The thread title says it all.

Does each race have its own set of animations, or do all races share the same animations?

Animation can be a huge game-changer. A bit of variety can add enormous amounts of replay value. I hate to use WoW as an example here, but in WoW, each race has its own set of animations. That along with each race having its own starting zone made playing alt characters much more enjoyable. Not only that, but animations themselves don't take long to make. I've done my share of complex animating myself, and I'm really hoping that each race will have its own set of animations before launch (if they aren't already in place).

I've played mmos wherein every race uses the same animations. SWTOR is the first game that comes to mind, and man was it lame that the developers put minimum love into the game's animations...

They share Animations i think. Game animations are really hard to make different because if one race has even a slightly shorter animation time, then it is automatically better than every other race, no exceptions.

That's not an issue whatsoever. All animations should be the same length. As a matter of fact, an animation that is already made can simply be modified to look quite different. There would be no adding or removing of frames at all. The animators have complete control over how long the animations are.

yes, but even a second shorter makes that race better than all the others. look at TERA, the little girl people (cannot think of their names) are the bes race in the game, simply because they have slightly faster animations.

You're missing something. The animators have 100% control over that. What you are speaking of is entirely avoidable. You're making it sound like it's not an option, that if each race had its own animations, there would surely be one that is faster. You're right about Tera, but that was the animators' faults for not making the animations equal.

Again, this is not an issue, not whatsoever.

And you're also missing something. Its not so easy to ensure that every single animation is exactly the same length of time. Its far more cost, and time, effective to make every character do the exact same animation. Its unfortunate, but that's reality.

Yes, it is exactly that easy. I'm an animator lol; I know this for fact.

And I realize that it would cost money to add variety to the animations. If Zenimax was not willing to spend money to improve the game, then they wouldn't allow feedback in the first place.

However, even though it would cost money (obviously no one works for free), the benefit of having variety would far outweigh the amount of work put into it. It's not hard to make different variations of the same animation.

To answer the post, As far as we have seen in any gameplay footage every race is on equal footing animation wise and since nothing in the TES games has shown different i do not see how or why they should add in different racial animations just for the sake of it being an MMO.

there are other ways of making each race stand out on their own just on simple appearance and story.. i dont think its needed in this game to complicate things.

Whether or not animations have had variety in previous Elder Scrolls games is irrelevant, but on that note: Yes, in Morrowind the beast races had unique animations (Argonian and Khajiit as well, iirc). I realize that they had different skeletons, so the different animations were necessary in this particular case (and the neglect to include the unique skeletons for beast races in future TES installments has been a popular complaint for many players, but that's another topic). Whatever the case, that variety with animation was great, and it made me want to play another character as a beast race even more.

I never said they should add variety to animations "just for the sake of it being an mmo." IMO, all races in any sort of RPG game should have unique animations. This adds a variety in the way things move in the world, and it helps to bring the world to life better. But on the subject of mmos, many mmos do have different animations for different races (both FF mmos, WoW, Tera, and surely many others that I've not played), and this variety definitely makes playing different races more pleasurable.

Well, as an Argonian or Khajiit, your tail will whip back and forth!

That counts, right?

No, it isn't exactly that easy. Don't drek a drekker here, pal. The timing may be easy, but as "an animator," you also need to be aware of the need to make each of those animations smooth and look as if they're natural, don't you?

Character 1 stabs straight forward.

Character 2 stabs with an underhand blow.

Character 3 stabs with an overhand blow.

Character 4 gives a spin before stabbing straight forward.

Character 5 only does a half spin, and stabs behind her.

Character 6 ducks before stabbing upward.

Character 7 jumps before stabbing downward.

Character 8 stabs straight forward, but with the weapon reversed in his grip.

Character 9 rolls forward, stabbing upwards from the ground.

Now, make sure each of those animations takes exactly the same amount of time to complete, while still looking smooth. And once you've done that, come up with nine more unique animations for a forehand slash. Make sure those take exactly the same amount of time to complete, while still looking smooth and natural. And once you've done that, come up with nine more unique animations for a backhand slash, and make sure those take exactly the same amount of time to complete, while still looking smooth and natural.

And then move on to the next weapon, a mace. And do it all over again. Then move on to a two-handed weapon.

Its not just the animators that cost money. So does time. Unique animations for each weapon and each race would be fantastic. But as disappointing as it is that they're not in the game, its more than understandable why they aren't, and not including them isn't a case of laziness on the part of the animators.

You obviously don't know anything about animating, pal.

I realize that it takes time. Obviously I'm not expecting the animators to have some magical program that generates the exact animations they're thinking of at the press of a button. What you're saying is completely redundant.

You're saying it costs money. Duh.

You're saying it takes time. Duh.

Every change they make due to feedback takes time and money. That doesn't unjustify making the change. Going by your philosophy, they might as well not make any changes at all.

Look, the lack of variation in animations won't keep me from playing the game, but it would add replay value to the game, and it would not take that much time. It would add to the game, and wouldn't take away from it. I don't see why you would be against it. I'm convinced you're just trolling at this point.