Hey y'all, I guess it's time for another one of my tutorials!
Skating is something that's not easy on pivot, but if you know how to do it, it's not that hard either. All you need to know is how the tricks look like, and know how to animate physics and reactions on pivot.
I can give you the links to a couple of skate packs:
Jon's Skate Pack - It's a good and simple skate pack, works well.
Smashdood's Skate Pack - A very detailed and nice skate pack, a lot of angles, but may prove difficult to use ;D
Now that you got something to skate with, let's start skating!
The Basics!
The basics is always a good thing to know, so let's start with that first ;D
Stances!
I've seen people ''trying'' to make it look more realistic by having them in this position:
In my opinion that's completely wrong. People use that method to resemble the real way to skate, by crouching sideways. But that stance is wrong, because they go into a dwarf-like position ready to do a polka dance, not crouching. The real way to skate would be to make a new stick each movement to go with the real 3D crouch that happens in real life, but that's a big pain in the butt to do, at least for those who're just making a skating animation for fun, not for making something excellent and realistic.
So I suggest what you should do in pivot is this stance:
As you see, it doesn't resemble skating in real life very much, it looks like he's skating while having the feet in a straight line forward, which is impossible in skating, but the tricks and stuff is much easier to do, plus it looks way better.
Since this is in 2D, it's impossible to have someone be either regular or goofy, or riding nollie or switch. But what is possible is driving fakie, which is this:
As seen, driving with the tail in front. Don't take this wrong, you can just as well go right with the tail in front, he doesn't HAVE to ride left.
As you see, it's possible riding backwards in that stance, but that's just gay, so I'm not gonna cover how to do it xD
Pushing!
Pushing is not essential while animating skating, because you can easily just make him drop from a bank or ramp, or just simply make him start with speed. But those who want it more realistic can have good use with pushing, so here is it:
.Piv
Frame 1:
In this frame the guy is just in a position..
Frame 2:
Here he's slowly starting to move a little bit forward, front foot at the same position, while the back foot is moving forward.
Frame 3:
The back foot is going forward and towards the ground, the body is leaning forward, the front foot is still in the same position and the arms are going with the flow.
Frame 4:
Leaning more forward, going more to the ground with the back foot, arms going with the flow, front foot at the same position.
Frame 5:
Going a little longer and also landing the back foot, slow down the movements and have the front foot in the same position.
Frame 6:
Arms are going with the flow, back foot is sliding a little bit forward, and you're still slowing down the movements.
Frame 7:
Almost completely eased here, only the arm still going fast.
Frame 8:
Move the skateboard a little bit forward to show that you're giving it power while pushing, move the back foot backwards a little, bend down and forward again.
Frame 9:
He's pushing hard now, the skateboard is going more forward. Keep the arms going with the flow, and remember to make the stick follow the moving board.
Frame 10:
Straighten out the back foot, lean more forward and down with the body and keep the arms flowing.
Frame 11:
Make the back leg go up while bending it, go more forward, not down. As said, keep the arms following the flow, and remember to move every back joint, in every frame.
Frame 12:
Ease now, he's preparing to go backwards with the whole body, and make the back leg go a bit towards the board.
Frame 13:
Going upwards and backwards here, the back leg is preparing to land on the board again. Keep the arms flowing, and move back joints.
Frame 14:
He landed with the back leg, he's now on the board again. The arms keep going with the flow, and he's still going backwards.
Frame 15:
Going more backwards, easing the back leg, arms going with the flow, back joints moved.
Frame 16-25:
Just ease into the position you want.
This push isn't very powerful, so to do powerful push just make him push stronger, make it look like he's pushing with all his might. Pushing is a hard thing to do, it's harder than a lot of other things within skating in pivot.
Ollie!
The ollie is the trick you will need the most of all, it's the way to get up in the air! The ollie is so essential that it can't even be categorized as a trick.
To do an ollie you need to press the tail down to the ground while jumping, which leads to that the board pops in the air with you above it, then you use your front foot to level the board out in mid air, it should look like this:
.Piv
Frame 1:
The stick is positioned with the front foot a little more to the middle.
Frame 2:
The stick slowly begins to crouch, bending the legs and back joints. As previously, just keep the arms going with the flow.
