Redesigning the player's animations.

[Jordach]

While playing Minetest and other games on Steam, I noticed a stark difference between these games, and Minecraft his this too.

The animations for the player model we have is literally terrible, if not horrendous, so I've tried to make a model which uses the same frames and frame rate, but has animations that look more realistic.

So far, I have redone the standing / idling animation:



I'll continue to post updates on the revamped player model with new animations.

Sitting / idling animation:

[ExeterDad]

I support this. Sams current idle animation reminds me of folks that... well.... aren't typical. I like the movements you created. Although I think they would be nicer toned down by about half. Myself... I don't flail around much when standing. :)

[maikerumine]

You da man, Jordach! Looks great!

[Inocudom]

Very good work you are doing here, Jordach.

[Jordach]

I support this. Sams current idle animation reminds me of folks that... well.... aren't typical. I like the movements you created. Although I think they would be nicer toned down by about half. Myself... I don't flail around much when standing. :)

Blender supports divding rotation values and keyframes by two - so I can half them without redoing everything.

Halved the standing / idling animations:

[jp]

Sorry, I don't like this... Sam seems dancing and this is more a "cool / pro-active" posture than a "neutral / calm" one, appropriate for the standing position. Beyond the fact it adds a substantial weight for that unneeded animation.

[Jordach]

Sorry, I don't like this... Sam seems dancing and this is more a "cool / pro-active" posture than a "neutral / calm" one, appropriate for the standing position. Beyond the fact it adds a substantial weight for that unneeded animation.

My arms don't stay pointing down when I'm standing still. Nor do I do that "humping" animation. I kept the humping due to people referencing that as what Sam does.

[ExeterDad]

Blender supports divding rotation values and keyframes by two - so I can half them without redoing everything.

Halved the standing / idling animations:

I was unaware of that! Arrrrrgh! Ohhh the time I have wasted.
BTW. I really like the more subtle version you posted. And if opinions count for you... one of my son's (9 year old) says the animation is great. Oddly, he and I were discussing Sams crude animations just the other night.

[Jordach]

Tried re doing the walking animation, there isn't much difference, but my motion tracking from me walking shown that the arms go outwards slightly when the arm is behind you.

[paramat]

I was watching a Minetest multiplayer video recently and realised the walking animation does indeed need improvement, the arms and legs don't swing enough for the speed of movement, after all 4m/s is a slow run. Watching Minecraft videos, the feature that makes the characters look so good, so cute and energetic is the amount of limb swing, i'm thinking near 45 degrees for the legs. Perhaps as in Minecraft the legs should swing through a larger angle than the arms, seems to look better.

[RHR]

Sam's head should also move up and down while breathing. This would be more realistic.

[Calinou]

I would personally:

• increase swinging angle of player model (requires animation editing),
• change animation speed based on actual movement speed rather than input (requires core change).

[Jordach]

EDIT: The gifs are out of date.

I increased the walking angle of the legs per paramat's suggestions:

Outdated gifs:

Walking / Running:



Digging / Walking:



New gifs:

Sitting / Idling:



Idling / Standing:



Digging / Standing:

[Wuzzy]

Do you care to contribute here when you are finished?:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10349

I can give you an user account on request.

[philipbenr]

Is it possible to create a different running animation (from walking), or does the code just "borrow" the walking one for running?

[Calinou]

Is it possible to create a different running animation (from walking), or does the code just "borrow" the walking one for running?

Right now, the sneaking animation is the walking animation at halved speed. It is however possible to use a different animation, provided you make it.

[Minetestforfun]

Hi Jordach,

The latest gif you showed us are impressive, i like it :)

Can you add more animations like sneaking and jumping (for the moment, when a player is jumping, the animation is the walking animation and it's very strange =))

[addi]

Just an idea:

If I would take a pickaxe and dig with it, i would use both hands.
also I would move it more over my head, to get more energy.

maybe that would make the digging animation more realistic.

Found this image in the Internet.

[Calinou]

Can you add more animations like sneaking and jumping (for the moment, when a player is jumping, the animation is the walking animation and it's very strange =))

Using a specific jumping animation is not a good idea for several reasons:

• the animation would play only while the Jump key is pressed, which means it does not play for the whole time of the jump. It is not possible for the game to detect whether the player is in air or not easily,
• most jumping animations I've seen in games are unrealistic, and making a good one with one-part limbs is a real challenge. For a good example of a jumping animation, see Xonotic.

“Running” in air actually makes some sense. It's a much better idea than playing a very static animation (or none at all).

[philipbenr]

+1 @ Calinou

[Jordach]

I'd add a idle sneaking and walking sneaking animation which could alleviate the issue. However, right now the plan is to have a drop in replacement for the current model.

[Gaming Association]

Could u release what animations u have done so far so we can use them?

[benrob0329]

This is awesome work, I hope this goes into 0.4.13 or 0.5.0 at the least.

[Ferk]

I think something that would give a lot of personality and make the characters more lively is rotating the head in the direction the player is facing (at least in the up and down Z axis, since we already match the direction in the XY pane).

Can this be guided by animations in the 3D model or is it entirely the engine's work (would it have to render head and torso as separate models)? It would be nice if this was doable as an additive animation so that we can have simultaneously idle breathing movement in the head and rotation (according to the blender forum it is possible to do that in blender's Non-Linear Animator, would minetest engine format support it?).

By the looks of the 3rd person view, the camera is already centered in the head, so just rotating the head over its center would work (maybe curve a little bit the chest as well to try to avoid too much collision on extreme angles, without changing the center of the head). However, there should be a maximum and minimum angle, otherwise it would look very strange when looking completely up or completely down.

[ABJ]

Max and min angle? If for view, BAD IDEA. But if you mean the head animation, I'm OK.
Nice work, Jordach! Keep it up and I hope it gets added soon! (Aren't you a trusted dev btw?)
And about that head rotate thing. I believe I have a good idea for rotating to side to side. You could have, when standing still, be able to rotate head 90 degrees to each side. The body will only rotate in the viewed direction if the player moves. And if the player rotates his head more that 90 degs, the body will rotate relatively.

[TenPlus1]

Just finished player animation for twerking...



lol... jk

[Krock]

Just finished player animation for twerking...

http://media.giphy.com/media/pCgdYNWydgwLe/giphy.gif

Oh my god.

The animation is good but I doupt it could be used ingame for any serious stuff :P

[benrob0329]

Hmmm, I don't think that would work...XD

[ABJ]

How about you make a Nazi salute animation?

[Hybrid Dog]

How about you make a Nazi salute animation?

just press two times F7, then hold LMB, after that press F12 at the right moment