Shadow of the Colossus was ahead of its time

Blond

Sorry for being such a fanboy but in terms of animation (yes, animation, you know me   ), well, damn, this game was simply mindblowing and STILL STANDS UP TODAY! Actually, I'd even say, it's still the best at what it's doing in terms of motion and to think, it was all keyframed!!

I will start with the horse (please mute the video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SugEdJ6meLg

I can't be the only one impressed here. Every motions, while not blending perfectly between each other (video game obliged), you can feel the weight, the speed, the inertia, the balance and the push-impulse in each steps and motions. The animation of Agro, the horse, today hasn't been surpassed,yet, you really feel like you're controlling a living being and not an AI (and god knows how many games today have badly animated horses).

Now, I won't even get started on the colossus because, I'd have towrite a thesis for each one of them but god, never in a game have I ever felt this frightened seeing these colossal majestic beasts and IT'S NOT JUST BECAUSE OF THEIR SIZE; IT'S THEIR WEIGHT!

Weight is one part of the most difficult task to convey onto creatures, game or movies but SOTC did it wonderfully, even with limited technology. Even the smaller colossus convey more weight and credibility than any other creature I've seen in other games.



Shoutout to Avion, one of the most beautiful boss fight I've ever witnessed in a video game.

This game will never receive enough praise.

Eric Chadwick

Yeah, they did an amazing amount of tech and artistry in this game. Here's an interview (originally in Japanese) about some of the tech, including info about the Colossus' and Argo IK... http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/File:Making_of_sotc.pdf

Blond

Thanks alot even Eric though I've read this thing plenty of time already .  They did an outstanding job for the fur if you ask me. Though, there isn't many detail about the animation except their use of the IK solvers.

Eric Chadwick

Found another interview, they talk more about the animation and how it fits the story.
http://www.siliconera.com/2012/05/03/how-shadow-of-the-colossus-colossi-came-to-life/

A blog post from @Froyok with some good technical info
http://www.froyok.fr/blog/2012-10-breakdown-shadow-of-the-colossus-pal-ps2

Blond

Eric, thank you for this.

I've had seen videos from Froyok, a few years aog but I had forgotten where I could find them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM8F0TshCVA

This viewer is really nice understanding the moment behind the colossi.

Are you also an animator? What do you think about the tech behind the game?

iadagraca

I always wondered if the way the animated their characters was partly physics based, like part animation part physics.

I'd like to see more of it either way. 

Blond

From, what I read from the article shared up there, It was all hand keyframed with the usual procedural animations (IK's, Look at and blending) but they referenced themselves laot doing it.

It's also wirtten, they they would something simply ''slows down'' the animation to add more weight.

R3D

Nowadays, what is the best way to play Shadow of the Colossus? I recall the PS2 and remastered editions being super slow. Is emulation on a good rig the way to go these days?

Panupat

True dat!!!

I played the original on my PS2.

Needles

Wish more games had this attention to detail

iadagraca

Blond said:

From, what I read from the article shared up there, It was all hand keyframed with the usual procedural animations (IK's, Look at and blending) but they referenced themselves laot doing it.

It's also wirtten, they they would something simply ''slows down'' the animation to add more weight.

I mean more so for the boy though, his movements are just all over the place all the time. It had to be physics based. 

Eric Chadwick

If you read the articles I posted, you'll see they talk about how the animation was a careful mix of IK, ragdoll, and keyframes. You can see some of it in the low-res screenshots, where they show what looks exactly like an animation state machine. If you've ever played with UE4's Blueprints or Unity's Mecanim or Havok's Behavior Graph, it's the same concept.

SonicBlue

Ryswick said:

Nowadays, what is the best way to play Shadow of the Colossus? I recall the PS2 and remastered editions being super slow. Is emulation on a good rig the way to go these days?

As I played it again after reading this thread, you can run it without problems on a emulator too (search for the correct configuration on the emulator's youtube page), I don't think it will look that good on a full HD monitor with the default PS2 resolution.

Eleszar1

holy shit my favorite game ever, the animations was siiiiick,  you could feel your horse the player when running amazing game 

8bitTurtle

I felt the animation was awkward & unusual but very much by design. It made me, the player feel more fragile/vulnerable to the hulking colossi. But animation was just one of the many brilliant decisions behind this game. Awesome colossi designs, challenging gameplay, enigmatic world, etc...everything harmonized so perfectly. Oh and lets not forget the goose-bump inducing soundtrack! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVNcmGjNW6c

heboltz3

Extra Play is doing a youtube series on this exact subject  for this exact game right meow. 

Blond

heboltz3 said:

Extra Play is doing a youtube series on this exact subject  for this exact game right meow. 

Oh my f***cking dog ?! What channel is this and how come I'm not subscribed to it?

Animations analysis of my favorites games?? Even Kingdom Hearts'in there?!

Thx for sharing!