Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, developed by Naughty Dog, has an artistic style that I haven’t seen before. I know I’ve harped on it before, but there’s nothing like watching your character get his jeans wet in the water and it actually changes the appearance until he dries off over time. It’s real! Reeeeeal! Christian Gyrling, Animation Engineer, talked a bit about Naughty Dog’s approach to making believable characters at the recent Vancouver International Game Summit.
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I have to admit, what’s going on over at BioWare in terms of animation excites me the most right now, but that’s because I’m a game writer. With their tools for the conversation system, writers too can take part in the aesthetic elements of the game through camera angles and manual control of movements to create performances. Brad Kinely, Lead Animator on Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, provided insights into BioWare’s process of development at the Vancouver International Game Summit this week.
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I was over at the Vancouver International Game Summit in lovely Vancouver, British Columbia (it was finally sunny for the first time this week for the whole of Vidfest and the Summit) checking out the Animation panel. Several perspectives were offered on creating successful believable characters, so I’ve broken them down into bite-sized pieces.

First up, Atomas Goldberg, Electronic Arts’ Director of Animation Technologies, gave a run down of the EA Animation Toolkit (ANT). Goldberg feels that the real challenge to create lifelike believable characters that are both visually engaging and highly responsive to player input is more about philosophical approaches than the tools themselves.
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