Subject: Re: OFFTOPIC : Gamer Demo Reels
From: "Eric Gooch" <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 1995 17:31:26 -0500

> > From:          [email-masked] (Scott McCabe)

> I'm sorry if I came off that way, I am in no way shrugging this off. I guess
> the point I was trying to convey, is that in *past*, game character animation
> has been just a few tiny frames and never complete motions.

That's still frequently the case today. As someone mentioned 
previously, you only have so much ram to work with...you have to 
decide how to divide it up between code/sound 
effects/music/animations etc. etc. Although everyone would love 
to have full motion video, it just can't always be done.

Although I'm generalizing, most game players are MUCH more 
concerned with quality of gameplay than they are with how many 
frames were used for a walk cycle.  8) 

> Also,  I agree that if one wants to be competitive, the 
> character animation  skills one carries should be like hot snot. I am NOT
> saying "Well the other games don't use full character animation...so 
> why should I?". It was just an observation that past games don't use
> heavy character animation, which lead to my question "so what are
> they looking for when they look at a tape then?".

When we look at tapes, we're looking for quality, but not 
necessarily in any specific area. We have hired plenty of people with 
no character animation skills whatsoever. We've even hired 
artists with almost no computer skills at all, because their 
traditional work was so damn good we were willing to take the 
chance that they could learn the needed computer skills. The 
main thing I look for when I view demo reels is the quality of 
lighting. I don't care how fancy someone's camera moves are or 
how many polygons are in their objects...if they can't light, 
it instantly stands out.

> I enjoy just making scenes, enviroments, non-organic objects far
> better than characters for some strange reason..but I will not turn
> my head from it either. 

Most artists have their "favorite" type of work. We have people 
that prefer machinery while others prefer monsters. Some love 
doing architectural scenes, while others loathe it. The point is 
that if you're really, REALLY good at *something*, someone will 
want to hire you. 

-Eric G.