Animation 101 4 Konami, 360 Movement? GOOD LUCK!
I have noticed a few of you complaining about PES series' 8 way directional movement and wishing it was 360 degrees.
Well here's why it will probably NEVER happen unless Videogames are revolutioized in terms of object tracking.
1. Every Player out there on that there Konami pitch is controled by a Master floor bone (lets call it the central node) that supplies the engine with XYZ co-ordinates of the position of the player.
When the coders/programmers move the "player" that node is really moving and it is in effect "pulling" or moving the player along with it*.
2. Herin lies the problem with 8 way movement and Animation:
a) Matrix, Spiderman Movies etc etc 3D animation moves chracters around using ONE "Planted Keyframe" for the Feet. Essentially they lock the feet into a position and then the rest of body is moveable.
That's why the 3D Spiderman and Keanus movement ROCK SOLID. They run across rooftops & leap from surface to surface with complete precision**.
b) Videogames using a central node can NEVER have this. The Heirachy for the feet and in esscence "destroyed" with the addition of this node. The feet can NOT be locked into position because they are always getting moved around from the node. If the node moves then so does EVERYTHING, it head, arms AND Legs. ALL Videogames (to this date) use this method.
c) To keep a Foot stationery using a central node system sometimes means setting individual Keyframes per Frame. That's right PERHAPS 30 Keyframes per second!!!!!!!!! Take a GOOD look at Beckham's free kick animation - That left foot of his SLIDES. In real life (and if you were animating for a movie) That foot would be firmly in place for 95% of the Kick.
d) Say Konami want to implement 16 way direction (sounds amazing with the possibilities but doh - wait on a minute....) they have to have all the exisiting animations for their current 8 way (ie North, NS, South, SE, East, EW, West & NW) PLUS animations for the new directions (ie NorthNorthWest, SouthSouthWest etc etc etc).
- That's double the animations! THAT'S JUST MOVEMENT - lets add the shooting on those angles, the passing, the tripping.
e) They need twice the Animation staff and twice the amount of time to get it right every "yearly" update.
f) PlayStation2's CPU could NOT handle double the calculations of 22 player movements.
g) Sliding Occurs when there are not enough Keyframes implemented and the foot's offset XYZ value is not kept constant.
h) Videogames using Motion Capture that is not "cleaned up" by a Traditional Animator has sliding.
So there you go. Perhaps with the Playstation3 and a re-work of the Videogame animation system we could get it to be nigh on PERFECT. Until then - enjoy your diagonal run guys!
You can see they have fudged it slightly this time around. Take a good look at the Diagonal runs - The arm movement is comical to say the least - the player looks like a Chicken trying to fly. Weird. The Straight runs (ie N,S,E,W) are a masculan & powerful run but the diagonals look like he has a pole up his arse. Perhaps the motion capture was a little off that day or the guy wasn't wearing the suit properly?
Hats off to their team though - The animation overall is EASILY the best on any Sports game!
NOTES:
* That Node is essentially the "parent/master" controller and the player in effect becomes a "child/slave" to the Node.
** Movie Characters are free roaming in an enviroment and the interaction is usually hand-done as opposed to an node-based engine controlling interaction and movement.
