In other news, this recruitment ad appeared in the March 2013 issue of Game Developer magazine and will probably be popping up again for the foreseeable future. The shoot was a lot of fun, with me strapped to a reclining “stunt chair” and all manner of supports holding up my legs, clothes and a giant fan blowing my hair. Please overlook the homoerotic undertones – we spent so many years working together that a special bond was formed.

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As such, my interest has been piqued for some time now by the affordability and accessibility of virtual reality’s second coming in the form of the increasingly popular Oculus 3D headset. I lapped up the VR-related talks at this year’s GDC, convinced the immediate benefits would outweigh criticisms from developers at Valve and the Oculus guys themselves – appreciating the latter’s “mea culpa” approach and the former’s assertion that while far from finished, this is the first step on the long road of virtual reality becoming a viable gaming reality by comparing the current situation to that of the early days of PC 3D accelerator cards.

With that in mind, I’m approaching VR not just as a gamer and potential customer, but also as a game animator. Will all games in the future go first-person? Animators would then be tasked only with NPC and multiplayer-character movement, or will there still be a place for 3rd-person games, albeit from the perspective of a fully-immersed benevolent overseer?

Now that I’ve had more than one session with the headsets on a variety of game demos, the long-and-short of it is that we’ll still be animating player characters for the foreseeable future. I believe the current incarnation will be championed only by the hardcore early-adopter, but it’s worth noting what immediately does and does not work irrespective of the inital hardware entry. Oculus themselves drew our attention to many game design staples that, if we go down this route, require serious re-evaluation to work from this new immersive perspective, and I would tend to agree:

1. No more HUD

2D HUD overlays no longer work as viable methods to convey information to the player. Not only do they not fit in the world, (I experienced leaderboards at incorrect depth/distances), but the very act of looking at the edges of the screen is instantly undesirable. While Oculus pointed to Deadspace as a shining example of rendering health-bars etc onto the player character, I would expect fully-immersive, (especially non sci-fi), games to place the onus on animators to provide different sets of animation to show damage, fatigue etc. This is something we’ve explored in the past, often by no more than a tired idle or limping walk-cycle, but may well become a common requirement with much effort spent on it.

2. Cameras open further

Camera FOVs will become instantly wider to better replicate the human eye’s field of view when constrained by the VR screens. During my experience, the wide-angled Team Fortress 2 camera won out over the narrower Mirror’s Edge and highly constrictive Dear Esther. This will likely be less of an issue as the visor screens themselves better reproduce a wider field of vision as hardware improves, but for now the displays require an unnatural distortion of perspective to make up for this shortcoming, further warping our characters on close inspection. I should also note that the resolution is surprisingly low in the dev-kit version, (though it’s expected to almost double for the full release), giving the impression of having my eyes squashed up close to an old scan-line arcade cabinet, with distant objects in Dear Esther becoming all but indecipherable. It remains to be seen just how off-putting this is for most players.

3. No more cutscenes

Perhaps the one that will have the biggest impact on our discipline – cutscenes are no longer a viable storytelling method. Oculus mentioned this during their talks, and it will likely have wide-ranging effects on the videogame medium if we see an eventual wide-scale adoption of virtual reality. Again, with immersion being not just desirable but a pre-requisite, Oculus warned us that it is now jarring to have the camera control and perspective ripped away from us, but nothing could prepare me for just how bad this was. When playing Mirror’s Edge, the early tutorial levels required that I briefly watch another runner perform an action before I followed suit. While this was no more a cutscene than simply locking the rotation on the target character, it caused me to lose balance several times, and with each scene I became increasingly nauseous to the point of cancelling the first demo session to seek fresh air outside.

A second session was less dramatic, and admittedly, reactions are different for each person. Perhaps it’s something players will simply get used to, but the optimistic part of me is inclined to hope that these ill-effects will be avoided entirely as we learn what works best in terms of cameras and behaviour just as we did in the move from 2D to 3D. If the wrenching of control form the player that we previously experienced in cutscenes is now magnified to the degrees I experienced, then I can see a greater push for more immersive and dynamic storytelling that keeps players in the game – something I am all for.

4. Games will become slower-paced and more detailed

While it may be purely subjective, others agreed that shooting a tiny enemy at a fast pace held far less interest than closely examining the interesting objects and locations of Dear Esther, or just enjoying the vast blocky vistas of Minecraft. I nearly fell backwards at one point marveling at the ceiling rafters in TF2 – preferring instead to explore rather than compete. Importantly, there was an amazing thrill in standing right next to a life-size Medic – I can’t wait to interact with, (and animate), highly-realised characters like this on a deeper level!

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Like all new hardware, Oculus Rift will come of age when a game is designed specifically to be used in VR that not only takes full advantage of the system, (and in this case also avoids all the pitfalls), but simply could not have existed before without the full immersion making sense from a narrative and design perspective.

Take a look at the video above incorporating the Razer Hydra as an input method – I for one could spend hours in a Skyrim-esque RPG with that level of interaction. Now fill it with rich character interaction and a more cerebral adventure, and I’m not only sold on the hardware, but have a new creative challenge animation-wise laid out for years to come.

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Above, Micro Men is the BBC’s hilariously authentic 80′s-style dramatisation starring The Hobbit and chronicling the rise and fall of Sinclair’s all-too-brief era, though sadly overlooking my own version, 1984′s superior ZX Spectrum+ 48k, (yes, that was the memory limit at that time). Recommended viewing if you’ve got an hour and a half to spare and are interested in the UK gaming scene’s humble origins.

