Animation Showcase Video: Needs and Emotions
Hello!
For today’s Patreon post, I wanted to showcase some animations that Alice has recently created for our Parafolks. She created a nice video to share these animations with you which you can watch at the top of this Patreon post. ⬆🎥
The Animations in the Video
Need to pee
Need to eat (hungry)
Laugh - Chuckle
Laugh - Generic
Laugh - Uncomfortable
Laugh - Out loud
Flirty
Flattered
Touched
In our previous Patreon post about animations, Alice shared a look at sitting and exercising animations, locomotion and emotion animations and Anna also explained how she adapts animations to make them work for characters of different heights. The new animations in today’s post are about expressing needs and emotions. This is only a small part of what Parafolks will be able to express and we are looking forward to sharing more info about emotions and needs in Paralives when we make progress on these systems.
The Character Animations We Have So Far
Overall, Alice has already created 172 character animations for Paralives. This is without counting those for the babies and toddlers showcased in last week’s post.
The text is really tiny and we blurred it because there are some secrets in there but here’s what Alice’s list of created animation looks like at the moment:
That’s a lot of animations! Many many more are still to come.
What’s Next for Animations
Here’s what’s to come regarding our work on animations for Paralives. I’m looking forward to sharing our progress on these tasks!
Animations where the character is holding and using items. This can be eating with a fork, mixing ingredients in a bowl with a spoon or speaking on the phone. Alice already created various animations like these but right now, in the game, these animations play without the actual object being in the hands of the character. You can see that in a previous Patreon post where Sebastian is speaking on the phone while dancing but he isn’t actually holding a phone. Jérémie is about to work on the system to attach objects to the characters for specific animations so this should be working soon!
Animations where the character is physically interacting with someone else. This would be hugging, kissing, dancing together or holding a baby. In the past month, Alice created 4 animations where there is physical contact. Soon, we will be working on the systems to integrate these animations which require some thinking: Where do characters meet in the world before performing an animation together? What happens if one of the characters is busy doing something else while the other wants to initiate the animation? How do we make sure that people of different heights animate well together? Regarding that last question, we will surely be using Anna’s procedural animation adaptation tools that I mentioned earlier in this post.
Improve multitasking support for animations and interactions.
Mass production of animations. The previous bullet points are among the last big milestones for animation features we need for Paralives. Once our systems are all in place and working, Alice will be able to accelerate the production of animations for the game and we will be able to showcase more and more of them which will be pretty exciting!
I hope you enjoyed today’s post and don’t hesitate to leave a comment if you have any feedback or questions for Alice!
Cheers,
Alex
EDIT - January 12, 2023: This post is now public, feel free to share it!
Comments (105)
This is so exciting ^-^
WOW!!! Please keep building on this! I can see the hunger one being a great reminder instead of us having to look at the needs bar. This all adds so much depth to the game
I'm still at "Awe!" in how Alice's animation make the parafolks even more believable. "...Where do characters meet in the world before performing an animation together? What happens if one of the characters is busy doing something else while the other wants to initiate the animation? How do we make sure that people of different heights animate well together?..." These type of questions are what make animation, character designing, and programming part art AND part problem solving.
the touched really touch me,the unconfortable animation with laugh was so human,i love the way you work with the whole body on your animations and how they "speak" with each other the paras get a soul with your art. You are so talented Alice :) i can't stop watching this video as more i see more in love get
I love these so much !! Fantastic job yall are doin 💜💜
Looks great! When is the estimated launch date?
Still in early development. They do have an idea of an estimated launch date, but for now they are keeping it for themselves given that it may change.
Could you make an animation that occurs by default due to the character's emotion? for example: if a character did a romantic interaction while being flirtatious (assuming this is going to be an emotion in the game) he wouldn't get serious after the interaction ended he would keep winking at the Parafolk he just flirted with even after we put them to make a friendly interaction. I feel like that way the emotions would be more immersive and realistic and less robotic. But this is just an idea.Thx u for your wonderfull job, i love it
This is not good is wholesome OMG how do you do this so natural im literally crying ugly now, thank you Alice :)
I wonder if there will be paras who are annoyed if they are working on something like a hobby and don’t want to be interrupted. They could give like a side head animation looking at the other para like not now, or shoo them away with their hand. This it could also be a part of a trait too of focused or something.
