ZPG - First Look: Animation

massivehatala

First pass blocking - run cycle

crasher

Looks simple and smooth, I like it!

massivehatala

don't be afraid to post if you absolutely hate it! lol, i can take it!

homestuckofthedead

darn.... i would liked one of the fancharacters as a base animation. the thing looks awesome though! nice and clean cut.. ^u^

micahh

quite nice, although i do have one complaint, you may want to make his legs slightly longer, middle schoolers tend to be mostly leg >.> not by a lot though, just a smidge

relkin43

Awesome possum, I'd suggest chucking it up on the kickstarter page.

Silvernis

I like it, but I'd suggest making him lean into it a bit more -- his torso seems to stay unusually upright.

Brittleheart

I agree with micahh, the legs seems a bit short, 'kay. =33 But i could be wrong ><

massivehatala

im just waiting on confirmation of a couple other announcements before posting to the kickstarter.

IrrelevantKoiFish

Clean and smooth, very nice. Will you guys be including motion blur too?

zombieKiller

He looks exActly like the character I am thinking about right down to the cargo shorts for rubber and and paper football storage

zombieKiller

That was rubber bands stupid iPad autocorrect

TimSormin

Awesome! Looks very clean. Nice smooth hands, no jitter in the spine or head. I'm guessing you like to use IK. The chest rotation actually kind of looks like breathing which is really cool.

At first I was going to say that it was too irregular - the strides are asymmetrical and the forward translation is not smooth - and that this might make the character look like he's limping in-game or just feel like he's not moving at a constant speed BUT it doesn't look like a limp in the playblast and maybe it feels just fine in-game. It's tough to know. Animation always looks great in a playblast, but what really matters is how it feels in the game.

It's also hard to tell from this 3/4 view if the Center of Gravity is moving mostly side-to-side or forward and back. Play it in the engine and see if the COG feels a bit too wobbly.

Hips might need just a bit more side to side tilt to show the weight being supported by one leg and then the other. Obviously you don't want a boy to look like he's shakin his tush, but just a bit of tilt.

His left (screen right) foot sticks just a bit as it lifts off the ground.

In general though you did an awesome job of keeping the knees smooth. I find the foot contacts and lift-offs, and how they affect the knees, to be the hardest part of a walk or run.

I can't wait to see more!

TimSormin

Just did a search to find out who this Hatala guy is.

Wow.

I should be asking YOU for advice on MY animation!

kuwan

I didn't hate him, absolutely, i loved! But, I just think that the space between the shoulders and the hips is too long.

massivehatala

=)) here's my personal animation reel, you could say i have some experience in animation:

Robert

This is great! I can't wait to see what you guys have next week!

Silvernis

What sort of amateur scribbling is that? :p

I jest, of course -- that's pretty epic. ^_^ It's nice to know there's some serious talent behind this project.

MintyBanana

Quite the impressive animation reel you have there :D Love the bat like creature animation at 2 minutes in!

As for the animation of the boy running. It's still a block out so a ton can still change, but so far I feel like the arms are to far from the torso, especially since (according to the sound) he's tired. Personally when I run and get tired I tend to keep my arms close to my body, keeping them away from your torso like that would only waste energy.
The shoulders have some rotation to them, but I think that it might be cool if you would add some rotation to the whole spine, right now it feels like his torso is pretty static and it's mostly his shoulder area doing the rotation.

I do like the timing you have going in this run but I feel like the part where he's airborne might be a bit to long, losing some of the speed?

I also feel like the torso might be a tad to long, but that's not animation related :)

But seeing your animation reel and the fact that this is your block out I might just sit back and let the pro do his job, I'm sure you'll come up with something awesome.

SpookyWolf

I am very excited to be following this game and its development. I'm even a backer ;) I love the cartoony run animation, gives it that rose-colored memory what my childhood cartoons were like. I do have a suggestion. In combination with the run animation, maybe you could also add him turning his head and shoulders to look around and behind him, from left to right. Maybe that can be something like an additional animation that has a random variable of triggering, that way its not done too often, or it cant be predicted in a pattern. I know if I was a kid, even as a super bad ass tough kid brave enough to fight zombies, I would still be looking over my shoulders often.

Just food for thought!

wiseace

Nice running animation

Eyferann

the animation is looking good so far! will characters in the game have different animations? Like the fat kid would run with elbows much closer to his body, some kid running with their palms open, etc.