'Tomb Raider: Turning Point' Debut Trailer

Tomb Raider: Turning Point debut trailer showcases absolutely stunning graphics, with near perfect realistic CG acting (as of this moment in game cinematics) that tells a dramatic epilogue of how Lara Croft became who she is later on in life.

'Out of Sight' 2D Animated Short Film

A lovely 2D animated short film done by the students of Taiwan University (台灣藝術大學) that not only showcases their talented skills, but also the emotional factor within the film.

Dungeon Run

A group of young teenagers came up with a board game prototype about adventurers trying to make their way to the end of the dungeon. Whoever can escape out alive with the most treasures wins. They spent a good number of days testing their game before finding out that a similar type of game has been done already. It's called The Adventurers: The Temple of Chac. Since then, they have stopped working on it mainly because their game has a similar concept. However, from what I saw, their game actually resembled more towards Dungeon Run, with more excitement and higher playability.

As of now, no video previews are available yet, but from the reviews of those who are fortunate enough to download the free print-to-play version while it was available, the game garnered positive reviews. I am really looking forward to the release of Dungeon Run because the concept of exploring a random dungeon always intrigued me, and for anything that has to do with dungeon crawler, I'll be there.

'Assassin's Creed: Revelations' Trailer

Assassin's Creed: Revelations' trailer is out now. Once again, they outdid themselves with this trailer. Only thing I thought while watching it was: why did they choose that music? Nonetheless, the trailer is nothing short of amazing.

'Letters From Whitechapel': A Board Game Masterpiece

Letters from Whitechapel is a masterpiece in the cat & mouse category of board games. Actually, it is one of the masterpiece board games in history. Upon first reading, the content may throw some players back as they are being asked to play one of the most notorious killer in history, Jack the Ripper. Not only does the player have to run, he has to actually 'kill' women in this game. However, upon playing, this gross thought is different from what one may imagine. There's no gory, blood or anything that may make one puke. Instead, it is as simple as selecting a target and eliminating her. That's it. Even a 10 years old would not have nightmare if he/she should play it. Still, the theme is based on historical facts and therefore parents should know it prior to purchasing it for the family.

In case you are worried if the game is okay for the family or not, simply check out the video review below from Games with Hayden, a family based board game website:

Sung-Bong Choi - An Emotional Ride

I was fortunate enough to view the story of Sung-Bong Choi from "Korea's Got Talent" TV program. His story was truly tragic, something which I never thought I would see in first world country. Like so many others, I hope that his life would be different from now on.

The moment the judge said to him, "I just wanna give you a hug" was the moment when all emotions came up...

'Deux Ex: Human Revolution' Director's Cut Trailer

'Deus Ex: Human Revolution' (director's cut) is a beautiful game cinematic that acts as an epilogue story to the game with memorable moments within the trailer. Although the characters do not look as realistic as those found in Final Fantasy 14 (which is also made by Visual Works), the storytelling aspect outshines Final Fantasy 14 by a big margin. If you love sci-fi, great moments in film, or Blade Runner, watch this trailer.

Samaritan

What an amazing showcase! To be able to make an in-game cinematic that feels like you're watching a film is something that many companies are trying to achieve. But Samaritan pulled it off very nicely. Maybe years from now, this tech clip will lose its luster as newer and better technology surpasses it, but right now, it's at the top of its game.

'Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood' Trailer

I admit I'm one of those who did not get into the whole Assassin's Creed thing. However, I respect the company that does all the CG work because it's just stunning. For 'Assassin's Creed; Brotherhood', the cinematography is beautiful, the environments are created down to the little details, the use of crowd system, incorporating syflex convincingly and hooking the gamers with its stunning trailers, all this adds up to a game cinematic that's worth watching over and over again.

'League of Legends: Season One' Trailer

There's something beautiful in unity, especially when different races and classes come together for a common purpose - to fight against evil. While watching 'League of Legends: Season One' trailer, I felt the goosebumps across my neck when I saw one character following another, heading off to save their fallen ally in a distant place. There are heroes. And there are bands of heroes that work together, using their strengths to offset their members' weaknesses, while fighting larger than life monsters in order to save the day.

I've always favored the latter.

Animating on Steps

For the last two posts, I brought up articles on animating in 3D similar to the way a 2D animator would do. One of the things that 2D animator do not have is the luxury of automatic inbetweens. Is that a blessing or a curse? I believe it's a blessing to a trained animator and people who has to produce quantity animation on deadlines. However, it should be used on the foundation of 2D animation, meaning, we shouldn't just set key poses and breakdowns, and then let the computer do all the inbetweens. Instead, we should think like a 2D animator - add in ALL the necessary drawings that are needed to make the animation flow the way the animator intended, and in step mode, only smoothing it when the stepped animation looks good enough on its own. The change from step to spline mode should also be made in parts, such as, the spine first, then the head, continue with the legs next and finally the arms. All other secondary animation are to be done after the main parts are finished, and do the facial animation last. Splining everything at once will create confusion and takes more time and effort to troubleshoot.

I found Wal-Mart animation notes from Kyle Dunlevy who talked about his experience animating the commercials for Wal-Mart. Here's what he said:

#2. Step keys?

 - I know lots of people animate on step keys. And I've heard it said many times that it's the best way to go. I have to admit, I am becoming a believer and that method worked well for me during this production. Here's the idea: Using step keys is the closest to the 2D method of animating. If you want to see a breakdown, you have to create it. When spline or linear keys are used, the computer creates its own breakdowns. Of course, we can always go back and adjust those breakdowns..BUT...and here's the thing; once we've seen those computer breakdowns, our brain has to work extra hard to decide what it should look like. Perhaps we are better off relying on ourselves to come up with, and understand each breakdown.

Kyle has also posted the Robinhood animation notes which talks about his take on the animation process.

For those who are interested in knowing more about animation workflows, here's another one -  Puss in Boots by Justin.

'Developing Your 2D Eye!' by Mike Walling

Often times, when an animator animates in 3D, he/she does the contact poses and breakdowns, and the inbetweens are being handled by the computer. The animator then spends time to fix the floaty in-betweens and the overshoots. If the result looks good, the animator has a tendency to move on to the next shot. However, I find that the result tends to be mediocre at best, especially after the project is long over and I have a fresh eye to look at it again.

The reason is that the computer smoothes out everything. It does not have the ability to think about the spacing as an animator would. Therefore, it is important to learn how a 2D animator works. The excerpt below is from Mike Walling:

When a 2d animator does his scene he has to draw every frame. Every frame he draws has to be perfectly spaced, timed and drawn to make the scene work and the motion smooth. When most 3d animators do their scenes they pose out the character and figure out the spacing and workout all of the antics and so fourth, BUT they do one thing that could potentially make their scene weak. They let the computer do a majority of the imbetweening. What Mike was talking about in my review was me taking the time to look at every frame and making sure that there was a readable appealing pose. Not just letting the computer do the work but touching every frame much as a 2d animator would have to.

To view the article, click here.