Character Shop Released!

Community Forums/Developer Stations/Character Shop Released!

JoshK(Posted 2004) [#1]
Visit the site here.

3D Characters Animation Made Easy
Character animation is arguably the hardest step in development for most games. It's very common to see demos with beautiful but strangely unpopulated environments, or with only a few stiff animations. How can indy developers be expected to create these? Animation tools are expensive, hard to use, and take many hours to get quality results. That was until Character Shop.



Fully Animate your Models
Character Shop is the solution to this long-standing difficulty. The program contains 80+ professionally produced animations that can be applied to any humanoid mesh scaled to the fit the skeleton. This means you don't have to do any of the animation work yourself - it has already been done for you by professionals. You simply rig the skeleton to your models and save the end results. The vertex weighing process is straightforward, with powerful selection tools to reach every nook and crevice. Use the auto-attachment feature, then view the mesh deformation in real time and make final adjustments to the vertices.

Natural Fluid Animations
Even inexperienced users can produce fluent, natural animated models in minutes. Professional animators will find this tool helpful for quickly processing many character meshes on a single set of standard animations. Stop using placeholders or waiting for an artist to help, and make your own fully animated character.

Features:
-Produce high-quality animated characters in minutes and save rigged animated .X files.
-Import .x or .3ds meshes and weigh them on the included animated skeleton.
-Includes more than 80 professionally made animation sequences.
-Adjust vertex assignments and view animations in real time.
-Automatic vertex assignment weighs most of the vertices for you.
-Adjust your mesh in your own modeling program without losing vertex assignments.
-Capable of handling 3000+ poly meshes to support todays gaming standards.
-Extensive help files take you through the weighing process, step-by-step.
-Animated Models can be exported to .X and converted to .b3d with Ultimate Unwrap3D.

Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What does this program do?
Character Shop provides a simple and versatile pipeline to convert a simple mesh into a rigged, animated character model. The program loads a user's character mesh, weighs it onto an included skeleton with a set of pre-made animations, and outputs an animated, boned, .x model.

Q. Can I edit animations with Character Shop?
This is not a tool for creating original animations. A wide range of animations of typical game character movement are included, and more may be added in the future. User-made animations are not officially supported, since the process of producing these is very complicated.

Q. Can I import BVH or MOCAP motion capture files?
Motion capture is a poor choice for animations, unless you have a complete set that uses the same skeleton. It is unlikely that any of the "free" samples files you find on the internet will meet this requirement. They use different sized skeletons, with different numbers of bones and naming conventions. Rotational offset are unlikely to match, making the files completely incompatible.

Q. Are there any licensing restrictions for the models I make with Character Shop?
End users are allowed to use animated models created with Character Shop in any commercial or non-commercial projects. However, users may not sell the animated models they make with Character Shop, in any sort of product where the animated models are the product. This would basically amount to selling the animations we paid to have made. The animations included in this file are the property of Josh Klint / Leadwerks, and may not be used by anyone who does not own a license for the program, i.e. they may not be 'ripped' from a game a legitimate user releases.




slenkar(Posted 2004) [#2]
sounds very useful for certain types of game, what are the different animations?

e.g. walk shoot run etc.


Falelorn(Posted 2004) [#3]
what animations are included?
Can we create new animations and add them?
Demo?


Dreamora(Posted 2004) [#4]
Can the bones be scalled now or is that still not possible


SabataRH(Posted 2004) [#5]
Neat! had fun just watching the animations..
Looks like a good setup for fps/shooter type games..

Any future plans to add a set of fantasy anims to it? Like melee(swords etc) and magic casting sets?


Falelorn(Posted 2004) [#6]
Fantasy based would be great actually.


Gabriel(Posted 2004) [#7]
I can't find a complete list of the animations anywhere. I know they're high quality animations because I downloaded your sample a few weeks back, but I couldn't buy it without knowing if it had all the animations I need. As you say in your FAQ, mixing and matching animations is a bad idea, it's all or nothing really.


