How to Animate Game Explosions || VGAS
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2018
- Explosions are in so many video games, but how are they animated?
Let's have a look, and see if we can use it as inspiration to animate our own!
Music:
00:02 - Sunfire Forest - Funk Fiction
01:00 - Wacky Workbench Present (US) - Sonic CD
02:40 - Super Sonic - H.W.A
04:04 - Intro Stage - Mega Man 8
04:40 - Gandrayda Battle - Metroid Prime 3
05:17 - Bonus Area 1 - Celeste
05:56 - Cloud World - New Super Mario Bros U
07:09 - Main Overworld Theme - Super Mario Flashback
08:25 - Lanayru Desert Present - Skyward Sword
09:38 - Sonic Mania Intro Alternate - Tee Lopes
10:14 - Strange Sunset - Street Fighter 3
11:11 - Character Select - Street Fighter 3
13:04 - Main Menu - Star Fox 64
14:35 - Sunfire Forest - Funk Fiction
#ExplosionAnimation - Ігри
*2D Explosions*
2:40 - Sonic the Hedgehog
3:15 - Sonic Mania
4:09 - Megaman 8/X/X4
4:43 - Metal Plug
5:19 - some arcade shooter (I couldn't hear the name)
5:47 - Sparkster
5:56 - Strider 2
6:27 - Alien Hominet
7:09 - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
7:44 - Bomb Chicken
*3D Explosions*
8:27 - The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
8:56 - Grand Theft Auto 5
9:39 - Just Cause 3
10:05 - Star Wars Battlefront
10:15 - Starfox 64
10:36 - Starfox Zero
11:04 - Starwing
11:12 - Super Mario 3D World
11:39 - Super Mario Odyssey
12:17 - Explosion theory
Metal Slug is a masterpiece work of animation and pixel art in general. Just a single explosion has a ton of details and frames. It's an insane amount of work.
Leave it to Dan to make a fantastic video about just explosions - if I tried to do that, it would blow up in my face haha
Thanks for the shoutout at the end, man! It means a lot 👍
Haha, great pun! I'm a big fan of puns, especially being a Dad to two daughters.
And no problem my god man! Hope it pushes some attention your way.
Do moonlightet
@@stayskeptic3923 "I never realized suchandsuch until he talked about"
That's the way to write it so you don't repeat the same words and it gets your message across better.
U just need to draw a pizza and add some fade out, Mighty N9 showed us that.
Ha! I'm supposed I forgot to slow MN9 and how *not* to do explosions!
Ha, no it's not
As a vfx artist. Its wonderful to see an episode devoted to explosions! a lot of games use the spikes as a replacement for motion blur, conveying the speed and explosive power of the explosion. you also notice that some of the explosions that felt a bit more punchy or bouncy usually use the "medium -> small -> big" concept. having a moment where the explosion is drawn a bit smaller then it starts, and then explosively releasing into its largest shape. BotW would be my go to for stylized explosions (beautiful shapes while still feeling like the underlying physics are solid), and Uncharted 4 for realistic explosions (the fact that they where able to get the light to react so nicely with their smoke make them feel super nice). As always great video. can we hope to see more effects videos from you?
Thanks so much for the feedback!
Yeah, is like to do more effects videos, it'll definitely be in the cards!
I came here for the same reason!! I needed to know what was wrong with my explosions because it felt off and really fake lol
Freaking, THANK YOU
Out of all of the tutorials I searched up, this one is the one that I was looking for
_+1 Subscriber_
_+1 Like_
Hey, thanks so much! I've got a new video out in the next few days, so keep an eye out! 😃
Fantastic video. You should do a video about Metal Slug animations, because they look super amazing and ahead of its time.
Thanks. Yes, I'd love to one day!
When he showed the explosions from Bomb Chicken, I actually said "Nice!"
They look gorgeous.
"Explosion is art!" - Blast Man, Mega Man 11
Something as small as explosion is given so much care and detail, I rarely notice it.
Great video!
Hey thanks a lot! I love explosions!
Where has this channel been all my life? Of all the unnecessary recommendations youtube spams me with regarding animation, I had to manually search for this kind of video. Great vid
Ah man, I'm sorry it wasn't more accessible, but I'm glad it helped!
Really cool and informative video. Explosions are extremely important and can totally change how a game looks/feels. I think the coolest explosions were made by Treasure Games back in the days and in a different style, I love the mix of brutal explosions and hardcore screenshakes in Luftrausers, this game is insane !
