How Trico Was Animated / Video Game Animation Study
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 лип 2024
- One of the most anticipated games for nearly ten years had one of the most memorable characters, but how was Trico animated?
Follow me around on the tweet bird thing at rootayable, and give me money so I don't die on The Patreons forward slash/DanRoot
Have a pleasant Christmas and see you next year!
SOURCES:
www.gameanim.com/2018/01/24/l...
docs.google.com/presentation/...
/ @gendesign4714
gendesign.co.jp/qa_01/intervie... - Ігри
So Trico is 20% cat, 10% dog, 5% bird and 100% adorable baby.
Part dog, part cat, all cute
Yes.
quick maths
*Y E S*
I am the only one that could pet and hold trico’s head and pet him like you would pet a cat
Look, this game has a lot of rough edges, but if any video game was the pure visual representation of my desire to own a pet one day this is it. You can't deny the technological achievement of trico
Trico is the most impressively animated character I’ve seen in a game. And the fact that everything was hand animated
Trico is truly a masterclass of game animation at every angle.
This game is still one I want to play. I know everyone complains about Trico, but I could easily get lost in enjoying time with him. All the petting, all the food, everything Trico wants, Trico will get.
Honestly in my experience, the boy is more awkward to control than Trico. Especially when you think about how really, Trico isn't a trained animal by any stretch of the imagination; he's just a big beast that decided the boy is a friend.
Trico is the best thing about the game. The issue is the camera makes me motion sick so I can't play more than 10 min at a time.
Definitely the best animation I’ve ever seen in a game
Important to note that Team Ico were among the first developers to use Inverse Kinematics with Ico and Colossus
Oooooh interesting!! 😃
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy Thanks bud, great video as always!
The Ocarina of Time devs would like to have a word with you :P
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy He’s incorrect, though. Sega’s Seiichi Ishii, in his idle time, pieced together a prototype featuring a kind of proto-IK which was later used as the basis for 1993’s Virtua Fighter. In fact, the 3rd VF game (released in '96) became part of the Smithsonian's Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology Innovation exactly for having _"(...) advanced graphics and _*_inverse kinematics technology_*_ (...) allowing players to move around interactively inside a real-time, high-quality 3D graphics world in a very realistic way."_
Edit: The arcade version of VF3 was like magic at the time. Still is since it featured something which even modern 3D fighting games avoid: slanted arenas -- the motion blending to correct animations in regards to height differences and slopes was jaw-dropping! I know you get a ton of suggestions per day buuuut it would _really_ make for the coolest episode ever 😎
@@NIMPAK1 Indeed, OoT is one of the most famous examples of IK used in gaming. But, it was really all over the medium at that point, e.g., 1998's _Jurassic Park: Trespasser_ kept boasting about it ad nauseam.
I've been looking forward to this one! Really interesting stuff there. I've always appreciated why it took so long to make, but this just highlights some of the problems they had to get round. It's a technical marvel. I'm gonna have to play it again now! Thanks for the shout out dude, I'm glad the double 'L' pleased you.
Heh, thanks bloke, and you're welcome!
You've supported me since the beginning, which is really awesome.
Yeah, it makes me wonder how this game would've been received had it been rushed to launch on the PS3. Probably would've suffered loads!
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy it struggles in places on the PS4 performance wise, so I just think the scope was just too big for PS3. A remake of ICO would be great to pass the time until a new game is announced. Surely Bluepoint must be doing it?
Were they the ones who did Shade of the Giants?
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy At this time of day that took a while to work out, but yes you're right!
Cant believe it took me this long to try this amazing experience. It doesnt feel like a game to me, but a great adventure with a friend.
The Last Guardian is definitely one of those games, you can play once, really love, then come back a few years later and still find more things to love about it.
Trico feels so very much alive and that's quite a feat for an early PS4 game, makes me look forward to their next project
The Last Guardian's Trico was always something I found cute. When I first heard of the game, Trico looked great. Mainly the fur effect and the overall windy feeling.
Great video! =)
Thanks! Yeah, the fur was a whole thing in itself which I didn't feel like getting sidetracked with in this video, but it greatly added a lot!
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy It was another can of worms which if opened, may have doubled the video length! They really did go above and beyond with this game. And also Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I can't wait to see what you have in store in the 2020s!
Merry Christmas to you, too!