The animations look so alive and laughing melted my heart, well done! Ya'll have worked hard on this game. ❤
Thank you so much! <3
You guys are doing an amazing job ❤️ Every time I log in, I’m impressed with the sheer progress you guys are making :)
Thank you so much Haley! <3
Oh these look so so good! I get more excited for this game every time I see new sneak peeks! 🥰
<3<3!
It could be cool if Para's had a trait for willingness to interrupt, and that determines what happens when one wants to perform an action with somebody who's busy. If they don't mind interrupting people, they go perform the interaction right away, if they do mind maybe they wait or go do other things until the other person is done, or just cancel the action. Or you could choose when assigning a partnered action if you want it to be interrupting or not. "Hug Mom" "Mom is cooking, do you want to interrupt this action?"
Hi! Interesting suggestion, thank you! :))
i love it's very well
Aw thank you<3
Aww, they really came to life through these animations; they are so expressive. Great work on this!!
Thank you! <3
The genuine laughter animations are so affecting—I found myself wanting to laugh along with them. I was definitely smiling at the incredible progress you're all making!
Thank you Amy for your sweet words!! <3
These are amazing, I have a soft spot for the laughing out loud one, it made me so happy for some reason. It’s natural and heartwarming 🥺 the progress you’ve made since the beginning is impressive, words can’t express how amazed I am.
Aw thank you for your support Mar! <3
I love that there are different types of laughs!
Thank you, I do to! :D
The animations look so realistic, it’s so natural and not childish or too goofy-like. Great job Alice! ❤️
Thanks Tini, it's not always easy to find the right balance but I'm so happy you like them <3
The animations are just so natural I love it!
Thank you Trixia! It really is our goal :)
Facial expressions are impressive. Looks great so far!
These are really wonderful! The facial expressions are so natural! Yet, so obviously recognisable! The perfect balance in my opinion. They really make you feel for the character! I can't wait to see the emotion system under the hood that drives these wonderful animations!
Thank you Fran, I'm really happy that you like them! We're really excited too!
The facial expressions look SO incredibly realistic, I’m beyond stoked and excited to see my Parafolk interact
Aw thank you!!
I love these so much!! They’re so expressive! I love how much expression is in the eyebrows alone! 🤩❤️
Thank you Lisa! <3
I love that the animations already seem so human and have a lot of variation.
I'm so happy you like them!
I love how there are different animations for different laughs depending on the mood!
Thank youuu, I like that too ^^
OKAY, but Maggie's flirty "look up and down" was EVERYTHING! The video was soooo entertaining to watch!! I am absolutely in love.
Yesss 😍
I like they look realistic!
I absolutely love what you are doing! The small details mean so much. Cannot wait for this game to come out. (Please keep taking your time on it though. As excited as I am, I am all for giving your studio all the time it needs to make a fantastic game.) Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much Colten!!
Oh my God Alice you're working so hard ! That list is impressive, and to think it's only a tiny bit of what's on your plate... The "laugh out loud" is really lovely. My first reaction was to go "oh, he has a great laugh" even though I didn't hear anything XD
Thank you so much! <3
I'm so happy that animations are realistic and not childish or cartoonish.
This is so cool to see!
Thanks Jenny! <3
Hi Alex 🇧🇷❤️. Eu notei que nos post anteriores algumas animações como sentar, exercitar e correr os personagens ficam com o rosto serio e duro. Por exemplo, quando estou correndo muito rápido ou me exercitando eu tenho expressões de respirar e aspirar mais fortes. Além de fazer algumas expressões de careta. Teremos isso quando os personagens estiverem executando ações? Animações sem expressões deixam meio que robôs os personagens.
Hi Junio! Good question! We are planning to have seperate facial animations that will be layered on top of the animations to express different feelings like happy, sad, exhausted, etc. We will be working on that later!
Somewhat concerning is the seconds in 30FPS. Is that indicating that the animations only play at 30FPS? If so, that is a really outdated framerate. The animations should play at 60FPS if not matching the framerate of the game overall.