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#8]
*
crouch_idle
*
crouch_strafe_left
*
crouch_strafe_right
*
crouch_turn_left
*
crouch_turn_right
*
crouch_walk
*
crouch_walk_backward
*
death_backward
*
death_forward
*
death_left
*
death_right
*
idle
*
jump
*
pain_back
*
pain_forward
*
pain_left
*
pain_right
*
run
*
run_backward
*
run_left
*
run_right
*
turn_left
*
turn_right
*
walk
*
walk_backward
*
walk_left
*
walk_right
*
pistol_crouch_idle
*
pistol_crouch_strafe_left
*
pistol_crouch_strafe_right
*
pistol_crouch_turn_left
*
pistol_crouch_turn_right
*
pistol_crouch_walk
*
pistol_crouch_walk_backward
*
pistol_death_backward
*
pistol_death_forward
*
pistol_death_left
*
pistol_death_side_right_v02
*
pistol_idle
*
pistol_jump
*
pistol_pain_back
*
pistol_pain_forward
*
pistol_pain_left
*
pistol_pain_right
*
pistol_run
*
pistol_run_backward
*
pistol_run_left
*
pistol_run_right
*
pistol_turn_left
*
pistol_turn_right
*
pistol_walk
*
pistol_walk_backward
*
pistol_walk_left
*
pistol_walk_right
*
rifle_crouch_idle
*
rifle_crouch_turn_left
*
rifle_crouch_turn_right
*
rifle_crouch_walk
*
rifle_crouch_walk_backward
*
rifle_crouch_walk_left
*
rifle_crouch_walk_right
*
rifle_death_backward
*
rifle_death_forward
*
rifle_death_left
*
rifle_death_right
*
rifle_idle
*
rifle_jump
*
rifle_pain_back
*
rifle_pain_forward
*
rifle_pain_left
*
rifle_pain_right
*
rifle_run
*
rifle_run_backward
*
rifle_run_left
*
rifle_run_right
*
rifle_turn_left
*
rifle_turn_right
*
rifle_walk
*
rifle_walk_backward
*
rifle_walk_left
*
rifle_walk_right


Falelorn(Posted 2004) [#9]
only good for FPS/Action Shooter and base ones like that. I think you should add climb, hang, slide, and alot more. Since like Sybixsus said its all or nothing.


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#10]
Animations are very expensive to produce. I have to sell a few copies of this and see what sequences people want added before I can have more made.


Warren(Posted 2004) [#11]
Now everyone can not only make an FPS, but all of their characters can move in the exact same way! Rock. Now all we need are standardized texture sets and geometry prefabs and we can all work on the exact same game.


skn3(Posted 2004) [#12]
Nice little app but $50 is wayyy to expensive. You can pick up characterFx which does this and more, for $15.

Also, I might be mistaken, but arn't those animations ripped from counterstrike ?

Probably wrong, but they look very similar to the cs anims. (I just happened to be looking at them in milkshape a while ago)


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#13]
CharacterFX does NOT do this and more. It's a completely different kind of program. The price does not only cover the program, but the library of (original) animations that are included.

Show me how a total newbie can make a fully animated character with CharacterFX in ten minutes.

Selling this at $15 would not ever cover the costs of production.


Dustin(Posted 2004) [#14]
> I might be mistaken, but arn't those animations ripped from counterstrike ?

@skn3 - I'm flattered but you're wrong. Trust me, they're all original animations. Quite a bit of time went into creating all of them. But thanks for the unintended compliment!

Dustin


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#15]
BTW, this is the guy doing animations for the new "Battlestar Galactica" series.


Warren(Posted 2004) [#16]
Can the bones be scalled now or is that still not possible

Any comment on this?

@skn3 - I'm flattered but you're wrong. Trust me, they're all original animations. Quite a bit of time went into creating all of them. But thanks for the unintended compliment!

CounterStrike is how old now? I'm not sure that was a compliment.


Dreamora(Posted 2004) [#17]

Show me how a total newbie can make a fully animated character with CharacterFX in ten minutes.


show me a newbie that won't throw it away if resize of bones is impossible


fredborg(Posted 2004) [#18]
Hi,

The animations seem to run in slowmotion is that intentional?

And there is a polygon error on the supplied solider example. When viewed from the front the pocket to the far right, second from button, is mangled.

Apart from that it looks ok.


