Animation for games: stylized or real, PC and console characters offer sophisticated actions, looks and stories

Post, March, 2005 by Ann Fisher, Claudia Kienzle

This game was transformed during its three-year production cycle. "Originally, you never got out of the helicopter," says lead animator Austin Baker. "And then we turned into this game where you spend very little time in a helicopter, you drive in all sorts of vehicles. It became an action-shooter as opposed to a helicopter-pilot game."

The transition chewed up production time but also allowed Baker to develop an efficient technique for new run-walk cycles. Instead of creating new cycles for each weapon, "I made a generic run and walk with nothing in their hands, just straight cycle and I was able to use that and drop it onto the character. It cut down on production time a lot." Pandemic animators used Softimage|XSIV.3.5 on Dell PCs.

The camera is behind the characters, from the knees up, but the game is set up so players can rotate the camera around them at anytime. "I tend not to do a lot with the face right now just because developing on the PS2, and with all the technology we have in Mercenaries, doing facial animation all the time ended up becoming quite a big burden on the hardware. In the beginning, we weren't even going to do facial animation but it was one of the things that I experimented with and found out we could do."

FIFA 2006

The annual soccer release from Electronic Arts Sports (www.ea.com), FIFA 2006, will next be available in fall '05 for current and next-generation platforms. EA Sports is the creator/publisher.

Most Major League Soccer teams, and their stars, are in the game. There are thousands of characters. Making those players look and move authentically is their trademark--fans want to see their stars. "Our big challenges are not character design, per se, but pulling off a lifelike character that very easily is recognizable as that particular athlete," says senior art director Henry LaBounta. Adds senior animation director Eric Armstrong, "You can't separate [how they look and how they act]. The reality is we spend a lot of time comparing our characters to still photographs so our video references match. But in the end it's really about the experience, how they move and play and act in the game itself as to whether or not they're believable." Animators spend a lot of time analyzing actual motions of individual players.

To enhance the believability factor, the new platforms on the horizon--with more powerful processors and memory--have created opportunities for EA animators to apply new techniques to the production process. Paying attention to how fabric moves against players' bodies is one focus. Already, in FIFA 2005 and FIFA Street, there are NIS sequences (non-interactive) where gamers, when not in gameplay, can go down on the field for player close-ups and reaction shots. There is also an instant replay function within gameplay.

Animation is motion captured. Electronic Arts has one of the largest mocap stages in North America. Their mocap system is used with proprietary tools, and Kaydara's Motion Builder, which deal with that data and building complex animation moves suitable for interactive experiences. Alias Maya 6.01 on PCs is used for modeling and animation.