Jade Empire: Labor of Love, Part One
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Q: Explain the animation process. When does it begin and what is your role?
A: I am the lead animator for Jade Empire and am in charge of the all the in-game animations -- movements, exploration, dialogue, creature and of course, combat. Basically, I am the first animator on board the game and I'm the last animator to come off the game.
I was there in the very beginning of the project, making decisions on the animation pipeline, what animations are needed in the game, how and when they should be played. Since we have a completely different combat system from our past games, I also helped develop this real-time combat system. With the help of the other members of the core group, I plotted out the number of attacks per style, all the different reactions, and the cool combat movements shared by the different characters in the game. I also helped define what the 30+ styles would be after consulting members of the Jade team, looking through different references collected from the internet, books, movies and instructional videos.
Once we knew what we wanted for combat, the next step was to decide whether to continue the old tradition of hand animating every move in the game like our past games or try something called "motion capture." After the long debate between the 2 processes, we decided on using motion capture since we wanted the moves in the game especially in each martial art styles to look authentic. Besides, it would help us go through 700+ actions quicker. Did I say 700+ actions? With 30 fighting styles with around 20-40 moves each, add in the different damage reactions, blocks, die cycles, movements and all the exploration animations, it came out to more than 700+ actions. Not every animation in Jade is motion captured. Creatures, animals and monsters were still hand animated.
In addition, you'll also find a new video walkthrough in IGN Xbox's media section.
