Digital Nightfall on 2/11/2006 at 20:20
One of the biggest problems I had was that all of the character's arms seemed to be about a foot too short, and attached to their ribs at the elbow. Watch the way they move their arms in almost all the scenes... there's no elegance or subtly to any of it.
In contrast, the nuanced way that Constantine "spoke" with his hands in the first Dark Project cutscene is one of the reasons why I watch that one as much as the other two.
T-Smith on 2/11/2006 at 20:37
Quote Posted by Digital Nightfall
In contrast, the nuanced way that Constantine "spoke" with his hands in the first Dark Project cutscene is one of the reasons why I watch that one as much as the other two.
I get what you're saying there. I still believe Garrett's initial meeting with Constantine, the way he speaks, moves, his voice, the sounds, everything, is perfect. Best cinema in the series.
june gloom on 2/11/2006 at 20:38
i found the cutscenes to be quite good in the beginning (especially the pagan intro, now that was hardcore). unfortunately the later you got into the game the worse the cutscenes began to be- especially when they dropped hand-drawn completely for CG, but even then some of the animation in the few remaining hand-drawn cutscenes was subpar (especially the last one.)
ZylonBane on 2/11/2006 at 20:49
Quote Posted by Digital Nightfall
In contrast, the nuanced way that Constantine "spoke" with his hands in the first Dark Project cutscene is one of the reasons why I watch that one as much as the other two.
Constantine in (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5mnWQi59g4) that cutscene isn't animated-- he's an actual human actor in silhouette.
june gloom on 2/11/2006 at 20:50
they all are at some point or another in that cutscene (other times they're merely animated) thanks to the magic of rotoscoping.
jtr7 on 2/11/2006 at 21:44
I thought Daniel Thron worked on the cutscenes (when he wasn't doing voice-overs) for Looking Glass before he went on and co-founded Rustmonkey.:confused: If Mr. Thron was stretched thin with all the projects that Rustmonkey had going at the time, while he worked on Thief 3, it makes sense that the cutscenes would suffer for it. It looks like they actually used more computer animation than roto-scoping and hand-painting, most likely to save time.
Spiders on 3/11/2006 at 02:42
@ jtr7: I believe Dan Thron was originally hired by LGS as a texture artist, but he asked to try his hand at the creation of the cinematics for Thief. Since he obviously had a nack for that, he became their cutscene director.
To jump back to an earlier question about the software used to create the animations: I'm sure multiple programs were used to create the cinematics, but I know for a fact that "After Effects" has played a large role in Rustmonkey's productions. I once come across the online resume of an animator/artist who had been an intern at Rustmonkey, and she mentioned that she had worked primarily with After Effects to create the animations she helped with.
I'm pretty sure After Effects didn't exist back in the late 90s when the original Thief was released, so I have no idea what software was used to create the animations for the first game. I assume After Effects was a recent addition to Rustmonkey's arsenal of animation tools, and that it was used in their more recent productions.
One thing I'm curious about: Were the 3D animated cutscenes in TDS also done by Rustmonkey? I was under the impression that Rustmonkey supplied the "animated collage" cutscenes, and that some other team (maybe one in-house at Ion Storm) that made the in-engine ones.
str8g8 on 3/11/2006 at 10:04
I think the TDS cutscenes were excellent, technically more polished than the earlier games, but as someone says, they seemed a little rushed towards the end - probably down to time pressures on the project. It's funny how people's dislike for TDS can color even the good parts of the game.
As to how they were made, as someone has said After Effects certainly must have played a part. However, I think there must be more to it than that. If you look at the "handheld" style of the camera movements, esp in the intro, I don't see how that could be achieved in AE (though I'm no expert in AE). I'm starting to think that 3ds software might have been used to generate initial shots, even though actual 3d meshes weren't used - basically placing the hand- drawn artwork on layers and so on. For instance, South Park use maya (don't they?) to create a 2d style. Other possibilities might be some dedicated 2d animation package (though I don't know anything about these ...)
henke on 3/11/2006 at 11:46
Quote Posted by Maddermadcat
Can anybody tell me how the animated, coloured cutscenes in thief were made (at least which program was used to animate)?
I could probably make somthing much like it with a combination of Photoshop, Flash, 3DsMax, Combustion and Adobe Premiere.
But I'm not gonna.
Nancy [BTBT] on 3/11/2006 at 12:54
For the cutscenes do you know if you could get a Garrett voice tool ?
Somewhat simerlar to that of 'MS Sam' ?!
