Walk animation loop.

[pera]

So they make huge realistic games... millions in budget, and animator is dying to make realistic walk animation... and then he makes it a loop.
Two steps, repeat.

And then you watch the but of your chosen character whole game looping in same rhythm: one, two, repeat.

It is unnatural for character to repeat identical steps indefinitely. So why are they trying to make them natural in the first place?

My question is why they never make several different steps, 10, 20 of them, and then loop. Its not very game resource expensive, and that would make it realistic.

[shadowslair]

dying to make realistic walk animation

Animator is not "dying". He`s on salary and does what he`s told to do.

So why are they trying to make them natural in the first place?

It depends on the game. Different game characters will move the way it`ll suit the game. Reallisitic oriented game- reallistic assets, so for the animations. In such cases mocap is used- noone will be paid to spend the time to do it by hand, at least for bigger projects.

Two steps, repeat. And then you watch the but of your chosen character whole game looping in same rhythm: one, two, repeat.

You don`t have to follow the same rythm. You can always add tiny random changes in the animation speed, joints rotations etc.

It is unnatural for character to repeat identical steps indefinitely.

In fact it is. If you observe someone walking/running on a flat plane or any other cyclic repeating pattern, you`ll rarely see serious differences.

My question is why they never make several different steps, 10, 20 of them, and then loop. Its not very game resource expensive, and that would make it realistic.

Because:
1) Doing 10, 20 of them needs additional tweaking, which needs time. And deadlines in the industry are usually tight, so is animators` time. Not to mention that this time will cost additional bucks for the company. You usually do exactly what will do the job and nothing more.

2) 10, 20 more loops will cost 10,20 times more system memory, depending on the enigne also computational time (as for example Irrlicht does a loop through all keys when it looses the hint). And if you have say 30-40 or more different characters this can turn expensive.

3) As a whole it`s not worth it. Seems like you`re the only one that spots.

[Cube_]

well, I think he meant it this way, in the loop why ahve 2 steps so it turns 100% identical, when you could have 20 steps in the loop adding some variation to it.

[ent1ty]

well, I think he meant it this way, in the loop why ahve 2 steps so it turns 100% identical, when you could have 20 steps in the loop adding some variation to it.

Oh yeah I haven't considered that

[Virion]

there are some games which make the loop longer with more variation like what you mention. some other games with better technology will blend different animations into 1. for example the legs only move 2 steps but the upper body is something longer (looking around, or subtle breathing). depends on your project.

[Cube_]

indeed. and some make a longer walking loop and blend it with let's say, an attacking animation for the upper body

[REDDemon]

In commercial games the walking is not just a 2 steps loop. It can have more than 2 steps and all the steps are noised with perlin noise wich add more realism to animations (of course I think that lots of games still have just 2 steps.. I don't know how much attention is given to that detail). Only someone who's running on a flat surface will be similiar to a loop. Walking or just running on non-flat surfaces will makes every step unique.

[Virion]

all the steps are noised with perlin noise

didn't know this

some of the commercial games use locomotion to make the animation more realistic when walking on uneven surfaces.

[Cube_]

interesting, didn't know about perlin noise....