Well, there's a lot more animation done on 1's than you might think then ;) I often work on sequences that require extended sections done on 1's to ensure proper arcs, FK/IK/constraint switching, and spacing. Mocap is always entirely on 1's, given that it's motion baked down onto all joints. And as for The Thief and…

Trust me, any animator that knows what they're doing doesn't rely on interpolation at all. When I first began learning computer animation in particular, I was told "computers suck ass at animating." By the time any skilled animator is done with a motion or a shot, it'll often be keyed entirely on 2's or 1's.

It's simultaneously an extremely fun and exhausting field to work in. I haven't suited up yet, but it's definitely on my to-do list very soon. I'd love to do some stunt work and then work on my own mocap.

As an animator, I'd say it's less like being a god (since rigs often do so much you don't want them to) and more like being a kid with the ultimate action figure ;)

Given all of the talk about shifting markets, platforms, and types of games, I think it's more that they needed to hire people that specialize in the direction they wanted to go. Thus, they had to let go people that were a part of their previous direction since they would now essentially be redundant.

I agree completely. It seems like I should be really excited about this game, but the more I see of it, the less stoked I am for it. I'll pick it up because I'm sure it'll be fun and at least visually interesting given the guy behind HL2's visuals was a lead on it. It just seems to lose a little bit of it's magic…

Yeah, it had some fun elements, but generally felt like really old school game design. It seemed more like a shooter from '98 or something.

Really? A solid 2 months of enjoyment sounds like a pretty good investment to me. I think this is an increasingly common sentiment though. Are you an MMO guy at all? It sounds like a sort of MMO-syndrome I guess. Naturally, I'd love for a game like this to be successful and stay popular for awhile, but that seems like…

I'm not sure that's fair though. That's like me saying I want some new film in theaters on VHS and because they don't offer it as such, I'm going to bring a camera into the theater and film it. I realize that digital is the future and all of that, but it doesn't justify taking it because they don't offer it in the…

Blizzard's cinematic team is fantastic, but I think Blur, Digic etc. are more impressive. Not only do they create work that is as good, often better, but they do it on a reasonable schedule. Those great Blizzard cinematics are just a tiny bit less impressive given how long they get to make them.

I believe the Fall of Cybertron trailers were done by Digital Domain. The War for Cybertron trailers were done by Blur.

I would say Blur's biggest competition, in high-res game trailers like this, is actually Digic. They did the Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed trailers. If we're going with the animated film studio analogy, I'd say these guys are more like Blue Sky :)

It isn't black and white, but any time you have a super high quality, pre-rendered, extreme fidelity trailer like that, then yes it's done by a cg house somewhere like Blur, Digic, and Plastic Wax here. If the trailers and/or cinematics look closer to the actual gameplay, then it's done by the developers.

That's not exactly a contradiction. There's a difference between the way something is received and the way something sells. His point was that their stories and endless sequels/reboots get a free pass from criticism while after a couple of sequels, studios elsewhere get called out for being uncreative. Sales are what…

Texture resolution is a part of graphical fidelity ;)

Actually, I believe Kate made no mistake - that's what she intended to say. Google the phrase "I am become Death"

Hey man, chill out. You seem to be on edge. I was indeed trying to be helpful. I was just trying to be informative so that next time there's a discussion about visuals, you may not have to get so much flak and confusion from people who misunderstood your intention. But anyways, like I said, I think we should just…

Oh I definitely agree it has some cool elements to what story there is. And each character does have their own distinct personality, which is conveyed well. I think the particular story moments (like Dom's family crisis in 2, and even that certain moment in 3) didn't resonate that well simply because they didn't focus…

While I agree that the inconsistent spacing definitely didn't help, I actually wasn't a fan of a lot of the poses either. At times, it looked like the mother was either entirely off balance or was about to lay an egg. Just saying it stood out as not great to me, but I know I'm being too critical. Not only are they…

I actually wasn't disagreeing with any of your points. I agree that it was meant to look like stop motion but didn't pull it off. I agree that some moving holds would've been great because when CG characters stop moving completely, they die. That's the unfortunate difference between CG and traditional. Hand drawn…