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[ChrisN]

looks to have a lot of potential!

Goodluck! :D 

[Paul]

Working on some animations for the 3d models in Blender and then importing them into a test scene in Unity. I was previously using an perspective camera in Unity for the backgrounds with a very large field of view so it allowed for some background movement with the player. This was in combination with an orthographic one for the foreground as I think it allows for more precise platforming. I'm still testing different combinations but I switched back to full orthographic for everything and just seems to look better. So, for now, I'm sticking with that!

Some badly made and slightly slowed down gifs, I'll post some full speed ones when I get the camera working with the player. The lighting still doesn't have a huge effect on the player. I need to accentuate that but I also need to the player to stand out against the background in both light and dark so it's a bit of a balancing act

[Paul]

ChrisN and oldblood, thanks!

Update #12 First Round of Animation

I've been working on some animations for the main character. This was just a first pass at them so they will still need some polish later on. The main advantage of using 3D, and one of the reasons I wanted to use it was that the animations can easily be tweaked and so can the character model. Also the lighting aspect of things. I know a lot of people would prefer 2d, but I'm inexperienced when it comes to animation so I'm glad I went this route instead as it allows me to play around with things and make a lot of mistakes without losing too much time







This gif for the running animation looks a bit odd here, might post a slower version later

[Hempuli‽]

Really fantastic! I like how powerful the tools are; it'll be neat to see how many different approaches the levels allow!

[Paul]

Really fantastic! I like how powerful the tools are; it'll be neat to see how many different approaches the levels allow!

Thanks! Once I have a bit more of the visuals done, I'll start uploading level sections

First pass at an enemy robot animation. Needs some work on the legs and the colours will probably change too, but I'm getting things done to a certain level so I can see how it all fits together (if it needs more/less movement, if everything is clear to the player etc.)



edit: extra give of the turn around animation

[Paul]

Expanding the backgrounds. I'm afraid I might have included too much detail since the camera will be kind of far away from the player, but I'm happy with how it turned out so far

[lobstersteve]

Everything looks awesome  .. but the running animation looks a bit weird. It looks like he has spring shoes on^^ Maybe he is just too high in the air during the frames where both feet are up, but something seems unnatural about it.

[Octopus Tophat]

Everything looks awesome  .. but the running animation looks a bit weird. It looks like he has spring shoes on^^ Maybe he is just too high in the air during the frames where both feet are up, but something seems unnatural about it.

I have to agree :/ I was never crazy about that running animation.

[Paul]

Thanks for pointing it out, I know the gif looks a bit janky so its hard to pinpoint where a problem is. Here's a slowed down version, it should give you a better idea. I made it kind of bouncy as the camera will be far enough away from the player so I'd like some movement.

I'm no animator by the way, so if you see any more issues with the gifs, let me know! 

[The_Observer]

Lovely devlog Paul! I like the simple style of your main character.
If you don't mind, I wanted to give you some feedback.

I have trouble with his center of gravity here. It feels very unrealistic, as if he should fall down any moment. You might know it already, but the animator survival kit is a great reference for walks (and runs). Also I think he's sneaking? Then it might be interesting to look at other sneaking methods, like those of ninja's where the weight shifting is very important.

Here some more weight shifting might also be needed. Looking at the reference of the survival kit, you're lacking an up-position(where his foot pushes him up- and forward from the floor) and a down-position(where his weight pushes his foot to the floor and giving momentum to push forward again).

I hope I don't come across to critical, I like your devlog a lot and look forward to the updates!

[Paul]

I hope I don't come across to critical, I like your devlog a lot and look forward to the updates!

Not at all! I appreciate the feedback and thanks for the links! This game is my first time animating so all critiques are welcome! I might start from scratch on that run animation and post a new one in the next few days

[Octopus Tophat]

I looked at some run cycle pictures on google. I think maybe when the legs go towards his front, the knee isn't bending enough. I know your animation is stylized, but people don't usually extend their legs that much before stepping. Obviously, I'm not an expert, but maybe just try bending the knees more? I wouldn't try unless other people agree with me, art/animation is one thing I'm not great at.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

Just tried something fast.


the way your character runs looked like a ballerina, or someone running underwater backwards.
so yeah, as Octopus said , more knee bending so it looks like he is puttin impact on the back feet to thrust forward.

