We get it, the game has a lot of atmosphere and really pins down that crime family feeling, but our fascination with this footage cannot possibly extend beyond the awkward sipping of a beverage. Why is it so hard to animate that in games? It's almost enough to drive you to drink ...
Mafia II trailer looks at the art of persuasion, not lifelike animation
by David Hinkle 
on Aug 22nd 2009 2:00AM
29
We get it, the game has a lot of atmosphere and really pins down that crime family feeling, but our fascination with this footage cannot possibly extend beyond the awkward sipping of a beverage. Why is it so hard to animate that in games? It's almost enough to drive you to drink ...
Reader Comments (29)
Posted: Aug 22nd 2009 2:13AM Maciariello said
"...but our fascination with this footage cannot possibly extend beyond the awkward sipping of a beverage."
It doesn't look overly awkward to me. I guess there needs to be a more extreme way to animate drinking?
Reply
It doesn't look overly awkward to me. I guess there needs to be a more extreme way to animate drinking?
Posted: Aug 22nd 2009 3:48AM DeepFriedSushi said
bad animation artists / bad motion cap team.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzLQMO0W9U8 watch it in HD this is the absolute pinnacle of videogame animation.
Reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzLQMO0W9U8 watch it in HD this is the absolute pinnacle of videogame animation.
Posted: Aug 22nd 2009 6:49AM MrKlorox said
It's not shitty mocap, it's the utter lack of mocap for the faces. That Image Metrics facial animation capture is excellent, but it seems devs have to outsource it to the IM people to synch to audio instead of getting to do it themselves. This seems to be why Playboy X doesn't open his mouth either when drinking or smoking in GTA4 -- Rockstar added that stuff after they got the facial animations back from Image Metrics.
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Posted: Aug 22nd 2009 3:43PM DeepFriedSushi said
lip syncing and facial movement isnt what we're arguing its limb and body motion, notice how arms seem like life less logs with no weight to them.
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Posted: Aug 22nd 2009 2:27AM pukel said
A lot of problems with animation come down to a failure to realise that most movements, however small, have a 'whole body' effect.
That drinking animation fails because there's no swallowing animation visible in the neck. The man sips and apparently just sits there with the drink in his mouth. His Adam's apple needs to bob, neck muscles need to ripple, etc.
Reply
That drinking animation fails because there's no swallowing animation visible in the neck. The man sips and apparently just sits there with the drink in his mouth. His Adam's apple needs to bob, neck muscles need to ripple, etc.
Posted: Aug 22nd 2009 12:02PM (Unverified) said
I tried really hard to think of a "That's what she said" comeback.
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Posted: Aug 22nd 2009 2:51AM (Unverified) said
Its true that no one knows better than Mafia by getting people to do things for others is an art as old as mankind itself...but i think this game would promote some sort of mafiaism among the gamers which could be more violent in the future...............
http://www.electrocomputerwarehouse.com
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http://www.electrocomputerwarehouse.com
Posted: Aug 22nd 2009 3:50AM (Unverified) said
There's nothing cookie cutter about this game. It has awesome production value and the world is so well realized. It doesn't insult your intelligence like Godfather II.
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Posted: Aug 22nd 2009 10:09AM (Unverified) said
I thought that swig looked pretty good. The only thing awkward I notice about videogame drinks, for the most part, is how the liquid is actually a solid. The only game that I have seen pull it off very good was Stranglehold. The worst I have seen? GTAIV. You see the character about to drink and then the camera pans away and the next time you see the glass it has less whiskey colored solid in it.
I'm glad you brought this up Joystiq. It's on my mind a lot, as you can see.
Reply
I'm glad you brought this up Joystiq. It's on my mind a lot, as you can see.
Posted: Aug 22nd 2009 1:00PM ThankMeLater said
I never get why people post if they "don't care" about a game. You obviously must care if you wasted your time to post about it.
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Posted: Aug 22nd 2009 4:33PM Confucius89 said
I don't get it, this game doesn't look all bad to me.
I'm actually pretty interested in this game
Reply
I'm actually pretty interested in this game
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