Breaking down our Fight Scenes

Drifter Ronin · « **on:** Apr 16, 2015, 07:19 AM »

After my recent battle and some of the great crits I got, I began rummaging around the net and found this interesting article on fight choreography and its impact in comics. I just wanted to toss this up for anyone else who may be struggling with this like me, or are bored at work and want a good read.

http://sequart.org/magazine/23824/how-comics-work-the-fight-scene-part-1/

Kuro · « **Reply #1 on:** Apr 16, 2015, 07:33 AM »

I'm at work so I can't read the article, but a great comic that puts on a fuckin' clinic about fight choreography is Jazz Maynard. I think the creators are from Spain but the books are published in France. I think everyone's pretty spot on by calling it pretty Cowboy Bebop-esque, just without the whole being in space part. Probably a little hard to come by but definitely worth the effort to track down. Check out this progression right here. One of my favorite examples:

Drifter Ronin · « **Reply #2 on:** Apr 16, 2015, 08:13 AM »

I will definitely try to track this down. The scene flows so seemlessly, I find upon consideration that my comics/fights skip steps. My brain seems to want to rush to certain parts of the scene, but there are holes that as the author our brains fill in. But the reader is left with swiss cheese. I may work on some one shot practices to really focus on telling a story through combat itself.

Kuro · « **Reply #3 on:** Apr 16, 2015, 02:16 PM »

Here's another thing that came to mind. Spoiler alert- It's the final fight from the second Raid movie.

BUT, if you look, it's a side by side comparison of the two main choreographers practicing the actions of the fight in real time, & if you notice, the shots line up almost precisely as well. Basically, if you think about it, the camera's almost acting as a third guy in the fight, moving with the action, & I think it's a good way to think about how to frame & pace a fight for a story. Now, the speed & rate at just how much they're doing in this video would be crazy to try in a comic, but it's the best example I've got at the moment. Not just "he punches, the other guy spins to avoid, & straight up bootkicks him" but "as he punches, camera picks it up from over his shoulder, camera moves for bird's eye to catch the punch whiffing & show the other guy's rotation as he winds for kick, wide panel to show impact of landed bootkick" And in a comic, while actual camera moves like pans, dollies, & zooms are out, remember the shape of the frame can vary for whatever you need & also help to really push that idea of motion.