My Job
-At the start of the project, in the concept discovery I made some investigation and some concept art for the different enemies that could appear in the different stages design team gave us.
-When a first iteration of the 3D model of the character I had to animate was ready, first of all I made the rigg, the skinning and the controllers.
-I started making the Two Handed Sword Enemy Rigg and Controllers and they where also used in the other two enemies of the game. When rigg and skinning were made, thanks to the animation document from design team and references I started animating. I made the whole set of animations for the Two Handed Sword Enemy.
-The main program I used to rigg, skin and animation was Maya.
Maya Project
Rigging, Skinning and Controlers for Two Handed Sword Enemy
Two Handed Sword Enemy Animations
-Soldier of the golden guard with medium weight armor and normal sword of medium weight of two hands.
-Due to the proposed combat system, we must get Grimrock2 or Chivalry animation references. They should not have much preparation time for the player to have time to move and dodge.
-On the other hand, when considering the movement weights, we must bear in mind that the enemy wears a medium weight armor and a sword also of medium weight with two hands.
-The main flow I took while animating was: get the last 3D model, make the rigg, skinning and the controlers. Export it to a DAE file extension and try it in our engine. If the model was well imported I started animating with Maya taking into account the desing animation document and my own references. Those references where mainly from other similar games like Grimrock2 or Chavarly, and some of them where just me in front of the camera trying to do the action. When a animation was finished I opened the Engine and test it.
Unsheathe
Attack
Attack + Hit Sword
Hit Front
Hit Back
Hit Front + Die
Push + Stun
Patrol
Spear Enemy Animation
-I made the attack animation for the Spear Enemy. This was one of the hardest task I had in the whole project because this attack had to reach the player two tiles ahead. The main problem wast that the geometry of the model didn't make this posible, so I had to iterate and iterate to finally accomplish the task.
Attack
The Mountain Animations
-When Two Handed Sword Enemy animations where finished it was time to go for another character.
-This time it was the final boss of the game, the Mountain.
-My job was to animate the scene when the player sees him for the first time. The mountain starts on his knees and stands up .
-My second task was to make the assault attack. The mountain prepares his attack and then starts running trying to reach the player and hit him.
-Animating the Mountain was a challenge, he is so big and so heavy, with slow but strong movements. But it was the one I liked more to animate. The animations I made for him where the ones I like more of the whole project.
Camera Animations
-For the Alpha 1 delivery my task was to finish some camera animations for the main characters Theon, Daenerys and Jaime.
Daenerys Die
What have I learned
-This project has brought me closer to a real videogame develompent experience with good things and things that where not that good.
-I learned how to use better maya and in a more effective way to the process of rigging, skinning or animation.
-I also learned how to work better in sprints, milestones and responsabilities for deliver the animations in time so the programers and the designers are able to try it on the Engine.
-Another important thing I learned was that the animations don't look always as they look in Maya. For that reason my main workflow was crate-test in engine, to ake sure it was all correct.
-Finally I also learned for one delivery the task of the scrum master. My task was to make sure all the things from the team I was taking care where finished before the freeze for the delivery. Thanks to tools like Trello or HacknPlan, this task was easier and way more organized.