Landon Voss

Day 21 — Animation Refinement & Additional Mesh Integration

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Landon

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Context

With the foundational animation pipeline in place, today focused on refining the animations themselves and integrating the remaining meshes needed to support core farming and gathering behaviors. This was a polish-heavy day with a mix of creative adjustments and technical troubleshooting.

Animation Overhaul

Although all animations were functional, they still felt a bit slow and lacked the responsiveness I wanted for moment-to-moment interactions. I spent a significant portion of the day:

  • Re-making each animation sequence
  • Increasing speed and smoothing transitions
  • Ensuring poses aligned well with tools
  • Testing each animation inside the seat-device workflow

The results feel noticeably better—more readable, more responsive, and tonally closer to a cozy life-sim.

New Mesh Integration

I added the remaining meshes for:

  • The scythe/grass cutter
  • The watering can

These are now supported in the animation flow, though the watering can still needs:

  • A proper material
  • VFX for water flow or sprinkling

That will come during the polish phase.

Troubleshooting & Regression Fixes

Half the day went toward tracking down an issue where the player would bounce upward as soon as an animation ended. This turned out to be a regression caused by how the character was exiting the seat-device state. After refining the exit timing and adjusting root motion behavior, the issue was resolved.

Next Steps

With animations complete, I’ll be moving on to:

  • Polishing placement preview visuals
  • Adding tile-based VFX for actions like watering, digging, and cutting

Summary

What I accomplished:

  • Rebuilt all animations for better speed and smoothness.
  • Integrated the scythe and watering can meshes.
  • Fixed a regression causing the player to bounce after animations.
  • Prepared the system for upcoming polish work.

What I learned:

  • Animation feel depends heavily on timing and responsiveness.
  • Even small regressions in animation exit logic can create noticeable UX issues.
  • Having a stable animation set makes visual polish much easier to approach.

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