Moom and Doom

After doing all my tests, I took some time to stitch them together. I also added some freesound sound effects, since giving sound to the visual effects (and the character animation) helped with immersion.
I added a few camera effects, like subtle blurs and distortion, and camera shakes to ramp up the intensity of some effects. Here is the final 30 second 2d vfx experiment result:

What went well:

• The integration of different effects together (like motion lines) worked well, they played off each other and amplified their effect,
• The simple character designs meant that I could gauge how effective some of the vfx were in influencing appeal.

What could be improved:

• The "backgrounds" lacked consistency - they fluctuated from light grey to dark grey, (this was done so that the effect could take centre stage though),
• Some of these tests are not perfect (I'm not too happy with the smoke), but I think I got the gist on how to animate them and how they affect appeal,
• The time I spent on each effect was not balanced efficiently, I spent more time on fire (lulled by a false sense of security), than effects I should've spent more time on (like water and smoke).

My favourite effects to animate were fire and explosions, the most difficult was water and liquids, and the most effective in influencing appeal, in my opinion, was motion lines. Something I would do differently next time, would be reversing these tests - testing effects to get a specific appeal out of a character instead of making an effects and judging its appeal. I would've also liked to test out mixing effects more deliberately, and other fantastical effects.

Text elements

In my opinion, nothing goes with motion lines quite like text elements do, so I decided to add something text-based for my Moom and Doom experiments, however, since there are so many possibilities, and not many rules, I looked at some case studies which was very interesting to catch bits I would not normally register, and a perfect example is Into the Spiderverse!

Spiderverse uses text elements since it's style is adapted from comics, and uses it for multiple reasons:

• Onomatopoeia (a lot of these are integrated with other effects like dust and energy): 

• Subtler (sometimes comedic) moments?:

 

• To give more information (translation, inner thoughts etc.):

I also looked at another source, the introduction cutscene and some gameplay of Sunset Overdrive:

The most common use is onomatopoeia. The text elements are usually well integrated with the animation, sometimes some parts of it goes behind a character to help with immersion. The text also reflects what it shows, or is paired with another effect.

I then applied this to my Moom tests:

I added some curse words to right after Moom stubs its toe, but I decided the FFFFFF works best as it is in constant motion and it builds up perfectly to the fire shout afterwards. The camera rumble also helped build up the intensity.
I found that text elements are usually used for comic moments, or to match a style, but when used incorrectly, it can make a scene less serious/realistic.

Intensity and motion lines (Backgrounds and overlays)

There are plenty of examples of this yet they go by many names; speed lines, overlays, motion lines and they have lots of uses too. I learnt that it was originally used to cut down on production costs as it was inefficient to create long scrolling backgrounds when something is moving fast. I can't observe this effect using first-hand sources (though it is based in reality as exaggerated motion blur), so I looked at some case studies:

I also isolated a frame and tried to redraw the background without the character:

Dead Cells animated trailer

Dead Cells: Rise of the Giant animated trailer 

Aggretsuko

I noticed that most of these had limited, looping animation, and a mixture of blurry backgrounds and moving lines.

It's usually used when there is a lot of fast, intense animation but it can be used to emphasise an object, or express surprise:

Dead Cells trailer emphasises the end castle using bouncy motion lines

Into the Spiderverse uses motion lines (paired with vivid backgrounds) to represent spider-sense

Since it's quite a straightforward, simple effect, I decided to do multiple Moom style tests:

I then did this:

What went well:

• Making Moom move slightly instead of being static meant that the intensity lines helped frame and emphasise the motion, instead of taking the attention away,
• Using a few flash frames with inverted colours made the toe stubbing more impactful.

What could be improved:

• The zigzag lines on the toe crack is slightly clunky, I should've looked at more case studies and examples,
• The motion lines on the corners of the toe crack blend in too much, I could've increased the contrast between the background and motion lines,
• The coloured background on the first test might be too jarring (since most of my tests have had a neutral grey background).

Strikes and attacks

(Epilepsy Warning: Contains Flashing Images!)

Strikes and attacks are some of my favourite 2D vfx (since its very easy to miss but adds a lot) so over the summer holidays, inspired by Into the Spiderverse and the Dead Cells trailer, I did some impact tests to mess around with flash frames:

I also couldn't actually use primary live action sources for this as it is a technique used to make motion easier to follow (it's basically motion blur with artisitic liberties). The Dead Cells trailer had lots of strikes and impacts, and by recreating it, I got the sense of speed and energy.

A simple swipe attack

Weapon attacks with medium energy spikes and camera shakes

A flash frame with a knife spark, abstract blurs too

The Moom test turned out to be quite interesting - I had two scenes, one was an aerial slice, and the other was the rock receiving multiple slices.

 The aerial slice was a straightforward, I simply needed to follow the arc of the slicing hand (or emphasise this, since the camera moved too), then manually add some motion blur, and correct the chaotic timing of the base Moom animation. I made the slice glow red a little to match the strike symbol on Moom's head:

Moom leaps into the air and slices the offender

The rock slicing was a bit more difficult to do, but I used the same arc principle to guide the motion. I also used the spark burst similar to the Dead Cells trailer, with the background flickering between black and white. To match the fx to the base, I put some subtle lighting effects on the rocks too:

(The rock slicing is a bit too flicker-y, but it should only be on screen for one loop)

Professional Insight

I felt my research was a bit too secluded - it was mainly my opinions and whatever I could collate online and in books, so I reached out to an industry professional who has a knack for 2D vfx. I contacted Renato Roldan over Instagram (I had been following their work for a while @renato3xl) and then exchanged a few emails.

