Stylish Death animations (with a hint of ragdoll)

[TheHappyTurtle]

One thing I loved about Goldsrc was the death animations, and recently I've decided to take a look at The Specialists again. Now, while this is a very tiny feature and is merely cosmetic, the animations made me feel so much more immersed into the idea that I was in an action movie.
Now before I begin, I am well aware this isn't supposed to be a direct remake of The Specialists nor is it the newly born brother of (insert any divey, shooty vidya game here) but I think it's well-worth comparing the games since they are quite similar.

Now what I mean by the animations being more movie-like is that they have a lot of detail in the movement, very much like how movies focused on scenes so much that the deaths seem too perfect; action movies don't try to simulate the reaction of a gun shot, they want to make it look as cool and effective as possible.


Now, I have been debating whether or not to post this since this is Source, but then I remembered a previous mod called Action Half Life 2, and decided to take another look at that. I'm going to mention one specific thing they did because it stood out so well and when I first saw it, I was awestruck. I was spraying a machine gun at a guy and he didn't fall down after he died, he continued to react to my bullets. He didn't fall to the ground until I stopped firing my gun and that alone was such a satisfying feeling! Little things like this make such a difference and this was a huge example of that for me. Sadly, I don't have any footage of it but if you want to check it out for ideas or reference, this is their Moddb page: http://www.moddb.com/mods/action-halflife-2

So, how could Double Action include these dope-ass death animations? I have no idea. I'm not going to pretend like I understand how source works because my only knowledge is the standard file layout, what files do what (for the most part), working with textures and a bit of mapping. However, this week I checked out a mod called Counter-Life 2, which at first I thought was just a SMod-esque mod, but it turned out it had some really interesting features, one of which was different death animations based on where you shoot them. You can watch them fall over as you shoot them in the leg, see them fall backwards when taking some lead to the face or watch them quiver and fall when shot in the chest; it was so satisfying!


This was just a quick mind-dump; if anyone else is interested in expanding the discussion go ahead, I just thought it was worth sharing.

[Black_Stormy]

I played AHL a little while back and I loved that bacon dance animation too. It really is satisfying to unload the entire clip on the spasming body of your opponent. Even better, I think when someone does that to you the camera rotates your body the whole time, showing the other player shooting you. I would love to do a hat tip to them and have something like that in DA but I think the general opinion would be that it's a stolen feature as opposed to a shout out.

[TheHappyTurtle]

I think the general opinion would be that it's a stolen feature as opposed to a shout out.

Yeah, I know what you mean, even at the moment a lot of people say that games like The Specialists, AHL, The Opera and Double Action are Max Payne clones, which I assume is because diving and slowmo are quite rare in video games, with the most popular being Max Payne (though stranglehold was fairly well-known)

Also, another game that does the animation to ragdoll transition quite well is Team Fortress 2, when you backstab or headshot someone. I think it's most effective when you have earn it, having the animation indicate that you have done something truly amazing; the less common it is, the more rewarding it is to see it, I feel.

[Vino]

I would love to see this. Know any good player animators?

[TheHappyTurtle]

I would love to see this. Know any good player animators?

Sorry for the late reply. Sadly, I don't know any myself but I could ask around Moddb.

[Black_Stormy]

D animated the hell out of that MP5, he's got the skills to do this.

[TheHappyTurtle]

D animated the hell out of that MP5, he's got the skills to do this.

Would be killer if he'd be willing to give the idea a shot. Not sure if it would be too ambitious or not but starting small and expanding on the idea could work; a simple headshot animation or if shotgunned have the player blasted backwards.