stuntcock
Content Creator
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2012
Animation Progress
All of the components are in. The remaining work is mostly fine-tuning: tightening down a few segments to prevent delamination during vigorous motion, and tweaking some of the segment intersections (which currently show border artifacts during rotation). Of course, I'm still open to feedback or suggestions but please send them in ASAP. If you request a major change which forces me to discard an hour of fine-tuning work, then I might reject your suggestion - even if it's a very good idea!
The original PNG hairstyle used the HAIR_UNDER layer. I've moved most of it to DYNAMIC_HAIR_OVER. There was a small section which needed this promotion (because it passes over the ear in most of the reference images that I could find); the remainder was moved for the sake of simplicity and performance (it's possible to splice together several partial Ropes so that specific Segments lie on different layers, but doing so consumes more CPU).
The wrapped hair section shows the most flamboyant (and visually interesting) animation. I've applied very weak rigidity with very high offsets, so that it can deform considerably (e.g. into sinuous S-curves) but will tend to settle back into its canonical "J" shape when at rest (this settling process spans a few seconds). It's possible to setup "action shots" which show significant inertial effects:
I could provide an alternate version of the hairstyle with a weaker (or non-existent) permanent curvature. It would animate more realistically in response to character movement, but it would tend tend to clip into her spine during normal gameplay. Meh.
I created an animation sample but it exceeds the standard GIF upload limits. Instead of chopping it into 2-3 separate clips, I've tried to take advantage of the Imgur GIFV feature. Let me know if you have trouble viewing the animation (or if Imgur deletes it because NSFW or whatever).
http://i.imgur.com/iOMb4bw.gifv
I had originally planned to animate the HAIR_BACK layer (the strand which curves from her forehead to her left ear). But this strand doesn't actually exhibit much movement, and testing has shown that the wrapped hair section tends to attract the eye. So... it's probably not worth the runtime performance cost and I'm just going to leave it static.
Similar logic applies to the small sideburn/forelock strand anterior to the right ear. Because it's tightly cinched by the headband, it wouldn't show much inertial deformation. It would show a significant change in its resting position when the girl's head is rotated significantly (e.g. laying supine) but the overall hairstyle will look flawed/stupid in such positions. Again - it doesn't seem worth the runtime cost, merely to add a minor animation detail to a tiny strand of hair.
All of the components are in. The remaining work is mostly fine-tuning: tightening down a few segments to prevent delamination during vigorous motion, and tweaking some of the segment intersections (which currently show border artifacts during rotation). Of course, I'm still open to feedback or suggestions but please send them in ASAP. If you request a major change which forces me to discard an hour of fine-tuning work, then I might reject your suggestion - even if it's a very good idea!
The original PNG hairstyle used the HAIR_UNDER layer. I've moved most of it to DYNAMIC_HAIR_OVER. There was a small section which needed this promotion (because it passes over the ear in most of the reference images that I could find); the remainder was moved for the sake of simplicity and performance (it's possible to splice together several partial Ropes so that specific Segments lie on different layers, but doing so consumes more CPU).
The wrapped hair section shows the most flamboyant (and visually interesting) animation. I've applied very weak rigidity with very high offsets, so that it can deform considerably (e.g. into sinuous S-curves) but will tend to settle back into its canonical "J" shape when at rest (this settling process spans a few seconds). It's possible to setup "action shots" which show significant inertial effects:
I could provide an alternate version of the hairstyle with a weaker (or non-existent) permanent curvature. It would animate more realistically in response to character movement, but it would tend tend to clip into her spine during normal gameplay. Meh.
I created an animation sample but it exceeds the standard GIF upload limits. Instead of chopping it into 2-3 separate clips, I've tried to take advantage of the Imgur GIFV feature. Let me know if you have trouble viewing the animation (or if Imgur deletes it because NSFW or whatever).
http://i.imgur.com/iOMb4bw.gifv
I had originally planned to animate the HAIR_BACK layer (the strand which curves from her forehead to her left ear). But this strand doesn't actually exhibit much movement, and testing has shown that the wrapped hair section tends to attract the eye. So... it's probably not worth the runtime performance cost and I'm just going to leave it static.
Similar logic applies to the small sideburn/forelock strand anterior to the right ear. Because it's tightly cinched by the headband, it wouldn't show much inertial deformation. It would show a significant change in its resting position when the girl's head is rotated significantly (e.g. laying supine) but the overall hairstyle will look flawed/stupid in such positions. Again - it doesn't seem worth the runtime cost, merely to add a minor animation detail to a tiny strand of hair.
