495 Game Production

Sprint Blog 6

As we're getting close to the end of the semester, I spent this sprint Splining all the current animations, Baking them and uploading them to the google drive where our programmers are able to insert them into the game. There was a problem with the monster model where it was glowing extra shiny when light was being shined on it so I had to remap the animations onto the newer rigged that was weight painted. The process of splining the animations was pretty simple adding more in between poses so that the transitions between extreme poses looked more adequate. There were a few time where I had to play with the timing of some of the animations. For example some felt a little to short while others felt like they need to be condensed. Once I liked how the animations looked I playblasted them and sent them to my producer for the greenlight before baking the animation keys onto the skeleton. Once I bake the animations I'm pretty much done, since I just have to wait for feedback on any adjustments I need to make.

These are some of the animations I baked this Sprint

This is the hide animation Baked that way the player can get away from monsters and hide safely

This animation indicates that the batteries are running low on the flashlight and the player must find more to keep it alive. 

So far I say we're making great progress and that when we're done with the semester we will have and enjoyable repayable game. That obviously won't be 100% solid but it'll be good enough for people to play and review. 

Sprint Blog 5

As an animator I tend to start with the blocking of the main poses based off the reference that I gathered or filmed starting off the process. I review the reference to gather the main poses and when it comes to blocking I either choose to exaggerate those poses or keep them as is based if I like it or not. Once the blocking phase is concluded and I have all the key poses down. I send it to my producer, or other animators for critique. I then go back to fix whatever issues that were brought up and then finally I go into the spline phase where I do in between poses so that the transitions between key poses is much smoother and more enjoyable to watch from a viewers perspective. For game animations I have to sacrifice things like anticipation and follow through poses since the player needs to feel that the animations aren't getting in the way of gameplay. 

This past two weeks I worked on splining most of the animations that were key for the game. I was not able to complete all of them but am in the process of getting them done. These are all the animations I was able to spline and complete. 

This Idle pose is so that the character can still be in motion when the player is afk or in a menu

This is a simple pull out lighter animation

this is a simple pull out flashlight animation.

This is the attack animation for the roaming enemy, As soon as it get close enough this animation will play and deal damage to the player. This is an example of sacrificing anticipation for clean gameplay. 

Sprint Blog 4

During the duration of these last two weeks, I had the most animation work I've done so far and its starting to look good. My main tasks this time around were to get the attack animation and death animation in the game. I think the biggest problem that I faced was not having a finished rig to just do the animations start to finish so I used the prototype that we first had for the monster. This allowed me to map out the basic movements and timing required for the animation loops.

Thankfully I was able to finished the splining for both I now must wait for the rig to be fixed in order to transfer the animations from the old rig onto the new rig. Another problem that I faced this sprint was just learning how to animate a quadruped rig since I haven't had much practice in the past. As a solution I just looked at tons of reference and its a lot similar to animating a biped rig, it just takes a bit longer since for a cycle a quadruped tends to have more poses. 

These are the finished animations ready to be put into the game.

This death animation since in first person will take away the movement controls from the player and play this animation with the circumstance that the monster lands the final blow to the player.

This is a basic attack swipe from the monster used to take away health from the player. 

My next plan of attack is to get the fixed rig with these animations and put them into the game as soon as possible. I must also catch up on my 2D art tasks. 

Sprint Blog 3

These past two weeks I got to block out quite a few animations. I did a idle breathing animation, A slow walk cycle, a hiding in an armoire animation, and a crawling animation. all these were shown to my 493 class where other animators gave me feedback on these short animations. During the next sprint I will block out other animations such as an idle for the monster as well as other character related animations. 

Problems that I faced this time around included figuring out the new Monster rig, I also had to figure out the proper timing with each of the game animations being that my references were in real time and i had to adjust for the snappiness a game animation should have.

Solutions that I came up with were just to adjust the key frames in the graph editor in Maya as well as only taking the key poses that displayed the correct animation, limiting anticipation poses but still having the finishing poses. 

Here are all the animations I was able to start this time around.

 This idle animation is a simple slow breathing block out allowing for some motion while the player is not moving, 

 This is a simple slow walk cycle block out, allowing for movement when the player walks in any direction

 This animation is a hide in an armoire, activated when interacting with an armoire allowing for the player to hide when being chased by monsters.

 This is a simple crawl walk cycle block out for the monster rig, The rig is being improved so this is no where near the final result, i just felt the need to get something down for previz.

 

 Sprint Blog 2

As the animator of the group I started blocking out some of the animations that are character will be doing in game. This process is a little slow at the moment since we are still deciding upon a character model. Meanwhile I am blocking out the animations onto a motion capture skeleton that way it will be easy to transfer the animations when we decide on the rig/s we are going to use. 

These are a couple of simple motions that the character will do over and over from pulling out an item from their inventory and a lighting flick that will activate the zippo for light.

 This is the pullout item animation blocking

 This is the Lighting a lighter animation blocking

Apart from this for my animation work I also gathered more reference for our walk cycle and other small animation loops like idle poses that will give our game a bit more life. 

Some struggles that I went through these past two weeks was finding reference for a crawl animation that requires someone to walk with their stomach facing up on fours which sounds easier than it is. I am hoping to get reference for this for the next sprint. What i will do differently for the kickoff is bring a list of tasks that i think could help me out finding work since as the animator I don't have much to do at the moment other than reference and simple block outs. 

I have a background in art taking multiple art classes during my college career so I opted in to make a couple of paintings/drawings to make up some of the points I otherwise wouldn't get because of the lack of work. 

These drawings are meant for a game illusion where when the player shines light onto the drawing the drawing will change into the other one if that makes sense?

 Sprint Blog 1

For the first sprint I was assigned as the animator of the team. My job starts out fairly slow since the modelers need time to come up with models and rigs before I am able to get to the blocking stage of my animations. While they do that I am gathering references on the animations that my producer thinks will be important to implement into the game for our first build. I was given a crash course on AGILE which allows us to get as much work done in periods of two weeks. I am excited to work with my team and my producer in order to publish a quality game I am able to put in my portfolio. 

Here are video links to all the reference I shot for the first batch of animations I will be working on for sprint 2

Once my producer give me the green light I am able to move onto blocking and start animating. But first I need the Character models and rigs before i am able to start on these things.

I had a total of 4 points moved into verified and have 2 points currently in progress