People have been asking me how my first week has been. By it’s nature, the first week at a new place of work is rarely as exciting as you imagine it will be. Alas, it’s true!

You tend to get bogged down in paperwork, reading documentation and the new tools and procedures you need to learn, when all you really want to do is crack on with work. Of course, in this instance having been a Maya user almost exclusively since I started university, it will be a little while before my work performance in MotionBuilder will be able to keep up with my enthusiasm. When you throw in trying to remember everyone’s name and how to get in and out the building without getting lost, it’s a wonder new-starters get anything done in their first week!

I’d never really thought about it before (and I don’t suppose you will have either unless you’ve changed 3D software), but one of the worst things about using new software is learning the camera controls. If you feel like you can’t navigate a scene properly, it massively compounds the sensation that you have no flipping idea what you’re doing and that learning the new software is going to be a near-impossible task. If only you could remember what button combination controls pan and which activates tumble, you’d be able to concentrate on learning the important stuff… the new stuff!

People are telling me not to worry about it and that I’ve got plenty of time to settle in, which is really nice but it does highlight the sense of frustration; that the software and workflow are hindering my ability to just get on with it and if only I can get that stuff out of the way, the fun stuff can really begin.

I had a little breakthrough on Thursday when I got a good bit of pace going, turning out three or four animation cycles. On Friday a totally new thing landed at on my desk and I felt completely lost again! 8)

Despite all that and with a great deal of help from Andy and the other guys on the team, I already feel like I’m starting to get used to MotionBuilder, it’s camera controls and it’s slightly obscure “thought process”. It’s only been a week; I suppose I ought not to worry too much!

My first week at Rockstar was absolutely brilliant; the people, the project, the office are all completely awesome, but it was  intermingled with a heck of a lot of frustration! I should also say that (since I wrote most of this post last week) I feel like I’ve made tons of progress in MotionBuilder today and yesterday – things are definitely starting to click!

I think I’ll have to do a post about the bonkers way MotionBuilder works/thinks sometime soon!

Sometimes I wish people that wrote about games would consider the practical implications of what they’re talking about. Brad has already responded to some earlier commentators saying that you needn’t try and school him on the technicalities of games development whilst at the same time dismissing the excuse of production out of hand anyway.

Of course, the technical requirements that he knows all about seem to be limited purely to creating a new model for females. Yep, that’s it! That’s all you need to do to create a female avatar. Err… no. Far from it.

Adding an additional gender affects the entire game’s development pipeline at a fundamental level. Just thinking about it for a few minutes immediately raises a number of issues, and it becomes clear very quickly that it’s not just the customisation and clothing as Brad has suggested. What about the animation? What about the additional programming and design work? What about the new skeletons, rigs and skinning for the new avatars? The modelling of new characters and outfit pieces is actually the least impactful part of the entire pipeline!

Let’s talk about animation for a minute. The game is promoting itself as a game where free-running/free-flowing movement is a priority. The animation has to look great otherwise the illusion of this incredibly physical universe will be broken. If you add another sex into the equation that essentially doubles the amount of animation work needed (otherwise someone would no doubt be complaining that the female avatars are ‘too manly’ and ‘not representative’ enough).

“At whatever point in the development process the decision had to be made, Splash Damage decided that having female models was less important than having the other features that were included. There is no denying this — the developers have said it themselves.”

I don’t doubt that at some point the question of female avatars was raised and knocked back and I don’t doubt that other features were considered to be more important, but that is the business of game development. Not every feature that you’d love to include in your new game is equal in the land of deadlines, budgets and manpow– people-power! Adding a female avatar would have fundamentally hindered the overall vision and scope of the project or seen it released incredibly over-schedule and/or over-budget.

A number of commentators on Brad’s blog have suggested that games developers should “make the effort and [...] spend the time and [...] treat everyone with respect.” Perhaps this particular commentator thinks money, time and highly experienced staff can be grown on trees?

It’s not about sexism, it’s not about inequality, it is not about lazy developers. It would be awesome if we could have female avatars in Brink, but I bet there’s a whole bunch of other great features that exist (and a whole load of polish work that goes towards making a AAA-title) because they made the call not to include them. I’m not saying it’s an easy call but games development is a careful balancing act, and at some point you need to rein in your project otherwise you’ll go bust.