Great stuff Dan. Trico is truly one of those gaming gems that as time passes, the character will be forever remembered and loved by players because of how complex and nuanced he turned out to be. (Or she? Who knows lol)
What a treat The Last Guardian was. Such a unique game from the stuff generally releasing on a yearly basis.
This is such an underrated game.
I adore this game on every level!! I wish the game would of been much longer. I loved how Trico felt real. I appreciate you sharing this information on how it was formed and animated. I really wish there was a sequel with Trico.
Really interesting! I'm a novice 2d animator. This stuff is inspiring but way out of my wheel house.
I can see why it took Team Ico so long to release the game, since I don’t think I have seen any other games try to use procedural animations outside of weather effects or little things like preventing clipping into objects.
Well it technically took so long that Team Ico became GenDesign!
Video Game Animation Study I don’t know why, but I just like how “Team Ico” sounds much more distinctive. GenDesign just sounds, well, much more like a medical technology firm than a game design company lol
The animation in this video game is out of this world. Just amazing what they did with Trico. It really feels alive. This game is a technical achievement.
This was absolutely BRILLIANT! Thank you so very much for doing this even though the game was released more than 3 years ago. Personally, "The Last Guardian" is my favorite video game of ALL TIME. I consider this game to not only be a masterpiece, but I also like to refer to it as "playable art". I've completed it 40 times to date, learning more and more with each play through. I'm also very proud to say that I've earned the platinum trophy (one of only 3 games in my entire life). I thoroughly enjoyed this video, and I wanted you to know how much it is appreciated. If anyone here needs any tips or tricks for the game, lemme know. I know this game pixel by pixel now. :)
Hey, thanks for watching and thanks for the kind words! I really love this game, it boggles the mind in thinking just how much blood sweat and tears went into creating this!
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy Yes, it is mind boggling. I really wished that they had included a bonus "Making of" documentary with the game. That would have been sweet!
That’s great
is awesome how trico achieve what fumito was looking, some time Trico dind ´t listen to you,all the time like a real pet.
This was the only game I bought a physical copy of last gen simply because Ico/Shadow felt odd on the shelf without it and also because this is a gaming artefact of incredible importance as far as I'm concerned.
Curious to know the concept used for the traces on the feet. Clearly its not just a simple trace downward to offset the foot height. Could be a series of traces in the direction the foot bone is moving to "map" the terrain? Perhaps the system is able to know the future plant location of each foot, and can run a series of traces between the current plant and future plant...Either way, probably the best implementation of limb IK I've seen in a game. Never remember seeing any overstretching either.
Id be willing to bet most in-game animation is being applied to a runtimeIK-rig, where only key parts of the body (upper and lower abdomen, feet, and head) are actually animated, while everything else (like the spine, neck, and elbow/knees) are under a bunch of different constraints. That way those parts can be offset and everything else works automatically. There's probably numerous secondary layers as well to play additional motion across areas of the body, which help to mask transitions and provide additional overlap. Breathing and idle swaying is probably on its own layer, and the ears, wings, and facial bones probably each have a layer as well. The constant motion on the feathers really sell everything though, as they provide additional visual noise to hide unnatural movements (as is common in many procedural approaches) if they were to ever occur.
Designing a game around a large animated creature that dynamically interacts with it's environment, while being under constant close observation is such a wildly ambitious goal, yet they nailed it.
This game made me cry :,)
Fantastic video as always! I imagine we'll see a lot more of this kind of procedural generation in games going forward.
Thanks!
Yeah, I'm hoping so, it could offer some real unique movements while saving animation labour.
Great work, as always!
If I recall correctly, SOTC did had some version of Procedural Animation at work with the Colossus. The bird boss can be one of the examples.
Yes I think you're right, though not quite as much, but it was there.
I forgot how incredible this game was. Thank you for covering it!💞
I love the way the did the game and the examples you gave, I may be over a year late but this is awesome
This video was a delight. Thank you.
Inverse kinematics is a mathematical method for calculating the positions of vectors (which is how skeletal animation in video games work)
Basically, you start by describing where in space you want your hand or foot or whatever to end up, and the method lets you figure out how to get there. It's also how most robotic limbs work in reality
The original Ico on PS2 followed many of these principles. They began with mocap but decided to start over with hand animation because the mocap didn't give them the effect they wanted. You can also see the systems for handling animation on slopes and uneven terrain, it was at a much lower fidelity back then but the fundamental mechanisms were already in place.
