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How to create physics based animation character like in (GANG BEASTS)?
It had been experimenting with this for long time till now and I can't get it to work I tried retargeting animation from static animator to configurable joints but the movement seen unnatural and I can't get the character to stand up and in the same time react to hits and be able to lose balance. I also tried building a system only relaying on procedural animation by changing the rotation of configurable joints to for example step forward and backward it was stable but I can't get it to do complex animations as I had to code every single movement and it takes a lot of tweaking and changing variables. so if any one knows how to achieve stability even if faked and conserve the ability to react to hits and be able to lose balance and in the same time ease the process of creating animations i will be very GRATEFUL for any kind of help.
there is some examples for what i want to achieve: Der Kevin Project, TABS, Gang Beasts, Put 'Em Up this game even does it better in my opinion: HappyHappyNemo Project
Answer by lgarczyn · Jan 27, 2020 at 07:38 PM
The term you're looking for is "active ragdoll" and "procedural animation". Basically a ragdoll is a bunch of rigidbodies tied together with joints, associated with the skeleton of a mesh. You can create one using the ragdoll unity tool.
An active ragdoll uses motors on the joints to move around. It's a pretty complicated subject, as simulating a real walk cycle is hard, so usually people cheat and only activate the ragdoll one the enemy dies, or other similar tricks, like animating parts of the character, and simulating the rest.
You can however train an AI to walk using your character, or use inverse kinematics to try and code it yourself. More on that:
https://www.alanzucconi.com/2017/04/17/procedural-animations/
A simpler thing you can do is control the central rigidbody yourself, and fake the movement with the legs. Basically if the central rigidbody is not too far from the ground, you can apply a force using the input, and just move the legs as if they were walking.
There are assets available, and a lot of talks and studies on the subject. Gang beasts probably has a blog somewhere explaining the technology, and is mentioned in the link I posted.
I really understand what you want to say but what I really want is a fully working active ragdoll that just works with forces, target joint drives or whatever the most important part is that it can react to external stimuli like in the examples given above.
here is some footage from what i have going on now I was able to fake the motion but I can't kind of get it to balance the first jump was amazing but the second one was so bad it lacks balance so much although I find it funny but it can't be playable. footage
That is pretty impressive, I would suggest adding a force pulling the head up during walk to balance your character.
Anyway, most of the solutions I mentioned specifically allow for dynamic reactions to external forces. In the case of an AI driven system, you basically have a network learn how to walk or imitate animations using only forces (in this case, joint motors).
The euphoria ragdoll engine use in RDR2 and GTA is basically what you are trying to implement.
Answer by Damiano96 · Aug 26, 2020 at 07:51 PM
Did you ever find an answer for this or manage to develop a system? Im trying to work on the same and have had trouble finding any resources.
Thankyou!
I suggest you look up on Youtube on Inverse Kinematics...it can teach you alot about procedural animations and the bunch of stuff you can do with the IK Fabrik... Theres a free IK Solver in the unity asset store you can use that and fiddle around with stuff till u get the basics of what IK is about