GH2 Animation Reference | mariteaux

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Last modified: 4/2/2021

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Lighting and marker events

These go in the EVENTS track and control lighting events exclusively.

[verse], [chorus], and [solo] are marker events, and need to be placed for any further lighting cues to work. These affect the general camera placement look of lighting events, with [verse] causing much calmer lighting, [chorus] picking up the intensity and causing more wide shots of the venue, and [solo] casting a spotlight on the guitarist and shifting the camera to more close-ups and neck-mounted views.

[lighting ()] will return the venue's lighting to normal as per the marker events. [lighting (color1)] and [lighting (color2)] cause variances in the spotlight colors and are also affected by marker events.

[lighting (flare)] will cause the stage pyrotechnics and bulbs to flash once. It won't loop nor affect other lighting events, and using two in quick (>1/2 note) succession will cause only the first to flash. [lighting (strobe)] causes the venue (on-beat or to a set frequency, I'm not sure) to strobe until it's stopped, best used for drum rolls and bursts of volume.

[lighting (sweep)] and [lighting (chase)] are venue-dependent, but Harmonix likes to use the former for buildups (see Beast and the Harlot for an example) and the latter for guitar hooks. [lighting (sweep)] causes the lights to go...funky. Stonehenge has a sparkling effect, while Battle of the Bands causes the lights to just fade to dark until another effect occurs. It still kinda works for bridges, which is where I use it. Need to investigate what specifically [lighting (chase)] does.

[lighting (blackout)] kills all the lights in the venue, point blank period.

Lighting keyframes and venue effects

Notes C3, C#3, and D3 (so 48-50) in TRIGGERS control lighting keyframes, which are a more subtle effect that shifts the spotlights on stage. They only work during [lighting ()] events and only during [verse] and [chorus], not [solo]. C3 will shift to the next keyframe, C#3 to the previous one, and D3 to the "first" (default) one.

Of note is that keyframes don't "loop", meaning if you're on the first, throwing a previous keyframe will do nothing. You'll have to invoke C3 to go to the next one first. I'd also recommend leaving at least an eighth note of space between your lighting keyframes (or a quarter for faster songs). Any faster and they either won't show up or they'll look like garbage.

E3 (or note 52) in TRIGGERS is defined in midi_parsers.dta as a "world venue effect". What this does specifically needs more investigation, but sounds important.

Band and crowd

These go in the EVENTS track and control whole band and crowd events.

[music_start] will cause the crowd's idle noise to stop so the music can play. This is especially important for encores, as the intro SFX will loop until a [music_start] is present.

[band_jump] will cause all members on stage to jump in co-op and singleplayer. The timing is imprecise (it seems to be about one second of airtime regardless of the BPM), and they jump on the next quarter note. I can never time it correctly.

[crowd_lighters_slow] and [crowd_lighters_fast] both cause the crowd to get out lighters and wave them around, though at differing speeds. Free Bird is a good example of the former's usage, while the bridge in Shout at the Devil is a good example of the latter's usage.

[crowd_half_tempo], [crowd_double_tempo], and [crowd_normal_tempo] control how fast the crowd animates, either half, double, or at the BPM. You can similarly use [half_tempo], [normal_tempo], and [double_tempo] to control how fast each band member animates, good for perking them up on slower songs. (Careful applying these to the drummer, as these also control when his sticks fall. It'll still be on beats 2 and 4, or whatever pertains to his active event, but it'll be the 2 and 4 at that half/double speed, not the 2 and 4 of the actual chart, thus he'll be out of sync with the song.)

Guitar and co-op bassist

These get placed in the PART GUITAR, PART BASS, OR PART GUITAR COOP tracks in the MIDI.

[play] and [idle] will cause the guitarist to either get into position to play or get in position to cycle through idle animations. [play] is important, as without it, the guitarist will play at random, even while notes are going on. It's best to leave these for a few beats before or after the part to play, as they happen instantly, and sometimes the guitarist will stop playing before the notes stop with a too-early [idle].

[wail_on] and [wail_off] events cause the guitarist to either start or stop dancing and posing with their guitar. Best used for more intense sections.

[solo_on] and [solo_off] are distinct from the [solo] marker event in the EVENTS track as they control the guitarist's hands catching fire on the guitar when a 4x multiplier is achieved. Neither demo nor GH1 has this functionality.

[sync_wag] and [sync_head_bang] only affect co-op guitarists, not the backing band or the guitarist in singleplayer. The former will cause the guitarists to duck and wag their guitars back and fourth, while the latter causes them to stick their heads out and head band in unison on beats 2 and 4. Both last four measures unless set to half-speed, then they last eight.

