Operator Animations: Why they Desperately Need Work

[(PSN)SilentTakeo]

Plainly speaking, Operator combat animations feel unrefined at the best. Specifically, when holding/aiming an amp and simply moving the camera around, it shouldn't repeatedly phase through your Operator's torso - breaking your arms and dislocating your shoulders in the process.

The idle aiming animations appear unnaturally stiff and aren't even "aimed" at all (being that we're firing from the hip). And good god, our Operators must have the WORST back pain from being hunched over for several hours at a time.

From an uneducated standpoint, I would recommend DE animators refer to characters such as Samus and Mega Man for inspiration on how to help fix this. I mean, it's not as if these amps weigh 100 pounds or something; so there really isn't a reason for our Operators to be handling them in such a clunky fashion.

All-in-all, considering the number of times DE has cut corners on animation, it really begs the question of how much time was put into Operator combat; and whether or not it was rushed for the release of PoE. Moreover, seeing as how we are currently using our Operators for "end game" content now (Eidolon Hunting), and how we are going to be using our Operators for A LOT of content in the future, I feel as though refining the animations and stances need to be put to some degree of priority. Particularly so if DE implements the widely requested Operator melee weapons therein.

I'm aware as to how time consuming 3d animation is, as well as the vast number of man hours that would be required to fluidly implement such a change.

Yeah, Warframe is free to play blah blah blah.

But, with the amount of content offered in the game at this present time, that is no longer a viable excuse. Honestly.

Thoughts?

[Hrodgrim]

I just want to see my cool Unairu (un-hunchbacked) animations. In order to do that, I need to leave my Amp at home.

[(XBOX)EternalDrk Mako]

seriously i despise the hunchback animation, its not even a very effective combat form and the running stance is very weird

 

im also sad that operators dont really embody "space ninja" as they cant run, walk fast, dont jump well , have zero parkor ability, cant really do any melee other then void blast, that seems odd to em

I mean the operators are beings enhanced with void energy and power, we know they can channel massive amounts of void attacks and use it to dash and such

i dont see why they arnt capable yet of using melee or even basic parkor themselves

[Hrodgrim]

Well, I wouldn't say they have ZERO parkour ability. The operators are top tier tightrope experts.

[(PSN)Silenceform]

There are a lot of things that needs to be (re)worked on when speaking of the operator but it's probably not a high priority for the moment because DE have to spend their money on things more important than these tiny improvements, i mean sure don't get me wrong i would like to see more improvements for everything that concern the operator but all we can do right now is to wait until more content around the operator is created so those kind of improvement become more important to be dealt with, they are probably aware of all of this i'm sure of it.

When i think of the current combat animations of the operator they make sense to me because these weapons are quite " primitive " to say at least; in order to aim somehow precisely with their amp, they have to use their left arm and use a stance with their body that suits for them in order to use their amp the most efficient way possible despite the fact it's not healthy for them to fight like this.

I wouldn't be surprised if in the Fortuna update the Solaris United syndicate would give new weapons for the operator that are more sophisticated than the Quills ones so they won't have to use this unhealthy stance anymore in order to use them; like using special gloves or something that can be attached to our gloves/hands/fingers to channel their void powers and so by the same occasion they could use melee weapons with them but maybe i'm going too far with my imagination.

Unrelated to this thread but : when are we going to get shorter clothes so we can see operator hands, arms and legs DE ? Think of the cool tatoos or other accessories they can have because operator fashion will probably be the new endgame in the future /joke.

 

 

[megazomb]

The entire animation system could use an upgrade; it's called inverse kinematics. The current animation system is probably the one thing holding this game back from being ultra top-tier.  Geoff is, however, a professional at making excuses for himself and his team. So don't even bother googling wot IK means or expect any real polish for operator animations anytime soon.