Frame 3:
The stick crouches more now, just follow frame 2, except speed it a little more.
Frame 4:
Same as frame 3, but speed down now.
Frame 5:
Follow frame 2, he doesn't move much now.
Frame 6:
The stick is barely moving, just for easing.
Frame 7:
Start to rise again, and start to push down on the tail, lifting the nose.
Frame 8:
He's in the air now, straighten out the back leg, straighten out the foot of the front leg and prepare it for sliding up. Lift the arms to avoid it crashing into the legs in mid air.
Frame 9:
Just go upwards with physics, slide the front foot, bend the back foot, level the board out a little, arm goes with the flow.
Frame 10:
Same as frame 9.
Frame 11:
Same as frame 10, he's at the gravity point here.
Frame 12:
He's starting to drop, straighten out the front leg a little.
Frame 13:
Drop more, and straighten it out a LITTLE bit more, also with the back leg.
Frame 14:
Landed with the front wheel, successful board leveling. Bend the front leg back a little bit.
Frame 15:
Make the board stay straight and normal on the ground, and crouch for a proper reaction to the landing. Remember to make the ass go to the south west of your screen, and keep the body going straight down, not south west with the ass. This way the front foot won't look ****ed.
Frame 16:
Ease the landing reaction more, arms are always going with the flow.
Frame 17:
Just keep on easing the landing.
Frame 18-30:
Again just ease into the position you want.
So that's how you do an ollie, let's get going with the tricks now!
Tricks!!
Kickflip!
A kickflip is a trick where you do an ollie, then kick the left side of the board, so it spins around. If you're doing a kickflip, I'd suggest using Smashdood's pack, since Jon's only contains enough for a 4 framed flip, which is a bit too fast if you're doing a smooth kickflip. You can use Jon's pack if you're doing a quick flip and catching it in midair like this:
I wont do frame to frame description here.
.Piv
As you see it doesn't look very good, and to do that you require a pretty high ollie, so if you want a normal kickflip on the ground without jumping too high, use Smashdood's pack which will result in this:
.Piv
That is much more clean, and works better. As you see here, you watch from the right for the stickman, which means that you flip it in the other way. I discovered that when I felt that the kickflip spun in the wrong direction, and saw that he was in a great position of heelflipping when I was going to kickflip. Here is the frame to frame description of the kickflip.
Frame 1-5:
Crouch just like in a regular ollie.
Frame 6:
Make the tail of the skateboard hit the ground, start raising the body, going into a jump and get the front foot in a sliding position.
Frame 7:
Using the SBbottom stick here, also used a fill to show that the back foot is behind the skateboard. Straighten out and lift the arms like in the ollie. Also make a kick with the front foot, in skating terms that's called 'flicking' the skateboard. Also straighten the back foot out as you've jumped. The skateboard is going a tiny bit more horizontal than the last frame.
Frame 8:
Using the SBbottom30 stick here, also used a fill to show that the back foot is behind the skateboard. Continue moving the upper body like you did an ollie. Back foot is starting to go a little backwards, preparing to land on the skateboard again. Front foot is easing the kick like you did a normal kick. Remember keep the physics decent. Now the skateboard is going more vertical than the last frame.
Frame 9:
Switch to SBtop30 here, no fills. Keep using the upper body as you were doing an ollie, also keep using decent physics. Back foot more backwards, front foot starting to move downwards a little. The skateboard is soon vertical.
Frame 10:
Switch to SBtop here, no fills. Keep using the upper body as you were doing an ollie, also keep using decent physics. Back foot is moving towards the board, but the joint most out on the leg is still going backwards. Front foot is going down. The board is now vertical.
Frame 11:
Switch to SBside here, no fills (duh). Keep using the upper body as you were doing an ollie, also keep using decent physics. Landed! Quickly draw the back foot onto the board, and also land with the front foot. The board is a little bit past vertical.
Frame 12-24:
Just land it using physics, go for a proper reaction also using physics, then ease to the position you'd like.
Wait patiently for more tricks in the future.
Click the animation below for the .Piv to study it, remember that it was before I realized we watched from the right, so it always flip the wrong directions.
©Copyright by Phoenix, do not steal.
Skating is something that's not easy on pivot, but if you know how to do it, it's not that hard either. All you need to know is how the tricks look like, and know how to animate physics and reactions on pivot.
