Here’s a visual progress update on all the animated emotes done since my christmas gifs I posted in december. Since you all seemed interested in the gifs - I’m uploading more for you all to see how they’ve been turning out.
Basially I always test them in-game so that the assets are game ready for when it’s their turn for hooking them up in code. I’ve therefore taken a few gifs as I’ve tested them in various locations (just cause I wanted to really and it was fun) along the way and it seems that I have a wee collection I can share with you all.
So far - here’s the collection of core emotes I have so far… I will be doing more throughout the next few months(I havn’t forgotten about the dance etc) but I’m going to be working on a few more core gameplay animation funtions first.
Credit where credit is due, these are fantastic! I love how you’ve managed to distinctly convey the meaning of each emote without any facial rigging. Will you be adding any facial rigging in future? I’d love to see a growling face on the intimidate emote
So the answer to that is ‘maybe’ ? Certainly it’s been discussed and is on the table as a possibility. I animated with the intention of making the animation as lively and as personality driven as possible without any facial rigging (just in case it’s undesired in the end). Most of the emote gestures read with strong 360 degree silhouettes with his core body language and big hands which is a key area of this race’s character trait and also so it’s apparent what he is saying/doing from all angles.
I have to say they look awesome but both clappings look like the palms don’t really touch^^ And I’d second a growl for the intimidate emote. It looks kind of silly without a facial expression.
The problem with facial animations is it might put limits on the number of cool and varied faces (and as a by-product, Races) we can create. Factor gendered faces on top of it and facial animation gets really expensive and really complicated.
To me Race and character variety beats facial animation hands down and @gerryjacobs absolutely nailed massively emotive characters without any facial control (seriously hard thing to do). This kind of thing makes me proud, it’s Wonderstruck working at it’s best and within our constraints: the tiny team making a big game!
Yeah. Comparing scope of that project to team size to other, more essential projects, it seems very apparent that facial animations should be placed on a back back back burner. Gerry’s done an excellent job!
Certainly it’s been discussed and is on the table as a possibility. I animated with the intention of making the animation as lively and as personality driven as possible without any facial rigging (just in case it’s undesired in the end). Most of the emote gestures read with strong 360 degree silhouettes with his core body language and big hands which is a key area of this race’s character trait and also so it’s apparent what he is saying/doing from all angles.
