BA2 Animation - Follow through and overlapping action

Good Example - Mirror's Edge

Bad Example - Command and Conquer : Red Alert 2

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 is a brilliant rts game, which was made over ten years ago. It’s still fun to play, and considered a classic by some. However, it cannot escape it’s own technical boundaries. A basic unit of the game is the Soviet Conscript. He has to be stationary to fire his sub-machine gun. When he remains still, he only has two ‘positions’; ‘firing’ and ‘not firing’.  It is a shame that there is such rigidity when he alternates between these two forms. The animation stops dead too often, there is no smooth follow through. Obviously there can be literally hundreds of these conscripts on screen at any one time, so certain limits have to be put in place for the game to run adaquetely.

BA2 Animation - Slow in and slow out

Good Example - Age of Empires 3

Age of Empires 3 is an organic and beautiful looking game. Most ranged units have at least two modes of attack; ranged, and hand-to-hand. Musketeers, a staple unit of the game, has good slow in, slow out’ when he attacks in close quarters. He will swing his gun like a club, or jab with the bayonet. This can also be said of many units within Age of Empires III. The only drawback to the animation, being the need to sacrifice graphical quality for so many units on screen at one time.

Musketeer

Spanish Rodelero

Bad Example - Batman: Arkham Asylum

However tight the combat is in ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’, it can still look ‘too quick’ at times. With Batman pulling off counters almost instantly, with no realistic speeding up and down with moves. I realize that this is necessary, when the player is fighting a large group of enemies at once, and there is no room for gradual build-up of momentum, what with so many assailants to deal with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikb52OYCFgg

BA2 Animation - Staging

Good Example - Bioshock

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trTuGSHBZk0

Bad Example - Age of Empires 2 : The Age of Kings

In Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings, the game has a hard time trying to ‘set the stage’ well. Being an rts, everything is seen from a god-like perspective. So, when there is an important scene in a campaign mission, with character’s talking, interacting with each other, the game’s own limitations make this problematic. As character’s, which are often famous historical figures, with personalities and emotive stretch’s of dialogue, are obscured by the long distance of the camera. The player simply can’t see all the important emotions, gestures, movements, which would be apparent in a game with a much closer viewpoint. In later games, the series would address this problem with staging.

BA2 Animation - Secondary Action

Good Example - Resistance: Fall of Man

In Resistance, the enemies you encounter react dynamically to your actions, with many events being performed all at once thanks to the many processors present in the PlayStation’s CELL processor. The Chimera realistically dive out of the way of incoming explosives. When your character throws a grenade into a group of Chimera, they will instinctively dive away from it, trying to escape the blast by hitting the ground. The way in which they do this is fast, agile-like and is animated to a good standard.

Chimera Hybrid

Bad Example - Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman Arkham Asylum is an overall fantastic game. One of the best parts of the game is the awesome combat sequences. Unfortunately small thing that stands out is the poor secondary action when the bad guys are knocked out. When the player has just delivered the final blow, to the last enemy in a room, the camera quickly zooms in, to capture the moment of impact. This is all done well, apart from when the last enemy becomes unconscious. He will reach up with both arms, bent at the elbow, and seem to ‘clasp’ his head in agony. His fists simply both remain parallel to his temples, as he falls over. The fact that the camera actively tries to highlight this action only makes it worse.  

BA2 Animation - Anticipation

Watch the video (examples at 2:00   4:56  6:35  7:18  7:38  7:52)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOKZTCwSlM4




Anticipation bad example - Call of Duty 4, onwards

From at least the forth game onwards, the player's character model has an odd animation when they throw a grenade. The animation is two separate ones, one for the first-person perspective, and another for other players seeing the animation in third-person. The first-person animations look great. Unfortunately, in multiplayer, many of the animations the player executes, appear simplified to the point that they lose their realism and believability. One such example, is the grenade pull and throw. Viewed externally, the player takes a few seconds to finish the animation of priming the explosive, and then pulling his arm back to throw it. You can release the grenade in first person before your third person model finishes the animation. So, in essence, the anticipation is off, as the two animations do not seemlessly match up.

