Is EA behind in the animation dept?

[kingsofthevalley]

The thing about Maddens/NCAA animation system is not that its really THAT bad. The actual animations playing out look pretty good (you can argue about a few, the juke animation is horribly stiff and lifeless) its just that many of the animations play out of context of whats going on.

On top of that, the tackle animations lack any feeling of real impact. The animation looks like its supposed to be a hard hit, but you dont FEEL it. Hard to explain. Not sure if they resolved the lack of impact in Madden this year, I'm speaking more of NCAA assuming that it merges seamlessly with any Madden conversation as I've always considered them pretty much the same game (had to add that in, I only held on to NCAA this year).

It all ties back into player movement. We have more animations this gen but the momentum is cancelled out when the players collide to kick in a random animation, that many times doesn't go with the "flow" I guess is a good way to put it. Last generation had significantly less tackle animations, but the ones that WERE present didn't cancel out the player momentum which in turn kept the feeling of two masses colliding.

Much of the lost immersion this generation (I think is on a subconscious level with many) is the fact that the game is no longer visceral and lacks impact. I think in many cases, the devs rely too heavily on Mocap which stops the flow of the game to kick in these random animations. It might be a BIT better if there were certain animations linked to certain ratings, but it seems that every single player has access to all the same motion captured animations. This is why you'll regularly see scat backs bowling over huge DL, and other strange occurrences which, for me at least, totally yanks me out of the illusion.

I personally was never jarred out of the illusion last generation. Compare the juke animation this gen with the juke animation last gen. Thats just a small example. I'm under the impression that the juke animation this gen is probably motion captured which is why it doesn't look like the player is actually planting his foot and shifting his weight. Its just an animation that triggers (like a strange stiff bunny hop). From my experience its damn near rendered useless coming out of the backfield. Whereas the juke animation last gen was the actual player model planting his foot and shifting his weight and you could FEEL it.

So yes, they are behind, not necessarily with how the animations look (except for that horrendous juke animation, and a few others), but with how they play out and merge with the flow of the game. It was pretty good last gen, but this entire generation has been pretty janky in my opinion.

[kingsofthevalley]

Quote: Originally Posted by Multi

Madden is still hand-animated, right?

Nah, I think its more motion captured now, which is why it plays out so strange and out of context. There was also a response in the EA Fight Night thread which touched on EAs motion captured animations. The poster stated that everything in Fight Night Champions moved "muddy" and "syrupy" because of the mo cap. Completely correct. Check out Fight Night (which isn't horrible) and you'll notice a lack of "snap" in the punches and movement. Same thing with Madden/NCAA, there is no snap/weight/impact/visceralness (is that a word?) in the game AT ALL. That is NOT a good environment to have in your football game. It goes against the fundamentals of what football is. Impact, speed, physics anyone?