Sims 4: Principles of Animation


Social Circles

Now, this next bit stuck in our heads. There's a science behind Social Circles that I had never considered, but the Animations team did, in a big way!

Knowing there was a social gathering coming up, the team hid a camera in the Atrium at EA Redwood Shores to capture the crowd and then study the way social groups behaved. The results were fascinating. We saw that a group of 4 people formed a circle facing each other to talk. If one of them left, after around 10 seconds the remaining 3 subconsciously adjusted sideways to form a triangle, closing the circle. If someone came over and joined them, the group opened up to allow them to slowly (but by no means immediately) integrate into the group. Interestingly, during this filming we saw one of the team telling a story and getting quite animated with his arms as he did so. This is the exact same animation that we saw during the storytelling demo earlier, as we then saw both the animation and the real video played side by side, we could see they used this actual footage to create one of the storytelling animations in game!

It was also clear that as different people in the group spoke, people didn't adjust their feet to face them as Sims do currently, they just turn their body slightly to face the person 'shoulder on'.

And so Sims in TS4 will act in exactly the same way, just turning the upper part of their body keeping their feet firmly on the ground. I created these mock-ups in TS3 for you to see. A group of 4 Sims will socially interact in a circle in Sims 4, but if one of the Sims leaves you can watch as the group shuffles around very slightly to close the social circle.

New animations also mean that if a Sim is sitting while interacting with a standing Sim they will actually look up or down to face the other

After this session I went out to the show floor at Gamescom to meet some of the fans at the Sims 4 booth. While standing there we found ourselves analysing our social circle and watching the way people joined and left, and how the group adjusted when that happened. And that’s exactly what we saw EA studying at their campus in Redwood Shores.

Multi Tasking is something I have touched on already and Marion was keen to show us many of the ways this enhances the game. We saw a Sim running on a treadmill while still continuing a conversation with another Sim, and looking at others as they entered the room. These slight and seemingly insignificant changes all come together to make everything look and feel more lifelike, breaking away from the restrictions in realism we see in game today. I started asking myself whether or not I wanted the game to get too much like real life but actually, these are things that I find myself criticising about games today. I think we only notice it because in real life we expect things to be this way. In game, our senses are thrown by Sims not reacting the way we expect them to from our everyday lives. I think it's something you miss because it’s not there, and might not even notice when it is (had I not pointed it out to you).

Lip Flap (stop sniggering at the back!) is the technical term used for the lip-synching process in game. EA claim to have put a lot of work into this area as well in an attempt to make the speech look less 'dubbed', as though Sims are talking a different language to what we are hearing. What we saw was impressive but this build of the game was far from complete where sound files were concerned!

So what isn't any better? Well, Marion did touch on a few issues they had and one of them is a popular question in the community that I've been biting my tongue on for weeks, due to the information embargo! Variable Sim height is greatly requested, as people get tired of seeing every adult Sim the exact same height. The reason for this is very much an animation issue we are told, with boundaries being very precisely measured for animations so that they don't 'clip' or 'bleed' into other game elements. Stretching and reducing Sim sizes breaks animations and although this is something the team really wanted to see (and still do in future) it was outside the boundaries this time around. It was explained that simulating physics on other things like hair have a massive negative impact with a complex simulation running in the background and it's really a resource trade-off.

Well I know this article was a bit geekier than others and I thank you for reading it all, I hope you found it interesting. That's the last of my Sims 4 hands-on articles in which I've told pretty much everything I saw and learned about the game while at Sims Camp. I'm sure there will be more information released in good time and I look forward to attending future events where we get to share more juicy details with our community on the build up to release next year.

As always, feel free to comment here, post in our Sims 4 Forums and please also share this article with your friends and communities on Facebook etc.

Hope you enjoyed it.

/Steve

Page 3 / 3
Download blocked
Please turn off your ad-blocker to download.
If ads are a problem you can become a VIP member and enjoy an ad-free site.



Getting this message with no ad-blocker active?
Go here for help .

You still have in credit - why not treat yourself to some VIP?

No, thanks, not now Go to shop
Download Basket
Basket example

As a VIP member, you can add up to 1 Gb of custom content in your Download Basket and download it all together in just one click.

