Why are animations so overlooked? - Games

Want some examples? Borderlands. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z_j7TXRtSI[/media] Here's CS:GO. Look at those animations! They're so stiff, robotic, and static looking. They're terrible. Look at the knife's idle animation or the Deagle's reloading animation. Look at how jerky the movements are. It's just unbearably bad to me. Seriously, there's tons of third-party skins that have far better animations than this. Now, look at Borderlands: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZaUDP8SQrg[/media] I don't know which game [sp]Borderlands[/sp] is worse. Just pay attention to the sprinting animation and the draw animation for the rifle. These are just downright terrible to me and I just can't understand how this doesn't bother anyone else. Fallout 3 also had pretty terrible animations: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-J3YPVOFrQ[/media] If you'd like some examples of good, fluid animations, take a look at broke's anims: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DIQxjojpIE&[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shhn0OSnspw[/media] It's so much more fluid and believable than the animations in Borderlands or CS:GO, which are just so stiff. Those animations seem like they were quickly made without much effort and thrown into the game. Does this not bother anyone else? Am I making this too big of a deal? It just bothers me to no end when games have such terrible animations.

I agree with CS:GO but I do not think it's that bad in borderlands, it's suppose to be quick and fast and not realistic.

[QUOTE=FpShepard;37364312]I agree with CS:GO but I do not think it's that bad in borderlands, it's suppose to be quick and fast and not realistic.[/QUOTE] I'm not saying that animations should look [i]realistic[/i], I'm saying the animations in Borderlands and CS:GO look like little effort was put into them and they're so jerky and inhuman that it bothers me. I just feel like more effort should be put into those animations. I actually think that Borderlands has worse animations than CS:GO. Look at the pistol animations, for example. The recoil is terrible - instead of the pistol jerking back, it kind of slowly moves back. It's like a bad actor faking firing a pistol.

Hm... This made me think. Perhaps I should re-animate the CS:GO guns! I got some "examples" on my YouTube channel btw.

Most people don't look at their guns when they fire, so having less detailed animations helps to reduce the amount of resources the game uses.

[QUOTE=Wiggles;37364372]Most people don't look at their guns when they fire, so having less detailed animations helps to reduce the amount of resources the game uses.[/QUOTE] A badly-made 30fps weapon animation will use just as much "resources" as a well-made 30fps weapon animation. If you're saying they're cutting out frames in favor of resources, I don't think that's the case. Even then the performance gain would probably be negligible.

Those example videos of good animations have quite a bit of motion blur to hide any possible jaggedness of the animations but your point still stands.

Jesus, those animations in CS:GO are [i]really[/i] bad. Borderlands isn't that bad. But that pistol animation you linked is just silly, sure it's fluid but who the hell is throwing their mag out of the gun when reloading? It's much better to either drop the mag straight out and use your free hand to go for a fresh on, or pull the mag out with your free hand while you're going for the full one.

[QUOTE=Mastermind of42;37364417]Those example videos of good animations have quite a bit of motion blur to hide any possible jaggedness of the animations but your point still stands.[/QUOTE] This is true. However, look at an ingame video of Internetianer's animations: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LQ4sCX4FUg[/media] I think this is far better than [i]any[/i] of the CS:GO animations (even though it's a tad jerky on the reload). If someone who animates as a hobby can create animations better than someone being paid to make them for retail game then something is very, very wrong.

I've always felt that (aside from the unnecessary magazine-flipping) the Call of Duty series has got weapon animations down pretty well

[QUOTE=fishyfish777;37364502]I've always felt that (aside from the unnecessary magazine-flipping) the Call of Duty series has got weapon animations down pretty well[/QUOTE] Infinity Ward, yes. Treyarch, not so much.

nice cs:go early beta gameplay to be honest all that 'good' animation is is just a bunch of flashy shit. it probably took him ages to make it perfect. [editline]22nd August 2012[/editline] crysis 2 has some good animations too

Weapon animations have never bothered me, but I know when I see some good animations I can take the time to admire them. The first time I did that, however, was in Firearms: Source. For a Source mod, the animations are very fluid and smooth.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5U_H8_PA6w[/media] now that's some good shit.

It's mainly because big gaming companies like their animators straight outta college, which I'm sorry to say most of them suck. Poor bastards like myself who actually do this for a hobby (and have been for over 4 years now) don't have much of a chance, which is bullshit.

