What do you think of character animation?

[neozero]

(This is all based on the new e3 vid from fileplanet)

I see potential. In terms of facial expressions, the work they did was spot on, but in the characters acted pretty typically. It just seemed as if they were block, and moved their arms a lot when talking (especially eli). The thing is, is that this definately is not a limitation based on the engine.

You can definately tell that it was a bunch of game geeks that did the animation, but what you really need are actual actors. If valve is really serious about acheiving a more cinematic quality with the in-game character interactions, then they should get an accomplished actor or director to heavily crit the animation.

Remember A 3D software animator may be a virtuoso at using his/her program, but only a true aficianado of the theatre can understand how people convey emotions to one another.

Thoughts?

 

[Rupertvdb]

they did get actors spaswick.

 

[MultiVaC]

Show me a game whose animation can even remotely try to touch this.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Some of the character movement looks great but some looks quite shoddy. It's generally the more discreet stuff that stands out as being bad or not at a level it could be.

 

[qckbeam]

I was floored by the character animation's, totally floored. I have never seen anything that even approaches this level of realism in a game.

 

[Death.Trap]

I thought it was amazing. I completely agree with qckbeam. The g-man in the beginning of the ATI presentation completely blew me away. The way the characters moved during the whole thing...wow.

 

[dscowboy]

I agree, the character animation is amazing, but it could definitely be better too. Motion capture with a high enough sampling rate would give you animation the quality of Gollum.

 

[Shuzer]

The animations were spot on, looked great IMO
Sure, room for improvement, but I have yet to see anything that's near that

 

[Mountain Man]

Sure, the animation could be better, but we're talking about a video game playing in real-time on your average consumer grade PC. In other words, the animation is stunning!

 

[crabcakes66]

I was floored by the character animation's, totally floored. I have never seen anything that even approaches this level of realism in a game.

Agreed 100%


...but i am completly amazed by almost every aspect of what we are seeing.... :bounce:

 

[Spiffae]

The animations were spot on, looked great IMO
Sure, room for improvement, but I have yet to see anything that's near that

I concur. yes, it's not perfect, but if they get it perfect today, what do we wait for tomorrow?

Remember HL1? that is STILL a great game. do you think the animation in that was good? it was TERRIBLE. doesn't matter. It's still the best game i've ever played.

 

[qckbeam]

I forgot to mention this, but if you want examples of the stunning animation work (it's all over the place, but a few scenes really stuck out) just take a look at the g-mans face, and the scene involving Eli, Alyx, and the lady in the white shirt. That was the most extraordinary bit of animation I've ever seen in a game, period. The characters interacted with each other perfectly. Their faces actually betrayed their emotions. Their lips were spot on with the very, very well acted (and written) dialogue. Watching the walk through the apartment building I was stunned by how each characters face showed sadness, their movements and actions showed how uneasy they were around the combine cops. For the first time I felt like these characters were actually real people, actual emotional beings. It was amazing, and I was just watching it. I can hardly comprehend what it must be like to play something of this caliber.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

The facial animation is the greatest. No arguments there.

It's just some of the movement, eg when those guys are getting off the train in the pre-e3 trailer. Their change of direction looks a little awkward. Very minor, and i probably won't give a flying fook when i'm playing the game. It's just something that stood out like a sore thumb in my eyes.

 

[Estevan]

"Can we stop looking at the bad and stay on the good?"
-Estevan

 

[Mr-Fusion]

"Can we stop looking at the bad and stay on the good?"
-Estevan

I'm just trying to keep my expectations down.

I'm still recovering from The Matrix: Revolutions syndrome. :dork:

 

[AJM2K3]

yeah, what a dissapointment that was... but we don't have to worry about that type of upset until HL3 besides, game sequels tend to improve on the originals (although I want to be sick all over Ghost Recon 2, ugh) unlike movies

 

[Sideswiped]

Their faces actually betrayed their emotions.

psst portrayed?

 

[clarky003]

lol, that dude at the table in the first part of video.. umm was he drunk? he looked pretty out of it.. and was that booze on the table??? oh the stresses of life under the combine rule, 'tut'

 

[Gorgon]

Show me a game whose animation can even remotely try to touch this.

yeah com on people show me too.

THIS game is amazing and no other game can even get closer to its animation. E.G, look at the vid again where the two human were looking through the window and one of them thought gordon was a cop. Look at his movement plus his face .OMG OMG that is realistic.
:rolling:

 

[Apos]

The reason turning cannot ever look quite right is that human movement when turning is very different depending on what sort of steps the person is taking, and how far they are turning. It is very very hard to get right unless you are using real time IK calcs to figure out exactly how much force and at what angles the muscles should be to turn the character the right distance. Given all this, I think what Source has is fantastic for what can be expected. The way the characters move in the strider vid is particularly impressive: they advance, back off, duck, spin, etc. And of course the interpersonal stuff is great, though I think they have to tread a fine line between the stiffness and the over emoting that they had Alyx do in the Kliener vid.