Sorry Brad, there is nothing “disturbing” about deciding to go for a male-only cast, it doesn’t say anything about the studio’s attitude towards women… It just makes sense. Common, business sense. And at the end of the day, you have to consider the business implications otherwise there’d be no games developers and you wouldn’t get to play games like Brink. Ever.

And where is it that I will be going? Well…

Heck yes!

That’s right folks, in July I’ll be heading up to Edinburgh to go and work as an animator at none other than Rockstar North, the studio that brought you GTAIV, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, to name just their recent hits! I don’t even know what I’m going to be working on at this point, but I do know that it’s going to be awesome.

This really is like a dream come true. It certainly makes me feel like all the hard work I’ve put in (particularly the past 16 months of Animation Mentor – which have nearly killed me) have been totally worth it. Talk about a confidence boost, eh?

It’s all happened rather fast but I’m really excited about starting. Fortunately I’ll be allowed to finish my current term at AM before I start (it was after all, the main reason I decided to leave Cambridge). In fact, I will be working alongside former SCEE colleague and AM chum Andy Davis, who is a fantastic animator!

As you might be able to tell, I’m quite excited. Many thanks to Jim Jagger for offering me an interview and to Facebook for putting links to my reel and CV on his News Feed ;)

You can find it here.

Edit: The PDF version is now available for download.

I’ll put together a shot list soon. As ever comments, questions or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

The Choice

I say “this week” but this is something that I’ve been thinking about for quite a while now. I feel like I didn’t get enough out my last term at AM due to a number of factors, not least because things at work have been ramping up and because AM Term 4 covered stuff that I hadn’t really done before. I was really happy with my pantomime piece but I was really disappointed with my dialogue shot; it just didn’t turn out as I’d hope. Juggling 20-30 hours of animation studies on top of a 40 hour working week for 12 months really took it’s toll on me, hence why I opted to take a Leave of Absence at Christmas and recharge my batteries for 3 months.

But soon enough, there was the invoice for AM Term 5 sitting in my inbox and I had a choice to make: try and juggle my normal working week with the most difficult term at AM (multi-character dialogue shot) or take a risk; do the course full time, treat it like a full time job and really nail it. Although I’ve spent weeks stressing about my decision, at the end of the day I think I probably knew all along that this was definitely the right decision.

The Plan

Naturally, there’s no way I could afford the tuition fees for the course alongside rent in Cambridge and living costs whilst not taking an income, so I will be moving back to my parents’ place in Enfield for the duration of the term. It is incredibly comforting to know that my parents are willing and able to help me achieve my dream and I am eternally grateful for the contribution they have made/are making to my career.

At this point, the plan is basically throw my all into this term and really make the most of it. I’m intending to treat it like a full time job and do a full time job’s worth of work each day. This should allow me to continue to have a “life” and it will be much better for my health! At the same time, I will be putting together a new show reel (currently in production) and I will be applying for jobs in the hope of securing employment by the time I finish Term 5 at the end of June.

The Risk

The risks should be fairly obvious. There is no back-up plan; if I can’t get a job when I finish AM, that would be… awkward. At the same time, I’ve been in full employment at Sony now for over 3 and a half years and I’ll have been studying Animation Mentor for 18 months by the time I’m done. I feel like I’ve got enough experience, released titles and passion to go anywhere I want. I ought to be very employable. I certainly hope somebody out there thinks so.

The Move

So what of Sony? Well I’ve had an awesome time over the past 3 and a half years, worked on some major titles with loads of amazing, passionate and creative people. I will be desperately sad to leave Cambridge and all the good friends I’ve made since I’ve been here. The massive support, camaraderie and fun I’ve had at the studio can’t be underplayed and I can only hope that wherever I end up will half as good as my time at Cambridge.

And I guess that’s about all I have to say for now. If anyone is looking for passionate, experienced character animators to start work in early July, let me know.

Thanks for reading!

Alright so I’m a big kid, give me a break! In all fairness, I was watching the Thundercats intro when I made my Burnout Friday call-to-arms last week and noticed just how strong some of the posing is. Really nice stuff, some great lines of action. At least, that’s how I have justified my purchase. That and the fact that I’ve been wanting to get it for ages. Dungeons & Dragons was an essential purchase  given that it cost me less than £8. Yes, OK I’m a big kid! :P

I think my weekend is pretty much sorted! :D

Milt Kahl (Mowgli) from Victor Ens on Vimeo.