[Paul]

Thanks guys, I think The_Observer said it best, I need to work on the down part of the cycle and increase the feeling of weight where pushes his foot pushes down on the floor to lift himself again

I also don't want a super realistic animation, more stylized and fast, like Guacamelee. If you look up http://www.artisanimation.com/animations.html, the Guacamelee animator has some gifs of his work which have a real nice feel to them

[Octopus Tophat]

Yeah it might be that. Maybe the torso needs to kind of bounce a bit to make it feel more weighty. Either way, something looks off somehow. I just can't quite pinpoint what exactly it is. Still though, I think bakkusa's animation (despite being pretty cruddy) shows how much more natural the legs look. Again, I know it's stylized, but even the main character from guacamelee has a very cartoony run cycle, but maintains the natural leg positions. The stylized look comes more from the speed of the frames, more so than the actual positioning of the limbs. If you take a realistic running animation and alter the frames so it hangs a bit after each step, and make the rest really quick, I bet it'll look pretty cartoony.
I know I'm sounding like a doucher right now, but I'm taking the time to try to help you. I'm sure after you tweak it a bit, you'll look back and understand what we were thinking.

Also, I just wanted to point out, it really looks like he's trying to climb a hill here. If you just tilt your head a bit, you can imagine he's really trying to put his weight forward so he doesn't fall down a hill. Except... this is supposed to be on flat ground, so it could use some work as well. The actual animation looks fine, you just might want to bring the torso back a bit. Maybe extend an arm behind him as a kind of counter-balance.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

+ shoulders should move as we can see in the guacamelee animation.

[Paul]

Thanks bakkusa and Octopus Tophat, going to work on adding more weight to him anyway and see how adjusting the "hanging" mid air affects it. Bakkusa thanks for the gifs! Was a bit confused by the first one but the second is much clearer

I'm going to stay working on the graphics for now and keep these animations as placeholders. So the next steps are; adding more art and implementing the graphics into the game as they're both separate, and then improving the animations

[Paul]

Update #13 Environment Art

Before I get back to a second attempt at animating, I've been working on getting the backgrounds for the first level complete. I've been making a lot of modular components as I plan to reconfigure each room into different variations. So the bottom images are 2x1 rooms, i.e. 2 units high and 1 wide. So they can be configured into 2x1, 1x2 and a 1x1 room each. The rooms are procedurally generated so I will have a stokpile of variations for each, and can drop them in depending on the room size and type. Also have to make sure not to re-use main parts of the room, like the monitors, too much in one level

I also plan on animating these backgrounds a bit so some sparks will fly, screens will glitch out and lights will flicker

 

[arrebeat]

Dude!!! That's looking amazing! I love the industrial feel you got going there! But now that I think about it, what's gonna be the main objective? To escape the facility or to infiltrate and steal/retrieve something?

[Paul]

Dude!!! That's looking amazing! I love the industrial feel you got going there! But now that I think about it, what's gonna be the main objective? To escape the facility or to infiltrate and steal/retrieve something?

Hah thanks, there's still some work to be done in bringing them more to life with small effects like steam, sparks and monitor animations but I'm pretty happy with the look so far I think.

I'm still planning on it being a heist game, where the player starts outside the building (on the rooftop or something), enters, and has to get to an extraction point after completing the main objective (such as stealing a certain object or photographing some documents). I also want a world map so the player will have more than one choice of level moving forward and the heist idea plays into this.  They'll be able to choose from different buildings to infiltrate, each with different objectives and they can decide which to target based on their equipment or skill. This is a long way off though! First goal is to get a working version of one level and the play test as much as possible