Lotet and Muzz: I understand your scepticism and should further explain. I'm gathering information on what people would like to learn and any topics they would like to see covered. As I'm collecting this from a few places email seemed to be the simplest solution. If you have any suggestions it would be great if you could drop them here on the forum instead. I'll be updating as this progresses
Blond: Hey again! Those are some great questions and exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for. Also on a side note I'm primarily a gameplay animator but I do cinematics from time to time as needed. Its great having the opportunity to do both and develop two different skill sets.
Cool. Why not just use the forum?
anyways, these are some of the things I had to learn the hard way and still figuring out.
- how much tweening is done in engine? How do you blend animations well? How many animations do do you split up into components. Like jump for exemple. start, in air up, in air down, land?
- facial animations. Blend shapes, procedual stuff in the engine. Like foot planting, Look at helpers? how much of this is taken into consideration?
Stuff that's specific to games that you might not know even if your a good cinematic animator.
Hey I think that it's a great idea! What I would maybe suggest though is, instead of doing it via email, which would be time consuming for you to look through, maybe creating an online survey (with for example Survey Monkey). You could break down the potential topics of your tutorials into categories, like:
Focus on the technical side of animation (loops, transitions, maybe mocap etc.)
Focus on the artistic side of animation (line of action, posing etc.)
Common engine related workflows and tips (animation trees, blending, compression etc.)
Focus on cinematography (camera, staging, angles, do's and dont's)
Other (people can write whatever else they want)
I think that way it will be easier for you to gauge interest and read through the info and for people to add their input. Just an idea.
Anyway, I'm always interested in tutorials and learning more, so I would definitely check your tutorials out.
cdgoodall: That sounds like a great idea! I've been learning how to create some basic animations lately and while I found that there is a great deal of resources available online, it's often difficult to put everything together in your head when you're just starting out.
Personally I would be the most interested in stuff that relates specifically to games, as that information is a bit difficult to get a hold on. Information about pipelines, common workflows and issues that can arise during game development would be a great thing to have. Also, I would be very curious to hear something about how animation impacts game mechanics and vice versa.
I'd like to see material on planning the length of each sequence. Before starting to pose keyframes, how do you best decide how fast the action should be, how many frames it should take etc.
Sent you a mail with a big list , hope it was the right thing to do
I'm really eager for this, I can't seem to find anything on the whole internet and I've been searching for quite some time.
I also forgot I really would like to see addressed the hows and whys of:
- Framerate
- Loops
- Blends
- riggs
This sounds great to me. I know animation for general purposes, but I know pretty much nothing about animation in games themselves, so I'm interested in learning everything on the technical end.
So, what's happening? Nobody replying, no new posts, no links! Is this one of those secret market studies? Like find out what people want to learn, make tutorials and sell it to them?
Replies
What exactly will you be teaching? 2d, 3d, loops, effects? There is a ton of things this could cover.
Also. nobody is gonna email you bro.
He worked with Ninja Theory and we all know their in-game animations are really solid.
I do like the effort of sharing his knowledge but the approach is weird.
As an aspiring animator , I do have a few questions here and here but still would want you to get me to a starting point before asking them.
Anyway, it would be good you could talk about the challenges :
-How to make an animation smooth and beliavable while still being quck, repsonsive and short
-Best ways to loop animations
-Best way to blend different anim clips and make smooth transitions
-Usual tutorials of animation rules (but for games)
-How to stage a character pose and make it look good IN ALL ANGLES (not just camera like in cinema)
etc.
EDIT: Ooh oops, I just noticed you worked on cinematic sequences within games.
Can you tell me the constraints and challenges you have to overcome to produce these?
How often do you have to deal with Mo-Cap?
Lotet and Muzz: I understand your scepticism and should further explain. I'm gathering information on what people would like to learn and any topics they would like to see covered. As I'm collecting this from a few places email seemed to be the simplest solution. If you have any suggestions it would be great if you could drop them here on the forum instead. I'll be updating as this progresses
Blond: Hey again! Those are some great questions and exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for. Also on a side note I'm primarily a gameplay animator but I do cinematics from time to time as needed. Its great having the opportunity to do both and develop two different skill sets.
MisterSande: thanks for the sub!
anyways, these are some of the things I had to learn the hard way and still figuring out.
- how much tweening is done in engine? How do you blend animations well? How many animations do do you split up into components. Like jump for exemple. start, in air up, in air down, land?
- facial animations. Blend shapes, procedual stuff in the engine. Like foot planting, Look at helpers? how much of this is taken into consideration?
Stuff that's specific to games that you might not know even if your a good cinematic animator.
- Focus on the technical side of animation (loops, transitions, maybe mocap etc.)
- Focus on the artistic side of animation (line of action, posing etc.)
- Common engine related workflows and tips (animation trees, blending, compression etc.)
- Focus on cinematography (camera, staging, angles, do's and dont's)
- Other (people can write whatever else they want)
I think that way it will be easier for you to gauge interest and read through the info and for people to add their input. Just an idea.Anyway, I'm always interested in tutorials and learning more, so I would definitely check your tutorials out.
Personally I would be the most interested in stuff that relates specifically to games, as that information is a bit difficult to get a hold on. Information about pipelines, common workflows and issues that can arise during game development would be a great thing to have. Also, I would be very curious to hear something about how animation impacts game mechanics and vice versa.
I'm really eager for this, I can't seem to find anything on the whole internet and I've been searching for quite some time.
I also forgot I really would like to see addressed the hows and whys of:
- Framerate
- Loops
- Blends
- riggs
I also am eager to see what he's got to teach us.