Animation for Video Games

ChrisH2

Hi, apologies if this question has been answered before but I coulnd't find any definitive answers.

When Animating a rigged character for game engines, are they animated using a single scene and the keyframes are sliced into seperate animations or are they all animated in seperate scenes once the character is rigged? For example:

3Ds Max

Rigged Character Scene (Single Scene, 1 Animation File, Sliced into 5 Seperate Animations when Exported)
150 Frames
30 Frames Idle: 30 Frames Walk: 30 Frames Run: 30 Frames Jump: 30 Frames Sword Swing:

 Vs (5 Seperate Scenes)
Rigged Character, Idle Scene. 30 Frames
Rigged Character, Walk Scene. 30 Frames
Rigged Character, Run Scene. 30 Frames
Rigged Character, Jump Scene. 30 Frames
Rigged Character, Sword Swing Scene. 30 Frames


Alternatively, Using Maya

Rigged Character Scene (Single Scene, 1 Animation File, Using Animation Layers?)
30 Frames
30 Frames Idle: 30 Frames Walk: 30 Frames Run: 30 Frames Jump: 30 Frames Sword Swing:


Thank you.

monster

It's better to have one Max/Maya file per animation and use Referencing to the rig.
If you create all your animations in one file it creates a few problems.

• If you have multiple animators you get a bottleneck because only one animator can work at a time.
• Some games I've worked on the characters can have hundreds of animations. Imagine if Idle is your first animation and you want to had 2 seconds to it.
• Animation Layers can get really slow once you have many of them in one scene.

ChrisH2

 Thanks so much that clears everything up, and External References was the keyword I needed to find everything