Animation Methodology for Battlefield 3 Tobias Dahl Animation - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Animation Methodology for Battlefield 3 Tobias Dahl Animation - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Animation Methodology for Battlefield 3 Tobias Dahl Animation Director Mikael Hgstrm Lead Animator Friday, March 30, 12 AGENDA BF3 on a high level BF3 from an animation perspective New animation technology ANT New animation

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Animation Methodology for Battlefield 3

Tobias Dahl Animation Director Mikael Högström Lead Animator

Friday, March 30, 12

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  • BF3 on a high level
  • BF3 from an animation perspective
  • New animation technology ANT
  • New animation features
  • Working as an animator at DICE
  • Conclusions
  • Fun stufg
  • Questions

AGENDA

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Believable

BF3 on a High Level

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Belivable

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Epic

BF3 on a High Level

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Epic

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SLIDE 7

Epic

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SLIDE 8

Physical

BF3 on a High Level

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Physical

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SLIDE 10

Physical

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Animation Direction

  • Physical
  • Urgent
  • Realistic

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SLIDE 12

Everything should (of course) look better than ever seen in any shooter before

BF3 from an Animation Perspective

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Animation Toolset and Methods

  • Switch from Granny to ANT

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What is ANT?

Animation Toolset and Methods

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SLIDE 15

Animation Toolset and Methods

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Animation Toolset and Methods

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BF3 what do we need?

  • Realistic Multiplayer animations
  • Super realistic AI animations
  • Immersive 1p animations with lower body
  • Easy AI scripting interface
  • Realistic Facial animations
  • 4D scanning, FaceForward
  • Performance Capture
  • Through the gun experience, new weapon spring
  • Object animation, Canned destruction, gadgets etc.
  • Entity space animation, ground -> vehicle -> ground
  • First Person Camera
  • Uneven terrain
  • Foot planting
  • Casting
  • Animation prototypes
  • IK
  • Streaming of animations
  • Turn system for AI
  • Realtime blending tweaks
  • FIFA locomotion for AI
  • NBA Street locomotion for MP
  • Seamless blending from Gameplay -> Cutscenes ->Gameplay
  • 100’s of weapons and gadgets
  • Etc. Etc. Etc.

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  • What methods did we use to achieve our animation goals?
  • Blends
  • Seamlessness
  • Input driven animation
  • Layering
  • Realtime Feedback

Animation Toolset and Methods

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Animation Toolset and Methods

  • Blends
  • Animators are responsible for all blends in the game
  • Per Joint blending

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  • INACTIVE SECTION > INACTIVE SECTION > ACTIVE SECTION

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Animation Toolset and Methods

  • Seamless
  • Speed is more important than pose
  • Aligning over time is a choice made by the animator

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SLIDE 22
  • INACTIVE SECTION > INACTIVE SECTION > ACTIVE SECTION

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Animation Toolset and Methods

  • Input driven animation (Multiplayer/1st Person)
  • Multiplayer = Gameplay over realism

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WeightShift on direction change

BF3 animation features

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Sprint to Stop

BF3 Animation Features

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Input Spam

BF3 Animation Features

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Weapon Lag

BF3 Animation Features

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SLIDE 31

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First Person Character with lower body

BF3 Animation Features

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Animation Toolset and Methods

  • Layering
  • Photoshop style authoring

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SLIDE 37

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Animation Toolset and Methods

  • Layering
  • Seperate UpperBody/LowerBody
  • Great for fast prototyping of features
  • Additative solutions to handle multiple weapons setup

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SLIDE 39

Animation Toolset and Methods

  • Realtime Feedback

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SLIDE 40

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Animation Toolset and Methods

  • Most features are implemented by animators
  • Fast prototyping
  • Not destructive to gameplay

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  • Easy intuitive way of making the AI move
  • Seamless blending into canned animations
  • Use metaphors like ”Combat” ”Relaxed” instead of

picking animations from long lists

AI Movement Scripting

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  • To animate objects like a toy dinosaur or an earthquake
  • In-game pre-fab level art objects like vehicles trees etc.

Object Animation

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Face Forward (4D Scan)

  • Realistic facial animation
  • There is nothing more real than reality
  • Real time 3D mesh scanning
  • Real time Diffuse scanning
  • Real time Bump map scanning

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Motion Capture Body Data

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Face Forward (4D Scan)

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Face Forward (4D Scan)

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Face Forward (4D Scan)

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Face Forward (4D Scan)

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Animators role at DICE

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Animators role at DICE

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There are no animators at DICE...

...in a traditional sense

Animators role at DICE

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  • Game animators has moved beyond the traditional

animator role

  • From the beginning to the end, game makers instead of

animators

  • Creating Previz for mocap
  • Planning mocap shoots
  • Directing actors, stunts and working with military

advisors

  • Combining and tweaking the data after the Animation

Directon

Animators role at DICE

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  • We are making games, not animations!
  • Knowledge of animation principles still important, but

directing, clarity, physical etc. Even more important

  • A lot more responsibility for the animators than ever

before

  • More interesting than ever to work as an animator in the

game industry

  • More fun!

Conclusions

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SLIDE 60

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SLIDE 61

Questions?

Tobias.Dahl@dice.se Mikael.Hogstrom@dice.se

Friday, March 30, 12