Model animation question

RIFT

I dont know if this is the right place to post this or if you guys will know the answers, but I will ask anyway.

When model animations are done for a game, what exactly are the animations? Is it just the reload/knife swipe/pistol action (stuff that the player sees)? Or is it all the stuff, like running, jumping and crouching?



Also, we are still in need of some char modelers for our mod if anyone is interested.

RIFT
BTMI Admin
www.battletechmi.com

FatAssasin

Basically anything that moves in the game has to be animated by someone. Maybe I don't understand what you're asking. I mean, game characters aren't going to run and jump on their own, at least not yet.

MoP

For single-player games, you might not even have a main character model, so it'd just be the 1st-person weapon animations (look at HL2, the main character is never seen, not even in reflections, so he has no animations - just the guns are animated).

However if it's a multiplayer model, the player will need to have every animation, so that other players can see him moving properly... run, jump, crouch, attack, whatever.

Bear in mind weapon animations in 1st person sometimes show the hand or arm of the player, but this is not the same model as other players will see in the 3rd person.

MoP

RIFT

Ahhh, I thought that once it was rigged the program would tell it to run and jump and all that stuff. So I am going to need a animator big time huh?

MoP

Well, in some cases (if the model is rigged with the correct skeleton), the model can use existing animations from the game, I think that's what you're referring to.
With UT2k4, you can load player animations from the existing models and apply them to your model.
It might be the same case for HL2, I haven't tried yet though, but you could do that in the first HL, and I assume it's a similar system... you might get away without an animator after all, as long as you don't need custom animations.

MoP

FatAssasin

For UT2003, you can find pre-animated skeletons that you can skin your own model to, but in general, yeah, you need an animator or two.

But if you plan well enough you can just animate one skeleton and then skin your models to that and export without having to animate every character seperately. Or if you're using Biped in Max you can save and load your animations onto different bipeds. I think you can do something similar in Maya with melScripts.

Edit: Mop beat me to it. Also to note, if you find that you can use in-game animations, you probably have to make sure the bones have specific names. You might need to check on that.

RIFT

That will work for our char models, but I guess each battle aromor will have to be done idividually (ya, like I spelled that right .


FatAssasin, you are looking for work, how much would you charge for a full animation job for the Elemental on our site? (you may email me at rift555@hotmail.com if you dont want to say here.)

FatAssasin

I could help you guys out, no problem. I'm pretty busy with freelance work right now, but it doesn't look like you're quite ready for animations anyway. I would need to know exactly how many animations and what they are. I'm assuming you need a basic set, but you might want some special moves also.

Since this is for a mod, and I wanted to work with the HL2 engine anyway, I'll give you a special Polycount discount. Just let me know when you're closer to needing some animations done.

RIFT

We are ready for the one model, I am just waiting for my friend to finish rigging it. I know little about modeling (im a mapper) so I dont know what a basic set is. Since its a Elemental, it will need some special moves

I can shoot you the non-rigged model anytime, if you want.

FatAssasin

Sure, send the model over, I'd like to see it.

james@jhaywood.com