Procedural/simulated animation

Frozpot

Well-Known Member
Sep 13, 2013
13,275
5,384
3,629
Hey all,

I've mentioned the desire to see more physics based animation in games, so I thought it would be fun to have a thread dedicated to the topic. I stumbled on this vid from Sigraph a few years ago. It's about simulating walking and balance via virtual muscle actuation. Pretty cool.



All vids on this topic are welcome- even funny ones of system bloopers from games like GTA or Red Dead (two of only a handful of games that use this underused technology).

 
Cool thread idea. I went to school for 2 years as an animator. I am at work right now, but I will try to post something tonight
 
  • Like
Reactions: Frozpot
Cool thread idea. I went to school for 2 years as an animator. I am at work right now, but I will try to post something tonight

I've got a bachelor's in Media Art and Animation. It's one of my favorite aspects in games.

Lol, my job is little more than animating object transitions (exaggeration, but closer than I'd like!)... Still, they didn't even know what an ease-in/ease-out was when I got there...
 
I've got a bachelor's in Media Art and Animation. It's one of my favorite aspects in games.

Lol, my job is little more than animating object transitions (exaggeration, but closer than I'd like!)... Still, they didn't even know what an ease-in/ease-out was when I got there...

You'll have better luck with the ease-in, ease-out if you can convince them you're just going to put in the tip.
 
I've got a bachelor's in Media Art and Animation. It's one of my favorite aspects in games.

Lol, my job is little more than animating object transitions (exaggeration, but closer than I'd like!)... Still, they didn't even know what an ease-in/ease-out was when I got there...

Nice. Sounds like a good job to have. Maybe you could be a developer or something if you tried hard enough. The sky's the limit, Froz!
 
Nice. Sounds like a good job to have. Maybe you could be a developer or something if you tried hard enough. The sky's the limit, Froz!

Oh no, I'd have to take a rather large pay-cut if I wanted to get into game development. I make what a lot of Art Directors make. Just not a logical decision.
 
Ain't no program telling me how to walk!

But I love the drunk looking walk animations! I'd love to see 50 gen 200 dinosaurs stumbling round, like a dinosaur Coachella.
 
Blacklist had a lot of intuitive work done with its animation.

The whole video is interesting, I just skipped to an actual animation rather than slides.

plus a fun little robot test combining mocap and a rougher version of their system they developed there.^
 
I wanted to drag this bad boy up so I could post the Full GDC 2016 demonstration for Motion Mapping!

Looks amazing!



Relevant now as TLOU 2 is said to be using this method :)
 
I expect some good stuff for this thread when red dead comes out.
 
I like the physics based interactions with NPCs and the rest of the world in RDR2 but I do think they could make the controls tighter when on foot, a lot of people hate the way the game feels to play (and all Rockstar games for that matter)
 
I like the physics based interactions with NPCs and the rest of the world in RDR2 but I do think they could make the controls tighter when on foot, a lot of people hate the way the game feels to play (and all Rockstar games for that matter)

I haven't had any issue with the movement at all. It's mindset- You have to think of it as you would yourself- you have to anticipate your movement and momentum. I quite like it, as it is intentional and is realistic in how we would go about moving in the real world. We get used to the unnatural way games give us instant control. I think it's perfect, but to each his own, I guess.
 
I haven't had any issue with the movement at all. It's mindset- You have to think of it as you would yourself- you have to anticipate your movement and momentum. I quite like it, as it is intentional and is realistic in how we would go about moving in the real world. We get used to the unnatural way games give us instant control. I think it's perfect, but to each his own, I guess.

I think it can be a bit too much when you turn around and he takes an extra step for no reason, that kind of thing can be frustrating when you are trying to loot a box and he just won't stand in the right place. I love the physical interactions with the NPC's and the rest of the game world but I do think just for the sake of fun we could have a bit more direct control over our characters movements.
 
I think it can be a bit too much when you turn around and he takes an extra step for no reason, that kind of thing can be frustrating when you are trying to loot a box and he just won't stand in the right place. I love the physical interactions with the NPC's and the rest of the game world but I do think just for the sake of fun we could have a bit more direct control over our characters movements.

It's a small sacrifice, imo. When I compare this game with the movement in ACO, it just looks and feels leagues more authentic. Maybe because I care more about immersion these days.