I started off with a simple character rig with standard two arms, two legs and a head.
The character already had all the plotting points I would need to manipulate the body into the shapes and poses I wanted.
Before starting I had a quick play around with the tools just to get a basic feel for the controls and have a bit of fun without stressing myself out. Some of the out comes to make me laugh.
Once I had finished having a muck around I did some research online and got some walking references from YouTube. I thought this would save me a lot of time and hassle creating something from life rather then straight out of my head. So I watched this video byendlessreference.
I then set the key frames of which I wanted the legs to follow. We were set the task of making the character walk on the spot which I found harder to do then making the character progress forward.
I had to do some crazy MJ moon walking manoeuvres to keep the figure looking correct.
After syncing up and coordinating the legs to walk in time I moved onto the motion of the body focusing on the hips and shoulders first. I had to make all parts alternate and fit together to create a convincing muscle structure motion.
I started from scratch and decided I wanted the ball to be more solid this time and not have so much of a impact. So what I did was I created less of a stretch in the balls shape when it hits the ground and gave it more drops and bring it to a slow halt.
I first imported a template file of a ball rig I was given from uni, then imported it into Maya. Then I moved the ball up and down the Y-axis to simulate the ball bouncing. Once I made the ball bounce in a way I was happy with I then squished and stretched the ball to imitate the weight and force of the wind effecting the shape.
After I had finished moving the ball manually I opened up the graph menu and altered the levels to fit a more natural bounce.
This was my outcome. I am not entirely happy with the end product but for a first attempt I'm pretty proud.
Next time I will try and reduce the impact and try not to make such a big "splat" impact. I think I'll try and make a more solid and marble like ball to create a sense of weight.
The Creative Director is the key person during the game development process, overseeing any high level decisions that affect how the game plays, looks or sounds.
Creative Directors are employed by development studios, both publisher-owned and independent, but not all game companies employ Creative Directors. However, some companies prefer to continue to split the duties between a game's lead artists, programmers, designers and producers.
Where the position is used, each game development team has its own Creative Director, although some particularly experienced and talented practitioners oversee multiple projects.
As a highly paid and senior role, it involves a lot of responsibility, as well as the requirement to work long hours and deal with high levels of stress, particularly during the final stages of production.
What is the job?
The Creative Director is responsible for the overall look and feel of a computer game. The position is a relatively new one within the games industry and has evolved out of the producer's role as this has shifted towards managing the process of completing a game on time and on budget.
In contrast, the Creative Director's focus is ensuring the quality and style of the game play artwork, music and audio assets that make up the final product. In many cases, the Creative Director is also the creator of the original game concept and characters, and so acts as the visionary who makes sure the finished game fulfills the initial goals.
At the start of a project, the Creative Director works with a small core team defining the framework of the game, with special attention placed on the artistic styling and any technical obstacles that will need to be overcome. As the game's development continues and more staff are added, the Creative Director works closely with the lead programmers, artists and designers to ensure all the code and art assets produced, as well as playable versions of the game, meet the initial vision and are of a sufficiently high quality.
The Creative Director deals with issues arising such as new features and any major redesigning of characters and scenarios. Outside of the development team, the Creative Director acts as the game's advocate and champion, promoting it to executives who are not directly involved in production, such as the sales and marketing departments.
Other tasks include handling media outlets such as games magazines, television and websites.
Typical career routes
There is no set route to becoming a Creative Director, but it is not an entry-level role. Creative Directors usually have over five years experience in a senior game development position, and have shipped commercially successful titles.
Many Creative Directors have previously worked as a lead artist or lead designer, while others come from a production background. They will have demonstrated exceptional abilities in terms of understanding how the different components of a game combine together to create the finished product.
Another entry route for Creative Directors is from a similar position in the film or special effects industries
The role of the creative director has predominantly stayed the same through out the years but with technological advances staying in communication with teams and clients has become a lot easier with work being able to be transferred and displayed digitally via such methods as Skype, Email, USB drives, power point presentations and having group data stored on the same network.
Ken Levine Creative Director for Bioshock Series
Todd Howard Creative Director for Fallout 3
Glen Schofield Creative Director for Dead Space Series
Yoji Shinkawa Creative Director of Metal Gear Solid
These are just a few names of Creative Directors of games that I personally love and respectively play over and over again and hope to work my way up in the industry to reach this level of work in games.
A bad example of the Squash and Stretch rule in game is the character animation in Minecraft. When jumping the avatar stays completely stationary and does not interact with the environment.
