Noisycricket

Too funny...lol

Grrr, Im having nothing but problem just trying to get my model ready for animation. I keep going back and forth with a few different models. I really wanted my model to give off a dangerous, foreboding look, something akin to the guards, but im having trouble setting it up ( after having finally found one). I thought i finally got everything straight, but now the upper arms won't bend using the FBIK handles... The other model i have it a practice human model for students to make a demo with, but it has no eyes and looks weird. Its set up with two boxes for the students to use animating climbing. It looks pretty goofy and i'm worried it will look "high quality" doing a guard animation. Im wondering if i could get someones imput on what to do. I can either keep troubleshooting the first one, make the 2nd one climb up the boxes and maybe slip and fall off, or use the Moom cartoon model. I was hoping to stick with Thief related animations as they are what im excited about. How about using the rigged TDM model? Ditto on the grapple editor ( ). I adjusted the curves for ball arc and travel many times and know a lot of time will be spent there.

According to the Rage wiki page, its not coming out this year.

Im happy to report that I've done a couple bouncing ball tut's already, with model deformation, also facial deformation and basic IK animation in a couple tutorials. I hooked up Maya's full-body-IK to a free model i downloaded last night (btw, is there some law that all sites offering free models must be plagued with advertizing, hidden and some with audio! What a saga that was to find) Anyway, I'm now trying to figure out what tools and shortcuts in Maya i should be utilizing. Things like the Trax editor, that seems useful, but not sure about for character animation. Also, my model doesn't have the blue riggings all over it like I see in your tutorials, nor the bones sticking out of the legs. Speaking of joints btw, In your opinion, will TDM handle extra rib joints to simulate a breathing animation for the standing idle animation, or would it not be worth it in your opinion?

I see, so weight values for each vertex are carried over and used by the Doom 3 engine. But does skin deformation techniques such as "Influence objects" that create muscle flexing, breathing animations and eblew points, etc, carry over to TDM?

Questions: How many Joints/bones can TDM use? I read that D3 uses only joints/bones for animation, does that mean weighting down skin vertices is unnecessary in Maya?

I created a little text file right in my quick-launch panel that i open whenever I think of something i'd like to add to the mod or an idea i'd like to explore. Heres what i have so far for guard idle animations. The (w) denotes an animation that can be done while walking. GAURD IDLE/ ANIMATIONS: -Yawning(w), -stretching(w), -talking to self angrily w/ lots of gesturing(w), -sitting, -tripping(w), -playing with sword/dagger/magic item(w), -checking time keeper device(w), -funny very rare random practice side-kick with a super-fung-fu-high-pitch "WIYAAAAHHHH...!" (april fools prank ONLY!!) -look left and right and/or up and/or down(w), -lighting/smoking a pipe(w) -swat fly(w) -straighten a painting on a wall(w) -move to a window and peer out at something specific(w) -brush off lint from clothes(w) -tie boots -tuck in clothes(w) -practice with weapon(w?) -observe/play with/spin/flip/throw-up/accidently drop/ weapon -guard falling asleep -picking up a coin and putting it in his pocket(w) -picking up a rock, examine, then toss and brush hands together to clean(clap sounds)(w)

@ SneaksieDave, yeah, its a shame about the stuttering animation. How do you like that walk cycle? @New Horizon, I think i need to stop, slow down and animate something first. I could very well be under-estimating the difficulty in this, i'll admit it.

Right, aside from tutorials, very little experience. My excitement could be clouding my judgement I never originally thought to do work for 1.0, just contribute what i could in the time I could and offer them as addons. I've decided to do this for a living too and am likely going to sign up for a certification program at the University of Washington or an online program if that doesn't pan out. I think your suggestion of animating a current human model is a good one, but regardless, I simply need to do some animation to get a better idea about what i can contribute and more to the point, how soon... I'll need access, or perhaps someone can email the .mb file to: Tory40 at comcast net

btw: heres the Thief 3 guard animation I was refering to just so theres no confusion. You might need to temporarily adjust your gamma and contrast settings to see it best. In particular, the animation @ 1:00 and 3:40? One things for sure, the voices don't exactly match up with the athletic look of the guard IMO.

I think a good 40% of the reason Im as so impressed with the T3 guard walk cycle was because I was starring at crappy tutorial animations in Maya for 5 days straight, 8 hours a day. Before i started working on something as important as the walk cycle, i'd like have it all planned out and have looked at at least 10 or so possibilites. @Crispy: I sent off an email to Sparhawk last night about the password. @whom concerned: So maybe I'll animate a good quality cat model from the net and do a stretching animation, a lick-paws and smell-the-air animation as well as a walk cycle, sit-down/stand-up transition animation. Would that be ideal to those in charge? I have no doubt about being able to do a walk cycle at higher than AAA game quality, but we might all be dead by before I get done...

Hmm, where is the model_src repository? In the St. Lucia demo? Opps, nevermind, figured it out. Already found my reference material, 1:50, just what im looking for: No, seriously, i was checking out the Thief 3 guard walk and i think i love it. Its perhaps a tad more casual than I'd like, but casual would really fit in obviously. I was thinking a bit more focused, but just a bit. The running with swords animation I think is good too, gives the sword a weighted feeling look. Its only the first set of *good* cycles i've found to look at though. I think I'll just start with some standing_idle animations since you still need to review my work before "hiring" me.

I wonder what Garret would do.....

Roger, that sounds fine, theres always 1.1 and so on. I'm almost through the tutorials.

Intresting info about the IK code, I wonder what that was to be for. Did i understand you right, the animation speed can be changed on the fly during the animation? Because we could keep track of the door handle's latteral position and speed and slow down the animation if so. Just so you know, i'd like to create really high quality animations and i don't know how long that is going to take. I have a lot of free time to spend on it though, so thats good.

