Animation

[encomium]

1) How many people do you have working on the animations for this 1st release?

 

2) Approx how many animations are there (on average) for an NPC and/or Guard character?

 

also, I was wondering how come the News hasn't been updated in a month. Do you guys all work on this consistantly, or is it sorta up and down? Must be pretty hard with full time work on the go as well as keeping up with this project.

 

Are you all interested in a job in the industry, or is this just hobby for some? I'm asking because for me, after a day at the office, pure problem solving, and melting my brain doing t.d. work, i find it hard to sit down at home and work in Maya. I'd much rather game, or go outside especially now that spring is here (I'm from Toronto)

 

*jus curious...

[oDDity]

HA, think about poor old me. I've 50 or so charcaters to do yet :/

I'm just a self taught noob really, I started CGing almost 3 years ago now. I wouldn't mind getting paid for this work, but it would mean relocating far, far away from home.

I've been doing all the animations so far, but we do have a real animator now.

Animations will run into the hundreds. We'll be doing a lot of ambeint and mood animations as well as the plain old expected ones.

[encomium]

Dude, you realize that's flipping impossible for just you and one other guy to do right? bahahahaha. Let me know if you need some help man.

 

ALso -- i've asked this question sorta indirectly a FEW times now. Maybe you can clarify.... CAN I USE MAYA to model / UV map / Texture / ANimate, and then export from there into whatever editor you are using?

 

If so -- Please give me resource links, and/or a brief explanation of the pipeline you are using.

[Springheel]

Dude, you realize that's flipping impossible for just you and one other guy to do right?

 

 

Don't be so sure...Oddity can do a character in a couple days when he wants to.

 

Hey, fellow Torontonian, huh? I think that makes four of us here.

[oDDity]

There's no big secret or method for making doom models, just your usual triangulated meshes weighted to bones. You can do it all in Maya if you wish, some one of our members does, but I think poly modeling in Maya is 3rd rate.

I use lightwave for modeling and UV mapping, Deep Paint 3d and photoshop for texturing and maya and motionbuilder for animatiing.

id have written an exporter for maya (it's not a maya plugin, it's a dll and you have to run it with a console command in the doom editor)

I have written a tutorial here, you'll be able to see it if you're thinking of joining.

I intend to get at least one character a week in-game from now on so, doing 50 will not be a problem. Hopefully I won't have to do them all myself)

THe sooner we get them done the sooner we can release, but since we're looking at 9 month to a year before that release, it should all work out fine.

[Ishtvan]

Someone probably said this already, but if you think you have time to help us with animating, then by all means, send mail to:

 

recruiting@thedarkmod.com

 

And include some links to samples of your work if possible.

[encomium]

Don't be so sure...Oddity can do a character in a couple days when he wants to.

 

Hey, fellow Torontonian, huh? I think that makes four of us here.

Yuuup. Good ol' T.O.

 

I wasn't refering to the modelling actually. I know that can be done in a day or two, but to do all those animations is a diff story all together. I think the animation could REALLY help make this MOD stand out from the rest. There are soo many MODS out there that have absolute crap animation... and it' ruins everything. Making sure the animation is as solid as the rest of the game elements is really important.

 

I dont' know if you've heard of this but there is something called "The Uncanny Valley" theory, which basically explains how some animation, while aiming for a realistic look, but falling short of it can cause an uneasy feeling for viewers or in this case 'gamers'. Usually, (a Producer would hope) if the animation is really shotty, the gameplay and sound will make up for the player's experience, and distract them from the horrible animation/movements. You can imagine though how much it would add if the animation were there to begin with. It's going to add a lot to the game, and attract more people from the get go if you spend the time required to make it nice for the release. Quality over quantity, obviously.

 

I know, I know, you are just working towards the very 1st release, and not everything is gonna be perfect to start with. But you guys seem like a really talented and committed group, so i'm just basically rambling in hopes you will take stuff like this into consideration.

 

Here's the link for "The Uncanny Valley (translated from Japanese)" theory, in case any of you are interested.

 

http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/archives/20...ncanny_val.html

[encomium]

Oh, another thing I was wondering.

 

I am assuming that you will be making use of Normal Mapping, is that correct Oddity?

 

Wierd shadow on the in game render of the woman at the ground near her skirt.

[sparhawk]

1)  How many people do you have working on the animations for this 1st release?

 

Never enough, considerin the amount of work still has to be done.

 

also, I was wondering how come the News hasn't been updated in a month.  Do you guys all work on this consistantly, or is it sorta up and down?  Must be pretty hard with full time work on the go as well as keeping up with this project.

 

We are working each day on the mod, but there are not always news worth mentioning as some tasks take longer and we also don't want to put out ever single screenshot that we creat. There should be something for you to see that you dont know when you have the final game in hands.

 

Are you all interested in a job in the industry, or is this just hobby for some?

 

I'm already working as a full time programmer nad project manager. As such I don't have high ambition to get into gaming industry. Of course if the money is right, why not?

 

I'm asking because for me, after a day at the office, pure problem solving, and melting my brain doing t.d. work, i find it hard to sit down at home and work in Maya.  I'd much rather game, or go outside especially now that spring is here (I'm from Toronto)

 

Depends in which mood I am. I often enjoy doing the same stuff at home that I do at work. Of course on different problems though. But I also like to play games and I guess it is the same for most of us.

[oDDity]

I wasn't refering to the modelling actually. I know that can be done in a day or two, but to do all those animations is a diff story all together. I think the animation could REALLY help make this MOD stand out from the rest. There are soo many MODS out there that have absolute crap animation... and it' ruins everything. Making sure the animation is as solid as the rest of the game elements is really important.

WEll, we have a guy called undertow signed up to do the animating, and he's very good.

However getting the animations done in time is not a problem, any decent animator could do an animation in a few hours, which means 10-12 per week. That means they could all be done in 3 months. Remeber indidvidual game animations tend to be very short, a few seconds at most.

The 50 characters on the other hand (and that figure will probably go up to 70 + extra heads to swap around the models) will take at least a year.

YEs, I am using normal maps, and that adds extra time to the process, becasue a very detailed high res model has to be made first, then a low res copy, then the Uv mapping, then the texturing - and for doom that means a diffuse map, a height map, a normal map , a specular map, sometimes a gloss map and an alpha map as well - and then is has to be rigged and weighted.

Even for a fast worker like me that whole process takes a week, and a lot longer for most people.

[sparhawk]

Just creating a crap looking head would take several months for me.

[encomium]

Yeeeah. Getting the models created, rigged, and ready to go is quite a process. But the result looks so damn nice (ie. the posted screenshot of the noble woman).

 

Well.... good luck with the modelling man. High detail character modeling is not my strength, although I'd like to get into it a little more. I wouldn't offer my assisstance in that area. ha ha ha.

 

 

just to give everyone a small comparison in regards to animation expectations:

 

at the studio here, each animators is responisble to create 20 seconds a week.

at a studio like pixar for a project like The Incredibles, the animators (which are uber pro) are required to create 3 - 4 seconds a week.