WIP: Zombie Master animations for upcoming release

Sinistar

These are for the Half-Life 2 mod called Zombie Master http://www.zombiemaster.org/
I've been asked to help animate for a new zombie type (Immolator) in the upcoming version 1.2.0.
From what they've told me, this new zombie type will have some normal attacks, but at some point, it gets agitated, and then lights himself on fire and runs towards the player and explodes (I think like the headless Kamikaze bomb guys in Serious Sam). I did not make the model (I think it's one of the burned corpse models in HL2). They sent me the mesh and I skinned it with Character Studio/biped.

I posted a thread on here a while back and got some feedback, but that forum has seemed to have little to no activity recently, so I thought I'd post here to get your guys' feedback as well.

Animations are here:
http://trepid.net/sinistar/misc/wip/index.php?subdir=www.zombiemaster.org&sortby=name

Thanks!

pliang

Idle pose seems to have no that much character to it other than me seeing him hunching to the side. It's also incredibly dark so I couldn't see much.

And the part where it charges seems rather unrealistic...it seems like he just simply sticks his hands in the hair and "jogs" to you.

I'd think making him look like as if he's in pain instead just irritant screaming would be better.

Dazzle

Yeah, there's something about the charge. I think you need to work on the kick off part, making it look like the zombie is actually kicking back. And lifting his knees up and putting them a bit forward. More pelvis action, make the zombie go up and down. Just slightly would maybe be enough. Right now it doesn't really look like the zombie is touching the ground, more like floating over it when he charges. It can be tricky to make a run cycle and make it fit with the distance the character actually travels ingame, but it's just to play with timing until you hit it.

However I do like the bobbing thing the zombie does when it's just moving towards the player and not charging.

hawken

hahahah the walks are too funny

zenarion

I am no pro animator, but i learned that you will need reference when doing animations.
The easy way is to get someone to walk around as that zombie for you, and then record it. Or record yourself. Then draw still images for keyframes, of what motion you wan, blocking in the movement and overdoing it to some extent.

MikeF

The animations aren't bad by any means, but they don't seem to suit the character very well. Even though it is a decaying corpse, i would still expect some elasticity in his movements, rite now he's stiff as a board.