ANM: Crank Up the Cranes
Move over Scouts, time to animate the big boys.
Using the same technique as the Scouts, the Cranes could be controlled through the Human IK system.
Our artists found that tackling the Crane was harder compared to the Scouts, even though there were less animations to complete.
This was due to not having animated on such a large scale before. The animations went through several iterations before feeling right.
These included a Walk cycle, Idle cycle, a Powering On sequence, and a Cutting animation.
Starting the Animations:
Similar to the Scouts, we looked for inspiration before jumping into Maya, looking for ways huge robots could move
In the game , the Scouts and Cranes are made by the same company. As Scout animations were already complete, we could look to their style of movement, so that our Cranes share similarities.
Unlike the Scouts though, the Cranes only move when powered on by the player or other means.
The Cranes are quite huge, meaning that their weight must be clearly conveyed in their movement.
Our default Crane Idle pose is designed to look like it is ready on standby, awaiting command. A challenge we had to overcome was keeping the top-half straight, as the main character would be up there.
Below are previews of some of the Crane animations within Unreal.
