I've always been impressed with the high quality animation of SFV, not just in sheer smoothness and variety but also sometimes in it's rather extravagant and seemingly pointless detail, which is at times only implemented to add to the personality of its characters. I occasionally make gifs and share them with the SFV community, but I kinda wanted to make a thread of its own when I started playing the latest character, Zeku. I'm not an animator or an expert or anything, I just really appreciate how SFV looks and the work and care the animators put into it.
Zeku
Now here Capcom went above and beyond. Zeku strikes a totally needless pose after most attacks, and they're all different from each other. Not only that, but this character can turn into a young version of himself, which gives him entirely new attacks and again entirely different animation. Most of these poses can usually be immediately cancelled by another move before they even start so you usually never even see them.
This is the kind of stuff SFV is honestly littered with.
One of the other great things about the animation of SFV is how the moves just look they're hitting hard as a train, there's a real sense of impact. And the game does all this while being easy to read and follow at the same time.
Guile
Take Guile for instance, much of his moveset is lifted directly from the very original SF2, which means simple-looking moves. Despite not being crazy looking or anything, a palpable sense of force is behind every punch and kick. Also notice the subtle hair movement and his facial expressions, they certainly add to the impact of each attack.
Just look at the realistic feet movement in the last one.
Menat
Another character I want to highlight is Menat. Anyone who has played her know she's gorgeously animated, but one funny thing is that some of her moves go by so fast you can barely notice the work that went into them.
Here they are again at half-framerate.
Most of her moves are just pretty to look at, especially the cloth physics on her shawl and how smoothly she handles her floating crystal ball.
Camerawork
There's also some excellent camerawork when doing a few special moves. The motions are super smooth, and the cuts are timed just right. Everything is done in the most unobtrusive manner, but yet still exciting to watch. Notice the detail of how Mika almost crumples under Ken's weight in the first gif. Despite being impossible moves, everything looks just right.
And lastly just a few gifs showing how the combination of animation, special effects, hitstop and subtle camera shaking work together the provide a tangible sense of impact. Before any pros bite my head off, I some of these are not real combos. :P
You can also see some fantastic hit reactions in there, there's a lot variety there, depending on the location and direction of the hits.
Bonus gif:
Zeku
Now here Capcom went above and beyond. Zeku strikes a totally needless pose after most attacks, and they're all different from each other. Not only that, but this character can turn into a young version of himself, which gives him entirely new attacks and again entirely different animation. Most of these poses can usually be immediately cancelled by another move before they even start so you usually never even see them.
This is the kind of stuff SFV is honestly littered with.
One of the other great things about the animation of SFV is how the moves just look they're hitting hard as a train, there's a real sense of impact. And the game does all this while being easy to read and follow at the same time.
Guile
Take Guile for instance, much of his moveset is lifted directly from the very original SF2, which means simple-looking moves. Despite not being crazy looking or anything, a palpable sense of force is behind every punch and kick. Also notice the subtle hair movement and his facial expressions, they certainly add to the impact of each attack.
Just look at the realistic feet movement in the last one.
Menat
Another character I want to highlight is Menat. Anyone who has played her know she's gorgeously animated, but one funny thing is that some of her moves go by so fast you can barely notice the work that went into them.
Here they are again at half-framerate.
Most of her moves are just pretty to look at, especially the cloth physics on her shawl and how smoothly she handles her floating crystal ball.
Camerawork
There's also some excellent camerawork when doing a few special moves. The motions are super smooth, and the cuts are timed just right. Everything is done in the most unobtrusive manner, but yet still exciting to watch. Notice the detail of how Mika almost crumples under Ken's weight in the first gif. Despite being impossible moves, everything looks just right.
And lastly just a few gifs showing how the combination of animation, special effects, hitstop and subtle camera shaking work together the provide a tangible sense of impact. Before any pros bite my head off, I some of these are not real combos. :P
You can also see some fantastic hit reactions in there, there's a lot variety there, depending on the location and direction of the hits.
Bonus gif:
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