Questions about naming animations

[Hermit]

I have some questions about how Blizzard named some unit animations:
What is the difference between these stand animations?
Stand
Stand 1
Stand -1
Stand - 1
Stand - Var1
Some models appear to have "missing animations". E.g. some models have Stand - 1 and Stand - 3 but don't have Stand - 2 or have Attack and Attack - 3 but no Attack - 2
What are Stand Victory and Stand Hit animations for, when only some units have them?
Why do Dragonspawn models have CombatCritical and CombatWound animations that look like stand hit?
Why do Bandits have two Death animations (Death and Death Fire)?
Why do some animations have a prefix old (oldSpell, OldStand)?
Why are some animations named bla (bla, blaSpell, bla1)?
Why is one of Furbolg's attack animations named attack upgrade?
Why do Dragon Spawn and Dranei have: Attack - 2HLVar1, Attack - 2HLVar2 and Attack -Armed Var2?
Why do Makrura models (Lobstok) have Decay Bones instead of Decay Bone animation?
So, what is the proper way to name animations, and does it affect the gameplay somehow?

 

[PurgeandFire]

I had no clue those models had such strange animations.

Anyway, animation naming does indeed matter. It determines how the game will handle animations for standing, walking, attacking, etc.

Stand - 1, Stand - 2, and Stand - 3 are different variations of a stand animation. Usually Stand - 1 or "Stand" will be the default animation. Stand - 2 and Stand - 3 are played with rarity (they are occasionally played if the unit is idle). Usually it is just the unit looking around or doing some action. Kind of like how if you leave Crash Bandicoot standing too long, he'll start dancing.

In a similar fashion, Attacks have variations as well. There is the standard attack that is used, and occasionally it will use the other attack animations when attacking.

As for the odd prefixes and whatnot, I'm not exactly sure how Wc3 handles it. However, certain prefixes/suffixes may serve as "animation tags". Animation tags can serve to make the unit use a different set of animations rather than the standard one. If you add an animation tag to a unit and the unit performs an animation (such as "Walk"), it will first check if the unit has any animations with that tag. If there is one, it will play that instead of the standard "Walk" animation. If there isn't one, it will just play "Walk".

This can be particularly useful for units who morph, such as the druid of the claw. Here is a quick example. You have a model with two walk animations: "Walk", and "Walk Fast", where "Walk Fast" shows the model running. You can add the animation tag, "Fast" (through GUI - Animation - Add Animation Tag). If the unit is issued an order, it will use "Walk Fast" when it is moving instead of "Walk". Once you remove the tag, it will use "Walk" again. Here is a good example of a model that takes advantage of that:
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...ns-192204/?prev=search=animations&d=list&r=20
The way it works is that it has different sets of animations--if the unit is carrying a bow, gun, hitting with his hands, etc. To unlock them, you just need to use the animation tag for that particular set of animations. For a list of the animation tags listed in the game.dll, see (Credits to Tirlitti):
http://wiki.thehelper.net/wc3/jass/common.j/AddUnitAnimationProperties

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To summarize, yes, animation names matter. You can have a model without proper names, but then the unit won't do the proper animations for walking, attacking, etc. It won't know which one to use. In that case, you would have to manually trigger the animations (which becomes messy).

 

[GhostWolf]

Pretty sure all the weird names are Blizzard being lazy.

 

[BlinkBoy]

a - is just a comment, there's no animation order, they are all picked randomly based on how rare they are. Animation order is achieved through other tags like, first, second, third and so on.

 

[Hermit]

Thank you all for answering.

 

[NhazUl]

I remember that the Mountain Giant has an Attack Upgrade animation which is used when he picks a tree for a club.

Stand Hit was apparently an animation that the units performed on taking damage. In the beta MPQ the orc units even had Hit sounds which comprised of grunting and groaning as if taking a hit.

The Stand Victory animations are played upon winning the game.

The "old" and "bla" prefixes are used to hide animations that are no longer deemed necessary.

The "var" suffix and the CombatCritical and CombatWound animations were apparently meant for WoW. The dragonspawn model is more complex, has more WoW-style animations in general and the uv wrap is the same as that of the WoW dragonspawn model.

We all know that the blademaster has an Attack Walk Sand Spin animation for Bladestorm, but apparently the "spin" tag has other uses, because I found that the owl scout model also has it (it flies in circles during Stand Spin).

A dash serves for separating tags from comments, as BlinkBoy said. For example the forest troll models have the spell names written as comments in the animation's name - Spell - Berserk and oldSpell - Entangle, respectively.