In the recent mount animation video on mount animations. for a pre-alpha animation, this is amazing. I would like to offer my thoughts on how it might be even better, but I do not wish in any way to detract from the work currently done on the animations of the horse.
I appreciate the effort into getting the mount animations right as mounts and transportation in general is crucial in Elyria and as such getting the horse animation right will enhance immersive gameplay. SBS obviously has skilled animators, so in order to push this animation “to the next level” I would like to offer my experience and knowledge to help the developers fine tune the animations. For those who don’t know me, I studied Applied Equine Welfare and Management at Uni, and the horse I ride - Shannon approves this message.
Shannon
The main thing I noticed was that the animations seemed choppy and almost like a Western Pino Faso type gaits and not the usual gaits (walk, trot and canter) from other much more commonly used horse breeds.
Here is an example of how actual gaits work in the vast majority of horse breeds (there are a few exceptions but they are that, exceptions I say this because I saw the trot in the horse was not really correct, the horse lifts its legs upwards into it’s chest instead of gliding outwards. That can be trained into the horse but it is a high-level dressage movement and not something the vast majority of horses would do. .
Another thing I noticed was that during the canter sequence the horse leads from the right leg (as in the right front leg is first leg to move) when going left, that would most likely cause the horse to trip over. It would be better if the rider was putting the horse on the correct leg using the inside leg (the leg in this case being the left one) and moving it backwards a little bit to tell the horse to lead from that leg as you are changing the leg in which the horse leads from.
Subtly, the head barely moves. Bio-mechanically the horse’s head moves as it travels that is why when you ride the horse you have to allow the head to move.
And finally I feel the tail is wrong, it should not be swirling like a helicopter, the horse moves it’s tail to clear flies and communicate that it is in pain and can be a bad habit for the horse.
Why does all this matter, given the animations look way better than nearly any other horse in any other MMO? This is important as we the players might be spending a lot of time on mounts so having a strong set of animations for the horse that are technically correct will enhance the believability of the world. The details are subtle - horse leading from the correct leg, rider position moving, including the leg movements of the riders, but as SBS obviously has the talented animators to be able to pull it off, it seems timely to point out those subtleties.
Oh and just to be clear … that Trison. We’ve had a chat about that animation … bravo. That’s all there is to say about it! Amazingly good work, and that hand … didn’t expect that to be so good at this point! - Lady Grace
To summarise:
>Front legs disconnected at Trot
>Horse Leading from wrong leg at canter
>Overall horse movement seems very similar to Pino Faso (thank you Epabberi for pointing that out), a more normal gait would be better
>Head barely moves (ought to move more)
>Tail movement.
To everyone else reading this - did you spot something that could be even better?
Contributors;
Lady Grace
Epaberri
Rubaiyate
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Till next time - Horse Lord Varuian Maulvorn