Hi! Yes, I believe this is the standard video games use most of the time for 3D animations, at least when it comes to handmade keyframe animation. AAA titles probably capture animation with suits at 60FPS. But for keyframe, animations on 60FPS sounds a bit crazy (it means it doubles the amount of frames in one second which get hard to manage). I'm no expert so here's an interesting explanation I found, hope it will help! "Even in AAA game dev we still animate at 30 fps in our software, even if our target in game is set at 90-120 fps. In game your animation will still "look" the same, since the same amount of time will have passed (in the real world). You won't notice the interpolation unless you slow down the play-back of the game-engine itself, which is exactly what you'd see if you could do the same thing in your animation software. To re-iterate what others here have said, there are no real "frames" when animating for games, the engine is always interpolating the bone positions anyways, and realistically unless your animations are 100% uncompressed (unlikely) you will always have to live with a slight loss in quality for the in-game anims."
I love the animations. They look realistic and not cartoonish and over the top.
Love love love love this!!! The animations look so smooth and realistic!
Aw thank you Michael, doing my best! <3
All of the animations seem so genuine and wholesome. I love them!
It makes me super happy <3
Fantastic work!!!
Thank you Danielle! :D
Does anyone know why it cuts the video for me? The audio still plays but couple seconds into the video the image just freezes.
Weird! I have no idea, but I think some people reading Patreon posts on phones have issues as well :o
AMAZING AS ALWAYS!!!
AW THANK YOUUUUUUUU
The animations look very realistic and convey emotion/need well. Great job! Looking forward to seeing objects integrated into the animations as well as interactions between paras. Wishing Alice and the team the very best of luck!
Thanks Zedef! I can't wait either <3
I am beyond impressed at how well done the faces are in all the animations so far, not just the ones in this post. It brings the Paras to life so well! Great job, Alice!!
Thank you Sarah, I'm happy you like them! :D <3
Fantastic work, as usual! I look forward to these updates every week and they are never disappointing :)
Thanks so much Katie <3
These animations look amazing!! Love them so much! You have come so far since you started developing this game! I remember when we thought it would be a simple low poly game and I was happy with that, but everything that has been shown since then has really exceeded my expectations! Couldn’t be more excited! You’re all doing an amazing job with this game!!
Aw thank you for your nice comment, we're working hard to create our dream game and it's so great to be supported by all of you! <3
It’s so charming! I love the animations you’ve chosen. The uncomfortable laugh is so relatable. Love this all so much. I’m excited to see the finished project and happy to be supporting this along the way! ❤️
Thank you so much for your support Amber! I'm really happy that you like them.<3
O m g! I love the way they laugh almost in a anime type of style and how paras show emotions. It feels so real and cozy and you get so happy when you see your para laughing ❤️ You get a stronger connection to them! I am so in love with this! You are doing an amazing job and i am so happy to see this! Thank you for your amazing work! ❤️
Thank you so much for your kind words ! <3
Alice, you are amazing!! I love that the emotional reactions aren't overly "in-your-face". it is a really nice change. also... whoever did that cactus... wow... gorgeous... and outside the window... eurgh... i am ready for the game now. thank you. :)
Thank you so much, I'm very happy you like them! Chloé did the cactus, she did an amazing job (tbh all the plants look amazing). <3
I love the uncomfortable laugh, haha. Will there be different types of each animation regarding different traits? If not, I understand lol
I'd love that! I can't say for sure as this would be a lot of work to have additional variations each time. We have to have a good base for everything before being able to add this kind of details. But we really want to have specific animations for specific personalities!
Love these!!!
I'm so happy!
It must be so difficult to be exploding with a million ideas while you hammer out the basic systems, but I know that step 4 (mass production of animations) will be extremely gratifying for you all. Sending Alice lots of strength and energy for the upcoming sprint. ⚡️
<3 <3 <3
This is so awesome
Happy you like them!!
Amazing!!
Thanks Sarah<3
Slay
these animations are incredible with so much life to them! I love the different types of laughs. great job!! :)
Aw thanks, I really wanted to have different laughs, different types of reactions. I'm happy you like them! <3
The paras seem so alive!! Eli just remind me of that puppet that finally become a real boy. So cute.
Thanks Nala! <3
Seeing Paras of different heights interact with one another will be absolutely major. Can't wait.
I love it 🥰
Wow I love it! Very realistic looking animations! I especially love the laughing animations
Thank you Alyssa!! <3
These are so good!!! Thank you for sharing. The range of emotions is phenomenal as well
Thanks Sara! <3
😍😍😍😍
<3!