What animations do you need?, We're looking at creating animations, potentially for Moviestorm.

[the_nomad]

Hi, everyone!

As you may well know, Strange Company has recently aquired a full motion capture studio, primarily for Death Knight Love Story. However, we're looking at doing other things with it, including making animations for other people to use in programs like Moviestorm.

Hence, I'd be really interested to know - are there animations that you would be interested in paying for that aren't in Moviestorm? We can do most things -

• One or two person interaction
• Fights
• Action
• Subtle gestures or animations

Let me know what you'd be interested in, and I'll add it to the list for future!

(Note - this is very early stage stuff. I'm just trying to gauge if there's interest here. I know there are issues with getting animation into Moviestorm, but that's something to worry about later.)

Thanks!

[lucindamc123]

Absolutely I would love more animations, crawling on the ground, swimming, martial arts, and any animations that allow them to manipulate objects. More interactive animations too.

[the_nomad]

Interesting - thanks!

Any animations that you'd need for any current projects, right now or soon? We MIGHT be looking to start doing this stuff fairly soon, and it'd be interesting to hear if there are any gaps currently staring you in the face.

[rgr]

Interesting - thanks!

Any animations that you'd need for any current projects, right now or soon? We MIGHT be looking to start doing this stuff fairly soon, and it'd be interesting to hear if there are any gaps currently staring you in the face.

I had to modify a script to limit it to what animations MS has already, and it made me sad (though in truth, the script probably doesn't really suffer for it). I would have liked to have had smoking, playing cards, and drinking (as in pouring a bottle into a glass, then drinking from the glass, like sipping scotch, for example, or doing shots).

I also would have liked anything related to cooking. A super bonus would have been shooting pool

I have two other scripts I'm still writing, but one of them has a strong need for "climbing a mountain", or anything that can be made to look like that, and then jumping off the top, so any sort of diving animation would do, I think. The sort of climbing I have currently is like scaling a rock face. I could change that I guess to more of a hiking up a trail sort of thing, but would strongly prefer the climbing the rock face look.

That script isn't finished yet though and I wouldn't be doing anything with it in terms of animation until late December at the earliest.

I have another script where building things is central -- building a small electronic device, and building home made weapons, but also things like welding would be useful.

Oh, and two characters walking with arms around each other's shoulders would be good.

rgr

[willshetterly]

I think the biggest immediate omissions in Moviestorm are simple kicking and jumping animations for dancing and fighting. Ultimately, I'd like to see a full set of basic martial arts moves: high, low, and middle punches and blocks, plus front, side, back, and roundhouse kicks.

ETA: Uh, make that *love* to see!

Another odd Moviestorm omission: typing!

[luxaeternam]

As I mentioned in another thread, there are limits to what you can suggest with the pointing and palm out gestures even with some sneaky camerawork. I'd like to see more things that enable us to mimic touching or interacting with props. That would change things enormously for me.

[kv]

Something that has frustrated me is the fact we have a useable knife but can hardly do anything with it.

As a horror genre producer I need animations that suite the style with the knife such as stabbing, slicing, throat cutting (most likely need that to be a two person interaction), and for victims limping, holding throat (after throat cutting), begging for life, stumbling, crawling on the floor etc.

I know thats quite a lot and not the kind of things all producers would use by it is something I certainly would use and would even pay for.

Also on the action side of animations, realistic jumping, rolling, crawling, diving left/right/forward/backward, kicking, street fighting moves like various punches. Maybe suicide animations like gun to head or in mouth with pull trigger follow on animation.

ooooooh there are so many animations that I/we could do with I could be here all day listing them.

[rgr]

I had to modify a script to limit it to what animations MS has already, and it made me sad (though in truth, the script probably doesn't really suffer for it). I would have liked to have had smoking, playing cards, and drinking (as in pouring a bottle into a glass, then drinking from the glass, like sipping scotch, for example, or doing shots).

I also would have liked anything related to cooking. A super bonus would have been shooting pool

I have two other scripts I'm still writing, but one of them has a strong need for "climbing a mountain", or anything that can be made to look like that, and then jumping off the top, so any sort of diving animation would do, I think. The sort of climbing I have currently is like scaling a rock face. I could change that I guess to more of a hiking up a trail sort of thing, but would strongly prefer the climbing the rock face look.

