Animator Application: Solis

[Springheel]

You don't need to do a reach, really. If you want to you could make it look like they're reaching down to their belt to grab the object, but it isn't really necessary. It will be kind of an abstract thing--the object won't actually spawn until they 'throw' it.

 

Actually, if you want to have them reach for the object, it might be nice to copy just the throw part as a separate animation. That gives the mapper the flexibility to have them throw objects that suit a particular area (like rocks in a cave) that they might not actually be carrying.

 

If it's extra work don't bother.

[Domarius]

What we'd like to start is if you could make our "level 1" animations for that model. That would include:

[*]Idle (standing casually)

[*]Walking (a leisurely stroll down a mansion hallway)

[*]Running (Something's wrong, I must get help!)

[*]Searching (Did I hear something in the darkness? Peering and walking slowly around, looking for something)

Haaaang on, weren't we re-using the existing animations already? Doing different anims for different genders was something we ruled out in favor of getting things done on time.

 

Unless you mean actually porting the existing anims to the noble woman rig and exporting it all into the game? That's something that does need doing, and is easier than making new anims.

[Springheel]

Unless you mean actually porting the existing anims to the noble woman rig and exporting it all into the game? That's something that does need doing, and is easier than making new anims.

 

The noblewoman already has some animations created, so it might be better to use those where they exist and rely on porting other animations for any others needed.

 

Anyway, the noblewoman needs to be given feet first, so we'll hold off on that right now.

[New Horizon]

Haaaang on, weren't we re-using the existing animations already? Doing different anims for different genders was something we ruled out in favor of getting things done on time.

 

Unless you mean actually porting the existing anims to the noble woman rig and exporting it all into the game? That's something that does need doing, and is easier than making new anims.

 

Well, we really aren't sure what it is that you're planning to do, but we need to sit down and plot this out...otherwise I fear we're going to end up tossing half the work in a few months.

 

Do you have time to create a workflow between you and solis...so you're not doing the same things? If we're going to share these animations effectively, I would assume that it would be productive to have one person doing the rigging and then laying out the 'base' animations. The next person would then be able to base subsequent animations around the base work. I'm probably a bit off target, but you probably get the general idea. We need a conveyor belt essentially. My advice would be, you doing the main anim's like walk/ run cycles...etc, solis doing the smaller animations like throwing...and ascottk can perhaps do some of the more subtle things like final tweaks or whatever.

 

Anyway, just some ideas...but we need to get things ironed out here.

[Domarius]

I'm confused with the status thing though - can he see the development boards? I'd start a thread there otherwise.

 

If he's never used our software before, then I think a good place to start would be to take existing anims that have already been done, and doing a straight port to other characters (without actually animating).

 

And/or, to do some actual animating, yeah a ranged attack for combatants would be good.

Regarding this list, http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=3842

although all combatants have a ranged attack, archers will have a ranged attack anim that is firing a bow, whereas everyone else will have throwing anims, so that's actually 2 anims that need to be done to satisfy that item. So that's 2 anims he can do.

[Solis]

Whoops, sorry about that, I didn't notice that the message about the Builder was in my spam box. I'm a little confused though, it was just the text of the guard mesh with the vertex coordinates and such. How would I go about creating a working model from that which can be animated in Motionbuilder? I haven't used the MD5 utilities before.

 

But I do have access to the development boards (info and discussion, texture and art/models and animation, beta testing, contributors) so if you want to make a thread in one of those forums for this project, let me know and I can move my questions there.

 

Oh, and on closer inspection of the noblewoman model, it seems like the animation and rig was just a generic one that was included with the program (or another animation package). The bones actually extend outside of the model's constraints in places such as the skirt during the animation, so the movement speed is a little off since her legs aren't actually extending that far.

[Springheel]

Ok, let's continue this here: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=4125