I can give you the links to a couple of skate packs:
Jon's Skate Pack - It's a good and simple skate pack, works well.
Smashdood's Skate Pack - A very detailed and nice skate pack, a lot of angles, but may prove difficult to use ;D
Now that you got something to skate with, let's start skating!
The Basics!
The basics is always a good thing to know, so let's start with that first ;D
Stances!
I've seen people ''trying'' to make it look more realistic by having them in this position:
In my opinion that's completely wrong. People use that method to resemble the real way to skate, by crouching sideways. But that stance is wrong, because they go into a dwarf-like position ready to do a polka dance, not crouching. The real way to skate would be to make a new stick each movement to go with the real 3D crouch that happens in real life, but that's a big pain in the butt to do, at least for those who're just making a skating animation for fun, not for making something excellent and realistic.
So I suggest what you should do in pivot is this stance:
As you see, it doesn't resemble skating in real life very much, it looks like he's skating while having the feet in a straight line forward, which is impossible in skating, but the tricks and stuff is much easier to do, plus it looks way better.
Since this is in 2D, it's impossible to have someone be either regular or goofy, or riding nollie or switch. But what is possible is driving fakie, which is this:
As seen, driving with the tail in front. Don't take this wrong, you can just as well go right with the tail in front, he doesn't HAVE to ride left.
As you see, it's possible riding backwards in that stance, but that's just gay, so I'm not gonna cover how to do it xD
Pushing!
Pushing is not essential while animating skating, because you can easily just make him drop from a bank or ramp, or just simply make him start with speed. But those who want it more realistic can have good use with pushing, so here is it:
.Piv
Frame 1:
In this frame the guy is just in a position..
Frame 2:
Here he's slowly starting to move a little bit forward, front foot at the same position, while the back foot is moving forward.
Frame 3:
The back foot is going forward and towards the ground, the body is leaning forward, the front foot is still in the same position and the arms are going with the flow.
Frame 4:
Leaning more forward, going more to the ground with the back foot, arms going with the flow, front foot at the same position.
Frame 5:
Going a little longer and also landing the back foot, slow down the movements and have the front foot in the same position.
Frame 6:
Arms are going with the flow, back foot is sliding a little bit forward, and you're still slowing down the movements.
Frame 7:
Almost completely eased here, only the arm still going fast.
Frame 8:
Move the skateboard a little bit forward to show that you're giving it power while pushing, move the back foot backwards a little, bend down and forward again.
Frame 9:
He's pushing hard now, the skateboard is going more forward. Keep the arms going with the flow, and remember to make the stick follow the moving board.
Frame 10:
Straighten out the back foot, lean more forward and down with the body and keep the arms flowing.
Frame 11:
Make the back leg go up while bending it, go more forward, not down. As said, keep the arms following the flow, and remember to move every back joint, in every frame.
Frame 12:
Ease now, he's preparing to go backwards with the whole body, and make the back leg go a bit towards the board.
Frame 13:
Going upwards and backwards here, the back leg is preparing to land on the board again. Keep the arms flowing, and move back joints.
Frame 14:
He landed with the back leg, he's now on the board again. The arms keep going with the flow, and he's still going backwards.
Frame 15:
Going more backwards, easing the back leg, arms going with the flow, back joints moved.
Frame 16-25:
Just ease into the position you want.
This push isn't very powerful, so to do powerful push just make him push stronger, make it look like he's pushing with all his might. Pushing is a hard thing to do, it's harder than a lot of other things within skating in pivot.
Ollie!
The ollie is the trick you will need the most of all, it's the way to get up in the air! The ollie is so essential that it can't even be categorized as a trick.
To do an ollie you need to press the tail down to the ground while jumping, which leads to that the board pops in the air with you above it, then you use your front foot to level the board out in mid air, it should look like this:
.Piv
Frame 1:
The stick is positioned with the front foot a little more to the middle.
Frame 2:
The stick slowly begins to crouch, bending the legs and back joints. As previously, just keep the arms going with the flow.
Frame 3:
The stick crouches more now, just follow frame 2, except speed it a little more.
Frame 4:
Same as frame 3, but speed down now.
Frame 5:
Follow frame 2, he doesn't move much now.
