Animating The Wrong Way.

It probably seems that I have a very rigid disposition when it comes to exactly how someone should animate. It might sound as if I think the way I animate is the way everyone should work or that it is the Right way to work. In actuality there is only one Wrong way to animate. There are so many different types of motion a game animator has to deal with that one workflow can't handle every situation. A good animator is adaptable, malleable and creates movement in smart ways. Smart work is what I will forever push for, sometimes at the cost of quality. In many ways game animators have to forget that they are making single, unique, special animations for themselves and are instead making a product for someone else. They're shaping an experience.

I started this blog mainly to document the way I put keys down and why, maybe just to remind myself how I should work, to keep from getting lazy, but also perhaps because I have been seeing so many demos that, quite frankly, do not cut it. Reels with too much overlap, excessive squash and stretch, unrealistic motion, stiff movement, poor action, soft hits, and bland expression are fairly commonplace among new animators. It occurred to me that a lot of folks are being taught poor habits, poor techniques, and even worse, poor direction. Upon writing all of this it also struck me that I don't actually have a demo reel. I have never had a demo reel. Hell, I don't even have 3d software at home.

I don't remember exactly who it was (probably this guy) that told me as an animator my job was "sculpting time" but initially I took that very literally. It meant I was moving characters around in a 3d program, creating motion within a framework, applying that motion to a certain amount of time, and making shit move. I think that same phrase still applies to how I go about the job now, but not necessarily in the same sense. Instead it means that the viewer, the player, is getting an experience I am helping create. Up against Milt Kahl talking about, "Where you were, where you are, and where you are going," the idea of Sculpting Time might be the second best thing I ever learned on this job.

In the past ten years I have recognized moments where I've gotten a little lazy. I want to work on big, fantastic, player driven experiences so much that sometimes the small stuff that needs to be done feels like a bore. Some tasks are so tedious that I simply do not want to throw any love their way. This could be anything from a blend set to a walk cycle but the majority of the time that I do my worst work is when I disagree with design. It's frustrating because I am the one who has to make an idea I don't like move but I also recognize that that is what comes with the job. Sometimes I'm wrong and sometimes I am proven right. It works both ways. Often the best solutions come from collaboration. In any case, everything the player experiences is actually important.

I have often dreaded the impending demise of the sense of adventure I felt as a kid playing games. I always felt an affinity towards the avatars in games as something of an escape but also as an experience. I got to Be someone else. I got to do things I couldn't do; Incredible, unbelievable things. The trepidation I have towards playing games these days has a lot to do with the rise of First Person games but also with the lack of appealing stories and characters, and subsequently, personalities. This might be due to the amount of pseudo "realism" injected into 3d games and the fact that I can no longer take away my own interpretation of their characters. Maybe they're just not good characters to begin with. Maybe I'm just a dinosaur who doesn't understand the market.

All I have ever wanted to make in this business is a recreation of the sense of adventure I got as a kid, whether watching The Goonies or playing The Legend of Zelda. As an animator the best I can do to achieve that goal is to give the viewer, the player, an experience.

Getting back to the Right and Wrong way to animate I see that not liking the idea you are working on should not be a deterrent to creating quality animation. Not giving enough care to what you are making is, in fact, the only Wrong way to animate.