Animation Retargeting Improvements

Hello,

The male and female character models in Yandere Simulator have different skeletons. Male characters have different arm/leg proportions, their facial bones are spread out a bit, etc. If you take a male animation and play it on a female character, she will "stretch out." If you take a female animation and play it on a male character, he will "scrunch up." It's funny to look at, but it's not acceptable to leave it that way.

Fortunately, animations made for one skeleton can be modified so that they look correct when they're played on another skeleton. This process is called "retargeting." Yandere Simulator has had a retargeting tool for several years now, but it had several flaws; sometimes a character's feet would clip through the ground, a character's hands/feet wouldn't go to the exact correct position, and all facial animation was completely lost.

Recently, Yandere Simulator's lead animator - who is also skilled in several other fields besides just animation - created a new animation retargeting tool that is a big improvement over the previous one! I'll give you an example: With the previous animation tool, if a female character clapped her hands together, and that animation was retargeted for a male, the male's hands would not actually contact one another. With the new animation tool, that problem is fixed! Also, the new animation tool transfers over facial animation without a problem. It's a big improvement!

A video clip has been included above. If you aren't looking suuuuuper closely, you might not even be able to tell the difference...but it's definitely there. Even though it's not super noticeable, I still wanted to share this good news with you and give you a little glimpse behind the curtain at some of the tools that are being made to assist with the development of the game.

Thank you for supporting the development of Yandere Simulator!