|
|
|
Thursday, September 14, 2006 |
|
Animation Overhaul
Jason Greenberg
Lead Animator
I’m Jason, and I’ve been an animator on the Tony Hawk series since THUG. As the lead animator on Project 8, I’m responsible for overseeing the team of animators that creates all the in-game motion. Today I’m going to talk about the major animation overhaul we did for Project 8.
In previous years our approach in the animation department was to focus on one or two skate systems, giving them some much needed attention or adding one or two new features to enhance game play (BMX, Walking, etc.). For Project 8, we felt that after 7 versions of tweaking what has essentially been the same animation system since Tony Hawk Pro Skater, it was time for a complete, Next-Gen overhaul. Our goal was simple. We wanted to make skating in Tony Hawk dynamic and fluid, and as close to real life skating as possible.
Our concept was to replace single “canned” animations with systems built from layers of animation blended together in real-time. In this way we could achieve animation that dynamically reacted to user-input and the environment. Our hope was that a trick or a motion would never look exactly same because the conditions that drive the animation would always be changing.
The first step in this process was removing all the animations from previous games. We wanted a clean slate to start from, so we ditched every single animation, leaving us the daunting task of replacing every skating system in the game.
We started with the grind system, because it’s a relatively simple system that could be re-worked quickly to prove our concept. The grind system is made up of three layers of animation applied relative to a base animation. Typically the base animation is a single pose animation of the skater in the ideal balanced position for the grind trick. On top of this base we layer an animation that blends in and out based on the speed of the skater. The faster you go, the more the “fast” animation layer is applied. This is typically the skater in a more upright position, leaning a bit back behind the board. As the skater slows, the “fast” animation blends out and the “Slow” animation blends in. The “slow” animation leans the skater a bit forward and more in front of the board. Since it is harder to balance when moving slowly, the “slow” animation has more arm flail and board balance motion. To create a dimension of interactivity, we then add a layer of animation for off balance. As the user moves the balance meter left and right, “left” and “right” animations are blending in and out. Visually these animations are meant to make the skater appear to be reacting with the balance meter. As the meter moves further to one side the appropriate animation is applied with greater strength, thus increasing it’s affect on the overall system. Finally, an “Ollie Prep” layer is applied when the user presses the “crouch” button. This extra layer of animation crouches the skater down into position to prepare for an Ollie. The result is a grind animation that looks different based upon what you are doing in the game.
Once our concept was proven with the grind system, we moved on to develop similar but much more complex systems for the Ollie, flip tricks, grab tricks, on-ground skating, etc. Ground skating turned out to be the most complex system, at times blending together upwards of 24 animations at one time. This was necessary in order to achieve a realistic look for the skater on sloped ground. You will notice in Project 8 that the skater no longer sticks out perpendicular to ramps and hillsides. This was a big improvement for us and required the use of in-game Inverse Kinematics and large numbers of sloped variations for all the on-ground animations.
The skater stays upright on slopes.
A lot of the other improvements are perhaps less noticeable to the average player. You might not realize for example that jumping up to a ledge looks different than jumping down off a ledge. An Ollie from a great height will look different than a short quick Ollie. If we did our job right, then the game will just “feel” better and there will be less moments when you as a player are thinking “that was weird”.
As Scott explained, the Nail the Trick system is probably the coolest control addition to skate in quite a long time. It’s the ultimate in interactive animation. We had to develop an animation system to go with it that would react directly to the analog stick input. As you move the sticks around our animation is blending between animations representing different foot positions and then applying additional layers to create the flicks and kicks that bring some of the satisfaction and realism into nailing the trick. We tried really hard to keep the system from looking really “programmatic” and robotic.
The other new feature is the physics based bail system. In the past we just created canned animations for bails, which looked good, but never really interacted well with the environment. Seeing the same bail animation over and over again also got repetitive. We had always wanted to try a physics based ragdoll approach but we felt that ragdoll alone was too dead-looking for a skating bail. So this year we combined the ragdoll with additional layers to bring it back to life. Our ragdoll system is constantly blending in and out of ragdoll and more traditional animations. For example most bails begin with a short animation to initiate the bail. This blends into the physics based system which collides and reacts based on the momentum of your skater and his body parts. As you bail, the game is determining which end pose you will be closest to and then blends into the most appropriate getup. We have additional layers to add arm flail and other reactions as your skater bounces around the world.
Most of our systems were developed by animator Cody Pierson (the future of animation) and programmer Zac Drake. This programmer/animator collaboration was essential to getting the systems looking the way wanted in game. Another big part of the process is the animators who worked tirelessly to bring the systems to life. We created over 10,000 animation files, all new for this year’s game. Aaron Williams, Genna Parker, Gilbert Ngo, Greg Lopez, Jun Chang, Jeremiah Roa, and Mike Carr all did an amazing job to get it all done in time. Motion Capture played a big part too, and you can read about that process in a future blog.
Until then, tear it up!
|
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Next-Gen-Gamer
Oct 18 '06 12:52 am PST
It's Coming...
Despite all the times I've been away and/or run into slow next-gen news days, I'm almost...
Ottsel
Oct 18 '06 12:17 am PST
It's the NES's birthday!
The Nintendo Entertainment System is 21 years old today! Did you get it a present?! The NES...
Matt-IGN
Oct 17 '06 11:30 pm PST
Heroes and Dexter: Mega Super Awesome
Heroes I was afraid that NBC's new science-fictiony show Heroes was going to be...
MooseyMcMan
Oct 17 '06 5:30 pm PST
I suck at gaming, or why Tom Clancy ruined my life.
I just read the Splinter Cell: Double Agent review. In it it said that the AI in the game was...
Cookie-IGN
Oct 17 '06 4:45 pm PST
I'm downloading Lumines Live and gettin' down with the gauntlet
Good news (maybe)! Lumines Live is finally hitting XBL Marketplace tomorrow (1:00am PST...
craig-ign
Oct 17 '06 10:26 am PST
Hitachi Hell: The Final Chapter
I'm done. Finished. It's over. I wholly expected it, and it happened. My replacement...
Peer-IGN
Oct 17 '06 8:48 am PST
Dexter: Bloody Good
Three episodes down, eight to go -- and I'm already looking forward to how Showtime's Dexter...
Beyond1nfinite
Oct 16 '06 11:48 pm PST
Super Mario Bros. 2 and The Woman Responsible
The year is iffy, but it was the night before Christmas and my older brother and I had...
Tal-IGN
Oct 16 '06 10:27 pm PST
Join NO, EWS!!!
After spending the past week in Thailand, I'm officially starting the National Organization to...
Jess-IGN
Oct 16 '06 5:16 pm PST
A Glimpse Into My Childhood: NES and N64 Collection; Guitar Hero II: Customized & C.Carle Spills!
A while back I got an NEX system (I believe I had previously blogged about it) and instantly...
|
