Getting to grips with programs

Animating with Photoshop CS5
I didn't even realise that you could animate in Photoshop until I started the project. I was pleasantly surprised to see how easy and intuitive it is to work with. Just by dragging an audio clip into a video layer, I could start my animation. Using grid lines to define areas in which to work in helped greatly, as did the use of Onion Skins and its invaluable assistance with reference.
Animating the bouncing ball was great fun. Carefully integrating certain principles of animation such as 'slow-in-and-out' came naturally after a while, as did my creativity.


Maya
My first opinion of Maya was: overcomplicated. Each tab and option didn't come with 'hover help text' which made learning all the functions very hard. Creating the 3D bouncing ball animation was an interesting introduction. Using the graph editor and axis was a great way to create shortcuts between key frames, and felt quite satisfying.
Creating a character animation was a whole new matter. I didn't feel confident enough to create a fluid and entertaining animation so I chose 2D instead.


Mudbox
I felt much more comfortable using this program, as it was more relative to real life physics. The digital pen felt like a chisel as I slowly crafted Elbert's head. The functions did exactly as I expected, enabling me to work with relative ease. Using his head as a reference made the process smooth, but at times the front and side views did not match his physiology. After applying a stencil of Elbert's face, I painted his projection over the mould, but this made him look very unusual so I had to remove the layer.
I admit at times I worked blindly, but I believe I managed to portray a relatively good representation of my model.

Tale of Tales/Activision Comparison

Tale of Tales

Tale of Tales is a developer Belgian of art games and screensavers founded in 2002 by Auriea Harvey (concept art, 3D modeling and texture mapping) and Michaël Samyn (interaction, effects and game programming), who had been working together in the creation of Web sites and electronic art as Entropy8Zuper! Since 1999.

The studio is named after Giambattista Basile's book The Tale of Tales (Lo Cunto de li cunti), with their main series being retellings of fairy tales in the form of adventure games, each subtitled "a Tale of Tales" and linked together by a common character referred to as the Deaf-Mute Girl in a Pretty White Dress in the 8 Web site and as the Girl in White in The Path's user manual. It was hinted in an interview with ZillionMonkey that their next project, following The Path, will involve the character of Salome and be developed using the Unity authoring tool, which they had first trailed with The Graveyard as a side-project during development of The Path.

February 2010 saw the release of Vanitas, their first work for the iPhone OS platform and their first with music by Zoë Keating. On March 1, 2010 it was announced that they were commencing the development of two large projects, alternating between the two of them for the next 18 months (i.e. until September 2011).

''The purpose of Tale of Tales is to create elegant and emotionally rich interactive entertainment. We explicitly want to cater to people who are not enchanted by most contemporary computer games, or who wouldn’t mind more variety in their gameplay experiences. For this purpose, all of our products feature innovative forms of interaction, engaging poetic narratives and simple controls.''

Activision

Activision is an American video game developer and publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO and president is Bobby Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles. Its first products were cartridges for the Atari 2600 video console system published from July 1980 for the US market and from August 1981 for the international market (UK). Activision is now one of the largest third party video game publishers in the world and was also the top publisher for 2007 in the United States. On January 18, 2008, Activision announced they were the top US publisher in 2007, according to the NPD Group.

On December 2, 2007, it was announced that Activision would be acquired by Vivendi, with Vivendi contributing its gaming division plus cash, in exchange for a majority stake in the new group. The merger between Activision and Vivendi Games took place on July 9, 2008, with the newly formed company known as Activision Blizzard. Activision will still exist as a subsidiary owned by Activision Blizzard, and it will still develop and publish games such as Call of Duty, along with some of Vivendi's owned IPs, such as the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon series.

http://tale-of-tales.com/blog/information/ [accessed 22/01/2011]
http://www.activision.com/ [accessed 22/01/2011]

Comparing Game Development Techniques

BioWare is an American-owned Canadian electronic entertainment company founded in February

1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. BioWare specializes in creating computer and console games and has become famous for highly praised and successful role-playing games such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, both of which won many awards.

They have also made several successful games that span both the console and PC platform: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1 and 2 and also Dragon Age: Origins with its soon to be released sequel Dragon Age 2.

The BioWare Group of studios is now four studios (BioWare Edmonton, BioWare Austin, BioWare Mythic and Bioware Montreal) comprising the RPG/MMO Group within Electronic Arts, with Muzyka, EA Senior VP and the group General Manager and Zeschuk EA VP and Group Creative Officer of the BioWare Group; Yip left in early 1997 to return to medicine. Other senior leaders in the BioWare Group (RPG/MMO) of EA are Rob Denton (EA VP and Group Operations Officer of the BioWare Group), Patrick Buechner (EA VP and Group Marketing Officer of the BioWare Group), Gordon Walton and Rich Vogel (EA VPs and co-General Managers of BioWare Austin), Aaryn Flynn (EA VP and General Manager of BioWare Edmonton), Eugene Evans (EA VP and General Manager of BioWare Mythic, in Fairfax, Virginia), and Yanick Roy (Studio Director of BioWare Montreal).

