Character Animations

[Lizard]

In my opinion very good for a first try!

Thanks, Haraldx! I appreciate it.
LagMaster, i could try that. Also, i think i post the animation as a spritesheet.

And oh, i could always improve it , Skejwen, so bear with me. I'm not as good as Karpov yet. 

A little peek at my setup...

[Karpov]

What I do to get a more natural motion is to move the keys closer to each other when I need a faster movement, like a fast sweep, and specially for gravity effects.
 I see you have 5 keys between each frame, you can try moving the frame with the extended leg closer to the previous one, like 1 or 2 frames, so that she raises her leg and then "whoosh!". I think this is most common problem you will face, because the software automatically calculates the frames inbetween and it looks too smooth for human movement. Another thing is that you should be aware of the leg that is standing on the floor, always keep it in the same place, even if the sprites seem to slide a bit.

[Lizard]

Karpov, thanks for your advice.

Yeah, i had reduced the resolution to increase the speed, so there's no frames between bent lower leg and extended one. The original kick animation has this "swinging-at-enemy with-lower-leg", what looks rather slow and theatral, than a explosive release of power in someone's teeth.

The feet can kept on the ground by location constraints, but what about the moving parts? Also, how do you parent the bone of a weapon to the hand and do you delete it in a keyframe when it should be holstered?

For now, the change of speed is my main issue, which i solved my copypasting the poses from frame to frame (deleting the original with Alt+I) but i did take a look at the IPO curves, which and which parts of could be scaled. This feature promises more comfortable speed control for parts of the animation, and movement changes would be less of a mess.
It looks rather complicated, i'll post a result when i'm home.

Edit: here, a improved kick. The gif is somewhat sluggish, the original is twice as fast.


Also, a .3ds: http://www.mediafire.com/?aahocs7myb8p4u9

[Karpov]

The Handle bones are not attached to the main skeleton, they need to be animated separately. In MAX there is something called Link Constraint, which allows me to make this bone "follow" another bone I select for the amount of frames I need. However, this is not related to the bone hierarchy, but to the Handle bone itself. If you can't link that bone to the hand without making it part of the main skeleton, I'm afraid you will have to animate it frame by frame and position it where it is suposed to go every time.

Good luck.

[Jotisz]

Well in blender to carry stuff or give items to creatures I use empties. I'm parenting one to the hand and I parent the gun to an other empty these empties have a constraint that copies the location it works out well for animations also there is a way to link bones in a similar way.
Anyway whats the naming conversion of the bones I plan to make an armature for the mutie since he is more or less done.

[Karpov]

This is my bone setup.

But as the mutant is a separate critter, you can use any name or structure you want.

[Lizard]

Well in blender to carry stuff or give items to creatures I use empties. I'm parenting one to the hand and I parent the gun to an other empty these empties have a constraint that copies the location it works out well for animations also there is a way to link bones in a similar way.

That worked excellently for me, Jotisz, thanks! Made the empties copy location and rotation, but had to flip them somewhat, tho.
Also, thanks for the bonelist, Karpov, that's gonna come handy to me as well.

[baaelSiljan]

look:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPt_944t9Lc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPt_944t9Lc</a>
 


<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRCszmNoDyM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRCszmNoDyM</a>

[Lizard]

Well, then it's pretty easy.

So, in order for our project, someone need to lend a Kinect with a X-Box, a trial copy of Brekel software and dance all the movements we need in one evening. And then, on the next day, read, that he moved not falloutish enough.

Impressive technology, btw.

[baaelSiljan]

haha, yeah, but easier and faster than conventional method.

kinect or 2 kinects (or more) or ps eyes, and some motion capture software, soon there will be more and some free motion capture apps. I've found some experiments with blender too.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ9LzKmhFrE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ9LzKmhFrE</a>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxIcwuo5Rts" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxIcwuo5Rts</a>

(...) And then, on the next day, read, that he moved not falloutish enough. (...)

nobody said it would be easy but easier, after 100 hours of dancing he will move like true choosen one in real life

keep in mind some apps are free for non commercial use

[Lizard]

Hm, that may count for bipedal, humanoid models, yeah. But it would be awkward for a guy posing as a woman and this is only the beginning of difficulties. You could ask Pistacja, perhaps.

But what about when we start with critters? And i mean, floaters, centaurs, Masters on trikes? Sure, you could mime a supermutant, kinda moving gorillish somehow, but animating skill will be still required for making critters.
Yet, this method could save a lot of time and work with right opportunity. Is that Dr.Cox on your avatar?

[baaelSiljan]

motion capture is helper only, ofcourse You need to tweak animations.

and You may to improvise 

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJZVZFRFJc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJZVZFRFJc</a>

brahmin:

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeQaD3L9kpc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeQaD3L9kpc</a>

This is Wez http://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=18164

[Lizard]

Improvise you say...?
I don't think my girfriend will be fond of cameras, as...creative it might be looking. 

Anyway, before we cast upon us the wrath of mods, i'd like to state that animating with mouse is still a virtue for itself and shall not be abandoned completely in favour of more sophisticated, albeit easier methods.

[Karpov]

Well, standard animation methods are also more accurate when trying to reproduce the animations from Fallout, I'm almost sure they did not use motion capture.
  But sometimes it is hard to create one from scratch, so motion capture would be a good idea too.

Ok, so past week I finally passed my exams so I'l be free from now on  . I'll be still working on animations, I want to convert them for the female character, I have 1 so far, pistol shoot (I believe I uploaded it... ). Anyway, some time ago I was working on special deaths, but what about standard death?
  I added the blood effect when you die. I had some trouble, as usual  , but I believe it is fixed. The shadows would not cast over the blood, so I had to paint it over the texture    ...it's not that bad.
 
Here's a video:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3klRalbnNNc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3klRalbnNNc</a>

Technical info: It goes attached to the very first layer, the skin value, because it is not related to any armor or attachment you might have.  I plays only when animation 66 or 67 are called, which are "dead_prone_back" and "dead_prone_front". Somehow it also played when knocked down, but I fixed that by calling a new blank animation in that case. Weird anyway 

  What I learnt from this is that I can attach two different objects into the same layer and value. So I tested something more. Remember long ago I made a test on bullet cases coming from the assault rifle? Well, that was made into the rifle model itself, and it would be hard to make it for every weapon. But now I can attach the bullets to any of the weapons, and even different kinds of bullet and/or muzzle flashes. I tested it, works fine, but it can barely be seen anyway 

Ok, that's it. I'll keep you updated.

[Lizard]

The grandmaster is back and he brought teh awesome! 
Congrats to passed exams, Karpov! By the way, do you need assistance with female animations?