In preparing for both the GDC Animation Bootcamp (Monday, February 27th at Moscone Center) and the Animation Exchange (Tuesday, February 28th live on Twitch) a handful of the presenters and organizers wanted to reflect and discuss on the state of animation for games.
The participants in this email exchange are:
Lana Bachynski - animator at Blizzard Entertainment
Gwen Frey - co-founder of The Molasses Flood
Dan Lowe - senior technical animator at EA Visceral
Jalil Sadool - CEO/co-founder at Steamroller Studios
Mike Jungbluth - lead animator at Deep Silver Volition
[more detailed bios for everyone are at the end of the piece.]
---------------------------
Mike Jungbluth: With this being the fifth year of the animation bootcamp, I've been thinking a lot lately on where the state of game animation is. Before the bootcamp, there wasn't really a place that I felt like game animators were sharing their process and knowledge. Most talks at conferences felt largely film or cinematic based, and less about interactivity. And now that we have a place to specifically share all aspects of the animation process, and more talks exist in the public showing how to bring a character to life, I wanted to reflect as a group on things.
First off, I'm interested if you believe the same perception and/or role of game animation persists across the industry as it did 5 years ago.
---------------------------
Lana Bachynski: Thanks for starting us off, Mike!
I think that the role of animation has largely remained the same -- ultimately we're serving the game play; telegraphing to the players what's hitting and how hard (though obviously with greater and greater fidelity). However, I think the perception of animation has changed a lot -- largely due to the communities that surround us.
Even in my relatively short time in the industry, I've seen animation go from little more than a game play necessity with MAYBE a fun animation if you have downtime ("as long as it's moving, it's good enough"), to a serious want driven by player's desires to identify with a character, and, in turn, express themselves through playing the game. (Creating and implementing something fun, badass, and character driven). 5 years ago, I think it was enough that you looked cool, but now, I think many folks want to be able to connect with their various avatars on more than just an armour-set.
---------------------------
Dan Lowe: If we're talking about the perception of other developers looking in on animation, I think that's really different for each studio. Like Lana said, the role of animation and the high level goals haven't really changed all that much, but for some studios the last 5 years has seen this adoption of new tools that make it much easier for animations to build their own systems, and I think that's definitely changed the dynamic between animators, programmers and designers.
Inside the animation community, one of the big changes I've seen is that there actually is a community now. I remember a few years back, talking to some graphics programmer friends and being kind of jealous of how vibrant their community was (and still is). It seemed like everybody knew everybody else, and it was almost every week that someone was posting a new paper about some new approach for anti-aliasing, or skin shading, or whatever else, and it didn't really feel like that was there for animators. There were venues for discussion like 11 Second Club, or Polycount, but it didn't really feel like there was one central place you could go, at least that I was aware of, where all the other top industry animators were discussing the medium. Really it's been social media, especially Twitter, and the community that's risen around the Animation Bootcamp that's changed a lot of that.
---------------------------
Jalil Sadool: I guess I like to call it ‘Animation in the Game industry’ rather than ‘Game Animation’. The craft of Animation itself is pretty much the same whether it is in the film industry or game industry. That being said, what differ are the limitations, guidelines and intent of each medium, resulting in different approach and workflows. The biggest change I’ve noticed in the last decade has been the obvious exponential growth of quality of animation in the game industry, which in turn has brought a shift in the perception of the entire animation industry. Feature Animation used to be the holy grail of animation. As an animator, being part of a Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks film used to be the ultimate goal, but the Game industry has rapidly changed that perception. Nowadays animators can choose from a wider range of exciting studios where animation is as highly regarded. In the last few years, we’ve seen In-game animation, cut-scenes and cinematics that can rival any Visual Effects production or Feature Animated film. With the more easily accessible game engines and animation tools, I think the amount of high level animation work in the game industry will keep rising for years to come.
---------------------------
Dan Lowe: It's interesting to hear what you say about feature animation being the ultimate goal for animators, Jalil. Definitely I've met a lot of game animators who think that way, and some that were quite candid about how games were just a stepping stone for them to move "up" to features, but for me it's never really something I've been interested in. Of course, my jaw's on the floor when I'm watching a Pixar, Disney or Dreamworks movie: The quality of the animation work is just... beyond incredible, but for me it's in service of a different set of goals, and as you say, it's working with very different constraints. Although game animation is obviously a lot rougher around the edges, ultimately we're creating remote controlled people, and I think if we look at it as systems of animation, it can be just as awe-inspiring.