The game defines various HandMap and StrumMap events that control the very fine details of what the guitarist and bassist are visually playing. By default, all single notes are a finger down, all single note sustains have vibrato, all chords (the game doesn't distinguish between two and three-note chords) are an E minor barre chord shape, and chord sustains have no vibrato. Here's how the different HandMap events affect the guitarist (none for bass):

(I should note some of this was taken from the C3 documentation on the subject. I don't believe any of it would be that different for GH2, but I also haven't tried it. These are all defined in the game's midi_parsers.dta file, so I do know they all exist by name at least.)

And StrumMap events:

Fretmapping

Notes E2 to B3 (notes 40-59) control fretmapping, with E2 moving the fretting hand closest to the nut and B3 moving it closest to the bridge. The speed at which the guitarist will move to this fret depends on the amount of space between the note_off of the last handmapping note and the note_on of the next one. Harmonix generally leaves a 16th note of space between handmapping notes for slides, though the speed depends on the song.

If you're using FeedBack and chart2mid_beta, you can use the Enhanced Guitar, Enhanced Lead, and Enhanced Bass tracks to control fretmapping. These are accessed with F4, F5, and F6, respectively. They're mapped rather oddly, but Green is closest to the nut and Orange is about halfway down the neck. I tend to use these and then tweak in a MIDI editor.

The "big note"

Note 110 (D8) on PART GUITAR is defined as the "big note". If the player misses this note, especially with a 4x multiplier or if they're in the Green on the Rock Meter, the crowd will wince and groan. These work like Star Power phrases and Face-Off sections; any notes that happen while this note is active will be marked as "big notes", while notes that end on the ending tick of this note and any later won't be counted.

It's a good idea to only have it pertain to a single note, like a big chord at the end of a song or the first notes of a guitar intro. If you try to make it apply to multiple notes one after another, the game will play multiple groans one after another—and that's just weird.

Bassist

These control the singleplayer bassist and goes in BAND BASS.

[idle] and [play] in BAND BASS control the bassist animating in singleplayer. Unknown if PART BASS [idle] and [play] events affect the singleplayer bassist whatsoever.

C2 (note 36) in BAND BASS controls the speaker cones of the bassist's cabinet. In the OPM demo and GH1, this is mapped to C#4 (61) of the TRIGGERS track.

Singer/Keyboardist

These control the singer or keyboard player and go in BAND SINGER. The same events work for both, and only one can appear on stage during a song, so I've grouped both.

C4 (note 60) in GH1 MIDIs control the singer's mouth, with a note_on event opening it and a note_off event closing it. In all demos and GH2, the singer uses a special .voc file containing phonemes. It is not compatible with the .voc format from Rock Band, though Onyxite has added a converter for Rock Band .vocs to his Music Game Toolkit, if you have one of those. No way to generate a GH2 .voc from dry vocals like you can for Rock Band just yet, unfortunately, so you'll have to find some way around Magma first if you want that.

[idle] and [play] control the singer animating with the mic stand or the keyboardist "playing".

Drummer

C2 (note 36) on BAND DRUMS controls the pumping of the kick drum, nothing with the drummer model himself. Similarly, C#2 (37) controls the crash cymbal, though the drummer doesn't actually move to reach it. It's best to use the latter sparingly, as the cymbal is unrealistically spongy when used repeatedly.

As for making him play:

• [idle] naturally makes the drummer sit still.
• [play] will make the snare hit on the second and fourth beats of every measure.
• [nobeat] means no snare will happen until another drummer event is placed. His hi-hat hand will still animate.
• [half_time] makes the drummer play only on beat 3 each measure.
• [double_time] makes the drummer play eighth notes. Best placed a quarter note prior to make sure he makes it in time.
• [allbeat] will make the drummer play both hands four beats per measure.

The drummer's hi-hat hand will always animate if not idle. The other events simply control how often, if ever, the snare stick falls. You only need to set it once until you need a different event, and a no event needs a [play] beforehand.

Practice mode drum machine (or click, as the game calls it)

The practice mode drum machine is controlled by notes on the TRIGGERS track. C1 (note 24) controls the synth kick, C#1 (25) controls the synth snare, and D1 (26) controls the synth hi-hat. This does not affect the drummer in normal play, only the drum machine in practice mode when the song is slowed down.

If you're using FeedBack and chart2mid_beta, you can control both BAND DRUMS and the practice mode drum machine using the Expert Drums track. Press F8 to access it. Green maps to the BAND DRUMS kick, Red maps to the practice mode snare, Yellow maps to the practice mode kick, Blue maps to the practice mode hi-hat, and Orange maps to the BAND DRUMS cymbal.

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