So i wanted to give the devs props for their animations in the game.
Now GW2 have the best animations I have seen in any game. Let me explain why I say this.
When you look at most games when using abilities/skills the model of the character itself is rarely very well animated to follow the skill used.
In GW2 the animation quality of the character when using a skill is generally pretty amazing.
1:
The characters animation when you use a skill are made in a way that it looks like it got weight to it, and that the physical rules of movement is in place. By that I mean, the speed of movement of each limb in relation to another; your lower arm will have a higher speed then the upper arm, arms will move with the shoulders and move faster then legs, but slower then the upper body etc.
The Casting time fills the time with the animation so there isn’t much/if any wasted time where there which is not a visual representation that explains why the skill haven’t gone of yet. Which gives a good amount of realism in the feel of the skill.
(all this is extremely rare in games because it means that the animators need to have a high insight in human movement pattern, something most normal people don’t have (most people, including me, I know that got a good insight on this is martial artist)).
However, this aspect is extremely important because even though you don’t know why you can see the difference and you know something is correct/of when it is
(for most people).
2:
Animation effect: the effects are generally beautifully made. They have a good visual representation and they sync up extremely nicely with the characters animation of movement. there is a reasonable impact feel too it’s visual look and the sounds in general which helps amplify this. However the feel of impact on the visuals of the skills themselves, not the character model, is the weakest part of the animation and could be slightly improvet.
3:
The effects doesn’t make a “clutter”: it is reasonably easy to see what is going on, even when 5 people stack their ability effects. Which is something that is extremely hard to do, and will often impact the visual effect of the skills themselves (which it also somewhat does here, but it is very well done compared to other games).
Making the skills visual effect look flashy and cool, while NOT cluttering the screen when 5 people are stacking effects, is extremely challenging
These are the reason I think GW2 have the best Animation quality and animation graphics I have seen in a game yet
If there should be any improvement it would be on the “feel of impact”. There could be more of an “impact” feel on skills; like small knockback, or animation representation that shows your attacks are hitting hard. Physics which knocks corpses around on killing blows. Model animation that shows impact (as in enemies movement getting impacted, like if you pushed some ones shoulder while he was running, not hard enough to make him change course but hard enough for his shoulder to give after.) etc. stuff like that
But this is also something we almost never see in games (and the few I can recall it is badly made)
Well I wanted to post this because It have been on my mind the last couple of days and even though the devs responsible for this aspect properly already know it, I think it is important to reinforce their knowledge and let them know they are, if not the best, amongst the very best at their jobs ^^
Thanks to the animators and visual artist of GW2 you done an amazing job (sorry if others were involved in this aspect that isn’t within those two categories, of couse you are also amazing)
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Two fast example’s since feedback is sometimes easier to get with some example’s:
Elementalist casting meteor storm:
His entire body is moving, you can see the speed difference on leg movement to body movement, you can see due to the acceleration in the arms movement speed that he is tensing his muscles because it takes great effort and concentration to pull/created meteors from the sky.
It gives a clear indicator that he is doing the effort.
The visual effects of it is quite clear without clustering up the screen. The sound on impacts is decent letting you hear each “thump” clearly.
Now what could have been even better is if there would be small crater where the meteor landed, and an effect of dirt being thrown up and around (properly killing performance is the reason it isn’t there hehe). When enemies get hit by it, their body is impacted and “pushed” animation wise, or hands covering their face for 1sec, or if hit directly their legs and body bend down a bit as if hit by something heavy.
But as it is, it’s already extremely well made.
Lava font: the fast movement of the arm with albow first and then stretching it so the underarm move at a much faster speed. Giving a feel of “power” behind the movement.
Shoulders that follows the movement with the upper body:
It is extremely nicely animated.
edit:
playing Sylvari elementalist primarily (charr war, human nec, human mes)
(edited by Erebus.7568)
we do NOT need snail speed to be able to control our combat (which is easily proofed in aion), come on please stop it already :/ …),