Rule 2: Anticipation
Dead Space has a relativity poor example of Anticipation when switching between the weapons within game. When being attacked by the "Necromophs" you are able to switch weapons without any kind of warm up or delay. Thus removing the feel of weight of the weapon and need to change "Isaac's" stance.
Rule 3: Staging
A bad example of Staging is in DJ Hero, The background is highly distracting with fast movements, flashing images and disorientating angles. Some players may find this distracting and inconvenient but personally I like it and think despite being erratic it adds to the theme of the game.
Rule 4: Straight action and pose to pose N/A Rule 5: Follow through and overlapping action
An example of bad Follow Through/Overlapping Action is this clothing on some characters in Guild Wars 2. In game the bottom half of a females outfit doe not always flow with the body in the correct manner and looks as if it is attached or stuck to her legs instead of flowing behind and following the motion of the movement.
Rule 6: Slow in and slow out
Due to the nature of the game Hotline Miami is a bad example of Slow in and Slow out. The game is a fast pace retro shooter where all you do it hit/shoot enemy's as fast as you can so there is no need to slow down or you will be killed.
Rule 7: Arcs
Due to the style of the game being a retro 64-bit pixel art format the character you play as just dodges obstetrical that are presented before him on one single plane. The character is fixed in one spot with only the ability to jump on one axes, once enough points have been collected he trails a rainbow behind him giving the illustration he is creating an arc shape when actually he is not.
Rule 8: Secondary action N/A
Rule 9: Timing N/A
Rule 10: Exaggeration N/A
Rule 11: Solid drawing N/A
Rule 12: Appeal Characters I personally find unappealing are pretty much any weird fleshy monster from the Silent Hill series. don't get me wrong the designs are incredibly well done to set the mood for the game play but don't count on me sticking around if one of these fuglies come crawling.
I've been set the task of researching the 12 rules of animation for my up coming project of 3D animation. I am to study and learn what each rule entails and find poor examples of each rule within games. This examples can be in cut scenes or the game its self.
Rule 1: Squash and stretch
The Squash and Stretch rule is very important to understand when creating objects that have to convincingly exist in your world. As in real life objects are faced with forces that influence there movement such as gravity, directional force and the mass of the object.
Rule 2: Exaggeration
Exaggeration is a method of emphasising something to increase its significance or draw attention to it. In animation, it is used to emphasise whatever key idea or feeling you wish to portray.
Rule 3: Staging
Staging means setting the scene, attracting the viewer’s attention and focusing it on a particular subject or area of the screen before the action takes place.
Doing this can also set up a mood or feeling that you wish the viewer to understand before any action is actually taken. This could be achieved with colour, lighting, music or sound effects.
Rule 4: Anticipation
Anticipation can also be used to direct the attention to part of the screen, and it is often intermingled with staging.
Some anticipation occurs naturally. For example, in Fable 3 when you preform a power move with a melee weapon the edge of the screen becomes blurry and it over-crank's the game play. By exaggerating this moment, you can let the viewer know what is about to happen.
Rule 5: Motivation
Somewhat linked to staging and anticipation, motivation occurs when one action clearly shows that another action is about to take place.
Rule 6: Secondary Action
Like anticipation, secondary actions can be used to help to strengthen the idea or feeling you are trying to portray.
Rule 7: Overlap
Overlap is where you have one action followed by another action which starts while the first action is taking place.
It’s very important to apply this rule to make your animations flow nicely and have a natural rhythm.
Rule 8: Follow-Through
Follow-through is something that occurs in naturally and is often exaggerated. Think of a the characters in Street Fighter 5 taking a swing at the opponent. The fist doesn’t stop suddenly when it comes into contact with the opponent; it follows through and then gradually comes to a halt.
Rule 9: Balance
Balance is crucial for an animation to be truly convincing. Your characters must be drawn in poses that look real and sustainable. Balance will change according to the weight of an object; heavy objects will generally take longer to pick up speed. They will also take longer to stop moving than light objects because more resistance is needed to slow them down.
Rule 10: Timing
So much of animation is about timing. Messages or feelings that cannot be portrayed by a still picture can be communicated with the addition of timing.
A good example of this is a dramatic pause, this helps emphasise or exaggerate a scene to make it funnier, more poignant or more intense.
Rule 11: Rhythm
A good understanding of rhythm will help you work out the timing of your animations. If music is provided as part of the project, you can use this to define the rhythm of the piece.
Rule 12: Camera Movement
Camera movement can lend filmic conventions to your animation. Interesting camera angles and animated camera movement can help to represent the point of view of a character. It can add dynamism to an otherwise static scene and can give the viewer a sense of being more involved in the piece.
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