Jump to content
XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Animation Blending


jelorol

Recommended Posts

Hi,

 

this topic is also related to the programming side, but it also impacts the definition on how to create the animations.

 

I have seen for some other games (like Half-Life) that the animations are break into several parts, so it is possible to combine them. For example, it is possible (Ogre engine supports it) to create an walking cycle animation for the legs and waist of a character, and blend it with the shotting animation of the upper half (chest, arms, head) of the model.

 

Therefore, creating different basic animations, it should be possible to create in runtime many different combinations, providing thus in the long term more flexibility.

 

This proposal, of course, only makes sense if the list of different animations is large enough to justify it!

 

Example:

 

-Legs walking

-Legs standing

-Legs running

-Body&arms holding one handed weapon

-Body&arms holding two handed weapon

-Body&arms shooting one handed weapon

-Body&arms shooting two handed weapon

 

Combinations:

 

Legs walking and body&arms holding one handed weapon

Legs standing and body&arms shooting one handed weapon

etc..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Basicly even if it is posible I dont think there is a reason why we should do that. Characters wont move and fire at the same time, that are the assumtion that justify why. However I expect to hear from Drewid on this issue, because there may be reasons justifing it on artist's simplicity to work.

 

Greetings

Red Knight

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In turn based game like this will be, all units will stop first, then shoot so I don't think we need this.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think there should be some animation blending, eg, from idle animation to hit/die/crouch/walk/turn animations so as to make things look "natural." but I don't see why we need to split up too much.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest drewid

hmm. difficult one.

For: it reduces data and also work. More flexible in fine tuning "on the fly"

Against: won't work for all animations. (eg death + two handed shooting would look daft). Might not look as good. might not work for all creatures.

 

My gut feel at this stage would be to go for the "sections" approach, though it needs to be planned carefully.

Partly because it would give us an easy handle for more code control. (This is what I mean by "on the fly")

 

Some body rotation control (say +- 20 degrees Y rotation) would also be good. so the character can aim more directly at the target.

Head movement would be good. (+- 15 degrees horizontal and vertical).

(Trooper looks at target, or looks round if panicking, Looks towards colleagues when something happens to them.)

 

So a mix of pre done animation loops, with a bit of extra from the code. with a few setpiece "all in one" chunks for major transitions like deaths.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Drew given the actual census, the more code involved is not a good tradeoff ... If it doesnt give you far lots more artistic freedom then it is a no-no at least for now.

 

Greetings

Red Knight

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...