Video essay breakdown - How to Animate a Smash Bros Character (Patreon)

Something I like to do, every now and again, is take a really close look at other people’s video essays. I think it’s important to look at what your peers are doing, and see what you can borrow from their approach and techniques.

It’s not stealing, it’s just… sneaky learning.

I recently watched the new video from Daniel Floyd. He was the co-creator and (squeaky voiced) host of Extra Credits, but has since started up his own channel called New Frame Plus, where he looks at video game animation. 

Dan’s style is actually quite similar to mine, which is probably why I enjoyed his video, How to Animate a Smash Bros Character, so much. I was instantly taken in by it and before I even realised it, the 13 minute video was over.

While I already use many of the techniques Dan employs, I can definitely refine my style by seeing how Dan does things differently, or better.

So let’s break it down.

Content

Dan’s video is about how Smash Bros has to translate the animation of well known video game characters, to meet the needs of a fast-paced, 2.5D fighting game. And, as the thumbnail suggests, he’s going to show us how this works by looking at the animation of Mario, in the most recent Smash Bros game (for Wii U).

Dan starts by asking a question. “How does a character’s animation get translated to Smash Bros?”. It’s even written on the screen so you can’t miss it. And now we know that the rest of the video will serve to give an answer to that question.

We then move onto a section where Dan explains what the animators need to do. They need to make the character fit a fighting game. And they need to keep the essence of that character alive. 

With rules established, Dan then sees if Mario meets this criteria. He goes in reverse order, first looking at whether Smash captures Mario’s essence, and then looking at then how that’s translated to a fighting game. 

This isn’t just a love letter though: as Dan then moves onto critiques, noting that Smash doesn’t make a big deal of Mario’s jump. And then he gets in front of the “Uhm, actually!” commenters by providing some devil’s advocate remarks against his own point. 

He then finishes off by looking at how Mario will grow in Smash Bros Ultimate, and wraps up the video. 

This is a really clear and concise video. It’s really hard to miss Dan’s point: that Smash needs characters to retain their unique characteristics, but subtly change to fit a fighting game. 

And he ultimately says it twice: once as an intro, and then again with Mario as an example. But it doesn’t sound repetitive - it just sounds like Dan is really emphasising his point, and using examples to back up his thesis. 

From the script alone, this is a tight and robust video. And it’s genuinely interesting - things like how Mario’s basic move in Smash fits his Super Mario 64 attack, but has been changed to fit the needs of Smash, is a really well observed point.

But, for me, it’s the presentation that really seals the deal. 

Presentation

Dans video can be split into these sections

• Intro
• Needs of a fighting game
• Needs of a cameo game
• Does Mario meet those needs?
• Yes! And here’s how
• A criticism
• Devil’s advocate to that criticism
• Future of Smash
• Wrap up

And each section has its own musical track, which fits the topic at hand - and also tells the viewer that it’s time to shift into a new point. Like a paragraph break, or a new chapter in a book. 

The intro has the iconic Smash Bros theme music. Personally I’d shy away from using this as it’s very loud, bombastic, and fast which can drown out the speaker’s voice and make the video seem hurried. But here it really grabs your attention and gets the ball rolling. 

This might fit Dan’s peppy American accent better than my slow, teacherly British voice… but I could experiment with something like this. 

Next, Dan’s in full explainer mode so he uses music from the Smash menu. Menu and tutorial music is great for this stuff as, in a game, it’s a subtle bed when you’re trying to read or take things in. So it works great for this purpose. 

We then shift to Mario music. It’s still from Smash, but the focus is on Mario now. There’s one song when Dan introduces this section (Does Mario meet these needs?), and then a bombastic tune, that really fits the positive response (Yes! And here’s how). 

We change to different Mario music for the criticism portion, but then Smash music for the Devil’s Advocate section, because this is more about the needs and history of Smash. 

We get Mario Odyssey music for the future of Smash, as Dan is talking about Cappy. And then a final song for the wrap-up - it’s actually Steam Gardens from Odyssey, but it’s a remix so it just sounds like some original music. 

I often struggle with music in my videos. It’s really hard to find good stuff, and it’s the thing I do last. But I do try to make the music shift when I change to a new point. Dan’s video will give me the courage to try musical tracks I might normally skip over, though.

As for visuals, Dan’s got some great stuff in here. He doesn’t just use straight-up video capture from games, but also uses things like trailers, intros, and cutscenes. 

He also zooms in on 4:3 games, like Duck Hunt, to get around the issue of ugly black bars. And zooms in on other games to remove their distracting HUD. 

Finally, he uses footage from the Smash Bros training mode to highlight specific things against a simple background

Overall

This is a great video. It’s clear, concise, and well presented. It’s not too showy or distracting - the presentation is just right to keep the video entertaining while not taking away from its informative nature. If all video essays on YouTube were as tight as Dan’s, the site would be a treasure trove. 

If you've watched a particularly great video essay, lemme know and I'll try and break it down in the future.