I kept hearing the 3rd Strike Main Theme, but couldn't convince myself it was it, until the "Chose the best one" came to my face XD
3:00
Looking at the sprites, I'm kind of convinced that they just palette swapped the colors to make the explosion slightly different... While saving memory...
Yeah very probably actually. I mean it works, so the effect was successful.
I never noticed this, even when watching the video and seeing the individual frames of both explosions.
So the effect was successful. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I may not be an animator myself, but I have a lot of respect for the artform, and I love a good editorial that helps me apreciate it more, brilliant video mate.
Hey thanks so much!
Dan Root By all means, thank you :)
Also speaking of Just Cause 3 and explosions, I have two questions:
1.Who remembers the nuke bazookas explosions
2. Who remembers getting out of a car moving so slowly he practically walks out for the car and then it barely touches a wall and goes BOOM
The *day* I began working on explosion effects for my game, you uploaded this. *THANK YOU DAN!!*
No way?! That's crazy!
I hope it helps!
I mostly like the look of your example explosion. I feel like it would look better if the particles stayed together just a bit longer. The debris spread out a bit too quickly (it was near instant and felt like it lacked a bit of impact)
Thanks for the feedback! Yeah it was a fairly quick example, but explosions are versatile and your additions would indeed look very cool as well!
Something I think is really cool about this video is how you've shown the process of skill acquisition in general - a beautiful path from analysing previous examples, questioning their function, and then putting it into action for yourself. Nicely done.
Hey thanks so much!
I find it's one of the best ways to learn, following examples. Thanks for your continued support!
Anthem has some absolutely fantastic explosions... So good in fact they get in the way of gameplay a whole lot.
Awesome, I haven't played it yet, I'll have to look up some footage
I can feel the love you put in every video! And this time you even animated something yourself! Please keep doing that!
Thanks so much! Yeah, I thought I'd practice a little of what I preach, and show that I do know what I'm talking about, haha.
You never fail to deliver quality Dan.
Thank you Tay!
Surprised you forgot the best videogame explosions ever created: *Mighty No. 9's pizza clouds*
Yeahhh, I should have mentioned them as how not to handle them.
It's clear a fair amount of love goes into each of your videos. It's eye-opening to see the perspective from someone who is passionate about his craft. Keep up the good work.
Hey, thank you so much for the kind words! I know, I watch Adam Neely, and even though I don't know anything about music production, hearing him talk about it so passionately makes me feel like I do!
Fantastic video! Well researched, slickly edited, and highly informative. This needs so many more views!
Hey, thank you so much!
Please feel free to share around 😃
I just wanted to say thank you for making this. I've been working on an explosion mod for months (I work slowly...) and this video has really helped me visualise exactly what I wanted to do and approach the effects in a more "professional" way. I've kept this video in the back of my mind the whole time and the explosions have turned out so much better because of it.
Thank you! :)
Hey, I'm glad the video has helped! Good luck with the mod!
I can't help but be reminded of Look Around You when you say 'explosions' at the start! Another quality video Dan- digging the detail!
Ha! I'm glad someone got it!
And thanks bro
the frame-by-frame and variety of examples is much appreciated, my game's explosions have been lacking a lot so there's much to fix
I'm glad it's helped, and thanks for watching!
I really like how in depth all of these explosions are analysed. But what do I expect from this channel. Great video and music involved dan. You've made my day! You could say the video has exploded in my popularity!
😂
Haha, thanks Tattier! Glad you enjoyed it!
I once saw a clod moving in that swirl like pattern for real, and i was shocked because i always thought the swirls were just cartoon stylization.
I just love those explotions that roll upwards
They're pretty good!
90s explosions really hit different
Just learning to animate explosions and your vid is very helpful. Great job, thank you.
I love that practical example at the end as well as your framework of the velocity and resistance model. That sort of stuff makes me love watching videos about game creation even though I have absolutely no talent for art. I really appreciate this stuff and it was a fantastic introduction to the basics of less tangible animation in games. Not character movement, but particles.
Hey thanks for watching, I'm glad if could help!
It's very clever how you interchangeably substituted the explosions between games to demonstrate their effectiveness, very clever and fascinating!
Your attempt at an explosion was also really cool.
Also, I'm so happy you talked about a Nitrome game (Bomb Chicken)! That studio made my childhood with their browser games, and seeing them being appreciated for their work by a talented professional is too awesome!
Hey, thanks so much for your support, I'm glad you find this video entertaining!
Yeah, Nitrome are seriously underrated!
That was actually awesome and helpful!
I was always very fond of the Metal Slug explosions. That ball of white hot fire in the beginning always shows the incredible „impact“ the explosion has. And Metal Slug 3 is generally the pinnacle of hand drawn 2d pixel animation, which deserves its own episode.
