An Unusual Method of Creating Character Animations for Games

Developers of Bloody Doctor demonstrated a discount alternative to motion capture.

If you are working on character animations and looking for a way to make them more fluid and lifelike without using any expensive motion capture tech, here's an unusual yet very effective method that you ought to try out. Developers of Bloody Doctor, an upcoming game currently being created by a team of two, have shared a look at a discount alternative to mocap that enabled them to set up neat animations.

The method the team used consisted of recording a real-life video of the required movements, placing the video reference next to the rigged character in Blender, keyframing and animating each movement according to the reference, and then using the animated character in Unreal Engine 4, the engine Bloody Doctor is powered by.

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Comments 8

Anonymous user
Not to be a buzzkill, but this is literally how we have been animating cgi since before Mocap.
7
Anonymous user
·2 years ago·
Johnson Glen
Yes. This is not an unusual method by any means. This is literally the most common method besides just going in and keyframing without any reference.
2
Johnson Glen
·2 years ago·
Anonymous user
Breaking news! Animators animated something by animating it!
4
Anonymous user
·2 years ago·
Anonymous user
how was this article approved?
6
Anonymous user
·2 years ago·
Sir SuperScout
What the fuck is this article? Like I love 80lv but this is like, how do you draw? look at a reference. How to animate? Look at something moving.

Sorry, the work looks great but what is this UNUSUAL METHOD?
5
Sir SuperScout
·2 years ago·
Anonymous user
There is literally nothing new or unusual about this. Using video reference has roots that extend even further back than 3D.

You can go back to 1989 and Jordan Mechner's original "Prince of Persia" and or his 1984 classic "Karateka". Both used rotoscoping to achieve more realistic animation.

Go even further back to 1937 with Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" which also made liberal use of video footage used to assist animators.

Take that time machine one stop further back than that to the mid-1880s with Eadweard Muybridge and his seminal photographic studies on human and animal motion. Those have been required material for just about every animator for the past 100 years now.

This technique, bypassing mocap hardware, isn't new. It's older than anybody here. It's time honored for a good reason. There's no barrier for entry. Anybody with a cheap phone, camera, or access to publicly available video streaming (eg. YouTube) can make use of it. Heck. It's something you can take advantage of even if you only have access to VHS, Betamax, Super 8, or a hand drawn flipbook.

Reading this article is almost like reading a review from that one guy who just discovered the best little, hidden coffee shop - Starbucks. :)
3
Anonymous user
·2 years ago·
Tighe R.P.
This is how most 3d animators work when not using mocap. I shoot ref and then animate to it. Hopefully you can plus the anim to make it better than the footage instead of just copying it.
4
Tighe R.P.
·2 years ago·
Anonymous user
What so unusual in key frame animation from reference?
6
Anonymous user
·2 years ago·

An Unusual Method of Creating Character Animations for Games

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