I asked:

• Do you believe that there’s any difference between effects animation and character animation? If so, what are the main differences? Do they follow the same rules?
• Sure there is, the main focus on both are different, all the same principles apply to each other but you apply more ones, or others depending on what you do. 
• For example, for VFX is way easier to apply follow through animation, than pose to pose, because at the end VFX is something that "flows" more than something that has to be more well thought like a character animation. 
• Easy in easy out, staging, silhouette, curves etc apply the same to both. 

• What do you think is more important; that an effect acts naturally/realistically, or that it matches the visual style of the world it is in? (Motion vs look?) 
• In fact it has to feel natural but it doesn't need to be natural, we always exaggerate , we deform reality to make it more real, that doesn´t make so much sense, but is what all principals are about, no one does an anticipation before start running, but if you don't do it in an animation it feels weird, so realism is not always what the brain accepts as real.
• For sure Vfx has to be in style, if not, it can break the illusion.

• Do effects with contrasting visual styles work better?
• If contrast is your guide, it's ok, for example Overwatch is a 3d game with 2d fx on it, and it blends well because they work on the look and feel to make it be coherent. contrast is not a problem, lack of coherence is.

• What’s your favorite elemental effect? (Mine’s fire hehe) Do you have any advice on how to animate said effect? What about non-elemental effects? 
• I have to admit that i have a lot of fun doing wind stuff, capes flowing, particles etc, but i love going from one to the other. I also like to do explosions and gunfire and bullets.

• (Any other top tips, or feedback is much appreciated!)
• Animation careers are always a long run, here the first is not the winner, the one that lasts the most is. So keep on working hard for the rest of your life ;)

I got a very informative perspective on vfx animation and appeal, and more techincal, process-related advice too. Follow through vs pose to pose was a difference between character and effects animaiton I hadn't considered before.
I also realised I hadn't considered other wind-related effects, like flags, capes and particles at all, something I would definitely do differently next time.

Liquids

In his book, Elemental Magic, Gilland starts off explaining the different types of special effects and starts with water.  He says every fx animator has their 'thing', the one fx they understand naturally, and his innate effect is water and liquids. Mine isn't (it's fire if you're wondering), which my be why I struggled with liquid effects. I also dabbled in a bit of liquid fx for my loopdeloop submission, Instrument:

I kept its main shape constant, but added lines to give it the illusion of moving. The foam at the bottom was very similar to steam - the particles shrink and fade. The places where the forest spirit disturbs the surface was a bit more difficult, I tested giving it outlines, making larger splashes but a soft disruption worked best I feel. 

I noticed that both fire and water have waves of energy. I also noticed in the Dead Cells trailer, the liquid effects starts off in a cloud-like shape similar to smoke/steam (but this is a fictional poison goo so maybe it's not the best example):

I also found an article by Cartoon Brew on The Effects Tech behind 'Moana' by Ian Failes, with interesting breakdowns on how charcter animation and fx animation is integrated together. Even though it talks about 3D vfx, it's character/fx animation of the ocean helped me understand liquids by splitting it into the base movements and details on top:

Another noteoworthy example of liquid fx used to enhance appeal is in the Little Mermaid, I looked at a few clips frame by frame to study it. I observed three parts to it; the main liquid, lots of droplets, and foam:

My Moom tests went...ok. It was difficult to keep track of all the droplets and foam as they splashed about and the perspective angle didn't help either. I should've done some live-action studies of water and maybe used reference to help with this animation.

What went well:

• The chaos of it all makes it look quite realistic/natural, the droplets arc and make ripples on the floor too.

What could be improved:

• Yes
• I animated it very zoomed in, so the particles look very tiny, the splashes aren't big enough but the amount of detail warps the scale slighty, detail=scale, 
• The frame rate, although quite fluid (pun intended), seems a bit off, between the water and Moom, maybe Moom's movements need to be snappier.
• I should do more water tests, on different scales, viscosities, colours etc

Energy, electricity and explosions

I initially classified explosions together with fire, but I felt it might work a bit more similarly to energy and electricity. I found some really useful pixel art tutorials by Pedro Medeiros and even though they are for pixel art, their fundamentals can still be carried over (there were also other fx tutorials too):

Electricity tutorial by Pedro Medeiros

My previous case studies didn't have much appeal-related fx for energy and electricity so I used other sources. I did some studies to break it down and how it interacts with the environtment and characters interacting with it. I analysed a scene from the trailer of 'A Certain Scientific Railgun', an anime where the protagonist has electric-based powers. I identified how the electricity moved and how it flickers. There is a certain element of randomness that helps convey the intensity of the scene:

I also looked at the Dead Cells: Rise of the Giant trailer. I noticed the art style was slightly different from the original Dead Cells trailer, but the appeal of the character remained, the hectic fx helped exaggerate the reaction of the character. 

Note how the explosion make the camera rumble and the electric blast adds a rim light on the character.

I also looked at a few Spiderverse explosion screenshots, and looked at how the debris and smoke moved around.

For the electric energy, I experimented with a few colours, and found that the colours influenced the mood and personality of Moom:

Pure, powerful, solar energy?

Evil, malicious, forbidden energy? (Like Star Wars light sabers)

Sci-fi, digital energy?

Magical, neon energy?

In the end I stuck with blue as it a cool neutral, and provides interesting contrast from the orange and yellows of the fire and explosion. I tried to apply what I learnt to exaggerate and emphasis Moom's actions to give him appeal:

What went well:

• Just observing the case studies frame by frame made it significantly easier to animate and time it,
• This was really fun to animate,
• Both effects involved lots of lighting effects, adding rim lighting integrated the effects with the character better.

What could be improved:

• The crouch pose of Moom with electricity could be exaggerated further (but the focus is on the effects),
• The explosion could be improved with camera rumble for more immersion.