Animating running and waving
by ChrisP · in Torque Game Engine · 08/26/2005 (7:29 am) · 2 replies
Hi,
I would like to set up a character that can 'run' and 'wave' at the same time. While the character is running, the 'wave' animation should not be blended (i.e. should not be interpolated with the arm swing in the current 'run' animation), but rather should override fully just the left arm animation of the character when it is played and then hand control of the arm back over to the 'run' thread when it is finished. The rest of the body will have been playing the 'run' animation as usual during this time.
I've tried this in the Torque Show Tool and it seems to work okay, apart from when I add both threads and stop (but do not delete) the arm thread; the arm freezes during the walk animation. Both animations have a priorty of 0 and are blend disabled.
Can anybody who has done this sort of thing successfully suggest a good approach? I've read that there may be various problems (http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=3283) when an animation is playing and the player starts to move, since it appears move animations are handled specially by the engine and override all others. I have also read in the forums that the run animation may be split into upper and lower torsos (http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=2186), although I have a suspicion that this may only half solve the problem by freezing the upper torso when the arm animation is to be played, whereas I would like the other arm to continue swinging.
I have tried a blended wave animation before, and although it worked with the run animation, did not give a good result due to the interpolation of the arm bones from the wave animation and the arm swing of the run animation. I would like the wave to completely replace one of the arm swings of the run.
Thanks
I would like to set up a character that can 'run' and 'wave' at the same time. While the character is running, the 'wave' animation should not be blended (i.e. should not be interpolated with the arm swing in the current 'run' animation), but rather should override fully just the left arm animation of the character when it is played and then hand control of the arm back over to the 'run' thread when it is finished. The rest of the body will have been playing the 'run' animation as usual during this time.
I've tried this in the Torque Show Tool and it seems to work okay, apart from when I add both threads and stop (but do not delete) the arm thread; the arm freezes during the walk animation. Both animations have a priorty of 0 and are blend disabled.
Can anybody who has done this sort of thing successfully suggest a good approach? I've read that there may be various problems (http://www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=3283) when an animation is playing and the player starts to move, since it appears move animations are handled specially by the engine and override all others. I have also read in the forums that the run animation may be split into upper and lower torsos (http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=2186), although I have a suspicion that this may only half solve the problem by freezing the upper torso when the arm animation is to be played, whereas I would like the other arm to continue swinging.
I have tried a blended wave animation before, and although it worked with the run animation, did not give a good result due to the interpolation of the arm bones from the wave animation and the arm swing of the run animation. I would like the wave to completely replace one of the arm swings of the run.
Thanks
#2
08/28/2005 (7:11 pm)
Maybe I'm making it more complicated than I need to, but is it a good idea to use the mArmAnimation thread to do this? Also, when the arm animation has finished playing (as a playOnce arm animation), the animation of the arm stops at the last frame of the wave animation. How can I hand the animation of the arm back to the run animation? 
Associate Kyle Carter