Is something wrong with the animations team?

[Zekent.3652]

Some old skills really needs an overhaul, and since EoD there are just more and more copypasted skills.

I don't know, i'm not a gamedev, but feels like there's a problem that also limits the potential of new combat animations, like Bladesworn's F2 perhaps? why is DE able to walk while kneeling but not bladesworn? and why is DE just doing a normal walk with rifle 5, instead of a crouch walk?

[Lighter.5631]

they dont have an animation team

[Marckan.9526]

Deadeye not crouch-walking isn't an issue for me, however animations on Warrior staff being a complete copy of Rev and Daredevil definitely is.

Unique animations used to be one of GW2's biggest strengths imo.

[Zekent.3652]

2 hours ago, Marckan.9526 said:

Deadeye not crouch-walking isn't an issue for me, however animations on Warrior staff being a complete copy of Rev and Daredevil definitely is.

Unique animations used to be one of GW2's biggest strengths imo.

This, every single staff warrior shown animation was just reused.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Zekent.3652

[Marckan.9526]

On 11/11/2023 at 7:53 AM, Zekent.3652 said:

This, every single staff warrior shown animation was just reused.

Rangers new mace-leap also looks to be a copy of Engie Rev mace...

EDIT: My bad, I don't play Rev! Also makes it even more laughable and sad at the same time...

Edited November 14, 2023 by Marckan.9526

[SeTect.5918]

4 hours ago, Marckan.9526 said:

Rangers new mace-leap also looks to be a copy of Engie mace...

Which is a copy of revenant mace leap 😄

Edited November 11, 2023 by SeTect.5918

[Luranni.9470]

Everything skill-wise from EoD to now has been 100% copypasta.  And now from SoTO -absolutely everything- is copypasta.

What's wrong with the animations team?  That one guy must've fallen down the well, someone call Lassie!

[Serephen.3420]

.

Edited November 11, 2023 by Serephen.3420
not sure why it double posted

[Serephen.3420]

4 hours ago, SeTect.5918 said:

Which is a copy of revenant mace leap 😄

Though the ground pound attack animation at least looks new they hit with both maces for some reason.

[Buran.3796]

3 hours ago, Luranni.9470 said:

What's wrong with the animations team?  That one guy must've fallen down the well, someone call Lassie!

  Animation usually is done in external studios with state of the art suits for motion capture, software and cameras, unless your developer is big enough to have those resources (Anet does not). In a distant interview I remember they named that the hiring of those facilities were around 25k $ x day. So they are re-using old animations to save cost. Of course, damages the excitement about new weapons, but also we should be honest: some of the EoD specs were really poor in terms of design and execution. Is a race to the bare bones...

[SeTect.5918]

Honestly i care less about the animations but more about how fun to play the weapon or e spec is and how it synergizes with traits.

But i believe that some pay more attention to animations and some less.

[Sweetbread.3678]

4 hours ago, Panda.1967 said:

You have more mobility while charging Dragon Trigger as a bladesworn than deadeye has while kneeling… stop standing around like an idiot and use flicker step (5). It has a half second CD and does NOT end Dragon Trigger… you also have the option of using Triggerguard for survivability too… if this is a PvP complaint then just use flicker step before you attack to close the distance on your opponent. Deadeyes crawl around slowly while kneeling and have to cancel kneel to give chase or cover the distance bladesworn can with flicker step.

Are we seriously claiming that Flicker Step (300 range teleport with 3 charges on stacking 40 second cooldowns, 2charges/60 seconds in pvp) on a 300 range weapon is more mobility than: a 1500 range weapon where you have the ability to walk, the ability to dodge (which can be traited for stealth/superspeed spam no less), Death's Advance (600 range teleport + stealth, no cooldown), two 1200 range teleport utility options (one with a built in second 1200 range teleport), and two ~550 range backwards evade heal/utility options (that nobody will ever take because why tf would you even need to at that point)? 

Thieves are so desperate and weird sometimes lol.

[Sarge shot Grif.6450]

The nightmare that is mists unleashed bothers me immensely, I'd rather have the old plain looking horizontal slash than the current wonky anyimation it uses.

Edited November 12, 2023 by Sarge shot Grif.6450

[Panda.1967]

9 hours ago, Sweetbread.3678 said:

Are we seriously claiming that Flicker Step (300 range teleport with 3 charges on stacking 40 second cooldowns, 2charges/60 seconds in pvp) on a 300 range weapon is more mobility than: a 1500 range weapon where you have the ability to walk, the ability to dodge (which can be traited for stealth/superspeed spam no less), Death's Advance (600 range teleport + stealth, no cooldown), two 1200 range teleport utility options (one with a built in second 1200 range teleport), and two ~550 range backwards evade heal/utility options (that nobody will ever take because why tf would you even need to at that point)? 

Thieves are so desperate and weird sometimes lol.

Yes actually. Because, if you are using dragon trigger so long that you even need more than 2 charges of flicker step then you honestly need to just get better at the game. It only takes 4.25s to fully charge dragon trigger. In PvE you have 3 flicker steps and 2 trigger guards to deal with issues while charging. In PvP you only lose 1 trigger step… the count recharge is irrelevant in every situation since by the time you have enough flow to use dragon trigger again they should be recharged anyways. Even if Anet did let you walk while charging DT, it wouldn’t make things any easier… if you can’t connect your strikes now, moving at walking pace won’t make you connect them either… if you can’t survive 4.25s with the tools you have now, walking won’t help you survive any longer either.

