Motion Capture

[Springheel]

I'm pretty sure that our current walk/run cycles that Oddity used were from motion capture. I know some animators have a problem using them, but as I see it, the more basic animations we can get already made, the more time is freed up to create our more unique ones, or to add variety to the ones that exist.

 

That said, any idea where Oddity was getting them from? Remember the animation from the bottom of this page? I know he didn't make that one from scratch.

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=284&st=25

[Domarius]

Yeah he gave them to me. I can upload them if they're not already (they probably are but I can't check from uni)

 

I don't know how you mean "add variety to ones that exist." You use them or you don't, the way I see it.

 

Also, in my opinion - if you use them as a foundation, you're tied to its basic movement, and it will always look like the original animation no matter how much you tweak it. It can be okay for knocking up something quick and dirty. Like for example, if you need a crouch walk anim, you can take the walk anim and just fold him over so that he's crouching while he does it.

[Springheel]

I don't know how you mean "add variety to ones that exist." You use them or you don't, the way I see it.

 

What I mean is, if we found a good mocap animation for sitting down/standing up, then instead of one of our animators spending time making one, they can spend their time on an alternate searching animation, or a modified 'wimpy' walk cycle. You see my point. Even though we have a couple more animators interested at the moment, we still should explore any ways to speed up the process. Mocap libraries seem like a good way to do that, at first glance.

[Solis]

Personally I prefer not using motion capturing for our models for a few reasons. For one, it's harder to really tweak and modify, so if it isn't exactly how we want it as it is we'll probably be spending quite a bit of time trying to do that anyway. Also, sometimes motion captured animations don't "flow" into premade ones as easily, at least in Thief the animations were more or less consistantly stiff, having a combination of totally lifelike movements and ones that are less so can look a bit odd. This is especially a problem when some parts of the model don't have motioncapturing, for example in the walking animation the hands are totally stiff, so those would end up needing to be animated anyway. And I'm not sure how easy it would be to apply motion capturing to the rigs we're using anyway without messing something up.

 

I don't think it would be too big of a problem animating parts that we would be able to use motion capturing for. There really isn't that much that would be motion captured that would fit what we need, other than basic walk/run cycles.

[Domarius]

The existing walk and run anims you see, used motion capture. oDDity made them. He tweaked them, but as I said, it still just looks like the original motion capture.

If it saved us time, I would accept using a mo-cap one to fill in some anims while we work on other anims (like Spring suggested)

 

But yeah I agree with everything else you said.

 

And ultimately, yes, there isn't much in that list that we can use, other than the movement cycles, which are done.

 

Probably the 180 degree turn, but ugh, I dont' like it. He's just walking and then turning with so much purpose, in a way that he's been told exactly what to do, trying to get it over and done with real quick. Nothing like a patrol.

[Springheel]

There really isn't that much that would be motion captured that would fit what we need, other than basic walk/run cycles.

 

Well, just glancing over some libraries it seems likely that we could find the following:

 

Stand in place, casual (shifting weight side to side)

Sidestep (dodge to the side, primarily for arrows)

Reach out (waist level, to open door or retrieve object from table)

Sit down / stand up (on chair, stool, etc)

Lie down / get up (from bed or ground)

Hand gestures (for conversations)

 

etc...

 

So the question is whether you guys think it would save time to use something like that.

[oDDity]

To be honest, using the motion capture files and tweaking them really isn't that much of a tme saver over doing them from scratch. All the thief and spider anims I made from scratch, and did them almost as quickly as the tweked mocap that the guards have.

Once you know how to do animation and have a bit of experieccne with it, you speed up, just as with every other skill.

[Domarius]

I've tried the walk cycle using the mo-cap (you guys saw the result), and then went back and did it from scratch anyway.

 

Never want to go there again, its just one of those extremely messy things that's dangerously close to the same amount of work as making it from scratch anyway. You won't get me using the mo-caps again, for anything other than basic visual reference.