Character Animations

[runboy93]

Cool rifle idle animations
Keep it good work.

[Karpov]

Thank you runboy. The first one is not exactly as the original. I made him pull and release a bolt on the rifle. I don't really know what was the original sprite doing.

You're right Luther, but even if the frames shown were not the same, it would still look less smooth I guess. The software I'm using also calculates gravity, acceleration and stuff like that, but it's not magic.
If the 3d models moved like the sprites, then it would be perfect. Sprites jump between hexes. You can see that when you get the "flame man" skin, or when you are using a weapon that your skin does not support. If 3d models moved this way too, then I would not have any trouble with fps and definately no sliding at all. But they don't 
 Another solution would be changing the engine so that fps cut setting also affects the movement in space, which would be very difficult.

EDIT: check out this video where I take the game to run in 10 fps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmWokKahLRM

[Jotisz]

Looks quite close to the original walk cycle. Lower fps sure makes it more sprite like.

[NastyKhan]

1. I understand the issue.
2. 10 FPS looks much better than 30 FPS.

Which means.. we got a problem


How about -xx-xx-xx-xx- case, as luther mentioned? As i said before i THINK 3d animations doesn't have to have exactly the same frames as original 2d anim. Maybe those "artificially generated" half-frames would be enough?

And about smoothness of repositioning itself: hmm.. hmmmm..

changing the engine so that fps cut setting also affects the movement in space

Yep. Fps'ing it would be best choice, regardless of how much work it needs.

[Luther Blissett]

Changes to the engine itself can only be done by Cvet and a few others on Fonline.ru - so we can't do a lot more other than put a post on there asking for it to be looked at at some point (unless someone's got some clever tricks that might work)

The other problem we have (which I personally see as a more important one) is that the "action" is executed on the first frame of an animation i.e. the enemy is struck down before the gun animation is played - it's most noticeable in hand to hand combat, where the enemy falls to the floor, then you throw a punch in the air above them.

[NastyKhan]

The other problem we have (which I personally see as a more important one) is that the "action" is executed on the first frame of an animation

Yeah, noticed that. What about giving the first frame longer delay? I mean the "death" animation would have a first frame lasting let say 500 ms? (Or put there 50 empty frames if delay can't be changed) That could help. Maybe. I think.

[Luther Blissett]

I'd wondered about that myself, but I'm not sure if it would result in problems with the following animations, for example if the player is knocked down, then stands up again, the following animations may start before the previous ones have finished - so you get a correctly timed punch and knockdown, but halfway through the knockdown, the player "magically" appears on the floor getting up again, then halfway through getting up suddenly jumps to the start of a punch animation etc. Not certain it would work like this though. It might be worth someone testing and seeing if this was possible.

Ideally of course, we need the ability to set this "action frame" to whichever point in the animation is appropriate. i.e. raises gun, shot is fired <this point is where the engine considers the shot to have been fired>, the gun is lowered.

[Lizard]

Supermutant bulletdeath animation.

[NastyKhan]

Not too long?

Plus how about making his left leg "kick the air" and then crush the whole body to the ground.

[Jotisz]

Its a nice first try for the death animation. I have some suggestion though for that I have copied out a few frames and drawn them to show some motions that could help I hope.

Its only 9 (there are 2 that are doubled) frames original animation contains 20. With these nine frames it could be possible to make a close enough look to the originals. To make it more believable you can exaggerate the motions when the body shake.

[Gray]

Supermutant bulletdeath animation.

Looks like gypsy dance
Don't concentrate on shoulders, try to simulate several short strikes in a different points of torso.

[Horatio]

Could it be that the animation is so long, because it contains too much frames for a .GIF - the mutant also hovers a bit before landing on the ground.

I have a question to Blender specialists: could you make a texture invisible by flipping the normals on certain faces during the animation?
Would be handy to animate bullet holes, where separate chunks of flesh disappear.

[chocolate_chip_cookies]

That looks good!

[Karpov]

Two anims I've been working on.

Pierce Death (Gauss, unarmed critical...) first. I can't make the hole as big as it is in the sprite, so I though I could compensate that with some more gore.
After that, a test for wakizashi blade.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsRGpJEs44c" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsRGpJEs44c</a>

[NastyKhan]

Both look very good.