Yesterday the alsoran visited the local hospital to try out the motion-capture equipment they have installed to research abnormal walk gaits such as limps etc. It’s no Giant Studios, but after some time to setup the ball positions the results are looking positive so far. His technical animator colleague pushed the equipment much further than [...]

For the last two days the alsoran has been fortunate enough to have been atending lectures and a workshop by Ed Hooks, author of Acting For Animators. Invited into the studio for the second time to give the animators a greater insight into acting as we move into a period where a deeper level of [...]

Another interesting aspect of the SAG greed issue is that besides monetary compensation, SAG members also want greater recognition for their contribution. This is an extension of the misappropriation of credit that somehow still pervades in this industry, as in the film industry, to this day. Publishers, not developers are often wrongly credited for making [...]

One item that’s been getting a lot of press recently is the reluctance of the Screen Actors’ Guild to accept the already-generous pay-rise proposal regarding actors’ hourly voice-over wage. Put simply, for those that have not been following this, Hollywood has seen the large revenues generated by some of the recent blockbuster videogames, and wants [...]

In the past, animations on videogame characters have played sequentially. When one ends, another begins, regardless of whether the action is fire-and-forget or cyclic, as the cycle ends before playing through again. Seen abstractly, 3D animation is just a series of numbers or values applied to virtual bones within the characters we see on-screen, (actually [...]

Developed by the late French developer Delphine Software, this spiritual successor (not a sequel) to their 1991 hit Out of This World (Another World in PAL territories) was initially released on the Commodore Amiga in 1992, and for DOS and the 16-Bit era consoles a year later. You guide amnesiac Conrad B. Hart in his [...]

Traditionally, videogames have three character archetypes around which all modern character selections are based. Slow but strong, fast but weak, and an average of the two. These basics can be deepened by additional attributes, but this basic model of advantages/disadvantages holds true to this day. It should be the animator’s task to bear these characteristics [...]