Animations

[ONLY_ONCE]

I just watched for the 50th time all the gameplay footage from E3.
I would like to open a thread for community suggestions about walking and running animations. How, in your opinion, can be improved?

The more I watch the videos the more I think that Geralt's movements look really clumsy, weighted, as if he had some bulky armor/equipment or burden. I also think that Geralt model (, body, physical proportions) is a bit too beefy, and this plus the clumsy and heavy movement make Geralt look far from the fast and agile warrior he's supposed to be.
He moves more like a knight in heavy armor. Also the feet and hands look way too big. Based on what I see, I'm really disappointed by CDproject character desigh choices. I really hope they'll work on Geralt's aesthetics and animations.

HaHa.. I think Geralt looks and moves as he should. You make it sound like he should be floating asross the ground like a pansy. His gloves are suposed to look like that man.

Alright people !!
It's been a week since E3 , so probably you would say why I am asking this question now ,but It's like when I saw griffin hunt demo the running animation of geralt seemed quite weird or robotic on terrains & slopes first I thought it was just me but I've read some article's mentioning the same and also some people on this forum. So what do you guy's think , should it be improved or not !! It's just my opinion though after the release I want this game to be best looking on any platform and I am sure it'll be best but I just don't want any asshole complaining about geralt's style later on.

Cheers !!

I like all of his new animation so far, It's an easy choice for me. All one has to do is, go play TW2 for 5 mins and then go watch the demos again and try not to smile.

 

[sidspyker]

Well I can't say about you guys but I've yet to see an RPG with animations that are like most non-RPG games(the last few Assassin's Creed for example) so it's not something that I expect, I expected them to be passable and what I've seen so far is much better than passable so I'm very pleased. I don't know the 'reason' behind it but it's just an observation.

W3 Should have horse pooping, just sayin

Behind the guy kicking... can't say about pooping... but there's horseshit alright.

 

[Kretek]

W3 Should have horse pooping, just sayin

I agree with you. And Im not even joking Horses models look great in W3, but lack of "back-door" is kinda weird. I was spending loot of my childhood around horses in polish countyside, so lack of pooping animation saddens me a bit I saw new MGS have pooping horses, why we dont have them in W3. And to be clear, Im not joking. Im dead serious, like never before in my life I want pooping horses in my Witcher game. I want biggest immersion possible.

 

[Yurtex]

I agree with you. And Im not even joking Horses models look great in W3, but lack of "back-door" is kinda weird. I was spending loot of my childhood around horses in polish countyside, so lack of pooping animation saddens me a bit I saw new MGS have pooping horses, why we dont have them in W3. And to be clear, Im not joking. Im dead serious, like never before in my life I want pooping horses in my Witcher game. I want biggest immersion possible.

Maybe we haven't seen it?

 

[Kretek]

Maybe we haven't seen it?

I hope this is the case. But still. Horses dont have a poop-holes :/

 

[BL4CKFL4G]

Review the thread, as topic is discussed at length and in detail.
For comparison's sake, limited to the subject at hand,

I Don't understand what are you comparing with Order !!

 

[BL4CKFL4G]

I like all of his new animation so far, It's an easy choice for me. All one has to do is, go play TW2 for 5 mins and then go watch the demos again and try not to smile.[/QUOTE]

I have played W2 twice man !! I didn't had any problem with animations in W2 and also the W2 came out long time ago !!
so what are you suggesting ?

 

[Jupiter_on_Mars]

Well I can't say about you guys but I've yet to see an RPG with animations that are like most non-RPG games(the last few Assassin's Creed for example) so it's not something that I expect, I expected them to be passable and what I've seen so far is much better than passable so I'm very pleased. I don't know the 'reason' behind it but it's just an observation.


Behind the guy kicking... can't say about pooping... but there's horseshit alright.

I wouldn't want to veer the discussion towards the hypothetic why's TW3 is or is not able to match other AAA non RPG titles. That discussion leads to a dead end.

No one forwarded AAA titles as a mean to suggest TW3 should match them across the board in the animation department. But speaking about Geralt, specifically, there is room for improvement and I can't think of a reason with the mentioned 4 months devoted to polishing won't be spent, why, polishing the protagonist's core animations.

I Don't understand what are you comparing with Order !!

What I mean is The Order looks smoother and more natural than TW3 in the animation department. Now, one could argue there are reasons why that was to be expected, but I don't think discussing that is helpful in any way. Much better to pinpoint why, for example, the running animation indeed looks a bit smoother, more natural and seamless.

Sorry mate, but I cant agree with you at all. The Order is more interactive movie then game. Yes, I know I'm exaggerating. But I think lot of you know what I mean by that. Its also taking place in much smaller enviroment so main character is almost always moving with weapon in his hands. Beside we actually dont see half of his body because of zoom and camera angel. Comparing W3 to Order, even if we are talking only about animations, is pointless in my oppinion. Just saying.

Your post is the perfect example why the discussion should not go there. Instead of discussing how specific animations can be improved upon, we'd dwell on genres, platforms, budgets, teams and pipelines, all of which we know far too little of and are in no position to influence in any shape or form. That would defeat the purpose of the thread.

We can help by bringing the Red's attention to subtleties, by offering counter examples, even when they're obviously not exact matches. In this very narrow regard, The Order and AC: U both offer stellar animations. I see no reason devs would not look into them for inspiration.

 

[BL4CKFL4G]

I wouldn't want to veer the discussion towards the hypothetic why's TW3 is or is not able to match other AAA non RPG titles. That discussion leads to a dead end.

