But after a long day of engaging in flame wars I should never have taken part of here's an entertaining video!:
DSP is one of the few people left on the internet who legitimately makes me laugh. It may not be for the right reasons, but because of that, I can't hate him.
It's astounding how little common sense he has! XD
Post by lurkinglurker on Mar 28, 2017 11:24:22 GMT
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim Folks have been asking so here are my thoughts on Mass Effect Andromeda's animation. Hopefully people will better understand the process.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim First though; going after individual team members is not only despicable, but the culprits and choice of target revealed their true nature.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim Just as we credit a team, not an individual, for a game's success, we should never single out one person for a team's failures.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim That said, animating an RPG is a really, really big undertaking - completely different from a game like Uncharted so comparisons are unfair. Jonathan Cooper @gameanim Every encounter in Uncharted is unique & highly controlled because we create highly-authored 'wide' linear stories with bespoke animations.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim Conversely, RPGs offer a magnitude more volume of content and importantly, player/story choice. It's simply a quantity vs quality tradeoff.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim In Mass Effect 1 we had over 8 hrs of facial performance. In Horizon Zero Dawn they had around 15. Player expectations have only grown.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim As such, designers (not animators) sequence pre-created animations together - like DJs with samples and tracks.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim Here's thecinematic conversation tool for the Witcher 3. Both tools make it fast to assemble from a pool of anims.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim Because time denotes not every scene is equally possible, dialogues are separated into tiered quality levels based on importance/likelihood. Jonathan Cooper @gameanim The lowest quality scenes may not even be touched by hand. To cover this, an algorithm is used to generate a baseline quality sequence.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim Mass Effect 1-3 populated default body 'talking' movement, lip-sync and head movement based on the dialogue text. Jonathan Cooper @gameanim The Witcher 3 added to this with randomly selected body gestures that could be regenerated to get better results. www.gameanim.com/2016/03/23/cinematic-dialogue-witcher-3/ Jonathan Cooper @gameanim Andromeda seems to have lowered the quality of it's base algorithm, resulting in the 'My face is tired' meme featuring nothing but lip-sync.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim This, presumably, was because they planned to hit every line by hand. But a 5-year dev cycle shows they underestimated this task.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim (All this is exacerbated by us living in an era of share buttons and youtube, getting the lowest quality out to the widest audience.)
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim Were I to design a conversation system now, I'd push for a workflow based on fast and accessible face & body capture rather than algorithms.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim While it hasn't 100% proved this method, Horizon Zero Dawn's better scenes succeed due to a use of facial mocap. Jonathan Cooper @gameanim The one positive to come out of all this is that AAA story-heavy games can't skimp on the animation quality with a systemic approach alone.
Jonathan Cooper @gameanim The audience has grown more discerning, which makes our job more difficult but furthers animation quality (and animators) as a requirement.
Last Edit: Mar 28, 2017 11:31:22 GMT by lurkinglurker
I know that this is not twitter related but I feel like there is the greatest chance a DEV will see this if I put it here:
It's not FAIR that I did not know REYES was the hottest romance option in the game. And I made a Ryder who is romancing PeeBee and due to my internal headcanon integrity rules, I have no option but to restart the game to romance Reyes.
And I'm not even sure it's worth it. It's been 6 bloody days - 4 of them were weekend or vacation time!! I can't spend another 6 fucking days on another Ryder right now.
Post by Obliviousmiss on Mar 28, 2017 11:29:06 GMT
I logged into my twitter for the first time in years just to thank the devs for the awesome gaming experience I just had. And to tell them to thank Cathleen for Jaal, since she doesn't have a twitter.
Too much negativity....thought I'd spread some positivity.
Birthday wish officiator. Proud Jaal fangirl. Mom to a crazy preschooler who says funny crap. And a newborn who likes to party all night long.
I logged into my twitter for the first time in years just to thank the devs for the awesome gaming experience I just had. And to tell them to thank Cathleen for Jaal, since she doesn't have a twitter.