Gabriel(Posted 2004) [#19]
There seems to be a bug with some of the supplied animations. Rifle_Death_Backwards and Rifle_Death_Left are the worst, but Rifle_Death_Forward is affected also. Rifle_Death_Right is not affected.

When he comes to rest on the floor, his arm is down well below ground level and would thus be embedded in the ground if there was ground.

I've been very careful to ensure that the camera is exactly at ground level so as not to distort the perspective.

Screeny :



Otherwise, it looks very good. Missing a few animations I could really use, but with the bugged anims fixed, it might be enough to make it worth my while purchasing.


EDIT: Also, how do you scale the model to match the skeleton? I appreciate the skeleton is predefined, but surely there's a way to scale my character to more closely fit the skeleton?


GameCoder(Posted 2004) [#20]
I have had the full version for quite some time now and it basically does exactly what is says on the tin.

You can't edit or scale the bones as the software is not a bone editor. Maybe in an update but not likely imo. And anyway you dont need to change the bone sizes if your just looking to animate a human character. You import your model, you have to make sure you've modelled it correctly otherwise some editing of the model will be needed in order for it to fit the skeleton, then its simple to asign verts to each bone and all is colourcoded so you know what vert is attached to what bone.
One thing I have noticed is that you have to go back and forth from your modeling tool to Charactershop to change the scale of the model as they import either too small or way to big but thats no biggy. Once you learn what scale charactershop uses its simpler the next time.

It basically takes minutes to bone and animate a lowpoly character.

I have noticed that when I export it exports all animation sequences and you may not want all of them. There is no option to choose what anim is exported but one way around it is to remove the anims you dont want exported by taking them out of the directory they are in.

IMO CharacterSHop is a godsend for me as it removes alot of hassle with regards to animating a human character. I hope that there will be more anims and more options to control the mesh you import sp that it truly becomes effortless to animate a character.

I'm not good at writing reviews so what I have said above is basically my experiance with the software.

Keep up the good work Halo. :)

[edit] I think halo should make an animation editor or plugin for character shop allowing people to make there own anims. I dont know how hard that would be to do though.


Gabriel(Posted 2004) [#21]
One thing I have noticed is that you have to go back and forth from your modeling tool to Charactershop to change the scale of the model as they import either too small or way to big but thats no biggy. Once you learn what scale charactershop uses its simpler the next time.


Thanks for that. It really does need to be added to the CShop though. As I said, I understand not being able to scale the skeleton, but trial and error numerous times with the scale of the mesh is just silly.


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#22]
There is an included skeleton mesh that shows you the size and proportions of the bones, and you can model you mesh using that as a guide.


Gabriel(Posted 2004) [#23]
Ahh, thanks.


Dreamora(Posted 2004) [#24]
Does the export contain the bone skeleton to take further use of it in the programming environment? ( physics for example )


Binary_Moon(Posted 2004) [#25]
Does the export contain the bone skeleton to take further use of it in the programming environment?


If the bones weren't exported there wouldn't be any animation.


Dreamora(Posted 2004) [#26]
Why wouldn't it be an animation anymore?
you can save its vertex positions


Binary_Moon(Posted 2004) [#27]
you can save its vertex positions


Not as a b3d file you can't. The animations are stored per bone. The verts are then assigned to a bone with a weight. The verts themselves have no animation data.

EDIT - just read that it only expors to x files. What I said is still true though. The only way for blitz to do vertex animation is with bones, so to do per vert animation you would need one bone per vert which would be very - very slow.


Kozmi(Posted 2004) [#28]
This looks very interesting indeed! i'll have to check this out! Halo might NOT have very good people skills, But he does have excellent coding skills! ;) And that I do respect of him highly!!


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#29]
I have tested Unwrap3D with it, and it converts the exported x files to b3d perfectly.


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#30]
Who says I don't have people skills. I HAVE PEOPLE SKILLS, DAMMIT! I AM A PEOPLE PERSON!


Dreamora(Posted 2004) [#31]
Binary Moon: no one ever said that it is meant for Blitz3D which the fact that B3D export is missing implies as well.

And DBP uses mesh deformation so I won't bet that the bones are exported

any comment on that question halo?


Gabriel(Posted 2004) [#32]
any comment on that question halo?


