All Things Art: Animation Edition

Have to agree with Techbot Alpha on AR's boringness... love the set animations need work...

but some praise aswell! Dual Pistols surprised me the most, i started noticing since i got empty clips, love how the slides on the standard pistol models animate

makes the gun nut in me very happy

A few emote ideas:

/em playgame - The character pulls out a handheld gaming device and begins playing. Some old 8-bit sound effects accompany the emote.

/em playgamemute - Same as playgame, but with no noise.

/em watchtv - Charcter places a small tv on the ground, then sits down and begins watching it. A small looping video on the tv is nice, but not necessary.

/em watchcomedy - Same as watchtv. but the character laughs about what he/she is seeing.

/em watchdrama - same as watchtv, but the character cries and wipes his/her eyes with tissues while watching.

This is a bit hard to explain properly but some character concepts of mine call for the toon to wield different weapons - sword, axe and hammer for example. I'd love to see weapon customization get extended where 1 handed weapons can be used across the various 1 handed weapon sets - i.e. Broadsword can use Axe and Mace weapons. Similar to how the Shovel is used in both Axe and Mace sets.

I know in some cases it'd require new animations even if all that's needed is to max the weapon be carried at a different angle (like the shovels) but I'm sure in other cases there wouldn't be a need for new animations.

I just think it'd really extend/fill out a lot of character concepts out there.

Now if this is an issue in PvP for any reason (the damage type not matching the visual appearance of the weapon) then perhaps in PvP zones the weapon either matches the proper damage type or it defaults to the base model of that damage type. Meaning, if you go into Siren's Call and have a Mace in your hand but you actually are using the Broadsword power then it will default to the standard Broadsword graphic. If you have any Broadsword model in your hand tho, it retains that graphic. Similar to how certain powers are set to not show in PvE but have to show in PvP.

I am sure some of therm have been said but here is a short list for me

animated flowing hair for longer hair styles
wings that fold over the shoulders (instead of staning up off the back) kind like this



selectable battle stances like having your "dukes up" like a boxer weilding your powers in your hand (example fire ball in one hand energy ball in the other)


actuall wind in game that switches direction blowing capes the afformentioned flowing hair.

this is concerning the sniper rifle power on the assault rifle set.

would it be possible to get it changed to a crouched on one knee animation for the power?

as the current standing one looks kinda silly

I'd like to chime in on the requests for selectable idle stances. Either on character creation, probably on the attack animation screen, or in-game with a 'set this as your new default' option so the game remembers.

I'm pretty new to this game, but I'm already an altoholic. And of my many toons, only one looks right with the 'Superman standing on top of a tall building' pose. A couple would look great with a parade-rest pose -- you know, the Captain Picard, fists-loosely-clasped-behind-back pose? One really needs a thoughtful, intellectual pose -- an adjusting-glasses or stroking-beard animation would be awesome, but anything to keep my weedy bespectacled mad-scientist from thrusting out his chest with his hands on his hips would be an improvement.

The current idle pose is especially silly on villains, as I believe someone else has pointed out. Some need a sneaky pose, some need a ready-to-explode pose, some need a slouchy gangbanger pose, some need a lurchy zombie pose... oh man, that would be awesome.

Oh yes, and the arms-folded part of the Superman pose looks very weird on female toons, even the ones who can otherwise pull off the golden-age pomposity. Not to mention how cool it would be if my pipe-wrench-wielding tomboy could have some kind of hipshot, gum-cracking, wanna-make-something-of-it stance. I mean, while I'm dreaming. That's pretty much the coolest thing I can imagine.

...

Actually, now that I'm really thinking about this... I would like to see all the animations that impart a set personality to your character become optional, have other options added. The 'Tarzan' animation has been mentioned as particularly out-of-character for a lot of people. And even if you want to stick with the classic flavor, can you imagine Batman doing that? There are a lot of animations that appear to define your character for you, and they often look quite dorky.

More to the point, I can't think of a character concept where both the patriotic-hero pose and the Tarzan animation are in character. So the sorta default pose-personality is self-contradictory. Customization is a big part of what makes CoX so very awesome. Let's have some more of it!

How about some special emotes for weapons?

Claws, Dual Blades, Dual Pistols, and Thugs could do the weapons crossed in front of them pose. Broadsword, Katana/Ninja Blade, War Mace, and Battle Axe could do the weapon over the shoulder look.

