Interesting Animation Info . . . - by ascottk
ascottk on 31/3/2006 at 03:18
Quote Posted by STiFU
I guess we would need a programmer once more in order to hack such a skeleton file. Some converter that would make it possible for us to create our own animations, so that we can finally get rid of garrett's movement...
Actually I fixed that problem today :thumb: The rotation of GAR_BA_(un)draw's root bone was different from the new animations, so I modified that animation to match my new ones. Also, I ended renaming the new animations so I know I wouldn't interfere with the old ones (I was hoping I wouldn't have to mess around with the T3PlayerAnims.ini file)
Now I have a few other things to clean up:
* leaning animations - the transitions to the idle positions & the looping (loopy?) leans. The player keeps shifting around when going from one position to the next. I thought of something else today: Why not have the camera attach bone go farther than the head? I wanted him to lean further without looking stupid (it still might look stupid), but if the lean doesn't go far enough, then the player won't have the advantage of leaning. So the camera goes further than the actual lean :laff:
[INDENT]Just modifying the camera bone wouldv'e saved me a lot of time![/INDENT]
* I might have to keep the original 3rd person idle animations separate from the first person. The legs are closer together for the walking & the idles, and it looks stupid when Garrett goes from the idle position to any of the fidgeting positions (his legs keep going together, then apart, then back). Quite humorous actually :weird:
* Probably a few other things I can't think of at the moment :confused:
Things are looking good :D Hopefully I'll have some animations to test this weekend :cheeky:
EDIT: I need to use the picture limit: :eww: :angel:
New Horizon on 31/3/2006 at 03:40
This is seriously great news ascottk. :) I can't wait to try TDS with the new animations. I'm really hoping for something closer to classic Thief control.
Crispy on 31/3/2006 at 04:43
Quote Posted by str8g8
Hmm, I'm sure T3 supports deformable meshes etc - that's the whole point of physique and so on.
Rigid attachments just attach a bunch of verts and move them when the bone they are attached to moves. This is sort of ok but it is better to blend the verts between more than one bone - for instance verts located in the elbow should be weighted between the upper arm and lower arm. This is why you use deformable links, and the envelopes (attached to each bone) are a way of representing and editing each bone's "sphere of influence". It's just really REALLY hard to do. ;) And time consuming. But you should be able to test the skin by selecting the bones themselves and moving\rotating them around in max.
I've played around with skinning a bit (did a night course on 3ds max once), and the way I was taught was to use rigid vertices for low-poly meshes, and deformable vertices for high-poly ones. If you use rigid vertices in high-poly meshes, then you have to go and tweak all of the weights and it becomes incredibly tedious. (You can actually assign vertices to multiple bones even if they're defined as being "rigid".) On the other hand, if you use deformable vertices in low-poly meshes, all the vertices affect each other too much and it looks a bit strange.
We were using Vertex mode to physique the mesh rather than Envelope mode though, so perhaps different guidelines apply. And as with all artistic matters, YMMV. :)
Ziemanskye on 31/3/2006 at 06:11
I guess I'm gonna have to start trying to learn how model people again then. damn you!
:joke:
Seriously though man, good work.
Kind of glad it's been you rather than me, but good work all the same.
STiFU on 31/3/2006 at 07:12
Wow that's definitely great news. I would never have thought that we can still make something out of t3!!! :) In about two years it will probably feel like classic thief, only better looking!! :cheeky:
Judith on 31/3/2006 at 12:52
Great news guys, my 3dsmax experience is a bit limited to terrain editing, but I believe we can make something out of T3 engine, even if it means creating all things in 3dsmax.. My forest mission project is based on such idea, for now everything goes fine - lots of trees, long roads, forest paths, hills, etc.
massimilianogoi on 23/6/2009 at 04:36
I am studying the biomechanic of the walking movement of a guard, to take inspiration from, for my movements of the robots, and I noticed that the walking is "imperfect": since the loop, when the guard starts to walk, he cannot have both the legs in the position of standing, so he start the first frame of the animation with the left leg a little behind from his body. That's the point: creating the complete walking animation, and after setting as first frame the point when the legs are nearest to the standing position.
With the bot will be a challenge, since, when it's walking, the torso do a complete X rotation, from right to left, when the legs walks, and so on (for better understanding, watch them moving in some youtube video about Thief 2, like this one (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVPpMxitSaU) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVPpMxitSaU).
Beleg Cúthalion on 23/6/2009 at 06:32
A TDS guard is a computer thing, so he cannot have biomechanics. :p About the other thing, don't you think that these movements complete themselves (first frame of next loop etc.)? When I see a guard who starts walking it doesn't look really unnatural to me.
massimilianogoi on 23/6/2009 at 15:29
Quote Posted by Beleg Cúthalion
A TDS guard is a computer thing, so he cannot have biomechanics. :p.
You're wrong: biomechanic is the science that studies the
movements of any animal. The movements are the key in that matter. So we can talk quite of biomechanic, since it's supposed that a guard should be a human.
Quote Posted by Beleg Cúthalion
About the other thing, don't you think that these movements complete themselves (first frame of next loop etc.)? When I see a guard who starts walking it doesn't look really unnatural to me.
Look at the first frame. Maybe later I will put online some screenshot about it.
In other words, when you are walking, is there a moment when both your legs are in vertical standing position? The answer is NO! :) That's why the walking loop never comprehend such position. And doing this means not comprehending a similar position too. Anyway, for better understanding, I will do some screenshot later, ok.
New Horizon on 23/6/2009 at 16:40
Quote Posted by massimilianogoi
You're wrong: biomechanic is the science that studies the
movements of any animal. The movements are the key in that matter. So we can talk quite of biomechanic, since it's supposed that a guard should be a human.
Technically, he is right. I think you misunderstood what he was saying. He underlined the 'BIO' in the word, meaning a guard in a video game is not a 'biological' creature, but rather a virtual representation. I know what you're saying too, but the argument can work either way. Technically though, a computerized guard has nothing biological about it...since it's just a bunch of 1's and 0's, so it's not really 'bio'mechanics...it's just the mechanics of the TDS guard that you're studying.
