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Originally Posted by Laerazi I don't see how you concluded that realistic animations are easier to make from this. Motion capturing gathers human movements, yes, but that doesn't mean it's any easier to implement these animations in a believable manner onto your characters. |
This is where TALENT comes into play. SOE/Sigil might have MMORPG design experience, but Blizzard has a lot of solid GAME design experience and always hires incredible
artists. I think Ut was saying that
technically, mocap is much easier than manual animation. This is true. If you think otherwise, I'll get my animators on here to punch you in the sack.
The end result you're looking for with overall style is the artistic 'essence' which makes the scene more than just a collection of models, textures and animations. Cohesiveness and the suspension of disbelief, which can be done in realistic games as well as highly stylized games. Blizzard has always done well on this front and WoW is no exception.
On the technical side, mocap is easier to get a ton of source material from. If you then just attach that material to a skeleton and walk away you're not going to get "realistic" animations just because it came from your cousin Jack swinging a stick like a sword. The programmers, animators, texture artists, etc all have to live and breathe that same vision of how that game is going to live and breathe. When they don't you tend to get plastic, chaotic, incoherant style. While most people can't tell you WHY precisely. They definitely notice
something is wrong.