BA2 Animation - Timing

Tekken6 Gameplay Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHozRkjQyes&feature=relmfu

Mortal Kombat compilation video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9e_w_CYrrk

BA2 Animation - Squash and Stretch

Call of Duty: Black Ops (2:50 onwards)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN-srBi4Fr8&NR=1&feature=endscreen


Bad Boys : Miami Takedown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoTYsX83Zrg&feature=related

BA2 Animation - Guest Speaker Sean Millard

Today we had a visitor speak to all years about games, and the world of business outside of it. My pre-concevied notions of what a 'Creative Director' should look like were given a knock as we walked into the lecture theatre and saw him. Such a prestigious title as 'Creative Director' conjured up all sorts of images of formal attire and formal language. It was then surprising to see that Sean was wearing a hoodie, jeans, purple converse, and had a head full of curly hair. Wristbands adorned his forearms, and he had a 'Misfits' belt buckle on. This all came as a relief, a breath of fresh air, and a comfort. I saw that you didn't have to conform to any set format within the professional world of Games. I had already half-known this in theory, but now someone from the industry stood here before us all, and it made the theory whole.

He began by telling us that he had taken Fine Art at uni as 'a bit of a skive', and that it was the only thing he was really any good at. I was taken back by this statement. By him being unafraid to tell us something so revealing about his beginnings. Showing us that he was human, and not some super-driven, super-determined machine, that had always known what direction to take in life. This was comforting. He expressed a feeling of tedious boredom towards the industry, for companies always sticking to what they knew, simply rehashing what had been done before. He talked about innovation and new ideas, and how it was only evident in perhaps a couple of games a year. He told us that the 'people who call the shots' want only surefire bets when it comes to making games. Ideas that have been done over and over again, and that are guaranteed to bring in profit. Rather than adventurous, innovative concepts, that are more likely to entertain. Sean also explained that the radical approach to making new games was always a financial risk. But, to defend this alternative way, he said that we are here to entertain an audience, and not bore them. That making risks is good. I felt strongly that this was a fundamentally sound philosophy. Although, he went on to explain that things were beginning to chance within the industry. That new platforms such as the IPad, allowed lots of new companies to emerge and produce games, without all the massive financial backing of the larger companies. And that this left plenty of room for the innovation that was so sorely missing from the mainstream market.

Sean then built upon these points, by giving us some background information on himself. He highlighted a potential link between indie game developers, and what he was part of in his youth, the Punk subculture. How they would get together, organise themselves, put on their own shows, and demonstrate the punk ideal of 'Do it yourself'. He told us not to wait for other people to authorise our galleries. To get out there and be pro-active. My attention was fired up by the mention of Punk. I couldn't believe I was sitting here, listening to a high-ranking industry professional , talk about taking a punk attitude to the 'grown-up' world of business. He said how it was an attitude he carried with him through life, right up until today, and how it was something he let into everything he did. I found it very inspirational to listen to this message.

Someone in the audience then asked what Sean would look for in a potential employee's showreel. He immediately ruled out sci-fi archetypes like spaceships and robots. Because he had seen those a thousand times before. He would go for something fresh, something that he hadn't seen before. And I felt that I could relate to this also. If I was looking to employ someone in a creative role, I would want them to be highly imaginative, with their own take on things. Things that I personally would never have thought of. These would be very important factors. He continued by telling us about his friend at work, who has no border between her work and the rest of her life. That she was totally an illustrator, and not just someone who illustrated for money. This seemed to be what real passion was. Someone who lives and breathes what they do, someone who stays at work until 2am in the studio, rather than clocking off at 5.

I was very glad I had come along that afternoon, and spent time afterwards asking Sean more questions.