Why they are not online school for game animation?

Gyrz

I have been searching the internet only god knows. For Animation that are focused on games.

All i find, that , there is to much workshops/courses about Zbrush sculpting.

And for Animation, everything i find is animation for CG animated films.

Why there are no schools that teach game animation?

Jeremy Lindstrom

because animation transfers to pretty much any field. I have a BFA in Computer Animation, the principles are the same study of movement, secondary motions, weight, balance, timing, etc.. all transfer over. The tools might change but the principles don't.

Get to know and memorize these for all your work.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_basic_principles_of_animation

agk3d

ianimate games program?

moose

there is http://www.animationmentor.com/

You should take the thought of "game animation" and forever erase it from your brain. Animation is animation, doesn't matter if you do games, full length features, cg composite shots, whatever. Learning to be a good animator is what is important, like what Jeremy says.

When you can animate well, you can easily learn how to make stuff loop, cut into sequences/chunks, and do the kind of animations a game would require. There are additional things to learn, but you must have fundamentals first.

Gyrz

I was looking something about in-game animation. I read an articles, that, yes, the animation is the same, but, to make a in-game character is completely different, than making animated character for CG feature.

Meteora

I believe when they mean different, was that the rigs were different. In rigging, there are skeleton bones and blend shapes. Video games have up to this point primarily been using bones. The principles and techniques of animation can be applied to any medium. Its all the same, its not like making high polygon assets and baking them down to lower one so they can run in real-time.

So I think, its mostly a matter of limitations on what can be run in real-time in game engines for character rigs. I can't possibly think of any other limitations in regards to the actual animation.

Ace-Angel

There are no real limitation other then the ones dictated by a game engine...WHICH IS GAME ENGINE DEPENDENT INFORMATION...that you need to look up.

For example, some engines have a limit of 64 bones, and 2 influence per vertex, other can have all the way to 255 and a influence limit of 4 or 6.

Also, modeling is totally different aspect to animation, what you're asking currently (as the title) is animation about/for gaming, which is essentially the same as for anything other digital animation (squash, stretch, key in/out, pose to pose, tween, etc) but your second post indicates you want to know more about modeling, in which case, there is no lack of resources about that subject matter for game category.

Geezus

moose wrote: »

there is http://www.animationmentor.com/

You should take the thought of "game animation" and forever erase it from your brain. Animation is animation, doesn't matter if you do games, full length features, cg composite shots, whatever. Learning to be a good animator is what is important, like what Jeremy says.

When you can animate well, you can easily learn how to make stuff loop, cut into sequences/chunks, and do the kind of animations a game would require. There are additional things to learn, but you must have fundamentals first.

This. If you're looking for an online animation school, there's nothing currently better than Animation Mentor. They offer a fantastic program.

slipsius

I have to seriously disagree with animation mentor being the best... Especially if you`re looking for game animation.

iAnimate has a FANTASTIC game animation course that focuses on game play mechanics and limitation. Animation mentor does not provide this, and as much as people say animation is animation, that is false. Many film animators have trouble going form film to games because of the restrictions and the mechanics needed. Game animation doesnt have a lot of the anticipation and follow through that film does. Games need to feel reactive. You cant press the jump button then have the guy in the air 15 frames later because they bend down first.

Check out iA's game program.

http://www.ianimate.net/workshops/games.html

Wahlgren

edit. foun d a better thread

Barbarian

Key differences between game and movie animation were noted in various posts above. For facial animation you rely on joints (no blend shape correctives at this point in time). Slipsius hit the nail on the head about "reaction times" for games (i.e. limits to the "principles of animation" such as anticipation for game play. Also, the transitions between states are thus impacted (ex. stand, kneel, jump, . . .)). Also noted above were limitations to how many joints and max influences allowed in game engine. The creative placement of extra joints to help with deformation issues (in lieu of blend shapes) is probably more particular to games. I think that most of the noted schools give students a rigged character to animate, but understanding topology (especially shoulder, elbow, knee, ankle, foot) for game character meshes is good. Learning some scripting for game animation is good.

Game Character Academy http://www.gc-academy.net/ has a "technical artist" rigging and tech course that involves animation. Judd Simantov knows his "shit." I learned more about rigging from him than the next five sources combined. Having the tech artist background and taking some game animation courses will probably take you farther than just taking animation courses. Knowing how to tweak controls and create/modify controls is valuable, especially in studios that cannot hire a lot of specialists. Animation is a tough field to get into and if you are a good rigger, scripter, etc. and learn animation as you go--you may have a better chance. Don't neglect special effects animation also--game animation requires effects animations (not just characters).

Ace-Angel

That's all very subjective.

A platformer with a slip and slide mechanic a la Super-Mario could replace the slip and slide mechanic with a jump delay, in which case, yes, it will take an extra 15 frames for a jump, and if doesn't, guess what, deleting those extra 13 keys from a pose-to-pose scene will take a couple of clicks.

Plenty of games use Morph's as well, especially in unique cinematic scenes to fix certain parts of the body, while they might not have morphs for your average run and gun scene, plenty of them will have moments that they will use them for the facial expression of a character that is right in your face.

Not to mention, for all the cheap animations games have during production, they will still require you to have a portfolio that has everything a top tier animator for movies would have, so you might as well focus on the 'high' animation aspect of things and slowly learn to cut corners on your own free time.

Question is, will you learn much from this corner cutting from other people, when you could practice these limitations and learn from them from modding games, or watching different types of games, or even reading white papers, instead of dropping $14,400?I'm the last person who should even be giving out advice about animations, but maybe, JUST maybe, the simplest solution of personal elbow grease is much better?

toonron

While animation is animation, there is a difference in the approach between animating for film and animating for games, where the length of an animation and how fast it moves can affect gameplay. I do online tutoring through my website, Toonimations.com and some of my students have done assignments specifically geared to the games industry to show their ability to produce game-ready assets that move well while also fit the constraints animation assets for a game engine often require.