Frame 6:
The stick is barely moving, just for easing.
Frame 7:
Start to rise again, and start to push down on the tail, lifting the nose.
Frame 8:
He's in the air now, straighten out the back leg, straighten out the foot of the front leg and prepare it for sliding up. Lift the arms to avoid it crashing into the legs in mid air.
Frame 9:
Just go upwards with physics, slide the front foot, bend the back foot, level the board out a little, arm goes with the flow.
Frame 10:
Same as frame 9.
Frame 11:
Same as frame 10, he's at the gravity point here.
Frame 12:
He's starting to drop, straighten out the front leg a little.
Frame 13:
Drop more, and straighten it out a LITTLE bit more, also with the back leg.
Frame 14:
Landed with the front wheel, successful board leveling. Bend the front leg back a little bit.
Frame 15:
Make the board stay straight and normal on the ground, and crouch for a proper reaction to the landing. Remember to make the ass go to the south west of your screen, and keep the body going straight down, not south west with the ass. This way the front foot won't look ****ed.
Frame 16:
Ease the landing reaction more, arms are always going with the flow.
Frame 17:
Just keep on easing the landing.
Frame 18-30:
Again just ease into the position you want.
So that's how you do an ollie, let's get going with the tricks now!
Tricks!!
Kickflip!
A kickflip is a trick where you do an ollie, then kick the left side of the board, so it spins around. If you're doing a kickflip, I'd suggest using Smashdood's pack, since Jon's only contains enough for a 4 framed flip, which is a bit too fast if you're doing a smooth kickflip. You can use Jon's pack if you're doing a quick flip and catching it in midair like this:
I wont do frame to frame description here.
.Piv
As you see it doesn't look very good, and to do that you require a pretty high ollie, so if you want a normal kickflip on the ground without jumping too high, use Smashdood's pack which will result in this:
.Piv
That is much more clean, and works better. As you see here, you watch from the right for the stickman, which means that you flip it in the other way. I discovered that when I felt that the kickflip spun in the wrong direction, and saw that he was in a great position of heelflipping when I was going to kickflip. Here is the frame to frame description of the kickflip.
Frame 1-5:
Crouch just like in a regular ollie.
Frame 6:
Make the tail of the skateboard hit the ground, start raising the body, going into a jump and get the front foot in a sliding position.
Frame 7:
Using the SBbottom stick here, also used a fill to show that the back foot is behind the skateboard. Straighten out and lift the arms like in the ollie. Also make a kick with the front foot, in skating terms that's called 'flicking' the skateboard. Also straighten the back foot out as you've jumped. The skateboard is going a tiny bit more horizontal than the last frame.
Frame 8:
Using the SBbottom30 stick here, also used a fill to show that the back foot is behind the skateboard. Continue moving the upper body like you did an ollie. Back foot is starting to go a little backwards, preparing to land on the skateboard again. Front foot is easing the kick like you did a normal kick. Remember keep the physics decent. Now the skateboard is going more vertical than the last frame.
Frame 9:
Switch to SBtop30 here, no fills. Keep using the upper body as you were doing an ollie, also keep using decent physics. Back foot more backwards, front foot starting to move downwards a little. The skateboard is soon vertical.
Frame 10:
Switch to SBtop here, no fills. Keep using the upper body as you were doing an ollie, also keep using decent physics. Back foot is moving towards the board, but the joint most out on the leg is still going backwards. Front foot is going down. The board is now vertical.
Frame 11:
Switch to SBside here, no fills (duh). Keep using the upper body as you were doing an ollie, also keep using decent physics. Landed! Quickly draw the back foot onto the board, and also land with the front foot. The board is a little bit past vertical.
Frame 12-24:
Just land it using physics, go for a proper reaction also using physics, then ease to the position you'd like.
Wait patiently for more tricks in the future.
Click the animation below for the .Piv to study it, remember that it was before I realized we watched from the right, so it always flip the wrong directions.
©Copyright by Phoenix, do not steal.
Last edited by Chrozon on Mon Jun 04, 2007 8:12 pm, edited 4 times in total.
well this totally owned my crappy tut lol. Nice job with it. Defientlely master list worthy. Well it will be good to see some tricks later on in the future. But so far it looks really good!
