===[COMMITTED]=== Animations

[Alexandermb]

45 minutes ago, Stan` said:

So any hopes for some animals ?

Probably not, they are far more difficult to animate and may end forgotten like bear wich already has some basic animations but yet haven't got any texture/norm map

So far my only success in animal animations was the horse and still can have some smoothing tweaks on it.

[Stan`]

Just now, Alexandermb said:

Probably not, they are far more difficult to animate and may end forgotten like bear wich already has some basic animations but yet haven't got any texture/norm map

So far my only success in animal animations was the horse and still can have some smoothing tweaks on it.

As I said I can handle the texturing part if you can handle the animating part. I made the new texture for the bear so it does have a new one. I know you like to master everything from top to finish, but here I think it's better to split and have new animals that do not rot on the forums than wanting to do everything

Would be nice to at least have no stuck animal in A24, and even better to add some new ones

[Alexandermb]

Fixed the latest mentioned in my SVN folder, im looking if any actor in the game use this ones: 

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1 minute ago, Stan` said:

As I said I can handle the texturing part if you can handle the animating part. I made the new texture for the bear so it does have a new one. I know you like to master everything from top to finish, but here I think it's better to split and have new animals that do not rot on the forums than wanting to do everything

Would be nice to at least have no stuck animal in A24, and even better to add some new ones

So far our stuck or "T" animals are bear and who else? Wildebeast got fixed with the zebu commit.

[Stan`]

10 minutes ago, Alexandermb said:

Fixed the latest mentioned in my SVN folder, im looking if any actor in the game use this ones: 

Missing file 'art/animation/biped/infantry/spearman/attack_melee_a.dae' referenced by: 'public/art/variants/biped/base_gaul_fanatic.xml'
Missing file 'art/animation/biped/infantry/swordsman/attack_melee_shield_b.dae' referenced by: 'public/art/variants/biped/base_gaul_fanatic.xml'

 

11 minutes ago, Alexandermb said:

So far our stuck or "T" animals are bear and who else? Wildebeast got fixed with the zebu commit.

Dragon, Elephant_baby, muskox, walrus...

[Imarok]

On 10/22/2019 at 7:46 PM, Alexandermb said:

@Stan` Standing Build:

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Seems like we'll need the building-specific build animation elexis proposed.

[Stan`]

8 hours ago, Imarok said:

Seems like we'll need the building-specific build animation elexis proposed.

Well this one could just be a variant ? 

[Alexandermb]

Warcraft 3 Reforged Model Bandit javelinist 01 "brigand":

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Whitout holding the javelin in the sky all the time, all who plays it know he is a javelinist.
 

[Alexandermb]

I like the walking ready animation of the swordsman, however the animation isn't very suittable for the speed of the champions. It suits more a formation walking or slow sneaky walk.

So i just done this for the ready_swordsman variant:

i took the assault rifle jogging animation i've done before and tweaked some of the bone keys to match an ancient era heavy scutum:

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Can also make it more faster and have more body inclination and make another running like shield charging.

[Alexandermb]

Here a preview:

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Note the difference between that animation perfectly sync with the movement speed. compared for example with slingers or any other who has or had any walking animation when their natural speed goes beyond jogging.

Realism Vs Not Caring about animations.

[Alexandermb]

@Stan` i will commit two animations and some variants change, please can you check if jog_relax_Shield_arm causes demo_unit crash again? i had to delete a bone and place it again because it was being bugged.

[Stan`]

42 minutes ago, Alexandermb said:

@Stan` i will commit two animations and some variants change, please can you check if jog_relax_Shield_arm causes demo_unit crash again? i had to delete a bone and place it again because it was being bugged.

Sure send me the file, (sorry was playing in LAN at an afterwork :D)

[Alexandermb]

34 minutes ago, Stan` said:

Sure send me the file, (sorry was playing in LAN at an afterwork :D)

i'll send you the files after finishing the tweakings. i've found one of the glitches and fixed it (on blender)

New jog animation for both relaxed and ready state, in the current state, jog relax looks very similar to the rats dancing in "Ratattouille. And Jog Ready is unused since the beginning of the unit update before i re-exported all animations.

[Alexandermb]

Yay! The bug i've fixed for the hand/foot was also the problematic with the shield being dropped. Shield dropping animations are possible now! they no longer move!