That said, with you saying how the quality of animation in games is now becoming more highly regarded, do you think there was a specific moment or a specific game in recent years that you really think tipped the balance, or that you think would have made the people on the features side really stop and take notice? That extends to everyone: Was there a game or a moment in the last few years that you felt was a real significant step forward for game animation?
---------------------------
Gwen Frey: Dan wrote, "Was there a game or a moment in the last few years that you felt was a real significant step forward for game animation?"
I don't think there was a tipping point, I think the quality of game animation has consistently increased each year. I will say that the most important shift was when we stopped focusing on cut scenes and started focusing on making player-driven animation as impressive as possible. I think that set game narrative and game animation apart from other mediums. I think Naughty Dog has been a huge part of pushing player animation quality up year over year. More recently I think Inside really set the bar for technical animation and responsive AI.
Building on what others have said - I think there was a community for animators a decade ago, however animators in video games weren't really considered animators. If an animator left a job working in feature film to work in video games that was seen as a step down career-wise. I can definitely see why this was the case! In film the animator tells the team what they need and the team makes it happen. The animator is the end user. However, in video games animators usually work to help realize the design of the game. We are providing a service to to the designers and the team rather than being the end user. To a lot of traditional animators this looks unappealing. Imagine telling a film animator the following: "Animate the player hands reloading this weapon. This weapon needs to feel responsive so the player has to reload it in .4 seconds. Also, keep the hands in roughly the bottom of the screen so that you aren't blocking the player's view and keep the shoulders way off the screen in case the gamer has a wide resolution monitor." That sounds like a lot of constraints! However, there is artistry in making something that is beautiful within constraints. Having a character that blends and reacts and feels alive no matter what the player does is an incredible achievement to be a part of.
Also there is artistry in being the first to break convention or alter constraints. You'll find yourself thinking "Okay, so the gun has to be responsive, but does the reload have to be .4 seconds. Can I come up with a way to set up the blend tree so that I have more time? Can I start the reload right at the end of the firing animation to save a fraction of a second. Hmmm..."
---------------------------
Mike Jungbluth: I think VR is opening a lot of eyes for more traditional animators about the challenges of interactive and realtime constraints for character animation. But in a space closer to film than games, with the ability to offload some of the constraints on to the participant.
Touching back on Gwen's point about film animators being the end user vs game animators being more of a service department, I think that extends past animators and to actors and script writers as well. I've had a number of conversations in which the idea of empowering the player to change or impact the narrative removes the purpose of their craft. When their approach has revolved entirely around their controlled authorship of the creation, allowing the player into the experience is akin to letting members of the audience jump on the stage during a performance. And overcoming that mindset can be a hard one to even want to embrace or indulge.
But seeing film focused creators talking about the struggle to overcome many of the issues we are aware of and have found solutions to, has been a great moment of getting to reverse knowledge share across mediums.
My biggest desire with the democratization of knowledge sharing has been wanting to get past the how, so we can focus more and more on the what. Once we no longer struggle to get the character to just move convincingly on the screen and openly share when a better method exists, we can all dive into their performance and personality. And that is the end goal for animation, bringing to life a character that feels unique and alive. More than the sum of their parts. Which I think we are starting to get a lot closer to now for all the reasons we have been laying out.
---------------------------
Lana Bachynski: Jalil wrote, "I guess I like to call it 'Animation in the Game industry' rather than 'Game Animation'. The craft of Animation itself is pretty much the same whether it is in the film industry or game industry. ... Feature Animation used to be the holy grail of animation. As an animator, being part of a Disney, Pixar, or Dreamworks film used to be the ultimate goal, but the Game industry has rapidly changed that perception.”
And Gwen wrote, "If an animator left a job working in feature film to work in video games that was seen as a step down career-wise."
I feel like I need to call back to these, because this is a monumental shift in perception.
