Something new in animation: cinematics!

I’m still a 3D animator at the Ubisoft Annecy games studio. And recently I’ve had the chance to explore a new side of realistic animation for games: cinematics!

Cinematics, you say?

Until now my projects revolved around so-called gameplay animations, the ones triggered by the game code when the player performs an action. They’re very short, chopped-up animations which, let’s be honest, lean more towards technique than creativity.

Cinematics, whether real-time or pre-rendered, are another story. And that’s where I have the most fun! They lean much more on creativity, even if you still have to respect the actors’ performance and the artistic direction. Having a long action genuinely tied to a set, one that means something, made me realise this is the direction I’d like to take my career.

Watch Dogs DLC: Bad Blood

So it was in collaboration with Ubisoft Montreal that I cut my teeth, on the Watch Dogs DLC Bad Blood. A story running parallel to the main Watch Dogs game, told from the angle of the character T-Bone.

The cinematic I worked on takes place at the end of the game. I was in charge of the motion editing for the 2 characters in the scene (not the ones on the screens). Here’s the video:

Along with the case study that digs deeper into the challenges I ran into: the Watch Dogs Bad Blood case study.