Finishing Up

We're going to present our games to our cohorts and professors on the 5th, and on the 6th we will display them to the public including industry professionals.  So, I am gearing to get everything I need done by the 5th.  I have finished the goat animation to a good standpoint to present.

Don't know why Blogger doesn't like my updloads, but you can kind of see what I was doing.  He's running more like a deer/dog than a horse.  I made him stay in the air a bit longer as well.

Now, I am working on music for our end of the game when you reach the Jade Palace.  It would be boring if nothing happened when you got there!  So, I want something up-lifting and exciting to help the player feel accomplished that they finished the level.  So, I am messing with ideas on how to exactly do that.

More Goat References

I was able to get some input from a professional animator about where my goat animation is at.  It's at a good standard run cycle, now I just need to brighten it up and make it interesting: especially the back side of the animal.  The player will always see the back side of the animal as our game is 3rd person and the camera is fixed back there.  So, I need to make the goat (and the other animals) as interesting as possible as I can.  I looked at more references, and was able to get some actual goat animations.

http://sillydragon.com/muybridge/Plate_0676.html
http://sillydragon.com/muybridge/Plate_0678.html
http://sillydragon.com/muybridge/Plate_0679.html

I've noticed that goats are very constricted and stiff, but that's not very fun to look at.  So, I'm trying my best to make the goat interesting.  I've even deleted the head frames and started over on that.  However, I was able to get a good head animation in half the time from when I did it the first time!  Now that I can sorta see where I am going I can get this done faster...hopefully.  Just gotta make him fun!

Updated Goat Animation

I have updated the goat animation!  Woot!  I got some help from this guy to help me understand a run cycle of a horse, and then I applied it to my goat.

Prettying Up Animations

Now, I am prettying up our animations and putting them all in one Maya file instead of multiple separate animation files.  That way the engineer only has to call up one object.  My peers critiqued my animations and I am tweaking up the goat to what has been said.  For example, I forgot to animate the hips! Totally passed my mind, but thankfully that's what other people are for: to see things I don't.  So, I am fixing that up along with the goat's legs so they are more differentiated.  Right now the back legs leave and hit the ground at the same time.  I've been looking at other animations and found one of a horse.  I can see they leave separately.  So, I am tweaking my animation so it has more variation.