Update #75: Bringing Creatures to Life: Animation on Pillars of Eternity

[Pipyui]

The hips of the last creature seemed awfully static when walking which looks a little unnatural in my eyes, though.

 

I too noticed this.  I supose they just hadn't finished the walk animation for the gul yet.  It otherwise seems silly to have such a loose and gangly critter walk so stiff like a machine.

 

they just don't feel scary or threatening cause the cadence is a little too predictable. Maybe the slow guys could stumble a tad then almost trip but speed up like they're trying to keep from falling over. Also maybe the wolf attack could have some quicker pouncing strikes, or more assertive lunging, etc.

 

Yes.

[BillyCorgan]

Love the ARM code ! ^^

[Blarghagh]

Don't overanalyse these animations, guys. You're seeing them from an angle and distance you won't be seeing them in the game. What you're noticing now will probably not be visible in the finished product. Animation is all about efficiency - if you don't see it, you don't animate it.

 

I honestly thought that the Animators Video was the Aprils fools prank and the code wheel was real. You got my hopes up But Kudos @ paradox ... first one who got me ever.

 

Still don't belive the Animator really do that ... it sounds (and looks) way to silly ^^ But well i might normally not fall for pranks but on 1th April i don't even believe things that are real ^^

 

I can confirm that animators do this by nature of being one. I spent an inordinate amount of time the past half year running around pretending to be a soldier and shooting people with make believe bullets, and I've even attempted to run on all fours for creature animation for several days in a row.

[Pipyui]

As a regular member of this forum, I contest that it is my job to overanalyse anything and everything!

 

No, I understand that it isn't finished and didn't mean to imply that it was.  We will however get to see the gul's hips as it's walking (as illustrated in the video), so they will, need to be animated eventually.

[harhar!]

 

Soo... when are we gonna see some gameplayfootage?

In the trailer.

 

 

Meh. I'm talking about actual gameplay like fighting that is more than just a couple seconds of effect - those tell me nothing. I mean something like the Wasteland 2 gameplay videos.

[Blarghagh]

As a regular member of this forum, I contest that it is my job to overanalyse anything and everything!

 

No, I understand that it isn't finished and didn't mean to imply that it was.  We will however get to see the gul's hips as it's walking (as illustrated in the video), so they will, need to be animated eventually.

 

I didn't say the animation wasn't finished. I don't know if it is - what I said was that we haven't seen it from the angle and distance we will be seeing it in the actual game. A lot of things that are neccesary for, say film or first person games, like a feeling of weight and follow-through, don't always register from an isometric perspective - a lot of that only registers through human eyes because of horizon/eyeline and those don't exist in isometric. These animations don't have to work from the front perspective, only from the in-game perspective, so they'll be done and tested for that only - they're not meant to look perfect from the front.

 

I'm not saying that these animations are suddenly perfect, I'm just saying that these preview shots from a completely different perspective don't give any real indication of what it looks like if you're playing the game. Analysing it based on these shots doesn't really have a point.

Edited April 2, 2014 by TrueNeutral

[Gyges]

Great update, but one thing that irks me ever so slightly is the presence of red flesh on the zombies, indicating fresh tissue...on an undead. The other thing is the cat's upright position on walking even though its legs are better suited for either a hunched or prone prowl.

[Pipyui]

I didn't say the animation wasn't finished. I don't know if it is - what I said was that we haven't seen it from the angle and distance we will be seeing it in the actual game. A lot of things that are neccesary for, say film or first person games, like a feeling of weight and follow-through, don't always register from an isometric perspective - a lot of that only registers through human eyes because of horizon/eyeline and those don't exist in isometric. These animations don't have to work from the front perspective, only from the in-game perspective, so they'll be done and tested for that only - they're not meant to look perfect from the front.

 

I'm not saying that these animations are suddenly perfect, I'm just saying that these preview shots from a completely different perspective don't give any real indication of what it looks like if you're playing the game. Analysing it based on these shots doesn't really have a point.

 

Ah, I got ya.  I had (perhaps incorrectly) presumed that the overhead camera view in the video was representative of the angle used in the game.

[chaos49]

good update, i like the code weel put it in to unlock some extra content or something else. 

[Forlorn Hope]

Good update, thanks. Btw, hips don't lie. The gul's lack of hip movement looked a bit odd. However, I realize that the camera angle is different in-game etc. I quite liked all the other animations though. Can't wait to get my hands on the artbook etc and of course play the game Already looking forward to the next update, as always.

[Lephys]

 

We were told that Brandon infamously hates puns, so of course other Obsidian employees cover the walls of his office with pun printouts every chance they get.

 

Boy Brandon, you must HATE our resident punmaster, Lephys.

 

All this time, I've been inadvertently torturing him.

 

"Man, today sure was a great day! Let's see what we have on the forums today... *reads Lephys's terrible, terrible puns*...

...

SOMEBODY GET ME A KITTEN TO PUNCH!"

 

 

Okay, okay, but seriously, if you throw in something that forms the acronym LEG, you can include both that and the ARM in a new add-on at the Backer Portal/store, and charge some astronomical fee for it.

 

Also... do things start to make more sense if you know that April 1st is my birthday? (I can't ever tell anyone that ON my birthday, because then everyone thinks it's just a really lame joke. "Lolz, TODAY'S MY BIRTHDAY GUYS! HAHAHA!"). Seriously, I had a lot of empty parties as a child, because people didn't believe me.

