Video Game Animation

       I know that this blog is supposed to be dedicated to animations used in movies and television, but for this blog I wanted to point out the importance of video game animation. In any video game, there are certain animated actions that need to be performed. Some of the most common include walking left, walking right, and jumping. However, there are certain times when those animations fail, and the result is a (surprisingly hilarious) glitch. One of the games that has been called one of the glitchiest games in existence is Skate 3.

       Skate 3 is the third installment in the Skate series. As the name implies, it focuses on skating around various locations and performing stunts like the pros in real life. If the player does not know how to pull off the complicated controls to pull off the stunts, then the result is some hilarious glitching like the ones shown above. Just try and watch it without laughing at least once. The game seemed to be rushed for a release date (seeing that it was made by Electronic Arts, or EA for short) and it turned out to be garbage, just like every other rushed video game in history. However, this game has come back into the public eye, and has been regarded as a really fun game because of all of the glitches.

       The actual story of the game is to try and start a successful skating company as the main character and your friends. The game also includes a multiplayer so you and your literal IRL friends can try and build your skating empire together. But a long while after the game's release, EA took down the multiplayer servers. The game soon got revamped for the online community game center, Steam, and their own servers were put up. Soon, the gaming community fell in love with the game and all of its nasty glitches all over again. One feature in the game is to use the "Force" and make your board levitate towards your character. A useless mechanic, unless you're a bro-ed up version of Luke Skywalker and love skating while listening to Nickleback and drinking Mountain Dew.

       If I ever get the chance to work for a game company and work on the character animations, then I will try and not make them like Skate 3. Game animations should be fluent and never breaking. Take Super Smash Bros. Wii U for example.

       In this game, the animations are almost flawless. The developers took their time, and made sure that every animation looked believable, unlike Skate 3.

        Video game animation is just as important, if not more important, than movie animation. The characters are controlled as opposed to set up in a scene, and the graphics have to look just as appealing as animated movies, since the player is staring at the game for extended periods of time. You could argue that it's the same way with movies, but with video games, you are personally controlling what's going on. It's like a movie you can control, so the way everything looks when you control what's going on, everything needs to be fluid and presentable.