Interesting! Have you seen beta footage of Ico on PS1? Fascinating seeing the progression!
Yay! The episode I was wishing for the most!
amazing video thanks! This is one of best games ever created
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I love learning. Simple and straightforward.
Thank you so much for this video! I’m a bit new to video games and was so intrigued how Trico was made
You're welcome!
Wife lady has been playing TLG this week. Even seven years later it's absolutely mind blowing to to me. Yes it has a horrible camera, janky controls and a ropey framerate but none of these stop it from being an absolute must play.
It's that Team ICO magic isn't it. Great visuals and themes and everything. Hope she has fun!
Thanks for the explanation and for citing all the sources, it will be an interesting read.
Jon Cooper's Game Anim website and book are rich with resource!
Wow! I've learned something here today!
I love how the game conveys the dynamic between boy and monstrous huge hairy thing. Like yeah, you see him as this wild ugly beast, but you feel.that inside him is something almost beautiful, God like even...
Yeah, God of war PS4 is such a great game
I should try last guardian as well
Trico was a creation from the Future. Programmed on the PS 6 and then ported to the PS 4!
I ADORE ur work Dan!!!
Thank you!
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy No, thank u mate!!
If youre interested in procedural animation, Rain World is pretty much the epitome of the method
Such a cool thing to learn.
Another Great video Dan ! Hopefully you'll do animations for the shadow of the colossus one day ,that would be great !
Thank you! The Dan Floyd over on New Frame Plus has already done that one! ☺️
Being a heartless bastard I’m not into Uedo’s work despite his excellent pedigree (he worked for Kenji Eno’s WARP) and yet I found the video thoroughly interesting I must say. 🤔
Well thanks for the kind words, and it's fine it'd be a dull world if we all loved the same things!
You should play this game for the sole purpose of witnessing the amazing work they put on to animate this thing. I kept thinking about it for days after finishing the game.
@@nakedbeekeeper9610 I found his PS2 ventures quite underwhelming in most departments, with that ghastly bloom, murkiness and bumpy fps just adding insult to injury. That’s why this channel is essential, i.e., giving folks like me a glimpse of its delightful inner workings.
Judge Cal I believe that the rerelease of Shadow of the Colossus for the PS4 GREATLY improved on frame rate, lighting, and smaller quality of life changes, and stuffed it with tons more secrets. That might be a good game to try to redip a toe back into Team Ico’s work.
I'd definitely recommend the PS4 over the PS2 version.
I always wondered why Trico would keep opening his jaw and closing it over and over again when he would see one of those glass eye thing.
AWESOME vid!
Thank you!
I loved this vídeo :)
I wish we could have a second last guardian
Oh man, the timing of this video is perfect! I just started playing The Last Guardian again this morning, as I never got round to finishing the game when it first came out, and I’ve been in awe of the incredible animation the entire time I’ve been playing. Thanks for the amazing video, as always. :)
Thanks! Have fun on your second run through!
Fantastic
Trico is fascinating, but also kind of unnerving..
I get that
Beautiful game!
fascinante
3:14 *touch*
Dan, this is awesome! Question: could PA and IK be applied to a fighting game to improve the animation of being hit, or blocking an attack? Or is this done already? I noticed that SF5 chars have a different block animation depending on where the hit lands but I have a suspicion that it's based on key frames and nothing else...
I'm not entirely sure but I suspect it's present in a lot of stuff these days, particularly if it's 3D, and I reckon there might be some in Street Fighter as well.
EA's UFC 3. It's pretty much the gold standard of physical animation, IK, and complex character to character interactions.
It was a trick-o process
I'd like to know how to do Procedural Animation in Unity like they showed, but I don't know how to do it, anyone got any tips or links that could help?
You and me both. Implementing Procedural Animation and IK in Unity can be very confusing. There are settings in engine for these features, though they require coding to work even at their most basic.
maybe start by experimenting with some real-time IK plugins from the Asset Store (there are a few) or wait for the new real-time rigging system to be released: blogs.unity3d.com/2019/09/05/advanced-animation-rigging-character-and-props-interaction/
@@liswifi you can't make a game in unity without coding anyway.
@@MacMan2152 Not necessarily. There are plenty of resources that Unity provides to make proof of concepts - not that I'm implying this refers to AAA games too. Not all game developers or designers need coding experience to make their ideas happen.
