Standing reading and leaning animations

[Noisycricket]

I was thinking about creating some animations for a.i. to read while standing. So they could walk up to a book shelf, grab a book and browse through it. Im not sure what would be the best way to do it code wise, but how good it looks really would depend just as much on coding as on animation. Ideally, the a.i. would grab an existing book (with its hands actually grasping one), open it and start a reading cycle which would end with putting it back in a natural looking way or drop it when attacked, etc. For the book to be in place would require some extra effort im guessing.

 

I have a related animation that would require similar coding help: leaning against a wall, for guards (or even better, hooded nefarious characters clad in black, etc:ph34r: ). Im partway done with an idle-to-leaning against wall transition animation already. But as to how the a.i. would know where and when to lean....

 

...not my area of expertise, but i sort of conceptualized how it could work for mappers. Maybe a placement tool could be made in DR which consisted of some basic geometry alerting the mapper as to where the key points of concern were, such as direction to bookshelf, a.i. standing point, distance to book(which could be a fixed part of the tool) and distance to wall.

 

Might as well mention turning animations here too. I was thinking about making some 90 and 180 degree turning animations to make the turning of guards on duty natural looking with no jumping or feet sliding. I imagine this could be used for the turn A.I. have to make to close and open doors. Or a similar one could easily be made once one was made. This would obviously require code support.

 

[Baddcog]

Cool idea. Don't know how the whole pick up/put down anim would work.

 

Another cool anim that would be easy to use and generally useful would be an Ai walking up to a bookcase, 'thumbing through the selection' like they are looking for a book. Then maybe stand back, and wlak away. Like they looked but didn't find it.

 

Could have their finger pointed and moving left to right, then maybe down a shelf and bent over a bit...

[Noisycricket]

Cool idea. Don't know how the whole pick up/put down anim would work.

 

Yeah, i guess it would have to be a non-frobbable book that was angled according to the pickup animation. The hand could grab it on its spine at a specific frame. After the code attached it, the animation would take care of the rest. The DR tool idea i mentioned could have a rectangle attached to the it to indicate the exact spot of the book in reference to the standing spot. (I think people have plenty on their to-do lists already, so i'll be holding off on this until coders chime in)

 

I like the book browsing idea, but i wonder if its generic enough to seem like a unique action each time its done. Im not against it, but would also put out the idea of coding in some slow, random head movements so the A.I. could simply walk up to a given point, like a balcony or in front of a painting and slowly look around. One could aim a line at the desired direction of interest or create a re sizable bounding box to constrain the head movements. Should only take a few minutes of coding, at the very most.

[Springheel]

Ideally, the a.i. would grab an existing book (with its hands actually grasping one), open it and start a reading cycle which would end with putting it back in a natural looking way or drop it when attacked, etc. For the book to be in place would require some extra effort im guessing.

 

Yes, something like that would require some effort, especially grasping the book.

 

What is much more realistic is an animation where an AI reaches out, and an animated book teleports into their hands, at which point they could open it, flip pages, and then reach out to 'put it away' (where it would then vanish). Even that would require extra work to rig and animate a book.

 

I was hoping for a simple animation that sitting AI could use, of reaching out with a hand and 'turning a page' on a book that is sitting in front of them.

 

Maybe a placement tool could be made in DR which consisted of some basic geometry alerting the mapper as to where the key points of concern were, such as direction to bookshelf, a.i. standing point, distance to book(which could be a fixed part of the tool) and distance to wall.

 

Mappers would basically have to set animation nodes in the appropriate spot, and target the AI at those nodes (perhaps randomly). When the AI gets to the node, he plays the animation, facing the direction set by the mapper.

 

I like the leaning idea...it would look great to have townsfolk leaning up against buildings in the street.

 

but would also put out the idea of coding in some slow, random head movements so the A.I. could simply walk up to a given point, like a balcony or in front of a painting and slowly look around.

 

Yes, that was something I had on the animation list at one time--an animation of an AI putting his hands behind his back and leaning forward as if studying something. It would work for bookcases, paintings, mirrors, etc.

[greebo]

Very nice ideas there, I think some of these are very worthwile to pour some dev time into.