After watching some of the videos from Gamescom I have to hand it to the animators on this project. These are some of the most realistic animal movements I've seen in a game. Some of the models don't look that great in a still shot but when you see them animated they are much better. Great work animators!
PZ animators should win an award!
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There are loads of really disgustingly talented people in Frontier. 
Animators/modellers and sound effect guys just to name two, but generally there is a scary amount of talent there for a relatively small (although now not so small) company.
And it goes back. Look at JWE for example. With Planet Zoo the animators have at least some reference as to how these animals actually move, but the way they have brought dinosaurs to life is incredible.
And even in Planet Coaster, although it's "just caricature humans in a video game", the animation and expressions are at PIXAR level of greatness.
So yeah. Yay for Frontier. I hope these people are sufficiently cherished within the company.
Animators/modellers and sound effect guys just to name two, but generally there is a scary amount of talent there for a relatively small (although now not so small) company.
And it goes back. Look at JWE for example. With Planet Zoo the animators have at least some reference as to how these animals actually move, but the way they have brought dinosaurs to life is incredible.
And even in Planet Coaster, although it's "just caricature humans in a video game", the animation and expressions are at PIXAR level of greatness.
So yeah. Yay for Frontier. I hope these people are sufficiently cherished within the company.
I'm impressed, but some of the animations you can tell were made to include all of that type of animal. For example, the orangutan walks on its knuckles like a gorilla, as if the frame is meant to be shared with other big apes, when orangutans walk on the palms on their hands and feet. Other than that though, the animations are amazing.
Yes, you're right about that. I wonder why they did that with the orangutans? Time constraints maybe?
Maybe a hint that Gorillas will be included? Maybe they will alter the animations afterward.
Huh. Thats strange, as people keep saying that Orangutans don't walk on their knuckles, but I guess they do occasionally.
Aaactually, the in-game Orangutans should walk upright:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_REfeFhGs0
Guess this is what bigfoot actually was.. and it was just an escaped upright walking orangutan.
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Why?
The video you linked clearly showed knuckle-walking is normal and upright-walking is only a lot more common in oran utans raised by humans.
We could say, Orangutans should in general not walk so much on the ground - on the other side, we haven't even seen real gameplay with them yet...
Orangutans, particularly Sumatran Orangutans, never touched the ground, because tigers prowl the jungle floor. Bornean Orangutans have no land predators in their place, so they can walk around on land. Usually only males do this because...let's just say they're too big for the trees.
I'd say the orangutan in PZ walks quite well, albeit in a gorilla-esque fashion.
I'd say the orangutan in PZ walks quite well, albeit in a gorilla-esque fashion.
It's like bumping in, but actually that orangutan's all four walking is not quite 'knuckle' walking we know, I'd rather call that 'fist' walking.
Gorilla and chimpanzee's knuckle walking involves intermediate phalanges touching the ground. So when they walk on all four, they curve their fingers somewhat like a hook.
Orangutan, on the other hand, they walk on their fists, meaning they completely fold their fingers and proximal phalanges touch the ground. If you look at that video closely, the orangutan is forming a full folded fist unlike the pre-order trailer.
or look at this video from around 0:20. You'll see that orangutan's fingers are not quite positioned like the chimps or gorillas.
Source: https://youtu.be/ANz3FE7BbKs
And yes, they use palms too. So in conclusion: walking animation of orangutan in the trailer is actually not that accurate.
EDIT: leaving this too. It's criticizing about the moving of the orangutan of Planet of Apes (most recent ones)
: https://knucklewalk.wordpress.com/tag/orangutans/
Gorilla and chimpanzee's knuckle walking involves intermediate phalanges touching the ground. So when they walk on all four, they curve their fingers somewhat like a hook.
Orangutan, on the other hand, they walk on their fists, meaning they completely fold their fingers and proximal phalanges touch the ground. If you look at that video closely, the orangutan is forming a full folded fist unlike the pre-order trailer.
or look at this video from around 0:20. You'll see that orangutan's fingers are not quite positioned like the chimps or gorillas.
And yes, they use palms too. So in conclusion: walking animation of orangutan in the trailer is actually not that accurate.
EDIT: leaving this too. It's criticizing about the moving of the orangutan of Planet of Apes (most recent ones)
: https://knucklewalk.wordpress.com/tag/orangutans/
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I actually think the construction kit and landscaping is the unsung hero, I instantly thought that when I dabbled with Planet Coaster (more for checking out the tech than spending too much time on the game). Incredibly powerful yet pretty intuitive for its scope. You can get some decent bespoke if basic creations up pretty quickly. For those who want to spend more time there is almost unlimited scope. It is very well balanced in my view. I cant quite tell yet if the terrain tool is more toned down for Planet Zoo compared to Planet Coaster.