It feels particularly important for me – especially coming from a film animator turned game-dev. While I was studying, the thought of 'Game Animation' was beyond even the notion of 'inferior career choice' and into the realm of 'worthy of ridicule'. I remember telling people I wanted to animate for Blizzard (circa 2008), and I was literally laughed out of the school computer lab to calls of "Wait… you want to make GAME art?!" Obviously this is just one, tiny, sad violin, but from my perspective, it wasn't until these outlets (i.e. Animation Bootcamp, and now the Animation Exchange) started presenting robust, technical breakdowns, and inspiring examples of our craft that people really started paying attention.
Compared to any one, perfectly art-directed frame from a film, it is easy to overlook what happens in real time, but showcasing the Animation in Games in a standalone setting seems to been doing a lot of heavy lifting in regards to changing people's minds about this sphere of the industry.
Dan wrote, "That extends to everyone: Was there a game or a moment in the last few years that you felt was a real significant step forward for game animation?"
Gwen wrote, "I think Naughty Dog has been a huge part of pushing player animation quality up year over year.”
I'm not so sure if there has ever been a tipping point of any variety, but there have been pieces of animation that really, really stick to me. Calling out to what Gwen said, I have always been (to an almost embarrassing degree) an avid Naughty Dog fan, and it's largely due to the animation quality. I reference various pieces of Jak and Daxter on a regular basis (I think that double jump started me on the path to becoming an animator), though a more recent note, Uncharted 4's near-seamless transitions from cutscene to gameplay have had me floored. I may be wrong, because I rarely actually have time to play video games, but that was the first instance of it that I've ever seen of it, and it has been a personal desire of mine for as long as I can remember. With games getting more and more intertwined with these robust, immersive stories -- and the rise of VR on the horizon -- it seems as though the days of loading screens may have to fall behind us.
---------------------------
Dan Lowe: I totally agree about VR, Mike. It was really interesting at last years GDC listening to the Oculus Story group or ILM X-Lab saying things like, "We discovered it was really challenging to get players to look where we want them to look", and I wonder if it's giving credibility to the process of making games, exposing feature animators to challenges that in games we've had to face for a long time. And absolutely, I think VRs been a great melting pot where you now have these companies that are half film professionals and half games people. I'm really looking forward to what lessons come out of that.
On a similar thread, with what Lana was saying about the feature animation students looking down on game animation: The line that always made me sad when I'd hear it, was "game quality animation", by which the person saying it meant "bad quality animation", because it seemed to dismiss the skill involved in making animation systems.
I've always wanted to take a really talented feature animator, and sit them down in front of Unreal and say, "OK build me strafe nav system, and the character has to start and stop in 3 frames, and they need to be aim in all directions as they're moving, and it has to be built so you can swap out different weapon types, and you've got three weeks to do this." I'd be interested to see if going through that process would change the animator's perspective, but also genuinely interested to see if that animators skill would still translate. There's actually a real practical example of this going on right now, where you have Seith, who's an ex-Dreamworks animation director, making Ghost of a Tale. He's doing great work, and it's looking like it's going to be a beautiful game. I'd love to see more features animators giving games a shot.
It sounds from what Jalil is saying that the perspective has changed already, and if so that's really great. I wonder if that view comes from the advances in gameplay animation though, or if people are seeing work like the Overwatch character intros and Play Of The Game animations, which are amazing, but very similar to feature animation?
---------------------------
Lana Bachynski: Dan wrote, "I wonder if that view comes from the advances in gameplay animation though, or if people are seeing work like the Overwatch character intros and Play Of The Game animations, which are amazing, but very similar to feature animation?”
I could actually chalk this up to the depth of character we're starting to see in games, now. Yes, a lot of that can be found in the broad, hype moments (POTG, supplementary short films), and in part, it's obviously due to great writing (so many amazing characters emerging with real agency!), but I do like to think it could be owed (at least a little) to an animator's capacity to infuse character into even the smallest moments.
I remember during last year's bootcamps, Danielle Riendeau's MicroTalk was which animated moments stuck out at her from the perspective of a non-animator — and it was amazing! A lot of her favorite moments weren't big, badass boss fights — they were little moments: Lara Croft wringing out and tightening her ponytail after she comes out of the water (Rise of the Tomb Raider), Henry's hand touching the wood of the overhead stairs (Firewatch) — small, character moments, the kind you only get if you're liberated enoug
