CRYTEK CONFIDENTIAL © 2011 Crytek GmbH CryMannequin

CRYTEK

CONFIDENTIAL © 2011 Crytek GmbH

CryMannequin

CRYTEK

© 2010 Crytek GmbHCONFIDENTIAL

WHAT IS IT?

2

A generic data-driven high-level animation system

Replaces:• AnimGraph• Weapon animation• All other custom animation systems

Key Features:• Clip sequencing and layering• Advanced transitions

o Blends, tween animation sequences and layering• Coordinates animations across entities• Procedural extensions

o Coordinating code and animation• Game-side action management

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© 2010 Crytek GmbHCONFIDENTIAL 3

WHERE DOES IT LIVE?

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KEY REQUIREMENTS

4

Data-driven Animation• Ease of adding assets• Ease of adjusting playback• Ease of adjusting blends between assets

Better Game Integration• Ensure authored animation perfectly reflects in game results • Provide helper control for coordinating animations with game specific

effects• Scalability – the level of impact on game code is the user’s choice

Tom Berry

Animators should be able to insert new variations of animations easily and without coder intervention or knowledge of game-specific systems.

Tom Berry

Animators should be able to have control over layering and biasing their base animation assets to produce a final look which is used directly in game.Animators should be able to make use of a suite of procedural fragments as part of their toolkit in authoring an animation fragment.

Tom Berry

Very often animations look great when they are playing, but the transitions between them are poor. This makes the overall flow disjointed and greatly detracts from the look of the animations.Animators should be able to control how different animations blend into each other and insert tween animations without coder assistance.

Tom Berry

We provide a structure such that the editor can be used to perfectly match the end result in gameGreatly simplified game-side control

Tom Berry

Framework ensures that the game code and animation system are always in synchAssurance that the animation system is always doing what is asked of it

Tom Berry

Minimal integration for pure animation controlStronger integration for tighter management of actions

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CONSEQUENCES FOR CODE

5

No direct referencing of animations• Game requests animation fragments by ID (FragmentID) and provides a

State (tags) for selectiono Required for editor/game parityo Required for data-driven sequences and transitions

Hands off the animation control!• Game does not directly manipulate animations

o Required for editor/game parityo Required for data-driven sequences and transitions

• Manipulate animations via procedural clips and setting paramso Actually results in simpler game-code and more code reuseo Allows for better threading of animation code

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SAMPLE WORKFLOW

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Animator• Authors and exports animations• Previews and hooks up new fragments in the editor

o Potentially adds new FragmentIDs and Tagso Can setup custom blends if required

Coder• Creates new action to control animation

o May inherit new class or use generic one for simple cases• Sets the relevant FragmentID• Sets any Fragment specific Tags

Bugs• Visual -> Animator• Functional -> Coder Maybe

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WHAT ARE FRAGMENTS?

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Fragment == Layered animation sequence

Layers of sequences of clips• Clips are raw animation assets or custom coded effects• Clips can be arranged sequentially and layered on top of each other

The basic atomic animation unit• Fragments are pushed on as a single element

Support Procedural Clips• Procedural clips are classes registered from within game-codeo Inherit from IProceduralClip or the TProceduralClip<> helper templateo Currently need to expose via Scripts\Mannequin\ProcDefs.xml

• They allow custom code effects to be sequenced and parameterised alongside the animations

o Sound effects, entity position adjustment, IK controllers...

• Can receive inputs from the game via Action Parameters

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ACTION CREATION

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Action == Game-side class with a state-machine style interface for making fragment requests

Create• Create new action to control animation

o May inherit new class or use generic one for simple caseso Inherit from the IAction interface or the TAction<> helper template

• Set the relevant FragmentID• Set any Fragment specific Tags• Set the action’s Priority

o Used to manage overlapping actions

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ACTION CREATION

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Queue• Push the action onto the target’s Action Controller

o For actors this is accessible via the AnimatedCharactero This will be pushed on and updated before the next batch of

animations are sent off for processing

Update• The Action can switch Fragments and set Params for procedural clips• The Action can do custom game-side work to assist co-ordinating

animation and game stateo Reload: Handle events to ensure that ammo is installed at the correct

timeo Locomotion: Changing the FragmentID based on player input

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ACTION SCOPES

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Scope == A high level animation channel