Too much negativity....thought I'd spread some positivity.
Thank You for positivity!
I just completed a 57 hour completionist playthrough and while I know this sounds like I'm kissing Bioware's ass, MEA is by far my favourite Bioware game I have ever played, and I've played all of their games, including Baldur's Gate.
It's extremely saddening to see a game that is objectively better than Dragon Age Inquisition in almost every way(a game that was game of the year by the by) get such shitty/lazy press coverage. Focusing on the same 8 strange facial animation bugs in a 57 hour amazing experience.
I also feel let down by the Bioware YouTube community that didn't make much of an effort to fight back against this unfair coverage and seemingly just bought into it.
I nearly did myself, I went into the game extremely worried about its quality, which makes me feel like a moron now.
I really hope we get DLC for MEA, and the game still sells reasonably well, despite the constants over stated hit pieces. The game is nowhere near perfect, no game is, but there is something extremely odd and seemingly agenda driven about the coverage of this game.
Sorry for the rant, I'll shut up now. This is all my opinion, if you disagree and think I’m a moron, just put it down to ‘Different strokes for different folks’
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Mass Effect Legendary Edition Posts: 9,279 Likes: 26,039
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Lots of free time lol. Been playing it since launch, and I haven't completed all the side missions or fully explored all the planets. My completion is about 78%. I'm going to 100% my second playthrough.
For me, being retired helps. All that extra time I have. excellent
Elizabeth Nancy Shepard - Earthborn/soldier/ruthless Humanity #1 I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite playthrough in ME Carolina Panthers(1-3) at Chicago Bears (2-2) Oct 6 100PM FOX #1Alabama Crimson Tide(4-0) at Vanderbilt Commadores(2-2) Oct 5 415pm SEC Network If you see a soldier or veteran, shake their hand and thank them for their service
Fabrice Condominas @faburisu I love the fact that some of you are searching for the best vista in space before triggering a romance scene What's your favorite place?
Mass Effect @masseffect The journey to the Heleus Cluster is complete. Share your scenic planetary moments with us!
aka IronRoy - Heart Breaker - Back Stabber - Plaideweave Lover - Vuvuzela - Proud Enabler - Uncaring - Immersion Breaker - Jedi Grand Master (4%) "My post #3000 told Lyn she's dead inside. I call it account mission complete. Wouldn't have wanted to spend it any differently." --Dieb
Post by lurkinglurker on Mar 28, 2017 18:49:11 GMT
Ian S. Frazier @tibermoon PSA: Losing health when you jump or evade? That's not a bug. Check your armor and make sure you didn't equip the Fusion Mod of Assault.
Aside from a good amount of issues, I finished the game and I love it and I love the Ryders, Fryda and Tom were fantastic, especially when the sarcastic options came to play. I can't wait to see what's in store for the DLC content and future content for the Andromeda entry.
Ian S. Frazier @tibermoon PSA: Losing health when you jump or evade? That's not a bug. Check your armor and make sure you didn't equip the Fusion Mod of Assault.
As yes, troll items... I remember 'Beserker weapons' in DAI...
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3 decades of RPG gaming from green screen to 4K. Moderator posts mostly marked by 'Police' emoji. Other views shared are just personal ones. On UK time zone.
Ian S. Frazier @tibermoon PSA: Losing health when you jump or evade? That's not a bug. Check your armor and make sure you didn't equip the Fusion Mod of Assault.
As yes, troll items... I remember 'Beserker weapons' in DAI...
OMG that kett doggy! Pretty please Bioware can we please have one of those, or at least a varren for pet next game? I don't mind that pyjak being eaten as a snack and I don't care for the ugly hamster either...can we have something bitey and scary please??
But are we sure it really is Hrungr ? Maybe it's Hrungr's killer?
When you let yourself believe or disbelieve, and the truth turns out to be the opposite of what you thought, your reactions become sluggish - Roronoa Zoro
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain - matrim cauthon
What's the point of a pig being able to talk - Ban, Fox's Sin of Greed