Animations in Dev Demos - lacking

Bit of feedback on what i have seen so far ~

I do not know how much work has gone into the character animations, but there is a lot to be desired. Things don't seem fluid, they still seem like they are skating around, the footsteps arent impactful enough for immersion. The new leaning system helps, but you cant just incorporate leaning left and right, there are shoulder and torso movements and twisting that enhances the realism alot, vaulting seems okay, but it looks like a race car suddenly hitting a wall when you start vaulting/ climbing, the timing is all off. The characters all look like that are pegged to a pole with a carrot up their preverbial.

Not sure on your production scale or budget, but it may be worth looking into something like RADiCAL (AI driven real time animation creation supported by Epic and FBX exports available) Getting a pakour actor to help with movement animations, and get the sound team to make the foot steps feel more impactful. This will improve immersion a lot. One thing i noticed about new world although there is MUCH to be desired about gameplay, they really nailed the sounds, all the actions and movement feels really impactful with the use of very well timed sound bites and this improves the feeling of the game by a lot.

TL DR
- Animations feel un-imersive and unrealistic. Use something like RADiCAL (AI powered real time animation generation) to improve animation movements and help with naturalization of movements
- Improve sound bites to provide more impactful movement in game.
- something new world actually got right, sound and movement animations are pretty on point, not that i would take any leaves about game design from them, there are aspects of that game that make it playable, even with the mess it is in.

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Atama

Marcet wrote: »

Yes, I said "I don't know much about game design" to make clear my own opinion is based on ignorance, because im asking for answers for everyone! answers from someone who really knows about this stuff.
Not you telling me to shut up for asking something, alright dude?

Two things…

1) Everyone knows that the animations need to be improved. The developers have said they will be. They’ve explained in the very videos where they are showing progress that the animations are very early and are barely past the defaults that came packaged with UE4. So why talk about something everyone knows and acknowledges, including the developers actually making them?

2) Based on #1, what do you think is the appropriate response to people who insist the game will be a failure because the animations are clunky? Should we support them because we want to be a welcoming community? Nod and play dumb and hand them torches and pitchforks? Or should the facts be explained at the risk of someone thinking that the community is condescending?

Personally, I try not to jump down anyone’s throats but it doesn’t matter. If someone has an opinion and someone else disagrees, then that person is the enemy. That’s the attitude of a lot of people who come to the board and rant out of ignorance.

daveywavey

Tulima wrote: »

If you need experience in game design to give constructive criticism, then the vast majority of this forum should stay quiet.

As OP seems to understand it's an alpha, they may criticize as much as they like.

There's a biiiiig difference between giving actual constructive criticism and telling them how to do their jobs.

Saying: "I don't like the fireball animation where the character jumps into the air, because it doesn't feel right" is constructive criticism.

Saying: "You should be working on fluidity of movement before networking, engine migration, prototyping combat, design, render optimization, node simulating, and other core functions" is telling them how to do their job, and is NOT constructive criticism.

AncientIncant's post:
"I don’t think they are at that stage yet my friend.

It appears as Intrepid is working on networking, engine migration, prototyping combat, design, render optimization, node simulating, and other core functions.

We all saw the obvious. As Barrakus said, “There is still a long way to go. I expect they will put some focus on that at some point.”"

Marcet's post in reply:
"AncientIncant

The question is, when its time to work on that?

Everytime someone mentions something about the animations people claim that this is alpha. Well I think the first thing they should work on is fluidity of movement in the game, good gameplay, and then the world. I honestly don't know much about game design but its important to disscus this, and with people that understands what they talk about."

TL:DR
Constructive Criticism = Good
Criticism in general = Can still be good
Telling the development studio what order to plan their workload = Not good.

AidanKD

I feel it's not as well known although the information is publicly available though you wouldn't look for it, but Intrepid are and have been hiring for a Senior Technical Animator for a little while now. I am sure that Steven with his high bar of standard when recruiting for any role is being selective but if he is recruiting for this role, then it tells me that they (Intrepid Studios) are aware of the need for improvement in animations - so much so that they are looking for an experienced Senior to somewhat lead the bridge here. This gives me some hope that we will see improvement once this role is filled and I mean, if you have animators working for 2-3 years before the game releases on just animation, then I am sure that will be a good amount of time to improve the base standard here.

For what it's worth, I thought the vaulting looked pretty good, that being a somewhat new animation that we have seen.

I agree with the consensus that while yes, the game is in Alpha, criticism at this stage can't be helped. I do wish that there were some stickied posts with an FAQ for newcomers in all of the social media platforms, but it is what it is.

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