He just told you that it converts to b3d, so evidently he's using bones. There would be no reason to do anything else, and I'm not even sure that the .x format supports animation without them.


Dreamora(Posted 2004) [#33]
since X evolved from Xof 7 format which didn't even know what a bone is: yes

and convert to B3D does not mean that any bones are included or is B3D format incapable of animation on mesh deformation base? as vertex bone weights have not been around until 1.87 I do not really believe that the animation is bound to bones in B3D

so without an official statement it is impossible to say ( as long as no owner can give any information on it )


Gabriel(Posted 2004) [#34]
since X evolved from Xof 7 format which didn't even know what a bone is: yes


And the only form of animation that you can get from a DX7 .x is hierarchical. No mesh deformation.

or is B3D format incapable of animation on mesh deformation base?


Yes it is incapable of vertex deformation. Binary Moon said so earlier, and he's right.

as vertex bone weights have not been around until 1.87 I do not really believe that the animation is bound to bones in B3D


That's multiple weights per vertex. Rigid skeletal animation has been around a lot longer than that, and before that, it was only possible to use hierarchical animation. You can still use hierarchical animation if you want, but Character Shop isn't.

so without an official statement it is impossible to say


It's not impossible to say. They have bones.


SabataRH(Posted 2004) [#35]
You guys are making this harder than it needs to be.

B3D format uses bone def animtions... thats it.
Depending on the version of directX you can have mesh deformation, boned (skinned X) or the dx7 way of doing things (segmented).

Blitz dosent support directX Skinnd animations so it dosent matter what format of X Cshop spits out. Halo mentioned b3d conversions so it's safe to assume the only animtion format supported in b3d is (weighted) skeletal animations.


Doggie(Posted 2004) [#36]
Uh...the usual comments from me, but is there an option just to get the skeleton inserted and ready to animate in another program? If not you really need to add that. That way you can stipulate that people not sell your animations but they could sell models they rigged with it so long as they didn't include the actual animations. That would be important to me. I guess pacemaker can already do that, I just haven't gotten around to checking it out yet so it might just be a moot point. But anyways.

I think your price is ok.


skn3(Posted 2004) [#37]
@skn3 - I'm flattered but you're wrong. Trust me, they're all original animations. Quite a bit of time went into creating all of them. But thanks for the unintended compliment!


CounterStrike is how old now? I'm not sure that was a compliment.


Thats cool then, because I class the cs animations as very good. They work very well in cs, no matter how old the game is.

Selling this at $15 would not ever cover the costs of production.


$15 would be too little yeah, but $50 is a bit steep. Id expect to pay something like $35 - $40. Unless of course you plan to add many new animations for users to upgrade with, then $50 is too little :)


Eole(Posted 2004) [#38]
I have one question to Halo :

Your soft it's very good, I like it a lot , but how can i animated the weapon ?


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#39]
Load the model in Blitz and parent the weapon model to the hand joint.


Rob Farley(Posted 2004) [#40]
Halo,

Another quicky question... Are all the animations male animations or do you have female animations and skeletons also?


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#41]
They're unisex.


GameCoder(Posted 2004) [#42]
Robs just after bap animation so I wouldnt worry too much halo :)


Warren(Posted 2004) [#43]
They're unisex.

Spoken like a true game developer.

Men and women do NOT move in the same way.


Eole(Posted 2004) [#44]
What will be the updates ?

- New animation pack
- New import format
- New export format


Skitchy(Posted 2004) [#45]
but how can i animated the weapon ?

And you can do a 'shoot' animation by kicking the arm bones back/up slightly in code - this allows for different firing rates.
Nice one Halo. When I first ran 'Auto-assign' it was a bit shocking, but its *really* easy to assign those stray verts :)
One thing that would be nice is a slide-bar for the animation playback. Its easier to see which verts need re-assigning when you're half way through an animation with extreme poses. You can just hit 'pause' but a slider would give more control ;)


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2004) [#46]
I didn't buy UU yet, so I miss a B3D Export feature. Of course this way it is mainly targeted to the DBPro Community. Byside that it seems to be a tool that can save you a lot of time. Remember, you still can produce the missing Sequences in CFX or Pacemaker.


