Something that was mentioned at a GDC panel as being important for animation in the future is conversion of animation expressions into game code in order to a) save on animation data and b) ensure that objects still react appropriately when switching from animation control to procedural control (e.g., ragdoll). It’s something I’ve been responsible for doing actually since my first games job ca. 6 years ago, so I’m not a foreigner to the concept.
However, Ben C. had hinted at a cool idea, which was to automatically convert your animation expressions instead of manually re-coding them. I figured I was up for the challenge and so put something together to work with my engine (Unity). There are some limitations, but on the whole it works pretty well. I put together a quick video to demonstrate the concept:
http://adammechtley.com/2010/04/coming-soon-complete-maya-unity-workflow/
I’ll be releasing all the code for this free on my website once it is solid enough for a 0.1 release. Though they are all noted in my source code, there are some current limitations, which you can see in the post on my website.
