Animation Showcase: Romantic and Exercise Interactions (Patreon)

Hello, Alice here! ☀️

It has been a while since the last animation showcase, so we wanted to show you what I have been working on during the past weeks. As you saw in this Patreon Post, Richard and I recently worked on improving the locomotion of our Parafolks. However, today I will be showcasing our newest animations, including some romantic ones that I am really thrilled about, as well as our new bench press and treadmill animations. I made a small video to showcase them, which you can see at the top of this Patreon Post. ⬆🎥 Note that this Patreon post is for Patrons only so please don’t share it, thank you!

The Animations in the Video

1. Marriage Proposal Success
2. Marriage Proposal Fail
3. Passionate Kiss Fail
4. Jog on Treadmill
5. Working Out on Bench Press Barbell Start and Stop
6. Working Out on Bench Press Barbell Low Skill
7. Working Out on Bench Press Barbell Medium Skill

In case you missed it, you can find our previous animation showcase in this Patreon post. Also, if you're curious, the lovely music in today's video is one of Andrei's recent compositions called Time Machine!✨

The Animation Process

I asked you in a recent post if you would be interested in knowing more about our animation process. The answer was yes, so here’s a brief explanation!

1. First things first, the main 3D software artists use at Paralives studio is Blender.
2. We start by brainstorming: what animations we need at this point for the game, which we would like to have, which are realistically achievable while taking our resources and technical challenges into account.
3. Once we’ve agreed upon what we want and can do (sometimes we find out later that we can't do it and wasted time trying; fun times!), I start looking for animation references. I prefer to use other people's videos as references for technical movements/motions that I might not be knowledgeable enough about, like working out on a fitness machine. But most of the time, I shoot references myself, this way we get exactly what we need. Although I am not the best actress, I usually manage to pull it off (I think).
4. It’s time to animate in Blender! Here is a short youtube video that I love, which explains animation very well. The computer-generated animation portion begins around 1:24.
5. After I finish animating, I export my Blender animation to Unity, our game engine, where our modding tools allow us to integrate it into the game. After the first version of an animation is done, I share it with the team for feedback. I make the necessary retakes whenever necessary (which is nearly always the case, even based on my own feedback) and update the files in game.
6. Finally, in some specific cases, we need to dynamically adapt the animations using code. This is because of the fact that you can change the height of characters in Paralives. If two people of the same height are hugging, their arms won't be resting on each other at the same place and in the same angle as if a tall person was hugging a smaller one.

That's it for today; as always, I had a great time working on these and hope you learned a thing or two about animation! Please feel free to share your feedback and ask any questions you may have. I would love to read what you think about everything that has been shown above. :)

Happy Friday to you all!!
Alice (☆◡☆) /