John-Robin(Posted 2004) [#47]
Looks very nice Halo! Compliments !


_PJ_(Posted 2004) [#48]

so to do per vert animation



Seriously - I read that so wrong... twice... can't you use the word vertex or vertices??????

;-)

Looks very useful, halo, but would certainly need an anim-editor or a lot of extra movement anims to get my wallet interested.


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#49]
I think "Love Chess" features per-vert animation.


Warren(Posted 2004) [#50]
huh huh huh


IPete2(Posted 2004) [#51]
Halo,

Someone somewhere asked for a slider to step through the animations - something which is probably easier to code in is a '-' key steps backwards through the animation and a '+' steps forward.

Indeed this would make isolating frames easier for adjusting stuff.

IPete2.


IPete2(Posted 2004) [#52]
WOW!

Well I have just had a 15 minute serious play with Character Shop. It's the first time I have tried one of my own characters and used the new help files.

With in 15 mins I have my own (really really crap) character doing all the funky animations in Character Shop. Most look brilliant, a couple look odd without guns and stuff - but once a gun is in place I should think that will look fine.

I agree with some of the above comments about more animations - realtive to none fps games - but for fps games development this programme has to be a very powerful addition to the tool set.

I used the auto attach and because I had scaled my character to the size of the .3ds example with Character Shop Practically all of the vertices attached correctly first time.

I simply fired up the instructions and less than a minute later I had ALL the vertices properly assigned and working!

Josh - you've done a great job so far with Character Shop - version 1.0 release is stable and very very quick to use. I was gob smacked at how quick in fact as I have Max and Character Studio is so complex and results are a little irratic for me.

I would like to see some platform style additional animations so I hope this version sells well for you.

IPete2.

BTW Josh with the Singularity Engine, the World War II models pack, textures, Cartography Shop and Character Shop... what's next from you????

Excellent work!


Alberto(Posted 2004) [#53]
Hello

what about an agreement with "TrueBones".


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#54]
Pete, this is all working towards the WWII game, one step at a time.

So far, there have been lots of weird and impossible features requests, that contradict the point of this program, and exactly 0 orders.


R0B0T0(Posted 2004) [#55]
Thats too bad, I'd buy the app if it had fantasy-themed animations as some others have suggested, but I imagine there's little chance of them being added if no one bites in the first place.


Alberto(Posted 2004) [#56]
hello

Honestly I was expecting an enhanced version of Character FX , even so, the hobbyest game programming comunity definitly need a software like Character shop.
However it is a must, in my opinion, to add many more prefabricated animations otherwise it makes little sense .
For example TrueBones , a plug in of GameSpace, supplies 320 animations for 39 usd ( ok, you must purchase GameSpace ...)
Maybe you can sell the basic programm for a minimum amount and groups of animation separatly, in joint venture with professional animators.
I am also surprised that a lot people consider animation a difficult job.
I am a poor artist, I would not dare to create a 3d human model using a 3d package, however I have created decent animations , using character FX , Poser and prefabricated skeletons.
The main issue is time consuming.


boomboom(Posted 2004) [#57]
If you made a way for animators to be able to add animations to it (maybe by instancing a master skeleton that can be edited and animated in maya, 3dmax etc) then you would have hit a winner.

then modelers can sell models for it, animators can sell animations for it, game makers put them together and everyone buys the program from you.


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#58]
I doubt I am going to convince professional artists that they can make money selling add-ons to a program that makes no money. Fortunately, it's also selling on TGC, and that is a completely different matter.


Chris C(Posted 2004) [#59]
I messed around with the animations with the demo
app, 1 crouch foward i think badly needed repair
how can I load and SAVE my own bone animations,
without this feature its rather limited...

Keep up the good work looks like it might be
worth having once bone animations can be saved/loaded


Falelorn(Posted 2004) [#60]
Different markets, but basic animations are ok for generic First Person Shooters / Third Person Shooters.

I agree that professional artists will support Character Shop as is. It would need to be revamped big time.

If someone was to make a similar product with a ton of animations, or animaton packs, and was more open to modifiying, it would sell.

Only reason its probally selling on TGC is most of the programmers there do FPS and games with no animation. Buts thats just a opinion.


