http://www.stonehearth.net/dt-emotional-animations/
Yay skipping 
and running 
and moping 
! They look good!
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I love the idea! However, the âsad runâ looks kinda⌠dorky. Something of a contradiction, really. Iâm tempted to suggest that a happy/sad walk animation, rather than a run, would look more natural. The same could apply to more animations that fit certain professions such as soldiers/blacksmiths/masons swaggering, while herbalists and cooks might be prone to skipping about with a basket of berries swinging from one arm.
If thereâs a gameplay incentive for happiness, perhaps having sad hearthlings move slower - say, a sad little jog rather than a full-speed run - would make sense and possibly end up looking better.
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I love the idea of seeing your Hearthlings mood at a glance, but I have to agree with this.
The skipping animation is fun, but the challenge with the mopey run might need a little more love to get the full feeling. I think it might be the lack of motion in his arms. Perhaps they could sway side to side a bit more?
In any case, keep up the good work!
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I love the new run, but the skip feels a bit off to me. Maybe the feet are detaching just a bit more than Iâm used to?
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While Iâm looking forward to A20, I am really not a fan of the happy and sad run animations. I would much rather prefer the normal, simple running we have now. I donât mind having to go into a menu to check my townâs mood; seeing it in their run is just silly, maybe just keep it to idle animations?
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As a animation geek myself iâm really liking what i see here, and the slight model touch Malley did there, can you guys see it? cause i really love how it looks!
for the sad animation, yeah, iâd say it looks a little odd, i think the reason was that it was either making them look odd and functional or making them more natural but less functional, because if you think about it, a sad person wouldnât really Run, theyâd probably just walk (dragging their shoes perhaps?), and a joyful person probably would run/skid, but if they did that, the sad hearthlings wouldâve gotten reeeeeealy slower than the normal or happy ones, which is logical, but from a gameplay/design standpoint, thatâs kind bad too
and i personally canât think of a animation for a sad person running, like, with how things look and such
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I tried my take on a few of the animations in real life.
Side note
This is actually a really fun animation exercise. Thereâs so many details to walking that I never noticed before. Iâm definitely going to try this again with other actions.
A skip canât just be an exaggerated run. As far as I can tell itâs defined by a large up-and-down jumping motion. I actually touch twice with the same foot during a step in my skip: once to leap up while the footâs in front, which propels the rest of my body forward, and then I softly land and push forward before pushing up with my other foot. Of course, YSMV [your skips may vary].
The best I could do at the gameâs sad run was a frustrated pace while staring at the ground. Really throwing the weight of my upper body forward and down as I stomped really channeled this feeling; my arms actually started swinging more. But I canât seem to get something mopey unless I actually walk slower. So I guess we need to decide if âsadâ is passive aggressive frustration or mopey depression.
In a perfect world, different characters would do both depending on their personality. In the real world, the team will probably have to decide.
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@MyCoal417, I am under the impression that happiness will be on a per-hearthling basis, so âtownâs moodâ might be a good general statistic, but particular hearthlings may have drastic moods compared to the rest of the town â the walking/running animations would let the player spot those unhappy/very happy hearthlings from a distance without having to remember to open the town menu.
Cheers,
illdred
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Agreed! Sadly, there is no such thing as a âwalkâ in Stonehearth : /. Actually, there IS a walk animation that Tom made way back when, but it was never implemented. The Shepard who appears to walk is actually just running slowly : (. Needless to say, this gets my goat, and is something I would like to change⌠someday : ).
Exactamundo. I actually went around the team (and even went to Tom for help) asking them âif you are sad, what do you look like when you run?â The honest truth is⌠you donât. You either lose your emotion and just run neutrally (or more of an angry run), or you become hysterical or panicked. There are some pretty amusing videos of myself and Allie running around hysterically on camera (which will never see the light of day of course : ) ).
This animation resulted from Richard saying âwhy donât you just try putting his head and shoulders down as he runs?â And thatâs what I did. Turned out reasonable (besides the arms as mentioned), but I realized after the fact that it isnât a âsadâ run so much as a âpoutyâ run⌠which is similar, but obviously different enough that none of us could come up with it in the first place ; ).
I agree - especially after seeing the sad run on 4x speed - it doesnât move right. I plan on going back and taking another attempt.
@coasterspaul How did you do the âSide noteâ inset thing? thatâs pretty cool : ).
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iâm not @coasterspaul, but if you click the little gear icon on the reply toolbar,
it will bring up a menu with additional reply options, then if you click on âhide detailsâ itâll insert the needed text into your reply.
hope that helps/makes sense 
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I realize I havenât brought a lot of my usual enthusiasm to this alpha, but I feel obligated to chime in while things are still getting polished, before this stuff gets cemented into the game for good:
The skipping animation makes me want to keep my hearthlings just âokayâ, I really donât like the way it looks. Itâs got nothing to do with how the animation actually functions, though I would be lying if I said I didnât at least echo some of the other thoughts about it maybe needing some TLC, but I donât like the image of a well established, fully functioning town filled with skipping hearthlings - it doesnât work for me. I would like to be another voice asking to be able to opt out of these animations, as they look pretty silly, and a little unnecessary.
