Sorcerer Mod Animations - looking for general input/discussion and animators

[Triplis]

If there's a better section for this, please feel free to move it there.

 

I've been putting off writing this because I know it's going to be time-consuming in one way or another, but after one person was talking to me about how custom animations might be added, wondering themself, and another was asking if I would like them to make custom animations for my Sorcerer mod, I decided to use that as the impetus to write this.

 

Why this website, considering that the Sorcerer mod is not "adult" content? Because I know a lot of animators hang out here, as does Turbodriver who knows a lot about implementing them.

 

 

The goal of this post is:

 

1) To figure out how the hell to add custom animations in such a way that they can be referenced in interactions, like normal animations. And figure how to add an xevent at a certain time in at least one of the animations (without it, I won't be able to get the timing right on stuff like the use of spells on other sims). It'd also be handy to have for things like teleportation and fading. Or at least, that's what this part of the post was going to be about. I just saw Turbodriver has a bunch of tutorials covering this stuff, but I'm going to leave it in anyway since it's a necessary step in the process for me to actually use animations that people make.

 

2) To put out a general "opening the can of worms" request for custom animations. But wait! With some caveats. Here's the thing: There's only a certain number of different animations it'll make sense for the mod to have. So it wouldn't make sense for me to just say, "If you want to make custom animations, send me what you got!" Cause then I might get different people doing the same animation and having to pick and choose, etc. Just doesn't make sense to me; I don't want to waste peoples' hard work.

 

There's also the factor that I'd prefer for animations to be as "professional-grade" as possible. Meaning, they look as much like something Maxis might have made as possible. So, for example, I've noticed that some custom animations have what I'd call "pinching" (where skin in the model overlaps in a way that looks like the model has no bones); I'd like to avoid that if possible. Beggars can't be choosers; I'm just telling you what my ideal is. That if you'd like to make animations for the mod, to put it one way: I'd rather you spend a week perfecting one animation than a day putting together five. If that makes sense.

 

So here's what I'm figuring as far as what animations need to be made:

 

I'm opening discussion to what kind of animations people think would be best for the different components of the Sorcerer mod. You can chime in on this whether you're an animator or not. 

 

For example, one of the things the Sorcerers do is cast spells on other sims. Currently they use the Vampire powers VFX, along with the guitar playing animation. Some questions we might ask are: What might a fitting "spell casting" animation look like? Note that if it were to involve something like a wand, that'd involve extra coding, I'm pretty sure, working out how to add a prop and time it right. Another question might be... should there be a VFX connecting the caster and the target? Again, making a custom one that's like the vampire one would be extra work (and I'm not sure how to add custom VFX effects either, though maybe someone here knows). 

 

Video clips or images of Sorcerers doing stuff in pop culture material would be a big help too, I think. For example, if you have a clip from some TV show of a magic-wielding person casting a spell, that might help with an idea of how it could look.

 

 

Right now, I'm roughly figuring I will try to reach some kind of consensus for animations with enough input and then put out a request on specific people who have volunteered. Possibly split up who works on what if more than one person has volunteered to make animations for the mod. I have no planned timetable on this right now; like with most aspects of modding, I'm figuring it out as I go along.

 

So... post away. I look forward to hearing from you.

 

And if you haven't heard of my Sorcerer mod and don't know what the actual fuck I'm talking about, you can check it out here: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=594052

 

Thanks!

 

- Triplis

[R-Lo]

I'm really liking the idea of some magic being added to the game

This sounds really interesting and fun