*(Posted 2004) [#61]
Sold, all the animations are the ones I would use in Hunted =).


AntonyWells(Posted 2004) [#62]
Hold up, you can't add animations to it?

Halo, sort this out and you have another sale, until then it's next to worthless unless as previously mentioned you have enough anims so it doesn't need extending.

I really do like the anims it already has in the demo..you just need to see the bigger picture.


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#63]
You would have to start with a skeleton file with the exact same joint orientations and positions. You would have to successfully save an animation, and retain the same orientations. From what I understand, Character Studio does not do this.


AntonyWells(Posted 2004) [#64]
What I had in mind was including the actual skeleton you or your animator used to make the original anims..then people can edit/alter it to their requirements, and then import it back into cshop.


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#65]
It was done in Lightwave. I haven't posted it because the export process is rather intricate, and I'll just get flooded with support emails.


AntonyWells(Posted 2004) [#66]
Well since cshop obviously exports b3d, simply take the quats for each key frame and produce a new master skeleton exported to say characterFx.

And I find the best way to deal with unwanted questions concerning support/projects is to give an unwanted response. none at all.


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#67]
You have to be careful about opening doors that lead to new support requests. At this time, addition of custom animations is not officially supported, because I can't do a good job of providing an export pathway that everyone can use.


Chris C(Posted 2004) [#68]
I say again why can you not define your own animation
ranges and save then out, I'm really not being
argumentitive here just seems like the finnished
app should allow me to "repair" ;P crouching move forward
and release other animations to the public domain

great app but looks only 1/2 finneshed esp. as its
$50 :O

keep up the good work....


AntonyWells(Posted 2004) [#69]
halo, how about adding plugin support? in code it can call a dll, and pass a structure. then you just have to include a C++ header file with the entity structure, including key frames..then people can write their own exporters/importers, so support would be in the hands of whoever writes them..i'd probably write a b3d one too.(Import that is.)


podperson(Posted 2004) [#70]
Halo -- I think this is a superb piece of (edit) programming, and the animations look great (edit: see addendum though), but you need to decide whom you're selling it to -- someone who doesn't want to learn to model or someone who doesn't want to learn to animate or someone who doesn't want to do either. At the moment, you aren't fitting any market.

Price-wise, I think the animation content probably justifies the price (edit: actually, on reflection, I don't -- see addendum), to the right customer. But who is that customer?

As it is, it's probably perfect for YOU personally (since I suspect you're working on a modern wargame / FPS). Someone uncharitably suggested it neatly allows all of us to make the same identical game. This is a tad harsh. You can make a modern wargame in which all the soldiers use pistols and traditional rifles OR a modern FPS in which all the soldiers use pistols or traditional rifles OR any other type of game in which the only figures are soldiers using pistols or traditional rifles.

These guys can't (a) talk on a radio (or stand around looking like they're using a piece of equipment), (b) throw a grenade, (c) defuse a mine (or crouch down while looking like they're busy), (d) crawl (edit), or (e) run and jump.

Before launching it, I thought it might make it easy to make either (a) a fantasy game, or (b) a sims style game. But it's missing fantasy combat moves and basic actions (e.g. pick up object), so that's no good. Then I tried to think of what I might use it for other than a contemporary FPS or wargame. It occurred to me I could do a Stargate SG-1 inspired tactical shooter -- but SG-1 uses bullpup configured rifles (and staff weapons) configurations which won't fit into the "rifle" pose character's hands. OK, there's no reason why my game's characters couldn't use M-4 carbines, but it's just the start of the problems I'd encounter, since the figure proportions are fixed and the poses are very singular.

Assuming you don't care about these issues, Charshop has a lot of promise, but it could certainly use more animations (or the ability to add your own), e.g. it could use ancient combat moves (attack with a one-hand weapon, attack with two hand weapon, dodge, block, duck, nock arrow, fire bow); magic moves (prepare spell, cast spell, maintain spell); more movement options (e.g. climbing, crawling, rolling); utility motions (use object, throw object, pick up object, put away object, push, pull, drag, reach for backpack); and some back and fill motions (e.g. changing from standing to crouching, pulling out and putting away a pistol).