What I mean is The Order looks smoother and more natural than TW3 in the animation department. Now, one could argue there are reasons why that was to be expected, but I don't think discussing that is helpful in any way. Much better to pinpoint why, for example, the running animation indeed looks a bit smoother, more natural and seamless.

the camera angle in the order was different but I would agree that animations were slightly better , I never wanted go in details of those things in the first place , all I am saying is that animation in W3 needs to be polished or worked upon . Definitely for some reasons the animation in W3 could not match AC:U or Order but they can be improved.

 

[Kretek]

What I mean is The Order looks smoother and more natural than TW3 in the animation department. Now, one could argue there are reasons why that was to be expected, but I don't think discussing that is helpful in any way. Much better to pinpoint why, for example, the running animation indeed looks a bit smoother, more natural and seamless.

Sorry mate, but I cant agree with you at all. The Order is more interactive movie then game. Yes, I know I'm exaggerating. But I think lot of you know what I mean by that. Its also taking place in much smaller enviroment so main character is almost always moving with weapon in his hands. Beside we actually dont see half of his body because of zoom and camera angel. Comparing W3 to Order, even if we are talking only about animations, is pointless in my oppinion. Just saying.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

I hope this is the case. But still. Horses dont have a poop-holes :/

I agree, give them horses some dookie holes already!! Just touch it up a bit and while you are at it, more Camel-Toe on the ladies Please!!
The lack of a tasteful sexy cameltoe panty line, really breaks my immersion!! I'm not joking... HaHa
Nah.. I'm kidding, or am I??
(chants)*
cameltoe... cameltoe... cameltoe...

 

[Thothistox]

IMO the main problem with the animations is that he looks weightless for a split second here and there. When he swings his sword the motion is too fast. It gives me a cartoony DA2 vibe, which I strongly dislike.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

IMO the main problem with the animations is that he looks weightless for a split second here and there. When he swings his sword the motion is too fast. It gives me a cartoony DA2 vibe, which I strongly dislike.

I think someone said they only sped it up like that for the demo, so it should be fine.

 

[sidspyker]

No one forwarded AAA titles

Speak for yourself, I've seen plenty of names dropped and what TW3 could have from say AC3/4 was mentioned earlier and that's what I'm addressing.

Yes we all know the last 2 AC games and the new one show off lovely animations and transition, but let's go more into detail about how they have that, it's not as simple as creating a bunch of animations. Both the(released) games have continuous running scripts for prediction about about the surface and feet placement, leg movement. This was done by raycasting all possible paths present in the game world. More running scripts in an RPG would most likely be a cost decision to run parallel against all the other scripts.

Polishing up the animations, making the transition smoother is fine and I agree but one shouldn't set unrealistic standards from other games that clearly spent a lot of time solely on animations.

We did this by raycasting possible paths and making sure Connor's feet were ready to step over the highest point, and his pelvis was properly tilted. (This is scarily similar to the procedure the human body does automatically when we're walking.) Added to this, Front Strafing meant that Connor would step from side-to-side as ran; when players started turning, Connor would strafe first, meaning the animation wasn't disturbed if the player then turned him back........... To make it so that Connor (and the other characters and animals) had proper foot placement took the best part of three years work by AC3's AI department.

 

[Pedrolago]

@sidspyker

We did this by raycasting possible paths and making sure Connor's feet were ready to step over the highest point, and his pelvis was properly tilted. (This is scarily similar to the procedure the human body does automatically when we're walking.) Added to this, Front Strafing meant that Connor would step from side-to-side as ran; when players started turning, Connor would strafe first, meaning the animation wasn't disturbed if the player then turned him back........... To make it so that Connor (and the other characters and animals) had proper foot placement took the best part of three years work by AC3's AI department.

Imagine a combat system built using these techniques….

But yeah I agree, since there is no parkour in TW3 running animations are not that important (at least imo), they should adapt to inclination but not in the extreme way AC does.

 

[randyrhoads]

I just want the damn dodging animation fixed

 

[Jupiter_on_Mars]

Well, I think I've finally wrapped my head around the flat terrain / slope issue.
As stated, It'd be great to have different sets of animations. But what's definitely needed, even more so, is different speeds. Watching through the footage, it seems Geralt runs on flat terrain and slopes at the very same pace.

Three should be 3 distinctly different running speeds: downhill, flat terrain and uphill. And I'd imagine implementing different speeds to be much easier than entirely different sets of animations.

( Sidenote, is it me or does Geralt shove and kick opponents now? I seem to have spotted such moves in the Twitch footage. )

 

[JackieEstacado]

Yes, I think the kick animation may occur on reversing an enemy attack. I also noticed that Geralt can hit with an elbow strike the foes at his back, but the knockback animation and the collision in general looked pretty stiff and clumsy.
But I think that CD Projekt has already planned to use this seven months extra time focusing on animation improvement .
The only thing I wouldn't take for granted is the different type of running animations for downhill/uphill grounds, because it's a less important issue compared to the combat flaws.

 

[Percival_Dickenbutts]

I don't really see anything wrong with the combat animations so far, the only thing that worries me is the rumor that Geralt was sped up for the demo and will be slow as molasses in the final game. I swear, if they make him slower than he was in TW2 I may have to choke a bitch!
The witcher-like speed he fought with in the demo was the best part in my opinion!

 

[JackieEstacado]

The speed was indeed all right, but I think it's undeniable that the overall animations are too rough and hasty.
They give the impression of missing some frames and the hit feedback on both Geralt and enemies is sloppy.
It's a huge improvement from the nearly unexisting knockback of the first two games of the franchise, but there is still a good amount of work to reach a fine result.