Monday, April 27, 2009

Game Intro's and Cut Scenes

OK, so most of you who read this sad excuse for a blog know that the direction I am going with my education is to ultimately end up working on animatics for video games. That means working on the intro's before the game starts, the cut scenes in a game, and the final video's that close the story, or anything in between.

So I figured that I'd go ahead and share a couple of those that I find entertaining for one reason or another. Whether it's the art, the art direction, the story or the animation, there's something in these videos that I find worth looking at over and over again.

The first one here is for a game called Dawn of War II. It's a Real Time Strategy game made by Relic. I played in the beta and it was good fun, but right now I don't have the time to invest into getting sucked into the entire thing...and you can ask my wife how obsessive I can get with a game that's good, so best bets right now are to just plain ovoid testing the waters. I like this video for a few reasons. First is the mythos it occupies. That of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. It's one of those that I've enjoyed for a major portion of my life having played the game since I was 13. You can google or wiki it if you want more info, but the universe is soooo damn solid and diverse. Second, I think the art work is stunning, and they do a great job at portraying the visual feel of the universe. I find some of the animation a bit lacking, but there are some very choice bits, like the Warp Spider and the Dreadnaught. So take a look and post some thoughts.



This next one comes to you from my favorite playformer/action/adventure game, and quite possibly my favorite console game franchise (nothing will ever touch Diablo from Blizzard for top game...EVAR). This is one of the videos from the third game in the God of War series, and will be the reason I go out and buy a PS3. I'm not sure but this video could be an ingame render as some of the models look like game mapped models, but Kratos looks absolutely brilliant and just plain marvelous up close. But it is a PS3 and that thing crunches numbers better than H&R Block. The things I dig about this are numerous. The video carries through it a lot of Kratos's signature moves from the game (yes this is all stuff you can do in game if you haven't played...it's AH MAY ZING) but you also see a ton of great animation, really swift and well placed camera action/movements as well as top notch visuals...especially if it is in game rendered.



Enjoy and shoot me some thoughts!!!

And as always...

Lead an animated Life!!!

Oz

1 comment:

Asif said...

Hey Derek, Those trailer were awesome, So great to see that you have worked on those games. I wish i can make it in the QnA with you at least one week, Its too early morning for me actually :P Hey i had a question regarding game animation, though you work on the cinematic's i'm sure you have the answer :) What fps is used in Games, I mean if i want to animate a loop for a game what fps should i work with ?