I have been struggling to find anything to put on this blog since starting my new job. I can't post any of the work I'm doing on Lego Batman as you would expect, and I have been avoiding doing anything at home just while I settle in so as to not over-exert myself.
Hmmm....so what can I write about? I guess if you can make do without pictures or videos, then I can tell you about how I'm doing in the new job.
I was a little apprehensive during my first few days as I felt rather lost and the people around me seem very quiet. I'm a very quiet person myself, so it can be hard to get a conversation going. However I am settling in bit by bit and am now coping a lot better with both the atmosphere and the work. I'm in the middle of animating my first cut-scene at the moment. It's the lead in to a car chase level involving Batman, Robin, Two-Face and the Riddler. Incidentally whoever created the in-game animation of the Riddler tip-toeing when you just slightly push the control stick is fantastic! Watch out for it when the game gets released in the autumn.
I have discovered that animating Lego men isn't as easy as it looks. Doing things like run cycles is fine, but making everything else gel together is quite a task. I also came to realise that I have never animated anything before with more than one character. In this particular cut-scene, I am animating with twelve!
I think one of the most challenging parts of animating things for games is that the whole scene has to be done in one file. When animating something for TV or film or the like, the animator can animate one shot in one file and another shot in another file, and then just knit them together as with any kind of footage. Since these cut-scenes are going to be rendered in real-time by the games console, the editing must be done on the fly. This can become really confusing when (like I have) you have to strip something out. Once you have removed the offending piece of animation, you then have to painstakingly go through all the rest of the shots, dragging keyframes back the appropriate amount. I find myself noting down loads of frame numbers - it can get a bit messy. I guess I need to learn to get things right in one shot before moving onto the next.
I'm a bit scared of coming to the end of my first scene as I have been told the process of actually getting it to work properly in the game is extremely frustrating.
The company is generously taking us all to see the new Indiana Jones movie on Thursday. They have hired a whole screen at the cinema for us all and are throwing in drinks and popcorn! Plus it's during the day so we get a bit of time off too.
So yeah, after a nervous start, my first week has been really good. I hope it continues to go well!
I can't draw. Every time I pick up a pencil lately, my inability to produce something that I think I should be able to do cripples me. It has got to the stage where the mere thought of picking up a pencil makes me feel down.