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This is a post I’ve been waiting years to write as whenever I’m knee-deep in demo reels I’m invariably too busy hiring, but all that changes this week. After sifting through hundreds of examples while creating this Vimeo group of Game Anim Demo Reels, here are my thoughts on creating the perfect demo reel with the specific intent of landing a videogame animation job. Greater length, quality and variety is expected from someone with industry experience behind them, whereas a student need mostly show potential, passion and imagination that can be nurtured. Admittedly, these are only my opinions so I’d be interested to hear what other developers think, and please also add your reel or others you know of to the group – it’s open to everyone.

Ten steps to a great game animation demo reel:

1. Show really strong work

   It may sound obvious, but this is so important above everything else that it’s worth putting as number one. This brief list won’t tell you how to do that as it takes years and years of hard work and practice, but it will help you sell what you have in the best possible light to stand out from the increasingly talented crowd while avoiding many of the pitfalls that can detract from otherwise good animation. Making a strong demo reel is the single most important way to get my attention and make me want to work with you, so take your time and approach it with the same level of creativity and polish that you would any other project with your name on it.
   

2. Best foot forward

   It’s quite commonly known already, but always start your reel with your best work and generally go backwards from there. Importantly however, that doesn’t mean that you should show weak work at the end. If it doesn’t help to have it, then don’t include it. This rule is important not only to instantly grab my attention, but because it tells me what YOU think is your best work. Often in an interview I want to know what you are most proud of and where you feel you need to improve to establish how clued-in you are to reality.

3. Choose your music well

   I would never pass on a reel because the music was not to my taste, just ensure it is not incongruous with the visuals on show. If it’s action, choose energetic music. If it’s subtle character acting, ease off on the death metal. Editing to this tells me whether your art skills extend to the enhancement of drama and your handle on pacing and rhythm. I recommend repetitive instrumental music that you can better edit to fit your needs, and try to match the pacing in your music to best stick to the recommendations of #2.

4. Show a range

   Include Actions, Cycles, Acting, Camerwork… whatever you can do. This will stand you in the best stead for landing a job over someone who can only do one facet of videogames. When adding dialogue/lipsync, don’t feel the need to include the entire scene – just the best bits. A two-character interaction with a progression in emotion beats a monologue anyday. Bear in mind the flow of your entire reel when inserting dialogue vs action and how it will affect the pacing. (Note: Save model turnarounds for another reel, and keep drawings for your portfolio – I don’t want to see that padding out a demo).

5. Contact info

   I don’t need your address or phone number – just your name, email, and a website if you have one (you should have one). I will then immediately look you up on LinkedIn (you should have a LinkedIn profile) to get a better context on how many years experience etc. Start and end your reel with your details to better stay in my head. DO NOT create a lavishly animated title. If you spent that much time animating your name, it would have been better spent elsewhere.

6. Explain yourself

   Provide a shot breakdown in the video description if your reel contains anything other than 100% your own work. I highly recommend using the timecode to denote which shot you’re referring to as it’s the simplest method I can think of. Don’t leave me guessing when scenes contain multiple elements. Importantly, never, EVER, pass off someone else’s work as your own. The industry is very small and you will be found out as soon as you can’t cut it on the job, (if not before), and that dishonesty will follow you around forever.

7. Make it pretty

   No quick playblasts – take time to render your animations out, and ideally show cutscenes in-engine. I spend enough time looking at a grey 3D package so ensure your reel doesn’t look like one. Radiosity is the simplest and cleanest look. We don’t animate with skeletons only so I don’t want to see only a biped skeleton in a reel, regardless of how much character you’e infused it with. (Note: If the animation is AMAZING this is irrelevant, as are most things on this list. but it tells me how much you care about presentation).

8. Minimise details

   I’ll assume you didn’t model/rig things so there’s no need to credit your colleagues/classmates. If you did, and your animation is anything less than stellar, then my first thought is that you should have spent more time animating. No need to specify what is and isn’t mocap unless you really think I’ll be confused by how incredibly realistic your keyframe animation is. Try to keep all unnecessary info for the accompanying video description and breakdown.

9. Keep it punchy

   A 1-minute reel of pure awesome beats a 3 minute reel of lackluster. Try to keep overall length to between 1 minute (fine for a student – not for a professional – any less and I’ll think you don’t work hard) and 3 minutes in length (any more and I won’t watch, and you’ll just be padding it out). As with #2, weak work will detract from rather than add to my overall impression of your reel, so be ruthless with what you include.

10. Ask for help

    As with everything in game development, your reel should be a collaborative process. Ask for constructive feedback. Do several revisions. See your reel as a living document that you constantly add to before AND after sending it out into the wild if you don’t instantly land a job. There’s nothing stopping you doing personal projects at home where you can take the time to polish. And most of all, have fun with it – you should enjoy animating after all. Good luck!

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In related news, here is a podcast I recorded with the guys over at online animation school iAnimate that discusses the animation on Assassin’s Creed III and the upcoming GDC talk. Their school has come up on my radar in the past not only because they have dedicated courses for teaching game animation, but also have many instructors from the game industry; not to mention an impressive set of game-like rigs to work with. Check out their latest game reel below.

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I would challenge the assertion that in-game camera “shots” are anything more than teams playing to their or their particular game design’s strengths, but otherwise this is a refreshingly unbiased observation of the now bi-directional influence between both mediums.

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Competition was strong this year so I’m extremely happy that the Academy appreciated all the hard work and improvements made over the previous games in the series. I’m also incredibly proud of all the team-members that poured so much effort into a sequel – the collective drive to raise the bar at Ubisoft is something quite incredible to be a part of!

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Marc is the Technical Director in charge of R&D at our Montreal mocap studio, (we have one in Toronto also), so oversees the motion-capture technology-sharing on all Montreal projects. For more info on FC3′s character pipeline you can see an additional talk by Character Technical Director Kieran O’Sullivan here.

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