[Stan`]

12 minutes ago, Alexandermb said:

Yay! The bug i've fixed for the hand/foot was also the problematic with the shield being dropped. Shield dropping animations are possible now! they no longer move!

Nice can you document that ?

[Alexandermb]

Just now, Stan` said:

Nice can you document that ?

Sometimes those bug fix by themselves with the blender releases, however this was caused by a constrait of the hand with the IK bone (IK: Inverse kinematics for those not familiarized with the ik) a hand was copying the rotation of the IK for make the work easier, but also the IK was copying the rotation of the hand, so it was a loop wich at the moment of exporting or baking it take it into account even as disabled.

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Before:

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Footage of the issue:

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[Alexandermb]

Making off a high stab animation:

Part 1: Main Concept

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Part 2: Trying to clean the frames while being constantly interrupted doing the animation.

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Part 3:

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This animation was purely done with imagination and looking only the blender file. Hope this could help others while doing animations, specially atacking ones being this and death animations one of the hardest to achieve. 

Steps:

1. Main concept sketch of the animation poses you want to achieve
2. Adjusment of the bone positions and cleaning of the unused poses.
3. use Shift + E between 2 key column to achieve a 50/50 bone positions between each bones, for achieve a smoother transition.
4. Enjoy!.

Keep in mind that i try to follow both Realism and Actual attacking animations motion with the tecnical limitations that come with both blender, armature, and 0 A.D. Engine.

Gif of the final animation:

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[Alexandermb]

Comparisson of the jogging animation ive done with the actual ingame:

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Right animation is perfectly suitable for this song:

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[Alexandermb]

i think i've managed to make the capes generic just like the horse blankets. Will be testing and if it goes good will do a capes actors cleaning, renaming and infantry too.

[Alexandermb]

Made a new animation set for the thureo spearman.

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They use the hoplite variant actually, and it does not look good on shield position.

Reference:

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[wackyserious]

@Alexandermb Most of the attacks are inclined forward. Would it cause un-synchronized animations if you add for example

1.) Maybe making a few steps backwards while delivering weak counter attacks

2.) An initially defense focused stance and the attack part will be a minor counter attack

[Alexandermb]

12 minutes ago, wackyserious said:

@Alexandermb Most of the attacks are inclined forward. Would it cause un-synchronized animations if you add for example

1.) Maybe making a few steps backwards while delivering weak counter attacks

2.) An initially defense focused stance and the attack part will be a minor counter attack

I may need a visual help to understand what you meant,  (Maybe lines on animations screenshots) but if any adjustment that could be done im open to suggestions. 

Doing attacking animations as mentioned before is more complicated (specially when the combat is an endless loop of the animation whitout reaction or wait timer between attacks)

[Alexandermb]

@Stan` just noticed that after the changes i've done on animations of swordsman, shieldsmall variant and animations are useless and pointless to have, wich only leads to a confusing variants naming so i will delete them and only have "fast" as prefix for the jogging variants.

[wackyserious]

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It is kinda hard to find solid reference.

• The attack above is strong and inclined forward

I was imagining an opposite to the one above,

• Where the attacker will do quick steps to backward
• Then deliver a minor spear thrust, somewhat like a counter attack
• That attack will return him to the initial position
• It is like when a warrior is losing the ground

[Alexandermb]

41 minutes ago, wackyserious said:

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It is kinda hard to find solid reference.

• The attack above is strong and inclined forward

I was imagining an opposite to the one above,

• Where the attacker will do quick steps to backward
• Then deliver a minor spear thrust, somewhat like a counter attack
• That attack will return him to the initial position
• It is like when a warrior is losing the ground

Ah i see, its like Total War Attacking when the unit is pushed back, it looks good, but remember the attacking animations are generic of rall kind of entities, buildings, horses, ships etc.

Would be weird having the infantry react in that way from a non existent attack of a building for example.

That however would be good if it could be a small space between attacks to have an animation of reaction of being hitted.

[Alexandermb]

A small preview of the cape new actor:

All of these units use the same cape actor:

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The actor cape have all the variants in the variants group:

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First implementation will be with infantry, if its possible and doest not break cavalry, it will be applied too for horse riders and elephant riders.