@@liswifi why would you want to make a prototype that you won't be able to turn into a real game? this would only work if you already work at a big studio. If you want to make a real game that isn't based exclusively on pre-made cliche mechanics you would still need to learn some programming. At least node-based visual scripting which is I don't know if available in unity. Also learning programming helps to learn algorithm design, game structure, and logic which is very good and useful for home-made game developers who have no idea what a game is and end up making some pretentious walking simulator :).
Oh look it's the never ending story the video game
is that unity where the stuff is being moved around, to show how he looks, and changes lim placement?
I think so, though I'm not 100% certain
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy The thing in the top right showing the vectors, and the objects themselves look a lot like unity.
@Gekigengar oh! didn't notice.
AFAIK they didn't use it for the actual game but all the animation prototypes were done in Unity.
@@ninjadodovideos oh ok. It didn't look like a game that would be made in unity anyways
I still haven't been able to play this game...
That's a shame
Ok,if Trico is a half bird,half dog and half cat.Then where did his horns come from?He had to had some horned animal in his DNA in order to posses horns.Either,Bull,Gazelle or goat.
It's not that he's literally a mix of those creators like Frankenstein's monster. It's just what the artists used as inspiration for his design.
Shame that when Trico is on screen the game drops to 20 fps.
Never happened to me or most videos I've seen. That's your system.
I bought a ps4 just to play Last Guardian and Bloodborne. Both really great games but performance wise they run really bad.
After some time playing you get acustomed to the frame drops but when you play another game and come back is really noticible.
There was a noticeable... difference in the efficiency of the frame rate, I noticed.
@@micolashnh9822 do you have a ps4 pro or an original one? I think they moved on from the original and the slim ps4s the second they released the pro version. I bought both games for a ps4 pro and had no troubles with bloodborne (i haven't played the last guardian yet). This may be unfair but this is how it is.
@@MacMan2152 Ps4 pro, and I even opened it to clean it. I thought maybe there was dirt in the fans or something, but it made no diferemce in performance.
0:20 unsure why you said he's "now part of" Gen Design. The people that made up Team ICO just went to Gen Design with Ueda, which he founded after he left Sony, that's all.
Fun video.
I think that's just semantics.
Shadow of the colossus is the best horse animation gameplay with good story of all time until red dead 2 catches up.
I'm a bit disappointed that this video didn't go very deep into any technical details. It's more of a list of techniques used and a brief description of them rather than an actual explanation of how these techniques were utilized to animate the character.
Thanks for the feedback, though I'm not sure what you mean.
I could only go so deep into technical details, but I did explain how they helped Trico move.
This was the research available to me and I feel I applied the knowledge appropriately.
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy You did what you set out to do well, it was just not what i had hoped for from reading the title. As a solo dev so my specific wants are likely not the same as those of your audience as a whole. Keep doing what your doing!
Thanks for your thoughts! What sort of content do you think would be more your sort of thing? Are you looking for specific animation techniques?
I'm sorry to say your explanation of ik was abysmal 😂
Inverse kinematics is essentially where the hands or feet get "planted" on the ground and the rest of the body adjust as opposed to forward kinematics where the limbs move in an arc following the parent joint. (first your shoulder moves then the elbow then the wrist in a walk cycle for example is fk)
I wouldn't say it was abysmal, that's a bit overkill.
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy okay I just watched that bit again and to be completely fair you said enough for a layman who knows little about animation to understand so kudos!
I just found your channel and after 2 years of studying animation and i think I may have just found my field of interest 👍 thanks for your invaluable info!
Thanks. I mean, it might sound basic to someone who works in IK etc, but it did the job. Good luck in your future learnings!
It's a good game,but A NIGHTMARE FOR PPL,WHO ARE TERRIFIED OF HEIGHTS.
thought this was about pokemon
Why?
I see
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy _"I see"_ ??? Shenmue III for next anim. study confirmed! Sometimes the best way to learn is by tearing apart such disasters lol.
😂
Each game by Fumito Ueda is something INNOVATIVE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN IN GAMES BEFORE.
AI TRICO is as it should be, THIS IS THE FIRST COMPANION IN GAMES WHO DOESN'T LISTEN TO YOU AND THAT'S WHAT THE CREATORS WANTED.
Unless I'm wrong... is there any game in which your companion may not obey your order right away?, the first, second or third time? because Trico is like that like real animal.