Can you introduce yourself, what's your job title and how long have you worked for Trion Worlds?

Sure! I'm Ted Sanger and I'm a Senior Animator at Trion Worlds. I've been here for 7 years. I'm grateful you're interested in hearing more about me and animation on Trove!

What responsibilities do you have in Trove?

I oversee all the animated things - the pipeline that comes after something is modeled and before it is added to the game. I do most of the rigging, and for a long time I was the only animator on Trove. Now we also have Twixler to help out! I work closely with Avarem, Decoy, Grump, and Atronos to make sure all things animate as close to their intended design as possible. I've also built some lairs and dungeons, but that was technically in my free time. Oh yeah, I usually drive the live-stream character and throw piñatas while other people talk about new things going into Trove.

What do you do during a typical work day?

On any given day, I'll spend about 3/4 of my time on a long, multi-day task, like a new player character, npc, or mount. And the remaining time is spent updating/fixing/polishing things that are already in the game. We're a small, agile team so lots of little tasks can pop up, which keeps things interesting.

Where does the name Dopesheet come from?

In the animation world, a dope sheet, or exposure sheet, has been around for a long time. Back in the day, it was a breakdown of elements in a shot to help animators and camera operators keep many changing cell and background layers organized, supposedly so any 'dope' can read and understand. Now-a-days, it is a chart of all the keyframes in a scene, making it easier to edit them all in one place.

Where did the cyborg reference originate?

Error. Does not compute... I mean, I'm not sure. I think people on the live-stream chat were saying I must be a cyborg because I always drive the player character and wear the same Trove shirt every Friday. If I had more of those shirts, I'd wear one every day.

How did you arrive at your current career path?

I grew up loving animation and visual effects in film; 'animator' was the first career I remember wanting to pursue after childhood dreams of being an astronaut, old-timey railroad engineer, or ice cream taster faded away (though I still do practice the latter in a strictly non-professional capacity). I played quite a few games growing up and eventually realized that I would have more fun making games than I would working on movies. I went to school to learn animation with as much focus on games as I could find at the time, and got my first job out of college with the help of a former classmate.

I'd advise anyone looking to get into animation to pick a few personal projects and just start working on them. Traditional or computer, it doesn't matter. Keep at it and challenge yourself, you'll learn a lot in the process even if it doesn't turn out as expected.

Have you worked on any other games?

Yep! I joined Trion 'in '07 to animate on Rift. Before that, I was at EA, animating on The Simpsons Game and a couple ofJames Bond games. My first job out of college was animating Baby Bop for a Barney the Dinosaur game. I believe working on a Barney game gives me what the kids today are calling 'street cred'. I also did some freelance motion graphics and video post-production for a few years in there.

What do you like to do with your free time?

Besides leveling all my Trove characters and chasing Mastery, I'm usually playing at least one other game on the side - Bloodborne and GTAVPC lately. My girlfriend and I like to go out on the weekends and lately we've been into live comedy and theater events. I like to travel too, though the last time I was outside the country was for work (Gamescom in Germany). Watching movies and TV with friends happens quite a bit as well.

What are the major steps and duration of a typical task you work on?

Duration depends heavily on the task. Some things like animated props take a day or so to rig and animate, while new characters can take up to a month to go through the pipeline. Typically, I'll take something Grumpntug or Atronos has created and export the geometry into Maya. I'll then create a skeleton and add locators where the geo will be attached in-game, rig up the skeleton with animation controllers, and export the whole thing into files that the engine can use. Next, Twixler or I will create a set of animations; usually some looping 'idle' animations are required, and then movement and ability animations depending on the task. Finally, I gather all the animations in our character controller software to hook up all the transitions, and finally hook all the files into the game for testing and tuning.

From your contributions to Trove, what are you most proud of?

This is always the hardest Trove question. Is it corny to say that I'm most proud of something different every few weeks? I really like how the player animations are turning out. Each one has a unique feel and way of moving. I also like that we can take advantage of non-uniform scaling in Trove (bouncy squash & stretch animations), since most games throw away scale on every skeleton joint for efficiency reasons. I guess if I had to pick one thing that I'm most proud of right now, it'd be the Dracolyte Ultimate riding a small bouncy ball mount.

What's on your desk?

A hellbug plushie eating a Qubesly, some chocolate Dogecoins, a desk phone I only ever use to play its saxophone ringtone to amuse/annoy my co-workers, and an empty bottle of particularly good apple juice.

What's the most challenging part of animating for Trove?

The 'blockyness' of everything can be quite challenging. Most games use soft skinning for characters so limbs bend and twist in on themselves, but in Trove characters have only rigid block clusters which aren't allowed to change shape internally (other than squash and stretch). Many times I'm given a thing with very few moving parts and will need to create animations that can hit many different poses and express itself with some character.

What's the most challenging type of content to animate for Trove?

The player characters are usually the most challenging thing we run into. Aside from just the huge number of animations player characters have compared to regular NPCs, all those animations need to work well with each other and flow nicely depending on what the player is trying to make that character do from moment to moment.

From an animation perspective, do you have any tips for modders?

Yes! Always be wary of how the new parts you're modding will be animated by the 'skeleton'. Make sure modded parts aren't intersecting other geometry. For example, if you're changing a mount's geometry, you'll need to make sure that every player character sitting on that mount won't have any geometry poking through, or too far inside, any other geometry.

Are there any animations that you think need more work in Trove?

Of course! We've been talking about swinging back around to the Knight's abilities eventually, and I'd like to polish some of the earlier creatures as well. We're always looking for areas that need polish, and I read our forums quite a bit to see what players are liking and not liking in animationland.

Do you have any amusing tales of animation going terribly wrong?

Too many to remember. Usually it involves certain parts of a creature being bound to the wrong nodes on the skeleton. I've inadvertently glitched things that would make Frankenstein's monster cry. But more often than not, 'animation going terriblywrong' is when I’ve animated something I'm happy with and proud of, and someone walking by will point out that 'it looks like he's humping himself.'

If you were stranded on deserted island, what Trove team member would you want with you and why?

At the risk of alienating all my other wonderful Trove teammates, I'd have to go with Atronos, because that guy could craft a rad island shelter with just a mining laser and some cornerstone blocks, and his cast-away beard would be something to behold.