Standing and idle animations?

[Zerovirus]

I think perhaps the more dynamic units should get standing animations first. The Thief and Orcish Assassin come to mind. I personally wouldn't like a standing animation for a unit like the spearman that's not based on speed or constant movement but more as a balanced fighter; it makes him look weak and floppy, not resolute as a spearman should.

[Atz]

Well, I wasn't planning to make him do a soft-shoe shuffle or anything. I always thought the spearman looks like he's standing guard, so I thought I'd just have him look around a little and shift his weight. I've blocked it up so you can see what I mean, though I still need to make a couple of adjustments. If it's not suitable for a standing animation I reckon it could still be used as an idle.

[thespaceinvader]

It could make an interesting second idle animation for him, but I think it's maybe a little too active for a standing animation. Just a little bit of up-and-down bob, almost like the unit's simply breathing, is probably better for most of the armoured human units.

[Reepurr]

Standing animations are wholly unavoidable.

I started on a standing animation for the HI: (the mace is supposed to angle backwards and that's why it shrinks)

Well, I tried...

heavyinfantry.gif (4.36 KiB) Viewed 3981 times

[hhyloc]

Non-artist comment:

The animation looks weird Maybe because his chest is "out-of-sync" with his belly?

[thespaceinvader]

Standing animations are wholly unavoidable.

I started on a standing animation for the HI: (the mace is supposed to angle backwards and that's why it shrinks)

heavyinfantry.gif

I don't think you're really there, unfortunately. We need more than just cut-and-slide, here. And the mace: if you have to tell us what you intend it to be doing, you're not doing it right. Thanks for the attempt, but it needs a lot more work.

[Atz]

It could make an interesting second idle animation for him, but I think it's maybe a little too active for a standing animation. Just a little bit of up-and-down bob, almost like the unit's simply breathing, is probably better for most of the armoured human units.

Yeah, you're probably right. In that case, I will continue on with this as an idle animation for the moment, and then have another go at a standing animation later.

[thespaceinvader]

If you're going with that course, make the movement just a little bigger - extend the head turn a touch more, particularly.

This will make the spearman a very vigilant unit, given that he already has an idle where he looks behind him.

[Atz]

If you're going with that course, make the movement just a little bigger - extend the head turn a touch more, particularly.

Worked on it this afternoon before seeing this comment, so here's a version with the same motions as the blocking. Although I did actually make it slightly faster and removed one frame, so it probably looks like he's moving a bit more than the blocked animation just because of the speed. Also because you can see his helmet turn properly.

Just for fun, the second is what it would look like if it was a standing animation. Perfect for all those campaigns which involve tennis matches or crossing busy streets!

Also, some questions about uploading. Since the spearman already has an idle, what naming scheme do you want for the frames? "spearman-idle2-1", etc.? Also, I've got one frame which is the same as the base frame. Will it use a reference the existing graphic in the WML to save space, or would it be easier just to include it with the others?

[thespaceinvader]

It probably does need a little rotation in the feet. And I'll need to work out how more than one idle animation can be applied to a single unit.

[Reepurr]

Maybe just put in two idle animations.
Like with the Thief.

[Zerovirus]

Maybe combine the two idle animations? Have the spearman look to his sides a bit like in the above, then append Major's animation on afterwards.

[thespaceinvader]

Maybe just put in two idle animations.
Like with the Thief.

The thief only has a single idle animation. It has multiple defence animations. But I think that idles will work the same way - if two animations fit the filter, it will randomly choose between them.

[pauxlo]

Maybe just put in two idle animations.
Like with the Thief.

The thief only has a single idle animation. It has multiple defence animations. But I think that idles will work the same way - if two animations fit the filter, it will randomly choose between them.

Reading [wiki]AnimationWML#How animations are chosen[/wiki], this is exactly how it works.

Unnecessary details

More precisely: If some animations with same score (= same number of conditions) are matching, one is chosen randomly. If they have different score, the one with highest score will be chosen. In this case, they would have exactly the same conditions, so this does not really matter.

[Atz]

I was actually under the impression that there was a plan to give units a range of idles if suitable art was produced, with smaller animations like looking around being common, and larger ones like the Dwarf Fighter's jump being less common.

EDIT: New version. Made his head turn one pixel further to his left, and he now lifts his feet slightly to turn.