Start your VIP membership for as low as $3/Month.

Favorites
Basket example

This feature requires a free account - do you want to sign up now?


As a registered member, you can add up to 10 items in your favorites list.
As a VIP you can add up to 1GB of favorite items and download them all in one click.

Favorites

You free quota has been reached. As a free member you can have up to 10 items on your favorites list.

Favorites example

For as low as $3/Month you can:

  • Have unlimited favorites
  • Download all favorites in one click
  • Add favorites to the download basket
  • Download all selected favorites with the TSR CC Manager

Saved searches

Why not save your search and let us alert you when new matching downloads become available? All this and more for just $3 / mo!.

Upgrade Your Subscription
Get 4 free months of VIP at The Sims Resource by upgrading to an annual plan for just $24!
Upgrade Your Subscription
Get 4 free months of VIP at The Sims Resource by upgrading to an annual plan for just $24!
Upgrade Your Subscription
    Selected Payment Method:
    $24 will be charged to the selected payment method.
    TSR CC Manager
    Basket example
    As a VIP member, you can One Click download, install and manage your custom content fast and easy with the TSR CC Manager.
    Start your VIP membership for as low as $3/Month.
    .edu Email detected
    It looks like you're trying to register with an email from your educational facility. .edu emails don't tend to allow TSR emails through the gateway. As a result:
    • you won't be able to reset your password should you forget it
    • you won't able to change your email address later
    • if you need to contact Support, our Support Team will not be able to reach you.
    We strongly recommend you choose a personal email address.
    OK
    Generate Gift Card Promotion

    VIP Members get 3 Days Early Access
    VIP Early Article Access
    The Magazine will be publicly available on May 20, 2022. Don’t want to wait? Get VIP Membership and Read it Now!
    Update Email Address:
    E-mail*:

    In order to unlink your account, you must set a password
    Password:
    Password Again:

    Download Basket

    - items + - item(s) with required items

    Total size: - of 1GB ( left)

    Sort by
    Date, new to old
    • Date added to the basket
    • Name of creation
    • Artist name
    • Date item published
    • Size of the creation
    Asc
    • Asc
    • Desc
    Filter
    All items
    • All items
    • Selected only
    # Item Name
    Artist
    Date Added
    Item Type
    Size
    Please wait - loading...

    Download Basket

    Sort by
    Date, new to old
    • Date added to the basket
    • Name of creation
    • Artist name
    • Date item published
    • Size of the creation
    Asc
    • Asc
    • Desc
    Filter
    All items
    • All items
    • Selected only
    Please wait - loading...

    - items + - item(s) with required items

    Total size: - (1 GB Maximum)

    Please don't solicit our artists for other work, joining other sites or seeking to take and upload their work elsewhere. This is something we don't allow.

    This is a VIP feature only. Unlock everything by joining our VIP supporters plan today!
    Favorites example

    Limited Time Offer
    Now extended to 21st March!

    For a limited time only, we’re giving away a free Shockwave game to anyone signing up to our annual VIP premium access plan!

    Choose your free game!

    1
    2
    I don’t want a free game - just send me my VIP!
    Buy my annual VIP pass for giving me premium access to The Sims Resource and send me my free game!

    Your game code will be emailed to after you complete your purchase

    Want your game code to be sent to a different email? Click here to change

    *Note: games are non-refundable once this plan is purchased. Any refund we issue under our usual Terms Of Service will have the retail value of $6.99 deducted from the refund price.


    Limited Time Offer
    Now extended to 21st March!
    Are you sure you don't want a free game?

    Thanks! Someone from Support will be in touch very soon!

    Replies are normally within 24 hours and often a lot sooner.

    Ensure that you add support@thesimsresource.com to your email safe-senders list!

    Want to add this item to your Basket?

    Learn More about VIP
    Want to install with CC Manager?

    Learn More about CC Manager
    By Artist Name
    Published November 15, 2022 •
    Download Now Downloaded View More Details See More and Download Now CC Manager CC Manager Add to Basket Add to Basket Please wait - adding... Added to Basket Delete from Basket Please wait - adding...