Mass Effect

Sophisticated interfaces (skill trees, levelling up, inventory management)

Hardcore gaming.

Re-playability.

Epic, story driven games.

Strong narrative.

Great visuals.

Psychological attachment to characters.

Twisting story arcs.

Multi-tiered story arcs

Being a big game company, BioWare will have access to a much larger financial stream, and therefore be able to employ more people to perform the required tasks.

PopCap Games is an American video game developer and publisher, based in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka, and currently employs more than 200 people. Most of PopCap's games can be played free in a limited form, with the full version available for a one time fee.

PopCap's Flagship title 'Bejeweled' sold more than 50 million units across all major platforms. PopCap's games are available for Web, PC and Mac, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 as well as most handheld Apple devices. In June 2010, it was announced that they would be producing games for the Android OS.

The casual game maker pulled in $100 million in revenue in 2010 and has 400 employees, but 2011 could see the company going public, more international expansion and, of course, new games

Plants Vs. Zombies

Social, multi-player gaming.­

Simple, easy interfaces.

Re-playability.

Colourful aesthetics.

Child friendly entry level, hard to master, appeals to all ages.

A smaller game company like PopCap may utilise the same people to perform multiple roles within their team. This proves to be more cost effective as well as forming a tighter team to contribute to a smoother working environment.

Producer: A producer is in charge of overseeing the development of a video game.

Most video games are developed by third-party developers. In these cases, there may be external and internal producers. External producers may act as "executive producers" and are employed by the game's publisher. Internal producers work for the developer itself and have more of a hands-on role. Some game developers may have no internal producers, however, and may rely solely on the publisher's producer.

For an external producer, their job responsibilities may focus mainly on overseeing several projects being worked on by a number of developers. While keeping updated on the progress of the games being developed externally, they inform the upper management of the publisher of the status of the pending projects and any problems they may be experiencing. If a publisher's producer is overseeing a game being developed internally, their role is more akin to that of an internal producer and will generally only work on one game or a few small games.

As games have grown larger and more expensive, line producers have become part of some teams. Based on filmmaking traditions, Line Producers focus on project scheduling and costing to ensure titles are completed on time and on budget.

An internal producer is heavily involved in the development of, usually, a single game. Responsibilities for this position vary from company to company, but in general, the person in this position has the following duties:

• Negotiating contracts, including licensing deals
• Acting as a liaison between the development staff and the upper stakeholders (publisher or executive staff)
• Developing and maintaining schedules and budgets
• Overseeing creative (art and design) and technical development (game programming) of the game
• Ensuring timely delivery of deliverables (such as milestones)
• Scheduling timely quality assurance (testing)
• Arranging for beta testing and focus groups, if applicable
• Arranging for localization

In short, the internal producer is ultimately responsible for timely delivery and final quality of the game.

For small games, the producer may interact directly with the programming and creative staff. For larger games, the producer will seek the assistance of the lead programmer, art lead, game designer and testing lead. While it is customary for the producer to meet with the entire development staff from time to time, for larger games, they will only meet with the leads on a regular basis to keep updated on the development status.

For most games, the producer does not have a large role but does have some influence on the development of the game design. While not a game designer, the producer has to weave the wishes of the publisher or upper management into the design. They usually seek the assistance of the game designer in this effort. So the final game design is a result the effort of the designer and some influence of the producer.

In general, the producer is not the "boss" of the people on the game development team, but the "boss" of the game. So while a programmer may answer to a programming director, where matters of the game are involved, they answer to the producer. Producers may issue reprimands or issue accolades, but usually the fate of the developer's employment is not in the hands of the producer. So while they may suggest termination or promotions of certain employees, the producer normally cannot fire or promote team members single-handedly.

Director: The person usually responsible for creative development of a video game, and is generally regarded as the prime design authority across the company's product range. Some examples are Peter Molyneux or Shigeru Miyamoto whose influence extends across more than one project. Video game directors usually come from either a programming or design background. They are typically people who have worked in the games industry for several years and established a reputation as a designer or before assuming the role. Some creative directors enjoy a measure of celebrity in the gaming press or beyond. Creative directors in games are generally regarded as being executive-level management, but are not to be confused with producers in that they are not generally involved in the particulars of contract negotiation, project management or staffing. In some cases, the role can overlap with the roles producer or lead designer.

