We have the ability to localize custom animations on certain parts of a character, like just the torso, or just the arms. The AnimFSM scripting language system is remarkably powerful in this regard. Moving Nick around has to "feel" right, and we work hard to make that happen.
All that motion is done with Havok, and the FSM handles this "handoff" between the systems.įrom a design perspective, our Project Lead, Brian Eddy, is extremely sensitive to the problem of creating responsive and intuitive controls. We want him to go into ragdoll when he hits the wall (or floor), and then skid to a stop. For example, when a character is shot, we want to send a physics-based impulse to send him flying. Another impressive aspect of the AnimFSM scripting language is that it handles interaction with other systems in the game-engine.
This allows for much of the animation integration and tweaking in the game to be performed by our animation staff rather than depending on full fledged programmer's time.
Written by Steve Sengele, this language is a highly flexible interpreted script that allows a large amount of fine-tuning without requiring C++ code changes. We use a proprietary animation language to play animations on the characters called AnimFSM (Animation Finite State Machine). Technically, the Psi-Ops animation engine is quite advanced. In this case, the harness he was in also turned out to be fairly painful, which only helped in his portrayal of a pissed-off monster from outside our dimension. Sal Divita is very experienced at doing mo-cap acting and like any actor gets completely into character for his work. Also shown are Andy Konieczny, acting as the primary victim for the creature and myself helping to bring the character to life. Sal Divita, one of our Art Directors, is getting into the character and acting out some the creature's attacks while suspended in a harness (the creature flies) in our mo-cap studio. In the movie, you'll see us working on the moves for one of the creatures in Psi-Ops that appear later on in the game.
We've included a movie to show a bit of a very recent motion capture session. It also allows the animations to keep pace with an evolving game-design. Having the flexibility to do capture sessions on short notice is essential to a robust and fluid animation pipeline. On previous projects where I have worked with out-of-house mocap studios, I've had to wait for weeks to get data, and then sometimes much longer before we could actually see the animations in-game.
This is a huge competitive advantage for us versus development environments that need to work with out-of-house mocap studios. Once we have a move-list designed and laid out for a character, it is not uncommon to see new animations in the game within 24 hours. Midway Chicago has an internal capture studio, so we are able to go quickly from concept to completion. For us, this has meant a strong reliance on motion-capture technology. We have been really going for top quality motion with an emphasis on realism in our animations. Jason Kaehler, Animation Lead Psi-Ops presents a unique challenge from an animation standpoint.