Fingers that fit

The camp NPCs' fingers now move with the rest of their body language: curled by how they feel, shaped like the gestures they make, opening on the words they stress, and pointing with an index finger.

After the pointing work, Lyle wanted the hands to fit in too. The gesture clips laid over an NPC's body only ever moved the arms down to the wrist, so the fingers stayed however the sitting or standing animation had them. A pointing arm ended in a limp hand.

Each finger now has a curl it eases toward, from straight to a fist. At rest it's a loose curl, with the index finger the least curled and the little finger the most, the way a resting hand falls. Unease, cold and a heated line tighten it toward a fist. A bright, open person talking with energy opens it up. Every finger drifts a little on its own, and the fingers open slightly on each stressed word along with the hand's beat.

When a library gesture clip is playing, the game now reads how curled each finger is in that clip, measured against the clip skeleton's own resting hand so different skeletons line up, and puts that shape on the NPC's hand. The library's hand shapes come through, not just its arm movement. A pointing hand straightens the index finger and folds the rest. Hands stay out of it during work clips and sleep, so a gripped axe stays gripped.