I understand the need to see how people behave, but I would much rather support seeing how people behave how theyâre feeling when theyâre idle, rather than moving. When youâre on your break, you emote. When your boss asks you to get back to the quarry, you do what you need to because itâs what youâre paid for. I see a model where your hearthlings idle and emote around meal times and sleeping as being a more effective means of gauging their feelings, rather than subjecting the player to a screen full of happy-go-lucky skipping disasters.
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Like I said in the news already, I would love to see a little modification of the happy walk. When the left arm swings forward, the head should tilt a little bit to the right and if the right arm swings forward, the head should tilt a little bit to the left. Similiar to this:
About the sad walk animation: The problem is the walk speed. It just doesnt fit. No one would run with their hands just hanging. I think another impact (or maybe the biggest impact at all) is that the face doesnât really look sad. Looking down is a good indicator for being sad, but the eyes must reflect that emotion. I think a ânormalâ run with a sad face (sad eyes) would do the job much better. 
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The retouch of the walking animation is fantastic, slowly but surely hearthlings become little adorable pets, instead of stale automatons.
Not sure about the mood animations tho, is this direction really what is needed right now?
I also foresee problems in my personal play-style. If this carries on I will have to build a town based on what the hearthlings like, not on what I wanted to build.
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I like the new walking animation, it really looks more natural and much better.
I am not a fan of the new sad and happy walking. It doesnât feel like something I would do when I am either.
I feel like the heartlings happiness towards you should be reflected more in the main aspect of the game which is building.
Happy heartlings will work harder en be more productive than unhappy ones.
I certainly donât like the anticipation of a whole town skipping all day.
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Though i did mention i love the animations, this is deffinitely a concern of mine as well, they all look happy and all, while nice is also kinda⌠over the top? Not the animations themselvs, but rather the fact that they keep doing it consistently, an opt out option would deffinitely help, but I think the better solution whould be to have them only do it occasionally, like⌠10~20% of the time, so in every 10 trip from A to B, thereâd be about 1 or 2 times they do that loop so the normal loop is more prominent, but you can still see if theyâre happy or not
Also, one another note, the happyness does not carry to the whole town, a particular Hearthling can be krankier or heppier than te other depending on the dayâs work and events, so i wouldnât expect the 100% all skippy scenario, though i expect it to be quite prominent
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How about hearthlings only do that when they idle around? Since most of your hearthlings will probably always be at work, it would heavily reduce the amiunt of happy walking hearthlings.
It does, thank you![quote=âAaronD, post:13, topic:26925â]
I think another impact (or maybe the biggest impact at all) is that the face doesnât really look sad. Looking down is a good indicator for being sad, but the eyes must reflect that emotion. I think a ânormalâ run with a sad face (sad eyes) would do the job much better.
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Agreed - I have broached the subject of creating faces for the hearthlings, but that is a much larger issue. Many people on the team are worried that we will betray our aesthetic with how we go about creating faces : /. Definitely something we must be sensible about - but Iâll keep pushing for it : ).[quote=âHyrule_Symbol, post:16, topic:26925â]
I think the better solution whould be to have them only do it occasionally, like⌠10~20% of the time, so in every 10 trip from A to B, thereâd be about 1 or 2 times they do that loop so the normal loop is more prominent, but you can still see if theyâre happy or not
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Not a bad suggestion, Iâll run it by the team and see what they say.[quote=âHyrule_Symbol, post:16, topic:26925â]
Also, one another note, the happyness does not carry to the whole town, a particular Hearthling can be krankier or heppier than te other depending on the dayâs work and events, so i wouldnât expect the 100% all skippy scenario, though i expect it to be quite prominent
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This is the original concern of having them play the animations all the time - it is to demonstrate if something is wrong with any of the hearthlings at any time. Shrug maybe Richard will have a better solution when he comes back from vacation.
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I think maybe the focus is to much on the running animation.
Perhaps the focus should be more on the interaction between heartlings.
Like in Unhappy towns, heartlings would fight more often (actual fighting, arguing) whilst in happy towns, heartlings would have more interesting interactions between one and another like singing around the campfire.
I think this is more natural to. If you are unhappy, you are more agitated, whilst if you are happy, you are more forgiving.
I think the diary with gripes and paises could really help out here more.
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Oh definitely - that conversation tech that Linda made has yet to be truly implemented. When I finally get some time to do so, we are hoping to have them change based on mood of the hearthlings.
Gonna have different emotes based on emotional states as well : ).
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