Guild Wars 2

So first of all, I’ll start by saying :
I’ve realized by the end of the beta week-end that when you wield a decent sized staff (a long one, like The Crossing), staff animation auto-attack is actually quite decent (except the twirl on the third attack… it’s bad).
I’ve even come to like the stance. Really, the size of the staff makes a huge difference, I guess it wasn’t a good idea to provide only a small one by default for the beta. xD

That said, during the week-end, I’ve worked on an animation which illustrate how I personally envisionned the Daredevil staff auto-attack animation (Even though I DO know, that there’s no intention to change those animations. I just did it as a pastime).
Now I realize that the team may not want to lean too much toward a martial-arts kind of animation. I’m not expecting this animation of mine to actually become the auto-attack animation (but if it happens yeay xD). It’s basically just to give some idea on the direction we can go for the attacks.

So here it is, my 3D animation (it’s not polished but gives the idea) for the auto-attack :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtpN0dqO7c8
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Edit:
Including the running cycle :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exq7bCHS9tU
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Note :
- I used the Monkey King idle stance as starting point, but I think we can easily adjust it to the current stance.
- the idea of a bo staff, is to not go against its inertia in the movement. Let it go the full course in a continuous circular motion (imo). It leads to paying extra attention to the inertia force brought by the length in the animation (didn’t take the time to accentuate this aspect in the animation curves)
- Right now, there’s no real need to change the first two attacks of the auto. But the twirl on the third needs to change.
- The skill #2 can be changed to the second attack on Chain2 in my video.
- Oviously this study doesn’t include Norn nor Charr characters (I’m not sure what kind of rig would fit their build)

Here is the video I took as a reference (she’s a world champion Wushu expert so it’s reliable) :
https://youtu.be/vbefem-b8p8?list=FLd8o3AORo_jPkB_Wjfn2PYA&t=114

I’ve provided a link to the Maya files so you can directly check the model via the software if you have it (it’s a bit messy sry). It’s in the description of the video.

Nice work!! But they don’t have time for thief- the red headed step child of GW2.. lol,

Shogun.7401:

Nice work!! But they don’t have time for thief- the red headed step child of GW2.. lol,

I know, I’ve just done that as a pastime this week-end.
As I said, I’ve realized that there’s actually little to change with the animations right now. It’s just they’ve provided the wrong kind of staff by default.

It’s just skill#2 and the third auto-attack that need a change. I expect those changes to be made though.

God if only.. This would make me so happy to see. All I can do is pray

very nice! could you imagine a biggist fat male norn doing this though lol

This would look amazing on an asura, great on a human or sylvari, but horrid on a Norn or Charr O_O

Did you take into account that these should be usable when moving? Especially the second link in the chain looks like you didn’t.

Kill.3458:

This would look amazing on an asura, great on a human or sylvari, but horrid on a Norn or Charr O_O

Charr would get a bonus Tail Whip though, which lowers enemy’s defense.

ESKan.6782:

Did you take into account that these should be usable when moving? Especially the second link in the chain looks like you didn’t.

Actually I did. I’ve imagined it watching a sylvari ranger doing the sword auto-attack chain. It has the same kind of animation with jumps and spins. First and third attacks can be done with the feets having the running animation. The second attack can be used as is while moving (since most of the animation happens in the air). To begin with, this movement is supposed to make the character go forward (cf the video reference)

Kill.3458:

This would look amazing on an asura, great on a human or sylvari, but horrid on a Norn or Charr O_O

Norns and Charrs usually have different kind of animations. Nope I haven’t imagined a version for them yet xD
(Would be hilarious watching a male Norn doing that though)

Regarding the remark about the running animation :

It’s just a VERY basic running cycle (a bit cringy even) to just prove it’s possible. Actually it was more tricky to improvise it as a stand still animation.

(ps: I did change a little the rythm of the contact of the feet before the butterfly kick. making the right and left feet contact alternatively the floor in one single frame each to prevent sliding effect. In the previous video, the two feet contact the floor at the same time for 2 frames. Even in that case the sliding effect would hardly be noticeable)

wow dude, thats pretty amazing!! what a bummer staff animations probably wont change anyway… still really nice work!

If the Daredevil would only have like half of the Gold Performance of Jade Xu, god in heaven, then we would have the eternal winner for the coolest staff class ever xD

Holy kitten this is pretty good! Anet… hire this person right now!

Doggie.3184:

Charr would get a bonus Tail Whip though, which lowers enemy’s defense.

dat pokemon reference tho

I like it. OP’s examples are something like what i had in mind when i dreamed thief spec to have staff and i thought that there’s no way they’re gonna do it, that they’re gonna go with boring obvious choice of rifle, but then, they did it! Cool, right? But then i saw the animations….

Good for humans and sylvari, but I think a big part of the problem with “acrobatic” animations is that you have to do alt sets for charr, male norn, and asura.

Like how charr have a different deathblossom animation, asura tend to have a bit up a jump or bounce so all of their strikes aren’t ankle-high on everyone, or accounting for the broader shoulders of the male norn.

I can see charr and male norn working with a less flippy and more spinny auto 2, and asura using nearly the same sequence but with a bit of a jump on 1 and a full body drill-spin on 3.

Remains to be seen what anet’s cooking up though, as we were told they were working on all the animations.

I agree on charr and male norn dilemma, but asura i think would look pretty cool.

As long as this didn’t lock us into a forced movement like ranger sword auto I would love these.

This is awesome. I really hope the staff animations move in this direction before release.

With regards to the team not wanting to lean too far towards Martial Arts style animations I have to ask – Is there another style of fighting with a big stick that I’m unaware of? Besides yknow, swinging really hard toward the ankles.

Those look cool and everything. Would love to have these animations over the current ones. (Yeah, I didn’t play any of the betas, but I’ve youtube’d enough to know the current ones are ugly – to say the least) And I’m sure you would be able to come up with charr and norn ones as well.

But the same time, I’m sad for your wasted time, passion, and effort.

DJSushi.5406:

This is awesome. I really hope the staff animations move in this direction before release.

With regards to the team not wanting to lean too far towards Martial Arts style animations I have to ask – Is there another style of fighting with a big stick that I’m unaware of? Besides yknow, swinging really hard toward the ankles.

eh?

OP, good job! Those animations look amazing.

Mabey one day OPs stuff will be on game

Cool stuff! I just hope these animations get it to the game. Good job OP!