Facial Animations

[Renzatic]

I passed this idea by Corth and Spring last night and wanted to get an opinion on the matter.

 

We were talking about doing basic facial riggings along with animated normalmaps to achieve realistic facial ticks for our character models. I realise that this would be a whole helluva lot of work for our modellers to do right now, so I suggested just doing a single test model then setting up the basic riggings so someone could come back and do it later once all the models are finished. That way we wouldn't be pressed to finish it one model at a time, but do it anytime later...even when the mod's been released.

 

Though it's not what I'd call a necessary feature, it could add loads to the ambience and feel of the game and make our characters seem that much more lifelike in the end. It's something worth considering.

[oDDity]

Who's gong to set up this facial lip sync rig? I don't understand where the animated normal maps come in, what would they be used for?

[Fingernail]

to produce added creases in the skin in more detail, presumably.

[oDDity]

I think that's goign a bit too far isn't it? It's not like you'll be that close to the AI anyway.

[Renzatic]

It's there for the spice and detail. What could turn a rather wooden spied-upon conversation or clandestine meetings with your fence into something alot more convincing. Think about the camvator scene in The Seventh Crystal, imagine how much more convincing it'd be in D3..that's all the reason why we should do it.

 

But since they're still an overly fluff feature, we shouldn't start doing them all right away...rather just rig em and leave em so we can do it later if we have the time.

 

Or let someone else do it if Oddity is willing to give away his high poly source models when we release the mod.

[Springheel]

I personally see this as something to be done after the official release, or someone's pet project along the way. It would be neat in some situations, but it's not really that common for the player to get close and personal with the AI.

[sparhawk]

It's a hint when the AI is searching and also when the player is found. But I agree, it's not something we need to do immediately.