[WIP] New Battle Rifle Animations

[Roostervier]

Ok, I have updated these once since I first started. Please give me all the critique possible so I do not turn out to be a mediocre(spelling? lol) animation artist.

Older Version:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kK4W06QhbQw

Newer Version:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GnfGablUPSs

Newest Version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HLbxQ39eYc

Thank you for your time.

[CtrlAltDestroy]

Always good to see an aspiring first-person animator. :) Halo CE doesn't have enough of them.

Anyways...

IMO, the keys to a good first-person animation are:


Consistent Speed (The most important one!)
Finger movement (Really.)
Motion (Make sure nothing in two consecutive frames is in the same position. This usually makes the animation look "robotic")


The speed consistency on the reload animation needs work from what I can see. The transition from the mag-in to the default position is really fast compared to the rest of the animation. (Speaking of the default position, I noticed that the end frame is not the same as the beginning frame, causing the jerkiness at the end of each. Select all, hold shift, and drag the first keyframe on the track bar to the end keyframe.)

The readying animation seems a bit too plain to me. Right now it's just a simple off-screen to on-screen.

Throw grenade looks fine. Just fix the default position stuff as I mentioned earlier.

Meleeing looks rather slow, making it not look that powerful. Make it faster!

[4RT1LL3RY]

Looks good but you need to lower the rate of fire. It looks sort off like a double shot in the newer version that you made, also the melee looks a little off, like it stops right before it actually makes the melee noise.

[Roostervier]

Thank you so much! I never knew how to move one key frame and place it at another(simply copying). This should help alot with smoothness. Anyway, much thanks, L33t.

[Edit] Oh, I will set the keyframe in the animation tag one earlier from what I did then, that should make the melee better.

[Stealth]

oh, and here is something, revise the side step movent amin. so the top moves left when you move right, and when you go left the top moves to the right, try that and see how it looks.

[Roostervier]

I can do that, but I already have it for my "look left" and "look right" overlays. I suppose I could just switch the two/four(depending how you look on it)...

[Trezeguet]

Everything seems good, it could do better. Although it'll be funny if the handle broke when doing a melee attack.

[Btd69]

Ok so i'll go from the start..

Ready anim seems fine, no problems except to suggest having it seem as though it is being drawn out rather than being picked up.

Grenade throwing anim needs to be slowed down a bit, though I like the technique.

Idle and moving anims are fine, no problems there.

Firing anim needs to have more recoil, to me it looks as though on the 3 shot burst, he holds it completely still.

Reload anim needs a fair bit of work. For starters, take a look at the original anims, where the bolt is .. argh too early can't remember the word for it >.<.. but it's moved moved back, the next clip is loaded, then the bolt is moved back into position. That part of the anim is def. required.

To finish.. with animations you can make it fancy, but for every version you need to have the basics.

[Roostervier]

Ok, I have actually finished a better reload animation, it is much much better. Another thing, if you want me to do it original animation wise, he never pulls the bolt back in Halo 2. I will host another ingame vid on youtube when I think I've got all of the animations in a visually acceptable form in which to manifest themselves in.

[Shmee]

very cool, but i think that the reload should have sound, or make it louder cuz i dont here it XD

[ExAm]

Reload anim needs a fair bit of work. For starters, take a look at the original anims, where the bolt is .. argh too early can't remember the word for it >.<.. but it's moved moved back, the next clip is loaded, then the bolt is moved back into position. That part of the anim is def. required.

To finish.. with animations you can make it fancy, but for every version you need to have the basics.
Those are the AR animations, but it still needs more bolt pulling. Every animation needs more bolt pulling. Also, you should swap the up and down animations, too. Consider the position of the head relative to the gun and shoulder when looking up and down.

[Roostervier]

You have to take into account that his gun moves some too. I suppose you are right in this case. Anyway, I will add some bolt pulling... =p.

[ExAm]

His gun doesn't move from his shoulder, though, and you have the stock moving up and down with his movement. That should be corrected.

[Ghostlysnow]

i think that you should defidently put some more into the melee... master cheif looks like a baby hitting like that... other than that just a few improvements and you are good..:)

[ExAm]

I dunno, that sharp rap he makes with the butt end looks pretty skull-crushing to me. Just needs some tweaking.

[rossmum]

Remember, bolt only needs pulling after the entire mag is empty. If you reload mid-mag, there's still a round chambered so there's no need. Pulling the bolt in that case would simply eject the loaded round... which is rather pointless.

[ExAm]

Yeah, but think of the real BR animations. They're impossible, along with the H2 Sniper's.

[rossmum]

True, a lot of the H2 anims are a bit unlikely... but that's no excuse for overdoing the bolt pulling :p

[Roostervier]

I've already got the bolt pulling down, I finished it the other night. I will fix the overlays for up and down, I said I agreed with you earlier. Also, the melee would look better, but I did not know that it wouldn't show up in the animation if I moved bone 24. So I have to move it back and just move the arms forward more. That's why the melee looks so weak.. in a way.

[Roostervier]

Here is a new ingame video, everything looks better but it still needs loads of work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HLbxQ39eYc

[Abstract.Error]

Cool. :cool:

[ExAm]

Maybe you should have the bolt cycle with the firing? And lock in place when the clip is empty? Otherwise you should have him physically pull the bolt back, rather than it magically coming back on its own, without being blown back by the last shot. also, needs about half the leaning the gun does when you turn. movement of the gun also needs to sync with footsteps.

[Roostervier]

One, that is how CMTs battle rifle is, it just goes back by itself after the last shot, then it goes forward by itself. I had him manually do the second one. Maybe I should do it I don't know. And InGlas, that was not helpful at all. Stop posting that spam. If it was cool tell us what you liked about it.

[rossmum]

Like I said, people trying to get into the CMT forums. :rolleyes:

Anyways, post some more videos of them when you can :)

[Roostervier]

I did, I posted a thrid video if you didn't see it. Check page one and watchthe oen that says "Newest" by it. If you alreayd did then.. ok.

[4RT1LL3RY]

It looks much better then the last, why does it fire in 4 round burst though? Also fix the firing sound when meleeing, and how you can still fire when meleeing. Also right before the melee animation pushes the battle rifle forward it looks kind of jerky, try adding a few frame to the animation.

[dg]

Looking very nice. You might want to work on the reload a little more. It seems very short right now.

Keep it up!



~dg945~

[TheGhost]

It looks like you're having a few problems with the flow of the animation. In parts of some of the animation the hands or the weapon seem to jerk around a bit. Try to improve the smoothness of the animation.

[Roostervier]

That usually happens when you move while doing the anmaiton. It is one of the down sides to using the IK rig L33T set up, I think (btw thanks for that). If you mean other things, then I will try and sort that out. The problem with firing and meleeing at the same time is with Halo's engine, not my animation. It let's you shoot when half of the animaiton is over, or after the keyframe (the keyframe in the melee's case is when it actually "hits" something).

[X3RO SHIF7]

looking good, keep at it

[AiRgUItaR901]

Nice work man! I personally liked the second one the best!