now, be it style or optimization advice, I'd love to hear it.

EDIT: Hmph, I just figured out a little more on the size limitations on attachments and linked banners, so I'll try and improve the quality of the actual animation and link from elsewhere.

Please try and comment on the basic animation style anyway!

[CaptainAnarchy]

I love it. I would never have the time nor patience to create such nice artwork. Good job.

[color=teal]Please try to go into [i]why[/i] you like it, explaining specific features of the banner that you find intruiging, or perhaps things that could be improved. -Syk3[/color]

[Epsilon]

[COLOR=SlateGray][SIZE=1]Wow, how in the world could I have missed this thread earlier. Oo


You've picked a great scene to use. For 50 frames and still trying to keep most of the color. It's really a nice attempt, especially considering they're screen caps. It'd say you're doing a great job for your effort.


Instead of having color screen caps, you maybe should have tried the whole banner in gray scale. It would have saved room when saving. Also, it could have prevented the banner from being diluted by the white space that comes when saving a gif.

The only other thing wrong, I find is the way it loops through at the end. It's a bit choppy.


The fourth thing I have to say is about the way you went about getting the images for the animation. Depending on the site of which you received the images from, you can rest your hand in water. You may want to check if you can download or save the trailer to your computer. Then mess around with the file from there. Crop it, add text, border, hues/saturation, effect, etc.

Good-luck with learning the tricks and trades of animation.
[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Wondershot]

Well, thanks for the commentary, and, to answer your idea: Yes, I did end up saving the trailer where I got that image. All of the clips in this section of the trailer (I think there are about eighty) were archived in a folder I made for this banner.

On that note, here is my second attempt:

[img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=21628[/img]

This time, I tried changing half of it to greyscale, but the image size did not decrease but by a few KB. I did like the effect, though, and thought it made an interesting connection to the new avatar I made recently.

Instead of the ending with "micro", I added a few more frames with the section where the missiles actually hit their target, then froze the explosion to start the loop again. I think it's a little cleaner cutoff, even if it's a bit shorter. To compensate for the file size, I took off a bit from the beginning, so now it is at 56 frames.

I also added a small border, but, in some ways, I still like the look without it.

Maybe I'll try being a bit more creative with the border next time.

[Retribution]

Um.. what is the video of? I can see some missle like things being launched at the beginning, and then there's blue explosions. What happened? Other than that, it looks very cool. I especially like the ... abstract feel to it. :love:

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

It looks like an Evangelion launch. It really does. I don't know what Armored Core Nexus is...

I like it, but I think you should lose some frames at the end there. The pause is too long before the animation loops again.