Fear or Faith? What motivates you to do what you do?
When you sit down to work, do you feel confident in yourself and assured that you will eventually create something that you and others will appreciate? Or do you feel intimidated at the prospect of all the external forces that will eventually judge you and your work?
I’ve been dwelling on this difference for some time, because I alternate between experiencing both of these powerful motivators.
Continued after the break…
So how do you develop unique and smooth character motion for your game without spending a dime? One method involves harnessing the power of friends and family to mock up the movements in real life.
Chrissy (my girlfriend) and Eileen (my sister) got together with myself and Liem (Marian’s animator) this weekend to explore how our protagonist would move in the game.
Actually, we’re not really doing motion capture (“mo-cap”) – we’re creating a collection of animation references. For this game in particular, its much more effective to have an animator interpreting aspects of reality to create interesting dreamlike movements.
Here are some outtakes from our afternoon session:
Dan T points out that this form of animation reference is quite similar to the one used in the original Prince of Persia.
P.S. The interview mentioned last time is now up on Gamasutra.
P.P.S. If you’d like to help us pay for food and get your name into the credits of the game, check this link.
This piece was put together by an exceptionally talented duo – James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot of Blink Works media. It premiered last night with a party at IMAX as part of a showcase of Winnipeg-based New Media companies.
James and Lisanne did a really great job with these. Not only did they manage to make the pieces entertaining and truthful, they also made a strong case for Winnipeg as a great place to live. (no small task)
There was a lot of excitement and laughter at the party afterwards, and a good feeling of solidarity. I hope the Winnipeg New Media scene manages to stay this creative, close-knit and free-spirited for many years to come. 
Here are links to some of the other profiles:
Debreuil DigitalWorks
Stunt Software
Complex Games
FrogRocket
The New Media Community
Wow, I just randomly stumbled across these fan-made piano arrangements of Aquaria music on YouTube:
Very well done – the emotionality is vast and it plays with some fun theatrics, but it still feels honest. Powerful stuff.
