Game Cinematic for film students

absorbentghost

There is a lot of emphasis on game art in general mainly low poly models and the game engine .I've always loved the cinematic side of the development .Telling story through Pre-Rendered animation .Being inspired by studios like Blur and Blizzard entertainment I was wondering about why i haven't seen any artist of this sort in Polycount. If you guys out there like me , love the technical art  side like lighting /lookdev , rendering with Engines like Arnold/Vray ,simulating hair ,water and other particle dynamics please voice your opions . I would love to gain insight into this field. 

 I recalled watching the blur presentation entitled "Warharmmer age of reckoning " all those many years ago and was blown away.I loved it ,i was hooked and ever since ive been studying this part of the game industry .Please stop by ,comment and let me know whats on you minds .

ZacD

Cinematic guys are more likely to have things in common with movie vfx studios, animated movies, etc. And most of the time it is outsourced. Also I have a feeling more and more studios are going to do cinematics in engine. There's other forums out there if you want to get into that kind of work. 

Hut

ZacD said:

Cinematic guys are more likely to have things in common with movie vfx studios, animated movies, etc. And most of the time it is outsourced. Also I have a feeling more and more studios are going to do cinematics in engine. There's other forums out there if you want to get into that kind of work. 

Likewise, also very interested in this topic, you may suggest some specific forums sites?

slipsius

I love cinematics. Im a cinematic animator. We do all our stuff in engine as well. The reason you dont see much about it on here though, i think, is because it's not an easy task to do by yourself. Especially when you start talking about rendering and all that. People tend to focus on 1 discipline. When it comes to the nice pre-rendered cinematics you talk about, those are built by lots of people. Everyone specializing in 1 section of it. Animation. Lighting. Texturing. Modeling. It's all different. To do it all yourself as a hobby, some people do it, but it's a LOT of work for them. Most just show off their 1 thing they`re really good at. 

KielFiggins

I agree with @slipsius , to get the quality of the cinematics like you mentioned, it's a hefty team effort.  Even for my short personal projects, there's usually 8 or more guys, each specializing in their own field and sometimes even more so.  An FX artist may do fluids while another does destruction, or modelers that do the faces may not do the body/armor. 

I would add though, that outside of requiring a team, that type of work usually takes far longer to create even if you only focus on your aspect.  Where as in games, you could be doing a cycle a day, in cinematics, you might be doing only a few seconds a week.

absorbentghost

These are all valid points , i would love to meet others who share my interest in this field of cinematics , guys who love to tweak and work out rendering and look dev .

slipsius

Wait, so are you more into lighting and rendering? Or animation? "Cinematics" is a VERY broad term. There are plenty of different roles within a cinematics team. But now that you`re talking about tweaking rendering and "look dev". 

absorbentghost

slipsius said:

Wait, so are you more into lighting and rendering? Or animation? "Cinematics" is a VERY broad term. There are plenty of different roles within a cinematics team. But now that you`re talking about tweaking rendering and "look dev". 

Im a genrealist , but i focus on character modeling and look dev .I studied animation for a short time aswell .