Hello again, Chris here.

So last week we talked about character creation, inspirations and readability. This week I’d like to go a little deeper into the technical side of character performance and what we’re aiming for.



In the early days I went for the traditional heavy asset approach. It gave me specific results quickly but it didn’t allow for flexibility down the line. Years of research later, GDC talks like Alexander Bereznyak’s “Procedural Pose Animation” and Blizzard’s Jesse Davis’ “The Animation Pipeline of Overwatch“, to name a couple, really enlightened me.

Last Guardian was a strong source of inspiration. A heady mix of what looked like physics joints, IK constraints and gorgeous keyframe anim. I became obsessed with the prospect of not just having smooth and responsive physicality but of ever changing emotional states layered on top.

Above is a rough test of the sum total of about 2 core animations worth of work, with a few pose tweak frames. The task - complete control of the flashlight whilst scaring John and no animation state changes.

The first aspect is switching our attention from environmental focus to player intent focus, in this case pointing the torch with my right stick. This is a simple IK weighting transfer of look direction and arm aim. All the head and partial chest movement is IK driven and separated (inspired by James Benson’s GDC Animation Bootcamp Tips)

Layered on top of that is our emotional states. These are just synced layers we surge with suitable curves for the performance, coupled with more rapid IK head movement and a wider range of randomised look positions. I also added an IK right hand grab of the torch once we reached peak frightened.

The end result requires polish but it’s reactive and varied every time, something that fills my mind with exciting potential. What if we could play a character who wears the emotional baggage you have accumulated playing as them?

Looking back on old animation cycles I now find myself in a frenzy over how much we could add with elegant technical solutions to convey internal emotion, history and subtext.

Good day.