[QUOTE=redBadger;37364593]nice cs:go early beta gameplay to be honest all that 'good' animation is is just a bunch of flashy shit. it probably took him ages to make it perfect. [editline]22nd August 2012[/editline] crysis 2 has some good animations too[/QUOTE] Yeah, I don't think that's from the final release.

I totally agree. I remember the first Left 4 Dead. All the animations in that game were so smooth, people would lean into their runs and shit like that. They put so much time and effort into them. Then Left 4 Dead 2 comes out, and more than half of the animations are straight up broken. Solid animation really helps the flow of a game if you ask me and nothing takes you out of an experience more then stiff, jerky, awkward animations.

[QUOTE=JCDentonUNATCO;37364681] [QUOTE=redBadger;37364593]nice cs:go early beta gameplay to be honest all that 'good' animation is is just a bunch of flashy shit. it probably took him ages to make it perfect. [editline]22nd August 2012[/editline] crysis 2 has some good animations too[/QUOTE] Yeah, I don't think that's from the final release.[/QUOTE] The only animations that were changed in the final release, as far as I know, were for the AWP. The knife and deagle animations that I pointed out are the same in the retail version.

I'd say part of the reason CSGO animations look so jerky is because it's a competitive game, so you can't have long animations, so this means you can't have any decent animation, short of SkiLLed PrO QuiCkRelOad animation, which looks bad. I'm all for it in single player games though. Good animations are like AA or 30 vs 60fps - once you try, you don't want to go back.

I'm surprised to not see any Bethesta titles mentioned in here. Fallout 3's animations were just ughh. Fallout 3 should have had the resources for better animations, I have no clue why they didn't invest in that.

[QUOTE=maqzek;37364722]I'd say part of the reason CSGO animations look so jerky is because it's a competitive game, [b]so you can't have long animations[/b], so this means you can't have any decent animation, short of SkiLLed PrO QuiCkRelOad animation, which looks bad.[/QUOTE] You can have well-made animations that are short, just like you can have terrible animations that are short.

With Borderlands, I think it's fair to say that they're mediocre but it's not a game that tried really hard on the animation front. Look at a game like Max Payne 3, or RAGE, look at the new Hitman Absolution animations, I think we're getting there eventually. Borderlands 2 also looks to have vastly improved on that front as well.

[QUOTE=maqzek;37364722]I'd say part of the reason CSGO animations look so jerky is because it's a competitive game, so you can't have long animations, so this means you can't have any decent animation, short of SkiLLed PrO QuiCkRelOad animation, which looks bad. I'm all for it in single player games though. Good animations are like AA or 30 vs 60fps - once you try, you don't want to go back.[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure you can make good looking anims with a short time frame too... I've been doing this shit all the time for CS:S. And I'm getting fucking tired of it too.

[QUOTE=Zero Vector;37364268] Fallout 3 also had pretty terrible animations: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-J3YPVOFrQ[/media][/QUOTE] Lol almost all of Bethesda's animations are terrible, even Skyrim. I usually just went with the mindset: "Sure the animations and models are pretty bad but at least the game itself has a great story and you can get into it"

If I remember correctly, bethesdas modellers ended up animating the weapons for Fallout 3, new vegas too

Man Call of duty 4 had such good reload animations: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_YhacdYsoI&feature=related[/media]

[quote]. If someone who animates as a hobby can create animations better than someone being paid to make them for retail game then something is very, very wrong. [/quote] Someone who animates as a hobby, tends to have more time to work on them than perfect them than people who make them for a retail game since they don't have to worry about time deadlines or budget.

That is true, nothing to say they can't practice at home though ;)

The CS:GO animations you posted are from December 1st, 2011.

[QUOTE=EBITUSA16;37364974]That is true, nothing to say they can't practice at home though ;)[/QUOTE] It's not about practise, or lack thereof, it's about the time you're given to do what you can. And by work on them and perfect them, I don't mean their own personal skills or techniques, I mean the actual animations themselves, remember, these are mostly if not all hand animated, it takes a lot of time, even for a skilled animator, to get the animations looking fluid and "right". Add tothat time constraints and you end up with animations that end up as not being all that good, even if the animator is the best in the world. Development and publishing companies don't ask how long the animators [I]would like[/I] to get their animations done perfectly, they pretty much say "you've got x amount of time, now get moving and get it done"