Standardised Animation Tools/Assets

[TwiggySkyrim]

I was thinking that now would be a good time to discuss with people about creating a standardised animation workflow early on so that all future animation mods can work from this system (with pre-made assets etc).

 

I'm not claiming to be a master of game animation, but hopefully this thread might attract people with lots more experience than myself.

 

I think the following things will be required:

 

1:A standardised skeleton with all the bells and whistles.

 

Since none of us have seen the skeletons yet we don't know how many extra bones and stuff are already on there. It might be that beth has already included bones for breasts and for flapping material/cloaks on armor. Some hair bones would also be nice.

 

We will have to find out if all of the current animations will break if we add bones to the skeleton, or if the file structure is robust enough to accomdate changes.

 

Perhaps an extra bone, hidden normally inside the torso so it would be invisible could have wounds skinned to it (like a cut or gash), and during finishing blows or sneak attacks the bone could be moved to the correct location. I've always thought it looks a bit weird how the finishing blows have no actual effect. This is just an idea though, and it would mean the bodies would have to carry around a few extra polys which wouldn't be seen most of the time.

 

2: A Rig Set-up for the Standardised Skeleton

 

Most animators probably know how bloody difficult it can be animating with just bones and no controllers to help along the way. Would it be possible to attach controllers to the skeleton to aid animating, and then bake he resulting movements straight onto the bones so it can be imported into the game?

 

3: A list of compatible software

 

This should make it easier for everyone to make their own animation. Hopefully most of the old programs will work.

 

 

 

That's pretty much all I can think of- I've probably missed out buckets of stuff though. That's where you lot come in! If you have any experience creating animations for Elder Scrolls then please do contribute!