 

Thanks for the Update, Rose! I'll have to check out the videos as soon as I get home. Just from the still shots, though, it looks like everyone's hard at it! ^_^

[Clean&Clear]

Actually, i think the overhead camera view in the video is the exact angle we will see things at in the finished game, so you can guess from the video how will the character's movement really look like in-game. And yeah, zombie's (or ghoul's, whatever) static hips look akward, even from the isometric angle. The whole movement animation of the zombie seem to be strangely tearing and shaking, I mean it's not fluid. And it's attack animation could be better aswell, imo. On the other hand, I really like the cat and troll animations, especially the cat looks great and really agile, which is the point of this druid form I guess. Good work!

[Pipyui]

Seriously, I had a lot of empty parties as a child

 

Ah, that ties up some threads (double entendre! (sorta)).

Kidding.  Happy birthday, Lephys.

 

@Clean&Clear

I know that the animations are supposed to be exagerated, but if I'm gonna go into super-unnecessarily-nitpicky mode for a second, the druid-cat ones felt a little too "muscle-running" to me.  I'd prefer the upper body movements to feel more precise and controlled, a little more static perhaps.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Pipyui

[rjshae]

Thanks for the update. I was wondering whether the Obsidian animators ever use any SCA heavy combat participants for your animation takes?

[Quetzalcoatl]

The creature models and animations look very detailed and impressive. Kudos to everyone who worked on them.

 

I guess if I had to nitpick something, it would be that the ghoul looked a bit too 'floaty' to me. Perhaps its ribcage and other boney parts could be a bit more pronounced.

[Tauron]

Decent animations and those Toads are scary!

[Silent Winter]

Okay, okay, but seriously, if you throw in something that forms the acronym LEG, you can include both that and the ARM in a new add-on at the Backer Portal/store, and charge some astronomical fee for it.

Ah yes, the "Legitimate End-Gamer" test.

(Never heard of charging FOR and arm and a leg before - it'll be a new marketing craze )

 

Happy Belated Birthday Lephys

Edited April 3, 2014 by Silent Winter

[StrangeCat]

pretty cool update....I'll wait for you demo at E3 maybe.  The demo that those guys were able to see when they visited your office?

Your animation looks fantastic!

Would have been cool if you showed a knight or something in a town moving around then hacking off someones head or taking down a monster, something to show what the animation will look like in game enviroment.

[Justinian]

The animation could really do with some work.

 

The walk/run cycles look OK, except for the zombie - needs more shambling and movement in hips.

 

Attack animations are just not very good though. As someone above mentioned, they all look like they are pitching a ball. Also, why do 3 completely different creatures in size, agility and disposition have the same swing and follow through? Why does the zombie return to a fearsome strike pose after an attack, when it's seen earlier shaking and barely able to balance?

 

Maybe look toward Diablo 3 for some guidance on how a wide variety of creatures of hugely differing sizes are animated. It's simply a masterclass on how to bring character to creatures through animation and modelling.

[AndreaColombo]

In our next update, look forward to an update all about the audio design on Pillars of Eternity, featuring Justin Bell, our Audio Director.

 

I am very much looking forward to this!

 

Justin made a great early post on audio design back in November 2012, and it would be great to expand on some of the points he made: balance between ambient sound effects and music; dynamic range; the possibility to employ CD-quality (16 bit, 44.1 kHz) music, VOs and SFX; the possibility to use OGG Vorbis or even FLAC as the default codec.

 

Particulary, Justin mentioned:

 

 

Interesting side note... WoW has a sound quality slider in the options menu that lets the user define different compression rates. That could be a solution, BUT (big but) it all depends on how much systems programming time a feature like that would require. We won't be able to get something like that in if it ends up being too complex of a task.

 

It would be nice to know whether the slider bar turned out a viable option

[Archmage Silver]

I demand Code Wheels! Also cars with Code Wheel Drive.

 

...

 

Alright, I'll take the Cat Druid concept as compensation, but only if there's one voiced by Halle Berry!

 

If you fail to meet my demands within 24 hours, I will send you 10.000 copies of Snakes on a Plane. In high definition.

[Lephys]

If you fail to meet my demands within 24 hours, I will send you 10.000 copies of Snakes on a Plane. In high definition.

... I see what you did there...

 

... "plane"... "high"...

[Wicelo]

In an interview (http://gamecrate.newegg.com/josh-sawyer-pillars-of-eternity-interview/) I heard there is no romance, how come obsidian prefered to make a boring mega dungeon (like the very boring mega dongeon in BG2) and no romance ? Very bad choice imo

[Bryy]

Because it doesn't seem like anyone there likes romances. 

[Ineth]

In an interview (http://gamecrate.newegg.com/josh-sawyer-pillars-of-eternity-interview/) I heard there is no romance, how come obsidian prefered to make a boring mega dungeon (like the very boring mega dongeon in BG2) and no romance ? Very bad choice imo

 

Why do you think the mega dungeon will be boring?

They promised it will have a story and lots of interesting lore associated with it.

So I'm pretty sure it won't be just a bunch of run-of-the-mill dungeon levels with some orcs placed in them for good measure for you to clear out without a real purpose.

 

As for romances, Josh already answered that in the interview and elsewhere: They require lots of content (i.e. they would eat up a significant part of the budget, for something that only a minority of players will probably benefit from) and are difficult to do "right" (i.e. in a tasteful and non-cheesy way).