[iKeostuKen.2738]

20 hours ago, Buran.3796 said:

  Animation usually is done in external studios with state of the art suits for motion capture, software and cameras, unless your developer is big enough to have those resources (Anet does not). In a distant interview I remember they named that the hiring of those facilities were around 25k $ x day. So they are re-using old animations to save cost. Of course, damages the excitement about new weapons, but also we should be honest: some of the EoD specs were really poor in terms of design and execution. Is a race to the bare bones...

Gonna be honest, they have the resources to obtain animators. Many indie animators and interns would gladly take the opportunity and the pay wouldn't even come close to 25k a day. GW2 animations aren't even anything complex. Flips and Spins with static movements lol.

[aetemes.2603]

Anet got rid of a lot of staff and perhaps some people left due to that treatment not sure...I remember when I tried untamed and saw that ugly black and green copy of druids ca 2 ability I was like ya...the hype and glory days of this game are ova! Animations to me are a big deal..any copy pasta action just translates to "they really really don't care huh?".

[Ashantara.8731]

Class-specific animations used to be a thing.

I miss the distinctions.

[Dawdler.8521]

8 hours ago, iKeostuKen.2738 said:

GW2 animations aren't even anything complex.

Meanwhile, pressing a button

[arazoth.7290]

Revenant scepter animations look great though

[Bunny.9834]

On 11/10/2023 at 5:10 PM, Lighter.5631 said:

they dont have an animation team

this. 

they've been reusing animations since HoT. 

They don't have the resource to make new animations for skills/etc. 

 

[Randin.5701]

On 11/11/2023 at 10:22 AM, Buran.3796 said:

  Animation usually is done in external studios with state of the art suits for motion capture, software and cameras, unless your developer is big enough to have those resources (Anet does not). In a distant interview I remember they named that the hiring of those facilities were around 25k $ x day. So they are re-using old animations to save cost. Of course, damages the excitement about new weapons, but also we should be honest: some of the EoD specs were really poor in terms of design and execution. Is a race to the bare bones...

Pretty sure they don't use motion capture in GW2. To the best of my knowledge, regular hand-made animations aren't the sort of thing typically farmed out to external studios.

[Yasai.3549]

24 minutes ago, Randin.5701 said:

Pretty sure they don't use motion capture in GW2. To the best of my knowledge, regular hand-made animations aren't the sort of thing typically farmed out to external studios.

Honestly hard for me to wrap around any part of GW2 that could have used Mocap. What are they really gonna Mocap on an 11yr old engine? 

[DeceiverX.8361]

31 minutes ago, Yasai.3549 said:

Honestly hard for me to wrap around any part of GW2 that could have used Mocap. What are they really gonna Mocap on an 11yr old engine? 

Things have nothing to do with each other.  Nothing about mocap itself should require playing with the engine much at all.

Animation is time-consuming and expensive in general.  ANet is running GW2 on maintenance mode and has been pretty much since just after HoT.  Even a good chunk of HoT animations were reused, and much of the core game has needed mechanical/animations changes for a very long time with no such adjustments.

Given that GW2's animations are not particularly high-fidelity compared to major motion pictures or modern games like RDR2 which utilize extensive motion capture, the quality/fidelity they'd need for motion capture is much lower than industry standard, and frankly, is very likely significantly cheaper to implement for the humanoid races.  The problem is stuff with weird rigging like Charr/Asura and all combat tonics also need keyframe animations done.  And that is extremely time-consuming and/or expensive.  While someone mentioned a 25k/day figure for motion capture, and it's not unrealistic at all, that is significantly cheaper than artists keyframe-editing everything by hand.

Then there's the QA cycle and everything else that goes into a release.  What you're left with is a feature that while many would appreciate, would likely yield nothing in terms of RoI for ANet.  Which even I recognize is an ailing business and that's gonna be their focus.

It's one of those things that is understandably not a high priority if the mechanics of the skills still make sense.  Granted, they do need to rework some old skills in ways which probably need total animation changes or at least a developer to make adjustments.  But Daredevil has been using the core game Warrior Hammer idle since HoT, and several animations and skill effects are similar either with simple recolors and/or combinations of others.

Edited November 14, 2023 by DeceiverX.8361

[Buran.3796]

1 hour ago, Randin.5701 said:

Pretty sure they don't use motion capture in GW2. To the best of my knowledge, regular hand-made animations aren't the sort of thing typically farmed out to external studios.

   You think that the dance animations in this game were made by hand? You're delusional.

[Yasai.3549]

41 minutes ago, Buran.3796 said:

   You think that the dance animations in this game were made by hand? You're delusional.

Good point there, but it's definitely possible.

I have some animation background and some 3D software has very good inbetweening features you can use to make the moves flow sufficiently smooth. I mean heck, people have been hand animating MMD dance videos for years and they can replicate dance moves rather smoothly.