A scope controls where the fragments are triggered• Handles different part of the body (Base body, Torso, Legs)• Handles different entities (Weapon, Attachments, Target Player)

Actions control Scopes• Each Scope can only be controlled by a single Action• Multiple Actions can be active concurrently, each on different Scopes• A single Action can be installed on multiple Scopes

o Full body actions such as “Stamp Attack” tend to go across all scopesoWhich Scopes an Action uses is generally set in data by which

FragmentID is set, but can be specified in code by the Action itself

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Base Torso Weapon Priority Queue

Locomotion Idle

Locomotion Idle Jump

Jump Idle Locomotion

Jump Idle Reload Locomotion

Jump Reload Reload Locomotion

Jump Reload Reload Stamp Locomotion

Stamp Stamp Stamp Locomotion


Locomotion

Example of scope usage by actions over time

ACTION CONTROL

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Locomotion Idle








Locomotion

Initial state. An action controlling basic locomotion holds the base

scope and an Idle action currently has control of the torso.

Initial state. An action controlling basic locomotion holds the base

scope and an Idle action currently has control of the torso.

ACTION CONTROL

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Locomotion Idle








Locomotion

Game updates and queues up a Jump action. It is on the same scope as the

Locomotion but with higher priority so it will interrupt it.

Game updates and queues up a Jump action. It is on the same scope as the

Locomotion but with higher priority so it will interrupt it.

ACTION CONTROL

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Locomotion Idle








Locomotion

Locomotion is interruptible and so is automatically added to the priority queue ready for reinsertion at the

earliest opportunity.

Locomotion is interruptible and so is automatically added to the priority queue ready for reinsertion at the

earliest opportunity.

ACTION CONTROL

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Locomotion Idle








Locomotion

Game updates and queues up a reload action. This

moves straight to the head of the priority queue.

Game updates and queues up a reload action. This

moves straight to the head of the priority queue.

ACTION CONTROL

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Locomotion Idle








Locomotion

Action Controller updates and pushes the Reload onto the Torso and Weapon Scopes. This triggers the character and the

weapon animations synchronously. The Idle action is not interruptible and so is terminated and deleted.

Action Controller updates and pushes the Reload onto the Torso and Weapon Scopes. This triggers the character and the

weapon animations synchronously. The Idle action is not interruptible and so is terminated and deleted.

ACTION CONTROL

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Locomotion Idle








Locomotion

Game updates and queues up a stamp action. This is a high priority action which effects all the scopes. It goes straight to

the head of the priority queue.

Game updates and queues up a stamp action. This is a high priority action which effects all the scopes. It goes straight to

the head of the priority queue.

ACTION CONTROL

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Locomotion Idle








Locomotion

The Stamp is pushed on across all the scopes. The existing

actions are all non-interruptible and so terminated and deleted.

The Stamp is pushed on across all the scopes. The existing

actions are all non-interruptible and so terminated and deleted.

ACTION CONTROL

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Locomotion Idle








Locomotion

The Stamp action hits the ground and pushes on its final FragmentID (StampLand). When we reach the most appropriate blend point the Stamp action is

terminated and the Locomotion reinstalled.

The Stamp action hits the ground and pushes on its final FragmentID (StampLand). When we reach the most appropriate blend point the Stamp action is

terminated and the Locomotion reinstalled.

ACTION CONTROL

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DEBUGGING DEMO

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In-game debug• Mn_debug <entity_name>

o In-game display of current actions, fragments & clipso Very useful in conjuction with FRAPS

• Es_debugAnim <entity_name>o Low-level debug on the actual animation assets on the named entity

Dumps• Mn_dump <entity_name> <duration>

o Duration is time in secs to dump, defaults to dumping the entire buffer

o Sequence file is saved into Animations\Mannequin\FragmentSequences

o Can be loaded into the Editor via the LoadSequence command

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QUESTIONS?

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Mannequin’s home on confluence:http://confluence/display/C3/CryMannequin

Documents

CRYTEK CONFIDENTIAL © 2011 Crytek GmbH CryMannequin