Finding the EPIC in Everything

Setting out to make a game like XCOM: Enemy Unknown is, by definition, an EPIC experience!  This has certainly proven true for those of us on the art production and animation side.

I am of the opinion that if you set out to do something then you should really DO IT! No matter what that something is. This is just a taste of the fun that can happen when you try to take something just a little further than expected.

Every Good Containment Cinematic has a good Animation Test

Some of the fun animators get to have involves figuring out interesting movements that accurately reflect a character and their personality.  A lot of fun exploration, and reference collecting is part of trying to figure this out.  The beauty of the playblast is that it's a great opportunity to test cinematography, animation ideas, and see if everything plays in the environment the way you want.  The end result hopefully being something rewarding and entertaining for the player to watch.

Here is a playblast of an animation I did for the Muton's Containment cinematic.  I was trying to make him feel aggressive, and show how eager he is to escape and destroy something.

Playblast for Muton:




Playblast for Sectoid:



Playblast for Elder:

--Coming Soon--

Which Came First? The Chryssalid or it's Eggs?

An often debated question to be sure.  I pose that it doesn't freakin matter because these things are TERRIFYING!!!
And you thought that your squad mates stomach cramps were just pre-mission jitters.
I made a good many of the Chryssalid animations for XCOM: EU and my favorite has to be this little number shown below.  It pretty much sums up XCOM for me.  You start your mission in a good place, best intentions in mind, and then BOOM!  Chryssalids swarm in around you, and all your buddies turn into an exploding sack of flesh.
Just run back to your Drop Ship, crawl into a nice drafty corner of your Barracks, and pretend everything is going to be OK.
...Until the next mission.  :)

Watch test animation:

MOCAP Madness

I personally love to do physical performance.  It doesn't matter whether it's stress relief, self expression, exercise, filming reference, or just plain old having fun in public.  It's also a very important aspect of animation since so much gets communicated through our body movements.  One of the many things I learned on this project was Motion Capture works.  Not surprisingly, I loved suiting up and playing a character that would be in our game.
Granted most of the animation work in our game was keyed by hand, but schedule limitations and deadlines did make it necessary towards the end.  If you are going to use MOCAP then have either animators with good physical performance chops, or professional actors supply the performance being capture.  That will give the best results.  You definitely need to understand what you are performing for, and how best to approach the movements.
I put together a fun little montage of some funny moments of Firaxis Games' first shoot in Novato, CA.  2011 was a fun year, and we got to dabble in many new ways of doing things involved in both animation and game development in general.  Much of what we did was more focused and serious, but it's always great to look back at fun moments.

Watch:

A Nictitating WHAT???

Time for a brief lesson in Sectoid eye physiology.  These creepy, grey skinned horrors look upon the world through huge alien eyes that neither move or have pupils.  Giant, shiny orbs possessing a translucent third eyelid.  Who knows what goes on in their minds?  When they point their heads in your direction, rest assured, they DO see you. 

Here is a blink animation I made while trying to figure out how this third eyelid would work:

I Could Hardly Contain Myself

Alien Containment was one of my babies in this game.  At least as far as the Muton, Sectoid, and Ethereal are concerned.  This was a rare opportunity to do some hand-keyed creature animation that could be presented with a cinematic flare.  What fun!  The turn around on these animations was insanely fast, but I can say with a smile that the monstrous effort was worth it.  The ideas for what each character would be doing had to be simple given the time frame, but also be rewarding to watch.  I didn't want to phone these in, and was imagining some XCOM fan at the tail end of a grueling mission wanting to interrogate this live alien they just acquired.  The moment needed to be satisfying and special.

Here are some play blasts of my animation ideas:




Here are the final containment animations I did in context:



After animation was done a lot of love was added via the Base modeling team, and our Cinematics Lead.  Just the right level of sweetness in my opinion.

It's always important, especially when you have no time, to focus on the important storytelling moments you want to hit and focus on those.  You can be the judge of whether I did a good job or not, but the intention was to get across the caged animal aspect of alien containment, show the characters personalities, and show in a non-gratuitous way the finality of the aliens situation.  This is their last stop before the autopsy table after all.

Ready...Aim...FIRE!!!

One enjoyable aspect of my production life on XCOM: Enemy Unknown was the teams need for cinematic ideas.  This ranged from large Tentpole cinematics to simpler moments when you're in the XCOM Base and something interesting happens.  Pitching ideas is always fun for the team, and every once and a while I had the time to pre-vis a rough story board for one of these.

Here is an example from when a player first gets his/her Laser and Plasma weapons:

A very simple illustration of new tech the player just acquired, and an attempt at making that moment feel rewarding.  Some of these ideas stuck and ended up in the final game.  The camera placement, and decisions on what each character is doing during the shots is obviously fleshed out later.

I'm a huge fan of taking the time to explore ideas cheaply before any real time is committed to modeling, animating, etc.  You don't get much cheaper than storyboards considering how quick and easy it is to iterate on any given idea.