That script isn't finished yet though and I wouldn't be doing anything with it in terms of animation until late December at the earliest.

I have another script where building things is central -- building a small electronic device, and building home made weapons, but also things like welding would be useful.

Oh, and two characters walking with arms around each other's shoulders would be good.

rgr

Oh, as others have said, we could list animations all day, but just to add one I really wished I had for this latest film, I would have loved to have been able to make a character take one step backwards. I did everything I could to try and get this to happen but failed (the "walk backwards" gate didn't do it).

rgr

[Harb40]

The stock animations for the bass guitar and rythm guitars are very lame. The characters strum the strings and shuffle their feet back and forth, the bodies just sway side to side. Looks kind of stupid and unrealistic for long use. Any animations that could enhance the musical instruments playing would be greatly appreciated. The Rockstar guitar has some good animations that I wish we could translate to the other guitars.

[johnnie]

Oh, as others have said, we could list animations all day, but just to add one I really wished I had for this latest film, I would have loved to have been able to make a character take one step backwards. I did everything I could to try and get this to happen but failed (the "walk backwards" gate didn't do it).

rgr

I honestly can't remember if this works or not, and without booting up moviestorm I can't find out (and I can't do that right now because it's updating to 1.4), but I think I'm right in saying that you can do so by:
- Have your character stand in the spot from which you want her to step back.
- Click somewhere else (anywhere) and choose "move here" to create a walk path
- Shift-click the mark for the end of the walk you just created, and drag.
- Move the mark to just behind the character (ie, just behind the mark for the start of the walk). Move the endpoint as close to the start point as you can get it. If you move it close enough, your character will stop doing the rather silly "turn round, walk forward, turn round again" move, and will simply take a step backwards.

Try it and see. I'm pretty sure it works for stepping from side to side, and I think it works for stepping backwards too.

[lucindamc123]

Yes I agree, I especially want jumping and falling motions. The scripts the writers give me to do have a lot of action. And I would like a flying animation.

[tkd27]

I think the biggest immediate omissions in Moviestorm are simple kicking and jumping animations for dancing and fighting. Ultimately, I'd like to see a full set of basic martial arts moves: high, low, and middle punches and blocks, plus front, side, back, and roundhouse kicks.

ETA: Uh, make that *love* to see!

Another odd Moviestorm omission: typing!

I agree with this 100%

I wonder, though, is using motion capture possible with Moviestorm? I remember Overman going down this road and hitting a dead end.

[kkffoo]

Well, the after dark pack is rather basic, I bet you could sell some extra animations to complement the selection.

[Chris Ollis]

Well, the after dark pack is rather basic, I bet you could sell some extra animations to complement the selection.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahaha
I've never considered mocap for sex scenes. Go on Hugh, that won't be in any way uncomfortable

[Armanus]

Hmmm...I wonder who would volunteer for that project lol

I think the biggest recent requests have been for martial arts, but really any kind of fighting animations would be great since the current ones are pretty basic.

And there is the oft-mentioned "use computer" animations.

Other then that, I think I would like to see just about any animation there could possibly be

[luxaeternam]

After 20 years of marriage I'm thinking stop-motion would be more appropriate than mo-cap...

[Armanus]

hahahahaha!

I think after 20 years of marriage most people go "what do we need the after dark animations for?"...count yourself lucky

[iceaxe]

One animation I've wanted many times is looking at a wrist watch - there is a look-around gesture which includes looking at watch, but I want just the watch bit.
Also, I wonder if anything can be done with the sitting in chairs postures. I've never yet seen an actor sitting comfortably in a chair; they're normally perched at the front.

[alonzo11208]

More scifi oriented animations:

* Multiple variations of Staggering on deck
* Working at consoles while seated
* variation of getting blown up

Action oriented animations:

* Jumping
* Diving
* Various fighting moves
* Swimming
* Shooting on the back/ground/laying down

Those are a few that come off the top of my head

[mystery_egypt]

Animations that I've been missing in my previous projects:

• Crawling on all fours
• Jumping
• Holding a piece of paper/photo etc. in front of you in standing and sitting position
• Lie down on the back (the current animation is just half-way lying down)
• Reading in sitting position
• Bending over (somebody) in kneeling position