I've been thinking of how to structure a good Metal Slug episode, there's lots to cover.
Both this and your run cycles videos have been very interesting and I thank you. I still can’t draw tho.. lol
Thanks very much! Haha, keep trying, you'll get there
I know absolutely nothing about visual design and can't make visual art for beans, but I find these videos so fascinating
I've watched a few of your vids. Overall they are very good. The duration is about right, not long winded, 15 mins is a good target. Really good to see the lets try building an explosion bit at the end, would be great to see more of this at the end of other vids where possible.
Hey thanks for the feedback!
Yeah I like the idea of that, I did s little version of this in both the Parallax video and Metal Slug video. It depends how complicated it is to do.
This video is so well researched and edited. Incredible learning tool.
Hey thank you so much!
Some of the best content on UA-cam. Keep it up dude!
Thank you!
Really great dissection of explosion animations in games, I typically don't even notice them when playing besides boss explosions.
Some that have always stuck out to me in a good way because of the level of detail or just being stylish and over the top, specifically:
Mischeif makers main boss character explosions
Raiden II and Garegga enemy explosions, both of these use the same technique, everything produces debris which falls below and the explosion effects are somewhat randomised.
Ranger X has some great ones
Metal black boss explosion, this one is unlike anything else.
Ikaruga boss explosion, this one started a trend in these kinds of game, massive explosion slowed down for emphasis.
Thanks for suggesting those, looking forward to checking them out!
I'm a young animator from RISD and I love these videos. Very interesting analysis, always insightful and fantastic production. Keep it up!
Hey thanks so much! I'm not familiar with RISD?
Ohh you always make some grade S videos Dan. I mean only you could talk about something as simple as an explosion and make it sound interesting, like Bob Ross and his joy of painting show back in the day. Oh and about the last part of your video I would definitely watch you stream your interpretation of animation and show us the process of it. I do understand if that's not something you would like to do right now Dan.
Ahhh thanks so much for the kind words Hyper! I'd like to do more streaming, but it'll have to be in future when I have more time!
Dan Root no rush Dan, we have all the time in the world to do stuff like that and it doesn't have to be something that you do all the time, it could be something that you do once every two weeks or once a month like your regular upload schedule. Like I said before I'm in no rush for you to do this Dan.
Downwell has some awesome explosions
That it does!
This was great man, keep making more videos. 👍🏼
Thank you!
Your voice is so soothing, I love it.
Hey thanks so much!
Great vid. I draw a lot and I specially love drawing explosions and SPIKES are so much fun and definitely add a lot of strenght to the explosion
That's awesome! I need to draw more explosions
at 11:11 when i heard that record scratch i immediately knew what was coming and started jammin through the whole mario segment.
absolutely stellar video otherwise. love the study on the X explosions, just cause and metal slug were my favorite explosions
Hey thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Far Cry 2 had some superb explosions. Especially if you blew up a car next to a tree - leaves, branches and car parts all over the place 🙂
Great in-depth analysis on such an awesome part of games! Another masterpiece by Dan!
Great video! =)
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah! Never knew explosions were something that is important to graphic design until I saw this video.
Also, I remember when you were at 6k subscribers. And now, you have 34k! Keep up the great work
and I'm cheering you on for the 50k road! =)
Nahw, thanks so much! I remember you bring there back then as well!
No problem! I stick around with the UA-camrs who make quality content each time! I can't wait for the
next video! =)
Dan Root I wanted to say thank you. I'm a beginning animator and your videos honestly teach me so much about animating and it helps me so much.
Ahw that's so good to hear, I'm glad!
Amazing analysis, as usual. Great job, Dan! It really saddens me that your channel has so little views and subscribers. Your content is top notch.
Hey thanks a lot!
Yeah, I know, it's a shame. I've noticed it a lot more recent, even big channels are beginning to suffer from UA-cam's dead algorithm.
Thanks for the help, I'm making a game right now so this was really helpful :)
I love the explosion effects from the wind waker!!
god i love when you upload
Haha, thanks 😎
I'll be real - when SF3 kicked in, it threw me off so hard, I legitimately stopped listening to your words for a second. (Of course I rewound that bit, there's no way I'm gonna miss what you're saying.) That soundtrack is the best, I swear. Great choice of music, on your part.
When it comes to explosions... I don't really think about them that much, but I DO appreciate a good boom. I'll definitely pay more attention to them after this video, though.
