tl;dr : The current ingame idle female animation is the male one.
The correct animation is present in the current game, and is actively used in editors, the inspector, and on NPC's.
This pose appeared in the E3 2009 reveal trailer for APB and was broken since day one.
The current female idle animation ingame is the male's, despite characters specifically having female animations built for them.
The real female animation is displayed in the editors and when you inspect a character. You can tell something's up when you repeatedly tap forward while walking - your shoulders go down, then back up when you stop, because idle and walk/run animations don't match. Holstering your guns in a missions district also shows this - your shoulders go down, where they expect to be, and then suddenly jump back up to align themselves with the male animation. Surprisingly though, it seems to be correctly used by most female contacts and pedestrians, as only player characters are affected.
This animation was the one used on players in the E3 2009 reveal trailer. You can see it for yourself here, at the 1:46 mark : https://youtu.be/AMkBwHJaSkw?t=106 That tiny detail completely changes the stance and silhouette of characters - thus changing their general outlook from what appears in the editor. That animation differentiates male and female characters more visibly, and makes the world feel more polished and visually diverse. It really is a shame that it's been overlooked for so long. Surely if pedestrians/contacts and the inspector window correctly displays it, I can't imagine it would be hard to make it work as intended in the game world - hence why I'm bringing this issue to light.
Here's some photo evidence of what I'm talking about :
This is the "correct" animation, as seen in the editor, the inspector, on contacts & pedestrians (Though their arms rest lower).
This is the current animation ingame. The legs are spread further, the shoulders & arms are bumped up, and the spine is bent rather than straight. The neck also looks shorter as a result.
It's very obviously the male pose being applied on the female model. It completely changes the look and feel of female characters, instead giving them that current awkward, strangely buff appearance, while also misrepresenting what appears in the editor, since body proportions change with this aswell. It's a tiny detail, but it's a tiny detail that matters a lot if you make a game about customization and appearances.
Finally, here's the tiny animation glitch proving that it wasn't intended to be like this.
Standing still, with guns holstered, then walking forward clearly shows that the character's entire figure changes the second she moves.
Again, this is because she's switching back and forth from the male animation (idle) to the female animation (walking/running).
Holstering weapons shows the same mismatch for half a second.
Shoulders go down, then back up again once the idle animation starts playing.
This bug applies to every single female player character that exists in the game without exception.
I'm also pretty sure that running & sprinting is the male's too, but I have no proof to support this.