Script Writer: For story rich games, a script writer will be hired to establish dialogue in which to lure in and engage players into the game world. A narrative is important to keep the player progressing but is sometimes uneccessary in casual games.

Art Department: Under direction from the art director, the art department team is in charge of the aesthetics of the game. Starting with the concept artists, the process of elimination will determine the good visuals from the poor, and from the good examples more refined assets will be gained.

Consultants may at times offer preferences or advice as to how the finished look of certain assets should be.

Storyboard Artist: After the visuals of the characters has been determined, rough versions will be composited into a storyboard to visualise their actions in relation to the story and script.

Pre-Visualisation Team: For any FMV's in a game or to simply determine how characters react within a controlled environment, the pre-viz team will create a basic 3D animation to flesh out the characters.

http://uk.games.ign.com/articles/696/696273p1.html [accessed 26/02/2011]

The Principles of Animation

1. Squash and Stretch - defining the rigidity and mass of an object by distorting its shape during an action

[Good] The Simpsons: Homer getting hit from a cannonball. Mass dispertion is fairly clear and visible, with no real exaggeration on squashing or stretching.

[Good] A nice example of subtle squashing and stretching with a comparatively different 'lead balloon'.


2. Timing and Motion  - spacing actions to define the weight and size of objects and the personality of characters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnHx6YVoqek&feature=related
[Good] Alan Wake: (At 1.40) Good weight dispersion as he leans over the body, and then again as he cowers away. Fear in his face adds a relatable emotion for the viewers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL8boTD4ais

[Poor] Deadly Premonition: Two stiff looking children head towards a leaf to claim a ladybird, but their eyes aren't even aligned with the target, and their limbs move with an unsettling rigidity. Truly sub-standard animation work.

3. Anticipation  - the preparation for an action
                                                 

[Good] Vanquish: Sam Gideon readying a shot from his weapon. From his dynamic pose you can see his pre-charge stance.

4. Staging - presenting an idea so that it is unmistakably clear

 

[Good] Neon Genesis Evangelion: You can clearly see a grand vista in the distance, accompanied by a couple of huge combatants. The Japanese setting does well to create a stadium for this supernatural battle.

[Poor] Dexter's Lab: This particular scene is quite bemusing and doesn't really seem to make sense. I chose it purely for its impossibility, in turn, creating a poor state of understanding for the viewer.

5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action - the termination of an action and establishing its relationship to the next action

[Good] Call of Duty 4: This reload frame clearly shows a pause in the action. Just like cause and effect, the player will be able to perform more actions after this process has finished.

6. Straight Ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose Action - The two contrasting approaches to the
creation of movement
[N/A]

7. Slow In and Out - the spacing of the in-between frames to achieve subtlety of timing and movement

[Good] This sneaking animation example from YouTube is a nice example of using the subtleties of timing to portray methodical movement.


8. Arcs - the visual path of action for natural movement

[Good] Halo Legends: Master Chief's right arm can be seen swinging behind him, portraying the natural momentum and fluidity of the limb. Just like the weight in a grandfather clock, the swing is a visual indicator as to what would happen in the concluding motion.

[Good] This animation shows a simple arc via a throwing motion.

9. Exaggeration - Accentuating the essence of an idea via the design and the action

 

[Good] Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Visualling appealing regardless of physical structure possibilities.

10. Secondary Action - the action of an object resulting from another action 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC-hLw9dT0E

[Good] Doctor Aki Ross/Final Fantasy Spirits Within: Each strand of her hair was individually rendered and positioned. Over 60,000 hairs move and sway as her head turns. Example at 50 seconds into video.

11. Appeal  - creating a design or an action that the audience enjoys watching

[Good] Pikachu: Cute and cuddly characters like this are immediately likeable. Child-like expressions and bright colours play a big part in appeal.

[Poor] Beavis and Butthead: Despite being a hit animated comedy series, these characters are not visually appealing. Distorted and disproportional features and unsavoury in character, this duo doesn't bode well with many parents.

12. Personality - in character animation is the goal of all of the above
12. Solid Drawing - The principle of solid drawing means taking into account forms in three-dimensional space, giving them volume and weight.

[Good] Gears of War's Marcus Fenix: The artist has defined a stocky, weighty and stern looking physique. Front and back views correlate well with each other, reinforcing his believability and presence. Cloth folds around the upper legs determine rigidity and gravity.

[Poor] Tin-Tin: Only black ovals represent his perplexed facial expression. Although a fairly dynamic pose, mass isn't really present. His anatomy is also slightly off-balanced, having a very thin lower leg contrasted with arms of twice the size. Material seems quite static and doesn't hug to his body.