 

[Rupertvdb]

psst portrayed?

actually you can use betrayed, if you portray the emotions it means you demonstrate them, but a facial exdpression can often 'betray' your emotions as you show something you would have rather kept hidden or reject.

 

[Styloid]

Correct me if I'm wrong but a lot of those scenes could happen completely differently when we get to play it. The characters could say different lines (all the important ones though) with different actions depending on what direction we walk to them at, how we behave around them, etc.... I think that makes up for being a little 'stiff'.

 

[ferd]

The g-man intro was unbelievable...it really scared the hell out of me...

the facial animations really add something to the experience

 

[Sideswiped]

actually you can use betrayed, if you portray the emotions it means you demonstrate them, but a facial exdpression can often 'betray' your emotions as you show something you would have rather kept hidden or reject.

true, though it seemed rather ackward as I was reading it and I didn't get a feeling that they were betraying their emotions in that particular scene when I was watching the video

 

[Gordon'sFreeman]

Show me a game whose animation can even remotely try to touch this.

Pac Man hands down, no bs.

 

[Rupertvdb]

true, though it seemed rather ackward as I was reading it and I didn't get a feeling that they were betraying their emotions in that particular scene when I was watching the video

heh i was screwing with you...

 

[leadfish]

I also thought it was absolutely amazing...especially considering it's a computer game. I think it's also important to remember that, to keep it in context if you will. Movies shit all over the animation we saw (the Gollum example), but as far as games go...wow.

 

[Polykarbon]

Daikatana

*flame jacket*

ahaha suckers

*gets hit by Strider beam*

*dead*

 

[PvtRyan]

You gotta love that G-Man intro, great dialog, very sinister and mysterious.

"Wake up Mr Freeman, wake up and smell the ashesssss..."

I'm happy he still has that wacky voice :thumbs:

 

[neozero]

I concur with the G-man intro, bloody amazing. It was more of the Eli scenes, (and the scene with that weird russian guy). Very good, I just don't think that people move their arms around that much when they talk.

In other words, his facial movements were perfect, but his body seemed a little exagerated.

subtltey is key. Its an Alpha any so their probably going to polish it off.

 

[PatPwnt]

the acting was fine...

 

[Kadayi]

I was floored by the character animation's, totally floored. I have never seen anything that even approaches this level of realism in a game.

I'm with quickbeam on this 100%. The fluidity of the characters was highly impressive.

 

[AJM2K3]

the best I have ever seen in any games so far

 

[kaf11]

i have 22 minutes until my download is complete. i cant wait to see these new scenes.

 

[Mr Neutron]

You all seem to mistake the original post. The character's physical acting, though obviously dependent upon the level of detail in the character animation, is the artistic implementation of characters' animations, not the realsim of their walks or their ability to blinik. As an analogy, imagine a photorealistic graphics engine. Now imagine a suite at Circus Circus. Not pretty.

Look at Kleiner's lab. Kleiner's moves are good, and Eli's facial expressions generally match the context of her words, but what's with the arms? It reminds me of Stan the salesman from Monkey Island. All the characters seem to have this generic, emotion-neutral gesture of raising their hands in front of them like they're contemplating strangling Freeman.

Just guessing, but it looks like all the scripted movements happen at a slightly sluggish pace. I'll be generous to the artists and speculate this is some limitation in the tech which makes fast, jerky movements difficult to animate realistically.

And yes, yes, some of the moves are excellent (for instance, the guy looking out the window watching the soldiers arive).

 

[Styloid]

You all seem to mistake the original post. The character's physical acting, though obviously dependent upon the level of detail in the character animation, is the artistic implementation of characters' animations, not the realsim of their walks or their ability to blinik. As an analogy, imagine a photorealistic graphics engine. Now imagine a suite at Circus Circus. Not pretty.

Look at Kleiner's lab. Kleiner's moves are good, and Eli's facial expressions generally match the context of her words, but what's with the arms? It reminds me of Stan the salesman from Monkey Island. All the characters seem to have this generic, emotion-neutral gesture of raising their hands in front of them like they're contemplating strangling Freeman.

Just guessing, but it looks like all the scripted movements happen at a slightly sluggish pace. I'll be generous to the artists and speculate this is some limitation in the tech which makes fast, jerky movements difficult to animate realistically.

And yes, yes, some of the moves are excellent (for instance, the guy looking out the window watching the soldiers arive).

It looked like Eli was the only one that was a 'hand-talker' and every one else seemed more normal. I think this has to do with Eli's personality more than anything. I do think that the hands themselves seem to be a little 'dead'. I'll also add that the character's delivery of lines are flexible so if you were to walk around or show restlessness to the AI, it will adapt and give you only the important lines faster; it follows your pace.