I don't have a favourite one (easy answer would be anything Metal Slug, especially grenades; I like when the explosion is sort of rising up), but I always think about Sunset Overdrive's. I distinctly remember some of them having onomatopoeias in the smoke and such, at least in the E3 presentations. The explosions themself are kinda gooey, more like a gel than smoke, so it's whatever, but those words always stood out to me. I don't know if it was preserved in the final build, but I really hope it was.
If I ever make a game, I'm definitely stealing it.
Hey thanks for the kind words!
Never actually played Sunset Overdrive, so I'll have to check it out!
Well, I've never played SO myself either, actually. It's an Xbox One exclusive, unfortunately. But the game looks really fun and does a lot of things to maintain its wacky, cartoony tone. I followed it really closely around the release.
Either way - keep up the great work! Hope we'll some more videos on effects from you. I really liked that at the end you made your own explosion, it was a nice wrap-up. And the effect itself was pretty nice, too!
Duuuuude! Stunning work on this video!!!! Wooooooooow!!!!!! I'm still super surprised you don't have more than 500K subs. :(
Thanks man! I'm sure I'll get there in no time, haha
this channel is growing so fast
I have always been a fan of the Star Fox 64 explosions (you get many different kinds of explosions in that game, with the two most common ones being atmospheric explosions with the bright yellow, orange, and red colors (which signify combustion by chemical reaction with oxygen in the air), and space explosions (where the colors are faded, with orange and purple being dominate, signifying the limited supply of combustible materials which more quickly fade out). The reason for their design appears to be that they're a 2D sprite with a blending filter and alpha transparency applied to them to create their smoother color gradients and quick fade out. Being a 3D on-rails shooter running on the limited hardware of the N64, with an emphasis on keeping a consistently high frame rate during gameplay; simple, quick, and easy-to-render explosions work best. But since they are 2D sprites, there is a solidity to them which many other explosions in other games lack.
The best explosions in the game of course are the the boss death explosions. They're the only ones which are 3 dimensional, being portrayed as a giant spherical fireball with an actual fire texture that fades from being a a brilliant white flash to brilliant orange and then fade to textured fires.
Interesting stuff!
Excellent video, subscribed. Thank you very much.
Thank you!
Your voice is so smooth and soft, i want you to tell me a bedtime story about video game animation
Haha, well in the mean time why don't you check out Video Game Story Time, they're a great channel!
Your videos are of extremely great quality
I love the videos
Hey thank you so much!
never have explosions felt so calm
😋
Amazing content quality
hello, thanks for your vids, this is really informative
And then there is Mighty No. 9 with its pizza explosions.
My favourite explosion is from a recent game. Breath of the Wild. I really like the clear outline it has. High velocity, high resistance. Really snappy.
Ehgh, we don't talk about MN9.
And yes, BotW has beautiful explosions.
Oh I think this will be a help. Between breaking down the blasts into a handful of modular concepts, having lots of examples of blasts to look at across a variety of styles, the crescent trick, and the demonstration at the end of the power of kit bashing particle effects, it's not exhaustive, but it's an excellent jumping-off point for someone who was previously feeling pretty overwhelmed by the complexity of explosions (err... me).
I think one of my favorite explosions in games, and it's a bit of an odd one, is the "nitro eruptor's" blast from Ratchet and Clank 3. As I recall (I used an in-game time-stop method to see it piece by piece once, but that was years ago), it starts off with an initial flashbang, which then contracts and is replaced with a small whirlwind-like vortex of spinning particles, which then expands and is overtaken by the main blast, which had plenty of debris and spikes in it. Including stuff outside of games, I'd probably go with Akira's explosions. The plumes of fire, raw and bright core fireball, and billowing smoke is just very, very "organic" looking.
Hey thanks for checking this out, and thanks for the feedback!
third strike video needs to come up. Greatest video game animation ever (or at least in the top for sure). You seem to secretly love that game too, considering the music choice's in this video aswell ;)
Oh yes, I've done a video on 2D fighting games which you should check out, I cover a little bit in that!
Nice explosion dude. I have problem processing explosion in how they're animated and illustrated.
Cool, this was submitted on my birthday.
Happy birthday for back then!
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy Thank you very much :D
Ayyy, lovin’ that spark the electric jester music i. The background. Such an underrated ost and game
It's such a happy ost
It'd probably be redundant to talk about, but I wished you also talked about the explosions in any of the Battlefield games.
I really like the explosions in Half-life 1 and 2.
1 because of how long it lingers and the old 90's pc noises it makes.
2 because it's a quick flash and that noise it makes is really satisfying.
Also, wonderful work as always!
Thanks!
