21 replies to this topic

[Liviola]

[This issue may have been brought up in other forums, but I thought I'd post this specifically as a feedback]

Recently when discussing Inquistion, my friend brought up something that I've never vocally expressed but really came across as something I've felt strongly about:

"Have you noticed that they give your female character male animations during cut scenes? It looks ridiculous."

YES, AGREE! It is so jarring. Extremely out of character. Both in the ME and DA series, I've noticed that every time my character sits down, her legs spread so wide and she goes into some kind of mega hunchback slouch. Whenever she walks, it's like her best gangster swagger plus wedgie. It's so masculine, it completely breaks character. Even for my Qunari. My friend says it's much more obvious on an elf character. I'm fine with the idea of CHOOSING to be a really butch woman.. but in DA, it's not a choice. There's no opting out of having a very masculine-acting character by default.

[Here's an example I found online. Not mine, so credit to the link source. I couldn't make my character sit on the throne because I'm past those plot points]



I am aware that there may be practical challenges that lead to this. Costs involved in motion capture so that the default actor is masculine. Rigging limitations for heavy armour such that legs close together is not easily viable. Cutscene camera placement so that male and female characters need to be postured identically. With all that in mind, this issue still really damages the level of polish of the game. Even for a long-time Bioware fan, it brings up a fresh "WTF?!" moment every time it happens.

Even if there were feminine/gender-neutral animations for only "sitting" and "slow cutscene walk", it would be a tremendous improvement.

Please comment below if you feel the same!

Sincerely,
Forever Swaggering

[KBomb]

I always hated the hunched back way my character walked in cutscenes. She slouched horribly. It was really weird.

[Spirit Vanguard]

I've never liked the difference between "masculine" and "feminine" animations because they are exaggerated. FemHawke in DA2? Ugh. Talk about cringe-worthy terrible. Most of the more neutral animations in Inquisition or other games were fine to me and I was happy to see them because they don't look ridiculous. Your post picture? Looks fine to me, fitting the tone of the judgment. Gender not required for that. Aveline, after all, didn't stand like all the other women in DA2 and I loved that. She wasn't all hippy, which was refreshing. Sashay is all about attitude, not gender.

The bigger idea is what defines "masculine" and "feminine" and where the middle ground can be found. Middle is more appealing, I think, regardless of character.

[SnakeCode]

Is femquisitor manspreading? Flaunting her privilege all over the place like that is disgusting!

[Onecrazymonkey1]

I don't mind a neutral walk for both sexes as long as the slouching hunchback and spread eagle is gone. I just don't feel that it looks good on male or female inquisitors and think it looks really unprofessional.

 

If there is a character creation in any game with multiple races for men and women, then a considerable amount of time should be taken into making sure all are polished and done right....or else why put in the customization at all? They made a character creator that is wonderful for making faces but seemed to fail in the body department and the animations that went with it.

 

Oh well, all I can hope is that they improve this with the next game along with revamping the elves, so they don't look like bobble heads attached to a praying mantis body.

[nfi42]

Femshep in the short black dress menspreading was an eyeful.

 

Has Bioware ever used motion capture?  They should with MEA onwards,  their animations to date are old looking, and this goes for facial expressions as well.

[Abyss108]

Yeah, it's an issue.

 

It's better than all the female characters being forced into sashaying about into battle like they are models on a catwalk, but there's no reason we can't have a perfectly normal walk animation for each gender.

[KBomb]

Yeah, it's an issue.

It's better than all the female characters being forced into sashaying about into battle like they are models on a catwalk, but there's no reason we can't have a perfectly normal walk animation for each gender.

My favorite walking animation was from Mass Effect. I just really liked it. Then, ME2 you walked like something was permastuck under your arm pits.

I really don't mind the female animations in the DA. But I hated that every time a cutscene came up, my Inquisitior suddenly forgets any sort of posture.

[Spirit Vanguard]

The thing with Shepard though is that they simply didn't account for a dress in animation. All the default outfits have pants, so for that it wasn't a problem.

[slimgrin]

Is femquisitor manspreading? Flaunting her privilege all over the place like that is disgusting!

 

Next thing you know she'll be marking her territory. Ugh!

[Ghost Gal]

I agree, and it's really frustrating to watch. 

