Frankie's Bungie Updates - Search results for secret character
Friday, May 28, 2004
Nathan and John's Tower of Tweening
Not much from animation this week...but Nathan reports from the side of animation with the best hair situation, saying that John Butkus has started the first cinematic! Which also means that the animation team will move to cinematics very soon, collectively! Which means that most of the regular character animation is done! Kinda. They'll be going back and forth for sure, but obviously this indicates that the bulk of that work is over. Cinematics of course require lots of NEW animation - often more complex too, since the cinematic scenarios are different from the gameplay ones. That said - the cinematics don't have the same capacity for cluster***** that game animations do.
John's first cinematic features everyone's favorite angry officer, Sgt. Johnson - who delivers a very powerful line in this scene, and it has nothing to do with "God's own anti-sonofabitch machine"
Nathan also mentioned that Mike is beavering away on animation for one of the secret characters, and will be bringing a fun, and previously unmentioned weapon to life next week. Bill is finishing up on the Grunt...his food nipple is laden with steroids, whey powder and Creatine now...
Nathan himself, has been working on Brute animations and listening to the horrible sounds from the local country music station to get in the proper rage mindset and transferring those feelings on over to the Brute. Nathan angry! Nathan smash!
Bigger news should happen next week...
Friday, May 21, 2004
AERO THE WALPOLE
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Nathan reports from the dark precipice of the animation station:
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Mike Budd is still trouncing on some great animation of a secret character and it looks damn good.
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Billmation is giving the Grunt some glory. You will respect the little ones this time around guys.
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*Frankienote: Yeah - Butcher showed me the grunt animation in slo-mo and it was totally badass.
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John has finished off a secret character that will be great fun to play around. I wish I could say more. Oh, he has been doing some more Elite stuff with a new vehicle...
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I have been working on the Brute this past week. After the recent E3 crunch it is nice to move back onto a vastly different character. I have been working on some animations for some cool AI behavior that is guaranteed to have players pooping themselves, changing their underpants only to poop themselves again... I have been watching some biker movies and National Geographic films for reference. Mr. Brute, may I introduce you to your cousins Black Rhino, Silverback Gorilla and Brian Bosworth?
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As far as E3 goes I am excited over a few games. Full Spectrum Warrior is a game that I will either love or hate, but I would definitely give props to the dev team. There is lot of great detail in Full Spectrum Warrior. A few titles like Rise of the Kasai and God of War have me yearning to do some fun animation like that and may see me picking up a PS2 to play them. They are beautifully animated games!
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Sunday, May 09, 2004
Task the Cananimators
John Butkus' odyssey of animation continues, as he explains, "Okay, this week I've been bouncing between three characters...Hunter, Marine, and CENSORED. I think the CENSORED will be a lot of fun because he's like this big CENSORED on a stick, so he's very top-heavy and CENSORED. I've also been working on kicking Carney's ass on an Earth-based MP map, although we have teamed up and become quite formidable at guarding the flag. As long as everyone remembers to 'do their job', then playing defense on that map can be quite fun and I would say it's easier than being on offense. Steve has also started on the new iteration of what was a fairly finished map, and we had a great lunchtime match yesterday with Carney and Ryan...you know you have a great Slayer map in the works when it's just a bunch of flat-shaded cubes and planes, and people are already screaming 'F***!!' after they lose a close-quarters SMG shootout. I think this new one will be a rage-inducing map indeed.
Back on topic, so I'm on the secret character, Mike has started on a new Marine, and Bill is back on the Grunt. We haven't really broken stride from the E3 crunch and I think we're going to have to keep this up 'till the end. It was good to see new people coming into the studio (and downstairs at the meeting) and playing the game and really enjoying it...it kind of gives you that extra kick in the ass to sit down and work extra hard to put more great stuff in the game. Oh F***, I almost forgot we were doing some cool shit with transitions between animations this week...so instead of a marine standing still and then suddenly popping into a run cycle, he now has a transition animation where he'll drop his weight and then get up to speed and vice versa when he's slowing down to a stop. It's working pretty well so far, and it'll definitely help add that extra bit of realism to the game. I did some for the marine, and Mike did some for the Jackal and the Elite.
So what am I looking forward to seeing at E3? Well, I'm not able to attend this year and I was really looking forward to telling G4TV's Tina Wood that I have a massive crush on her...next year, I suppose. Oh, you meant games. Well, of course I want to see how Half-Life 2 and Doom3 are coming along, and I hear Viewtiful Joe 2 might be making an appearance. I always like seeing what the new crop of hockey games are looking like (please NHL, let them include realistic fights...pleasepleaseplease), and I like seeing how the projects my friends at other studios are working on are coming along."
Friday, April 30, 2004
Nathan's Animation Station
Nathan's on a roll this week, saying, "I think I saw John's knuckles bleeding this week. He was talking to his knuckles too...it was either to give them congratulations from really hard work on the Elite, or gently spoken murmurs of encouragement before John pops me one. I am unsure which is true, but I do know that the Elites' animations are very tight.
Buddman has been working on another top-secret character while taking some time out to calm the Jackal...quiet and collected, Mike Budd trudges through the toughest characters to make them awesome. I wish we could say more about his secret character, since it will rock harder than a quarry when you see it in-game.
The Billmation studio is still going strong. While working on Grunt animations we occasionally get blessed by poorly done Christopher Walken impressions coupled with a nice rendition of "Can You feel the Love Tonight" as sung by Nathan Lane. The scariest part is the Nathan Lane as Christopher Walken impression. I wanted to run away but couldn't since I had just soiled myself from laughter and slipped on my own feces.
I have been tightening the multiplayer Spartan animations, addressing bug after bug. I am thinking of changing my name from "bentllama" to "Orkin Man", though I don't think I will need the hardhat. I also have blisters on my palms from those damn S controllers. They have this plastic seam of razor along side them that really dig into your hands while clutching the controller in anger. When the multiplayer maps get to a stage where everyone is getting angry, then you know they are fun. Mark my words Jaime, I will get you back...you and you pony named 'One trick'!"
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