Yeah if I could have talked about all the explosions I'd wanted, the video would be about two hours long, haha. Half Life's good!
Nice voice. Glad I found this channel.
Hey thanks a lot!
i also want to mention the power bomb explosions from metroid fusion. there's no embers or spikes, but it expands almost instantly and there is almost a vortex after the main thing that closes in on you. no other power bomb is like this making this one standalone IMO.
Isn't Zero Mission's like this as well? But point made!
I needed those frames to make an animation, so ty
I enjoy your content so much, gotta go now an make some explosions myself (in a program for a game of course)
Thank you! Good luck making your explosion!
Dan Root I also appreciate.a lot that you take your time to respond to most of your comments!
It's a small gesture that means a lot, I know I appreciate it when a content creator replies to me, if I make a worthwhile contribution.
megumin is happy
Gosh, it made me want to learn even futher about visual fx :O
Take a shot everytime Dan says explosion.
Btw great video Dan!
😎 Hey thanks! Have fun getting drunk!
Me being someone who wants to learn animation, I thank you.
You're quite welcome
A good visual KABOOM is something to behold.
It's so surreal to hear someone call Starfox 64 Lylat Wars because I rarely hear that among UA-camrs I watch.
Good video, nice example at the end. Funny how you can take something as chaotic as an explosion and make it into a 15 minute long video that is more chill.
Hey thanks so much. Yeah, I don't often hear that much either, only among friends when talking.
Favorite explosions (and fire in general) would have to be the Mad Max game. The over-saturation of red is what sells it for me.
Ahhhh yeah those were cool!
This was an amazing video, but quite frankly... seeing the BOTW sections made me wanna play that now. *sigh* Thanks for making me want to play multiple games now, Dan XD
Haha, thanks a lot!
I was about to comment that the explosions in R-Type also work within the game rules by being directional (The damage will always be going from left to right as that is the direction you fire, so the explosion will 'travel' in that direction too.) but then you mentioned it, kinda.
Yeah that's a good observation, it would have been good if I'd have bright that back up again.
This is quality youtube content
Thank you!
i like the bombs from okami where it is so stylized for a fireworks, it is majestic
Ahhh man, yeah Okami had beautiful ones!
I feel like this video could have included different types of explosions that serve different purposes in different contexts. Such as the explosion of light when collecting a coin/collectable (like in mario) or explosive effects when hitting an enemy (like in smash bros). But still a great video.
Hey thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, I could have included lots of explosions, but to be honest the video probably would have been 2 hours long, and I only get to work on these visits maybe 5 hours a week.
I'm glad you enjoyed it otherwise!
I support this video because of the word explosions! Explosions are life... next to laser beams! :D
One big aspect of explosions in my opinion is that they are not translucid. 3D games made fire and explosion effects translucid for a long time and it just looks wrong. An explosion needs to look thick and dense. Like the Windwaker ones, I also love those explosion effects.
Yeah that's right. The Starfox Zero one did that fade out thing too, and that just looks lazy.
Hey, rad video!
Hey, thanks a lot!
Dan Root
You’re welcome!
Thanks man..
Breath of the wild has the most impactful and fun explosions I have ever seen in a video game
Yeah, BotW has some really great effects animations, explosions especially.
Dude u r killing it.make a different type of animations in gaming. I wanna learn or u made it already. If u dont,do one man. Ur humble subscriber.
Hey thanks! Yes, I believe I'll do more things like this!
Thanks for the reply,most dont do that!
I try to reply where I can!
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy nice man.
7:10 Amogus
Jokes aside, im falling in love with your content! how didnt i find ya earlier!?! great stuff!
Thank you!
I never imagined that there could be so much to look at when analysing something as common as explosions!
Dan, do you think you'll take a look at the animation and art of Hollow Knight? I would love to hear your thoughts and analysis on its hand-drawn style.
Hey thanks!
Yeah, Hollow Knight is on the cards, I just need to find the time to play the game more to get more footage to study.
How did you manage to do a 15 minute video on explosions in videogames without even mentioning Bomberman? XD Really iconic explosions in that franchise.
Great video as always - Definitely with you on Windwaker having some really nice explosions, same with Alien Hominid. Might be fun to see a follow up video for the non-explosion attempts at giving the same feedback in games, such as how the super Mario games have various death animations for enemies depending on how you defeat them (e.g goombas going squish underfoot) or the enemies in Crash fly off into the distance when you spin attack them.
I knowwww, I should've done Bomberman!
And yeah, that sounds like an interesting idea!
My favorite explosion is your subscriber count.
Besiege has some awesome explotions
Ah yes, those are nice!