 

It's especially jarring because the Femquisitors' walk and run animations tend to be more exaggerated "girly" walks: with their hands sticking out like a barbie, their hips rolling and their legs close together. Then you get to the cutscene, and out of nowhere they walk and sit with their backs hunched, their legs far apart, and when walking their legs stiffly swing directly forward and backward under them like their pelvises are box-shaped.

 

I know different women have different hip sizes and shapes, thus different ways of walking, but I've noticed that women with rounder hips and long legs (like every Femquisitor except the dwarf) tend to have more rounded walks. The walks in the cutscenes make sense for male bodies, but look out of place with the female skeletal structures.

 

Plus, the manspreading.

 

 

What woman shaped like this sits like this?? I feel uncomfortable just looking at her.

[Abyss108]

Looks like a perfectly normal way to sit to me... 

[kirvingtwo]

I sit like that all the time.  Maybe I'm just not womanly enough.

 

If they didn't have such exaggerated male and female animations outside of the cut scenes I think it wouldn't have been so jarring.  The male elf also looks odd with the male animations in cut scenes.

[krishachaos]

I found my female elven inquisitors run to remind me of a wet noodle, then she would suddenly go into precooked noodle mode in the cut scenes.  I'm not the most feminine of women, but even I find it more comfortable to sit in postures other than the ones we see her in.  But to be honest if that's the worst part of the game then I'm okay with it.

[Pasquale1234]

My favorite walking animation was from Mass Effect.

+1

I've always advocated for gender neutral animations in cutscenes.

I would welcome the opportunity to choose my PC's walk animation. I think I might prefer whatever is used by default for males over the female animation in DA2 & DAI.

[GoldenGail3]

I sit like that all the time.  Maybe I'm just not womanly enough.
 
If they didn't have such exaggerated male and female animations outside of the cut scenes I think it wouldn't have been so jarring.  The male elf also looks odd with the male animations in cut scenes.

OH. YES, YES THEY DO. OMG, I HATTTTEEE THE WAY MY CANON QUIZZIE IS SOMETIMES DURING CUTSCENES. He looks like a pathetic wimp that could be trampled by anyone...

[dragonsteak]

I love my femquisition. Spread it out like a soaring eagle. That's the sign of dominance, freedom, and liberation.

Lol

[silkypumpkin]

the standing posture (or lack of) bothered me more than the walk/sit animations.  Inq looks like a child that just got in trouble when they slink all hunch backed into any conversation.  Also, the armor/clothes, all the basic schematics look bizarre on a qunari, especially a male qunari.  And the Haven PJs, at least they patched that and gave options, it bothered me to no end that everywhere you went in haven and skyhold looks like you accidentally showed up there after rolling out of bed.  

[Qun00]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. There were also complaints about how F!Hawke walks.

[ModernAcademic]

ME also has some male motion weirdness than can scar your psychological for life.

 

Go to Youtube and check FemShep going down a flight of stairs on her meeting with Joker in the Citadel DLC. It's like she had a stroke or something. Or got something stuck far up her black hole.

[Gibb_Shepard]

The reason it's like this is because Bioware make masculine animations to create an imposing male inquisitor, but with a woman inquisitor they feel if it's changed it will send the wrong message. The problem is obviously that a small elven lass with her legs spread from east to west and her back hunched like she's a native of Notre-Dame is a stupid bloody look. 

 

Just give a leg cross here and there Bioware, it isn't the end of the internet.

[Asha'bellanar]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. There were also complaints about how F!Hawke walks.

It's not really a do or don't situation. It's a "learn from feedback" situation.

 

I hated the slumped shoulders that both male and female Inquisitors had, and there were a couple of scenes where they had what I can only describe as a "silly knees-bent running around advancing behavior". It was pretty ridiculous.

 

But several of the Femquistor cut scenes had some shockingly bad walks. In a few, it looks like she was trying to hold a watermelon between her upper thighs as she walked (or was giving birth and the baby was crowning). It makes me wonder if the members of the animation team have ever actually looked at the way women walk or know anything at all about anatomy. There are actual anatomical differences between sexes (women have a wider pelvis that is so distinctively shaped you can identify the sex of a skeleton by the pelvis!), even in a fantasy world. The animations really should reflect that.

 

It's just poor animation to make heroes walk with slumped shoulders and their legs bowed out like they have rickets.