Mercs, Bots, and Assault Rifle could do a military pose with the gun at the ready.

Archers could use the pose Wyvern mobs on the lookout use.

Also, alternate animations for the weapon based sets would be cool. I know some Thugs MMs would love to use the Dual Pistols animations. I for one have been hoping for two handed versions of the Mace/Sword/Axe trio.

A branched off Claws set, called Beastial Claws, or something like that. Same powers, with no weapons only hands and nails. Using of course Captain Mako's animations. I'm not giving up on fighting for more diversity in player customization until someone actually finds me and kills me.

So many good things mentioned already... I recap some I like the most as I was thinking about them anyway. And add some peeves that wherent anywhere in here...

- /e facepalm
- /e female sit emotes updated (can be with male emotes)
- /e lie down emotes (COV was 16 year and older... please let us be grown ups and allow this)

Setting and saving some basic settings in the costume creator...

- Basic Fly
- Basic Stance
- Basic Run

Add alternative animations to the travel powers. This will allow for easy extra travel powers that are already possible in Champions Online. We already have some of the tech available... I give some excamples...

- Fly
- Fly +combat fire aura
- Fly ice sled animation with breaking down ice
- Fly hoverboard animation
- Fly Rocketpack animation

- Teleport
- Teleport Rikti animation
- Teleport Smoke animation
- Teleport Arm console animation

- Super speed
- Super speed iceslide animation
- Super speed skate animation
- Super speed skateboard animation

Aside of this color customisation for the powerpools ofcourse is a must-have...

The NPC's should all do more what people usually do in a city. Line, parks, shopping etc. Off all posts in this and other 'All Things Art' Threats we can see that the players want more realism in the city. The civies are just to fake!

There is a perfect solution for this. A solution that would also make the life of the animator easier I think. A solution that would be an upgrade like Ultra Mode itself though. But I wanted to mention it anyway.

http://www.naturalmotion.com/euphoria.htm



this would bring pure life to the city in its whole. For all NPC's... for all enemies...

Oh, speaking of Dual Pistols, I've seen a few requests for (paradoxically enough) single pistol characters.

A lot of the Dual Pistol tricks are possible with a single gun. Look at old spaghetti westerns. Pistol fanning is a clever single gun trick, and you can draw inspiration from sharpshooters.

It wouldn't be as flashy as the John Woo style gunslinging we have now (which I love), but not every character concept calls for someone to be tossing around guns in midair.

Animations huh? I find that most villains fight on the horizontal plane. I would like to see move fights take place vertically. More flight-born combat, more attacks from the walls and ceilings. More dynamic content (tm).

I thought I would like to say that, while not entirely what I was expecting, Issue: 19's alternate blast animations were a big step in a right direction.

Also, because of that, I am performing thread necromancy. (though perhaps the reason this thread died out was because Castle had this taken care of?)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

I can't recall if I've already said this, but I would also like to add a vote for alternate, staid, animations for Dual Pistols. The flashy stuff is cool for flashy characters, but my stone cold killers don't do the silly over-the-top stuff.

As a random note: Lightning rod is already one of the coolest powers in the game, the ONLY thing that MIGHT bug me is that its animation for when I want to convey... something more powerful.

For example, one alternate animation I'd like to see would start with the original Lightning rod animation where you raise your fist to the sky, but when you hit your location, your character is in the 'foot stomp ground pound' animation of having their fist in the floor. Sort of setting it up like Statesman's Hammer of justice.

Another alt animation that would be neat is to have it basically use the total focus or thunder strike animation, or possibly a mix of it with light bone smasher/air superiority animation.
Basically, your character would leap into the air and then disappear into the lightning bolt before reappearing having brought both fists down.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

When (not if when) EAT's get power customization I had an idea for Crab spiders Leviathan patron pool breath attacks.

Use the suppression animation and have each arm fire a grenade. Then when they land each grenade explodes with a smaller version of the venom grenade gas cloud.

Could also use the same thing for School of Sharks but instead of the gas cloud use the web cloud form Traps/Web grenade.

I wish we can get more alternate animations for martial arts.
I like the set, but the kick animations like storm kick or crippling axe are too old and weird. And the punch animation are not too martial...
New and shiny alternaty spectacular kicks would be awesome.