That said, it either needs to become a more versatile animation tool (e.g. allow you to animate differently proportioned characters, allow you to tweak animations, and add your own) OR a more idiot-proof tool (e.g. provide a library of textured standard figures all of which "just work" -- civilian guy, civilian girl, soldier guy, soldier girl, etc.)

Addendum:

It seems to me that animations such as "run left" are semi-redundant (you can achieve much the same thing by simply rotating a couple of bones in code on the run animation, and doing this would allow you to have characters that organically twist their bodies to aim, etc.). I'd go for fewer animation variants of this kind and have more core animations.

On closer examination it in fact appears that many animations are simply trivial variants of each other created by either twisting a bone or two (e.g. "run left") or by copying and pasting animation tracks from one part of the hierarchy onto another movement (e.g. if you compare the different rifle animations you'll see that the character holds his upper body in exactly the same pose when crouching, standing, and ... amazingly ... jumping. Human beings do not do that). Some animations (e.g. walk left) have been tweaked a little to look better, but not cleaned up so you have legs intersecting mid-animation.

The core animations are really great, but many of the specific animations are hack jobs.


Gabriel(Posted 2004) [#71]
Have the buggy animations that I pointed out been fixed or will they be soon? I really need to sort out animation for a project and if they're not going to be fixed, I'll have to go elsewhere.


Aoneweb(Posted 2004) [#72]
The program does what it says on the tin, you either need that type of animation or not, if you do you pay the $50.
I for one will non pay a penny for anything Josh produces as I find his attitude to criticism childish, he has no loyalties to his customers when they complain about bugs, take that into consideration before you part with your dosh.


"Halo might NOT have very good people skills, But he does have excellent coding skills!"

A matter of opinion.


JoshK(Posted 2004) [#73]
I'd rather spend my time coding new features than address the same questions that any users can answer over and over again.


IPete2(Posted 2004) [#74]
@Aoneweb,

Well I'm afraid that's just not the case as I have found it.

I purchased CSHop in it's first version 2-3 years ago. I have been receiving updates and new version since that day.

I have CShop 4.1 now and the same with the Singularity Engine.

I do not have anythng to complain about because his service and after sales contact have all been excellent.

IPete2.


Aoneweb(Posted 2004) [#75]
I agree, carry on coding, you are truly gifted in this area, but as I have said before, don't ignore your customers, they are your bread and butter.


Gabriel(Posted 2004) [#76]
I'd rather spend my time coding new features than address the same questions that any users can answer over and over again.


Is that a no to fixing the bugged animations then?


Aoneweb(Posted 2004) [#77]
"The program does what it says on the tin, you either need that type of animation or not, if you do you pay the $50."

IPete2,looks like we all have our own experiences, and I do not want to get in to it, but I,like you, Have an opinion.


*(Posted 2004) [#78]
I have CShop too (using ATM for Hunted) also I have Character Shop (had a game character up and 'running ;)' in five minutes flat and that would have taken me ages to animate).

The only animation im missing ATM is ladder climbing but at least thats one of the 'easier' animation :)


.rIKmAN.(Posted 2004) [#79]
Hmm....Once you export this "drone" from Character Shop, can you get the exported b3d file into any other piece of software to add your own into the already existing ones?

How hard is this, if at all possible?


ZJP(Posted 2009) [#80]
Hi,

Any update?
What about a BVH import option?

JP


*(Posted 2009) [#81]
erm seeing as this is a 4 year old thread I wouldnt hold your breath


ZJP(Posted 2009) [#82]
I was looking for a very simple animation tool.

Jp


Mortiis(Posted 2009) [#83]
Use PaceMaker, it is free now.

http://www.goddysey.com/pacemaker.htm


Dreamora(Posted 2009) [#84]
Or fragmotion


ZJP(Posted 2009) [#85]
Hi,
I have tried both. Problem is, I and 3D tools....puifff!!!!!
I have a dream. "Character Shop" and these animations : http://lvps92-51-147-77.dedicated.hosteurope.de/shop/index.php?cat=cs&sit=the_animations

JP


*(Posted 2009) [#86]
its the climbing ones I wanted


ZJP(Posted 2009) [#87]
Merging model and BVH. Free tools.
http://www.animeeple.com/software.html