Q&A with Lead Animator Viktor Kostik

[Baty Alquawen 3688]

Hello Survivors!

It is another Q&A time. This is your opportunity to get answers to all of your questions about animation process and and we will record Victor's answers on video!

Viktor is going to introduce himself and his work under my post.

Victor is ready for your questions! Don't be afraid to ask!

 

[VictorKane 638]

Hello everyone,

as the Lead Animator within the DayZ Dev Team, I'm responsible for our team of animators and for the overall look and feel of all the player character animations, as well as animations of the infected. Most of the work of the animation team, as of now, relates to the switch to a new animation system that our player character is supposed to use.

Our main task on the new animation system is to prepare a completely new animation graph (feel free to ask if you don't know what that is) and we're also there to correct all the character animations so that you feel more natural and "comfortable" while moving with your in-game character.

Of course, we're also here to implement what our game design team needs in order to create the desired gameplay experience - that covers things like types of character movement, animations for interaction with the in-game environment, or interaction with things like ladders, cars, weapons or different kinds of obstacles. Long story short: everything that moves in DayZ, we've probably done some work on it.

To help you a bit with what kind of questions to ask: our animation team is not directly creating any in-game models, so beyond animation, we're not really able to influence the overall art direction of the game, and we're also not doing the programming part of the animation system, so I won't be able to answer most of the questions related to the engine level implementation of our animations in-game.

Other than that, I'll do my best to introduce you to what we animators do for DayZ, and I am looking forward to your questions.

Cheers!

[Gobbokirk 546]

Just to get it started :)

Walking up and down hills, have there been any thoughts about a way to smooth out the transitions between the running and walking speeds?
I am basically looking to avoid the serpentine up hill technique we end up using now to get up as fast as possible :)
Or would that be more a programing related question?

[SwiftTReaperzZ 0]

Console players have been told that DayZ is coming to console, when will this happen and how, because you can't simply put a PC game with all its things into console it just wouldn't work.

Cheers 

[Feducu 0]

Hi guys!

I've a small question that seems to be asked a lot in a DayZ group I'm part of. Why do you guys do not prioritize animations of things that affects gameplay a lot? For example, you added the new wolf into the game, and animated them, but wasn't jumping/throwing granades/aiming a thing that should be done before that? This will make the early access more playable and the player would see a big change that improves the gameplay

 

 

Thanks, 

Sorry for bad english! Greetings from Argentina,

 

Feducu

[OliverPlotTwist 458]

5 minutes ago, SwiftTReaperzZ said:

Console players have been told that DayZ is coming to console, when will this happen and how, because you can't simply put a PC game with all its things into console it just wouldn't work.

Cheers 

Not really an animation based question, mate.

[IceBlitZZZ 4]

Will there ever be the stances like in arma 3 ?? (LCtrl+A,S,D,W)

Have you ever thought about making a rolling animation?? (roll left, right, forward?)

Which was the first animation created in DayZ ?

Edited January 30, 2017 by IceBlitZZZ

[teksel 0]

Were you thinking about using Euphoria animation software in DayZ?

What happened with the opening backpack animation that was implemented in earlier builds of DayZ? Will it come back some day?

[barelyinfected 144]

At the moment when you get in or get out of a car there is a really slow animation which makes you make a predictable movement too so I've been killed multiple times because people are just waiting for me to get out and shoot me in the head. How is this going to be in the new player controller? Will it be more fluent? It would be nice if you could get out and hide behind the car without showing your head above the roof of the car for example.

[OliverPlotTwist 458]

Regarding the new animation system. What does this new system open up for the animators? How does it improve from the previous system?

[ainaras33 8]

I would like to know if there is a plan for player character inertia to be added later down the line?

[bitts3000 1]

what was the most fun and most challenging part of remaking all the animations?

[dr3amzgtfo@hotmail.com 0]

When will there be more  long range weapons in dayz or any sort of weapons 

[GDZ_saiboT 14]

How is the new animation system connected to the new player controller?
Will we see all new animations and work of the past months/years of your team with one single update?

[Legion252 7]

In regards to firearms with the new animation system, how many different kinds of animations can we expect a single gun to have?

[Flaven 0]

Hello,

My question is in regards to the "feel" of the character model itself.  What is the process on getting the animations to feel that they have weight and that they move in an organic human-like fashion rather than feeling robotic?

Consider that from an RP perspective our characters are normal citizens with no imposed military background. Did you take this into account when creating the animations for how a person with little to no military training would handle weapons, cover, etc?

 

Thanks!

[Avallanche 121]

At this moment, the infected have limited animations and when you get a few of them chasing you, it looks more like a flash mob than a real horde. With the new animations will they look more authentic and "random"? Please elaborate on this subject!

[Five_Seven_Clown 88]

Could you give us some up to date stats/number on the player graph. How many "nodes" have you completed, how many more need to be done, how many are you planning on reworking?

[BeefBacon 1185]

We know the new animation system will affect player characters by making movement more fluid (among other things) but will this new system also affect the movement or behaviour of the AI in any way?

[Eventuality_ 15]

Will we seen any animations similar to the Arma Enhanced moment mod? (I.E Climbing over certain walls and fences).

And one more question:

The animations that are on the F keys, (other than the ones we know about through trello) can we except more of those?

Thank you -Chance

 

Edited January 30, 2017 by Eventuality_

[Five_Seven_Clown 88]

Are you planning animations for each distinct action i.e. one for harvesting tomatoes and one for harvesting pumpkins? or are there general purpose animations for harvesting?

[igor-vk 909]

Can you tell us more about animations of infected? They now have very limited number of animation for attack. Will there be more realistic animations for repairing vehicles and base building?

[r8gato 46]

What software does the animation team use on DayZ? Maya, 3dsmax, 3rd party middleware, and/or internal proprietary tools? Will the same BI proprietary tools/plugins be made available for modders?

[Saymon5 1]

Hello!

I am wondering about the new rig for both the player and the infected. How will it affect their ragdoll physics?

 

Thanks for the answer! :)

[Saymon5 1]

1 hour ago, teksel said:

Were you thinking about using Euphoria animation software in DayZ?

What happened with the opening backpack animation that was implemented in earlier builds of DayZ? Will it come back some day?

 

I can answer this easily: Euphoria can be very hard to implement and it is also very expensive, therefore there is absolutely no chance of this technology getting into DayZ unfortunately. But it would be amazing.