Now I was pretty there were already a thread for that, but I haven't found any...
The question of animatronics was brought in the first Q&A, and I'd like to extend the topic.
I love animatronics and could spend hours talking about them, but if I had one and only one request, it would be to make them distinguishable from the humans in-game.So far, on the concepts we've seen (Pirate band and Royal Marine guards or something), I honestly couldn't tell if they were actual people or animated figures. That's the problem in a video-game where people are stylized.
I think the key differences that can help us telling them apart, are :
Model side:
- Have cracks around moving parts, such as the jaw, neck, even arms and legs maybe... Though some newer animatronics have a seamless skin, I think it would look more cartoony if they still have those infamous cracks (but the line between cartoony and creepy is really thin, there). Remember animatronics are not a meaty body full of muscles, but a bunch of rigid parts moving around.
- Animatronics usually stand still on their feet. Little liberties can be took by having a rail-guide, like for the violinist of the pirate-band, but that's about it. No animatronic can walk, run, jump (unless held somewhere else). The fact is, an animatronic is a dead mechanism, there is no AI behind it. It can't tell if it's losing its balance ; it's not a robot. So always have them linked to something steady.
Animation side:
- They can't hit things, including themselves, and I'm refering to the barrel pirate. It would cause too much wear, as they would always hit the exact same spot over and over again. If you look closely, you'll never see an animatronic actually playing drums, or claping his hand. Even if he was to put his hands on its hips, he wouldn't touch them.
- Modern animatronics sure can move quickly, but not as jerky as shown in the Pirate band video. Spending hours lookings at animatronic videos, they are actually often looking too smooth. That's another key point to tell a human or an animatronic aside.
Another key point would be the eyes movements, but considering Planet Coaster's style, there is nothing to worry about, here, haha! [haha]
Now Frontier already did a great job, and if the animatronics were to be released in their current state, it wouldn't bother me that much. But they did stated they weren't too sure about how to animate them and such, so here was my input. [happy]
The question of animatronics was brought in the first Q&A, and I'd like to extend the topic.
I love animatronics and could spend hours talking about them, but if I had one and only one request, it would be to make them distinguishable from the humans in-game.So far, on the concepts we've seen (Pirate band and Royal Marine guards or something), I honestly couldn't tell if they were actual people or animated figures. That's the problem in a video-game where people are stylized.
I think the key differences that can help us telling them apart, are :
Model side:
- Have cracks around moving parts, such as the jaw, neck, even arms and legs maybe... Though some newer animatronics have a seamless skin, I think it would look more cartoony if they still have those infamous cracks (but the line between cartoony and creepy is really thin, there). Remember animatronics are not a meaty body full of muscles, but a bunch of rigid parts moving around.
- Animatronics usually stand still on their feet. Little liberties can be took by having a rail-guide, like for the violinist of the pirate-band, but that's about it. No animatronic can walk, run, jump (unless held somewhere else). The fact is, an animatronic is a dead mechanism, there is no AI behind it. It can't tell if it's losing its balance ; it's not a robot. So always have them linked to something steady.
Animation side:
- They can't hit things, including themselves, and I'm refering to the barrel pirate. It would cause too much wear, as they would always hit the exact same spot over and over again. If you look closely, you'll never see an animatronic actually playing drums, or claping his hand. Even if he was to put his hands on its hips, he wouldn't touch them.
- Modern animatronics sure can move quickly, but not as jerky as shown in the Pirate band video. Spending hours lookings at animatronic videos, they are actually often looking too smooth. That's another key point to tell a human or an animatronic aside.
Another key point would be the eyes movements, but considering Planet Coaster's style, there is nothing to worry about, here, haha! [haha]
Now Frontier already did a great job, and if the animatronics were to be released in their current state, it wouldn't bother me that much. But they did stated they weren't too sure about how to animate them and such, so here was my input. [happy]
