It's Been A While

Well it's been a while since my last post.

We've been hard at work during the last couple of months at the studio, working on the first build of our new game (which by the way wee need to send to our HQ in Paris by the end of January).

We have a more compelling story this time around and also more and better cinematics to tell it.

2010 also seems to be an exciting year for the videogame industry, with such anticipated titles like Mass Effect 2, God Of War III, Heavy Rain, Final Fantasy XIII, Halo Reach, Battlefield Bad Company 2 and a brand new Medal Of Honor just to name a few, but I've already count around 20 titles I'd like to play this year (not even mentioning the new ones to be announced).

I will be working harder this year and for sure will have more animations to share with you guys on this space.  I was asked to create a video game for a sex toy store about captain dildo.  I'm not kidding.  But I can't wrap my head around this project so I will likely pass.

In the mean time, I want to post here a couple of animations from the "Epic Mickey" game from Warren Spector that I happen to see a week ago.

For those who doesn't know about it, Warren Spector is one of the most awarded videogame creators in history, with such titles like Thief, The Ultima Series, Wing Commander, System Shock and Deus Ex in his profile.

This time he was asked by Disney to create a videogame based on the brand new image of Mickey in 2010, and knowing Warren to be mostly a mature rated games creator, this came as a real surprise.

The game is based around a story where Disney's lesser, forgotten characters rise up against Mickey. This would explain the emphasis on the military action themes seen on the concept art.

It sounds nothing like a Disney thing, but my interest on it grew exponentially the first time I saw the following animations.

Hello everyone.
Just decided to take a break from the cartoony style and try to get some realistic animation. This exercise will consist of the animation of the following sequence:

The important thing here is that this kind of sequences are commonly used as reference for videogames, and as this medium is different from movies (here you have to make it right from any angle and not only to that of the camera), for some of the movements you just have to 'figure it out' how the body mechanics are working on. This is because as you can see, there are some takes where you don't get to see the character legs or you just get to see a body part like the head or fist for one of them.

After a couple of days I came with the following results. This is the animation based on the same camera movements from the reference:

While doing Pre-Viz work for movies, its a common thing to find issues like continuity in the footage you are provided with (like a punch repeated several times Van-Damme style), and you have to figure out the better way to create the animated sequence so it can be seen correct and from any angle.

At some points in the reference (usually on the camera cuts) the characters are in different positions and time vs the previous take. This is a common thing in filmaking for the sake of having the choreography a bit more spectacular, and also because its clear that it is very difficult to have the stunt men exactly at the same spot while changing the camera and retaking that last kick or punch from another angle. Thats also why Pre-Viz animation is so important in film making.

Here is a second take of the same sequence with different camera positioning and using the same animation.

The idea here is not necessarily to have a super polished material. Pre-viz animation allows the director to reposition the camera in the computer allowing him to choose the better angles for the sequence before shooting it on stage; which otherwise would be a very expensive way to figure out which camera takes works best for each scene.