I made an "i want to help" thread.

I'd love to help with animation and have a few questions. Im going through the Maya tutorials again, even the redundant ones to get a solid foundation to build on. Im using Maya 2009 Unlimited trial atm, but I have access to Maya (8 I think). 1. Are there any unusual limitations I should know about? 2. What do you need help with the most? 3. Is there a model i can start with to show you what i can do. I noticed the hands on the mouse glide over the ground and don't appear planted during the mouse's idle animation, I also think the hands of the mouse's wrists should bend downwards some when the mouse stands up, although i would double-check with some real life video first. I could start there if that works. 4. Is there anything i should know about unit setting in Maya or other compatibility stuff like that? How should i set the animation speed? Things i was curious about(as usual, just thoughts, not requests): Is there an easy way to make the arms of the guards that are holding hammers and weapons act with inertia using 3 exponential expressions for each axis within certain angle constraints to give the hammer a weighty feeling and not "snap to point" so quickly. Is there some existing data we could use from from the graphics engine to less expensively compute the contraint computations? If it didn't cost so much maybe the weapon arm could constantly be trailing behind its animation data except when swinging. Addressing the same mechanices (I think ), I was thinking about doing a special animation, just for guards turning around and closing doors since they do it so often. I wondered about doing a sort of casual half-turn with arm reaching out to close the door, but the important question is will the arm of the guard model be able to dynamicaly keep his hand next to the door knob and can the code take control of parts of the model to make it look realistic. I guess the code would have to do IK to do that!? If not, will the animation be able to be dynamically slowed so i could make an arm swing animation that would follow behind the trajectory of the door? Just thinking out loud about an eventual turn-around movement. So many possibilities, so little time Do you all have plans for a turning movement?

Im currently going through all of the tutorials, including the redundant ones in Maya 2009 Unlimited(trial ). I do have some questions, but i will post them in a thread in the "I want to help" section. I thought Maya offered a free full-version of their software for learning and non-profit productions, other than PLE, am i off my rocker? My trial runs out at the end of the month, but I will get another version for sure. Can i purchase older versions of Maya for less money? I am considering purchasing the current Maya, but its like 3,500, I might have to think about that one for awhile and do research as to the 3DSM vs Maya features and current industry trends, preferences, etc.

I intended to add more to my posts, but kind of forgot what i wanted to add. But i did want to say that I find the quality of the head-bob in the St. Lucia demo to be on par with AAA titles, really well done I thought. I'd like to see if I can create a bit of a VR feeling at some point. One question that i was hoping to get answered: Is it possible to animate the FFP camera in the current code? Maybe replace the viewport camera with another thats not linked to the head-bob algorithm such as the flyby camera used for scene view? Im guessing not.

I also use ESDF, for the same reasons. I always use q = reload, a = run, g = use. In the interest of realism, or immersion\believability, for things that would, in real life, cause me to look somewhere besides forward to use, i set those keys away from my hand so i have to look away from the screen.

What are the chances John Carmack is a huge Thief fan? Pretty good i'd say, maybe he can help us when the source code is released. I thought Quake 4 had soft shadows...

On the other hand, a used 1gb video is $150 on Ebay now and a I got my 4gb memory kit for $30 after mail in rebate.....a year ago...

Im going through the Maya tutorials again, but i haven't done much animating, just learned how for fun. Im actually contemplating doing it for a living at the moment, but thats a long way off. Is there any model you want me to animate, so i can be productive while i re-learn? A goat or a duck or bird or...

Hadn't considered using arrows lol, yeah, i see what you mean. I actually meant that they would punch you away after having climbed up the ladder and you got in their range lol, but your arrow point is obviously a good one. Brings up a lot of thoughts for this "armchair-game-developer". Such as a reminder to minimize hit-boxes making arrow targeting more difficult. Anyway, the guard could follow you intitially on the condition that you arent currently equipped with a ranged weapon or havn't finished climbing all the way up yourself. Keeping track of your LOS (line of sight), if the player comes back into view with a range weapon and the guard is still climbing then the guard could exhibit an "ah crap!" and slide down the ladder quickly, rather than climbing down at normal speed. Guards being able to climb ladders quicker than you might be helpful (to them ) If a simple weapon check determines that the player does in fact have a ranged weapon BEFORE the guard is in Climbladder() mode, then the guard could be made to get the help of a ranged guard and climb the ladder when the ranged helper is actively engaging the player. If guard can't find ranged help within certain amount time, then find other route to last player position(and of course, they could consider finding another route to begin with). Another good point, im just thinking about a future *refinement*, where the player is allowed the posibility of fighting with a *fun and challenging* system of combat, but at a difficulty level that would make fighting a single guard very difficult and perhaps painstaking, but possible. Just brain storming that one.

Yeah, I can see how it could lead to problems. Perhaps a special move for the A.I. guards where they would automatically give you a punch that knocks you back a few steps, then pull themselves all the way up the ladder ready to square off with you and block attacks. Keep in mind, most of my brain-stormed ideas there were intended to be for consideration for a future add-on, not in the 1.0. Which is darn great as it is. Kicking, like Dark Messiah, Might and Magic, yeah. Very useful in that game because it knocked the guards out of striking distance...as well as off cliffs... I mention that game because it had the best fighting system *i've* ever used (although i've heard theres other good ones). Moves and blocks took angle, distance and screen position into account i believe. I'd like to help with animation. I think capable of being a singularly enjoyable experience, but perhaps i can help rather than just complain on my keyboard and its lookin great!