On the weekend I got to catch up with my dear old friend and friend of the ARC Lisa. She is working at Krome these days so naturally we talked about the state of the biz in general and the kinds of things we liked and didn't. I for one would love to see more cinematics. So I thought we would have a look at some.
The Transformers Game
This one is from Blur Studio, who I often post about and think are at the top of the game.
Starcraft 2
I've never seen so many things that couple, insert and interlock in such a short time before. Any Freudians out there would have a field day with this.
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos
Gota love a giant monster with horns. Comeon you just gota.
Warhammer: Age of Reckoning
Back to the good work of Blur Studios. This is my favourite because its got some humor thrown in and the characters have Strong distinct personalities and attitudes. A spoon full of humor and character helps the implausible situation go down in my book.
World Of Warcraft
A classic, and the strongest reason I can see for making this kind animation for a game. I don't play games much, or hang around with gamers much, but I've seen this many times, as soon as it started I recognised it and the game it was for. If I know about it, then that's market penetration.
OK I know these are all macho, violent and shallow pieces of animation (maybe you're cool with that or maybe not), but lets get past our arty farty egos and have a look at where we are. We are in the games capital of Australia and within the context of a game these pieces are animation gold! The characters have personalities, their attitudes can change, there are beginnings, middles, ending, changes in tempo, building tension, and climax's. All of these things can be hard to find in a game and make life more interesting for an animator.
So here is the bummer, even though games are going off in Brisbane there isn't anywhere here (that I can find) that makes this kind of animation. The cinematic's in Australian games are often made up of "in game" animation clips edited together and mixed with dialogue. Why? Well I think the perception is that its not worth the money, and I don't know enough about the biz side of things to dispute that. But I'll tell you one thing, it ain't because of a lack of talent, with the industry the size it is and achieving what it is I'm sure the cream would be able to do this kind of work.
Here is a thought. All the studios are falling over each other to attract experienced animators at the moment, they are all advertising jobs and trying to poach staff from each other. Maybe if a studio had the courage to attempt this sort of thing then the best animators would come running looking for that extra level of job satisfaction.
For years now I've been thoroughly entertained by the short films, game promos and ads from the Blur animation studio. So it warms my heart to hear that they have won a crack at a feature film. This article in Hollywood Reporter says they will be working on a film adaptation of the comic book The Goon.
