WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.250 --> 00:00:05.529 This is Scribble Kibble, a weekly show about animation made by an animator. Most episodes 00:00:05.529 --> 00:00:10.290 feature an animation and talk about how it was made, some episodes are tutorials, and 00:00:10.290 --> 00:00:13.730 there is the rare guest episode or cartoon here and there. 00:00:13.730 --> 00:00:19.340 Scribble Kibble comes out a week early in Full HD 1080p on Vessel and in the Scribble 00:00:19.340 --> 00:00:22.850 Den for Patreon (or Paypal) members. 00:00:22.850 --> 00:00:27.010 Today’s feature is a very short sequence from a game called Transistor. It’s one 00:00:27.010 --> 00:00:33.570 of those games, hm, how can I describe it? Words can’t describe, the game is a song, 00:00:33.570 --> 00:00:40.980 it’s a story, it’s an… it’s an experience. Every piece is so well intertwined you can’t 00:00:40.980 --> 00:00:44.469 tell where one begins and the other ends. 00:00:44.469 --> 00:00:50.180 The cut scenes are painted illustrations. Illustrations are detailed pieces of still 00:00:50.180 --> 00:00:57.149 art. They have many more colors, lights, and shadows than animations. You cannot make a 00:00:57.149 --> 00:01:03.170 long animation using illustrations by traditional means. It would take a lifetime. 00:01:03.170 --> 00:01:08.890 But you can still make animations out of illustrations. I’ve talked about motion capture, puppet 00:01:08.890 --> 00:01:48.240 pin tools, backgrounds. Transistor is more simple than that. I’ll show you. 00:01:48.240 --> 00:02:25.480 There. A story. With nothing more than some carefully planned art, music, and a little 00:02:25.480 --> 00:02:27.640 bit of effects. 00:02:27.640 --> 00:02:31.450 Each of these elements is a separate piece of art. That way you can layer them on top 00:02:31.450 --> 00:02:36.379 of eachother and move the pieces around without revealing unfinished artwork or white space 00:02:36.379 --> 00:02:38.129 underneath. 00:02:38.129 --> 00:02:43.370 To make them move at different speeds, you could do it by hand, say, put a keyframe at 00:02:43.370 --> 00:02:50.080 the beginning and at the end and adjust the positioning. OR, much easier, set up a main 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:55.489 camera that pans from left to right, and position each piece of art at a different z-axis position. 00:02:55.489 --> 00:03:01.930 The z axis is your 3D plane. Y coordinates are up or down, X coordinates are left or 00:03:01.930 --> 00:03:04.550 right, Z is forward or back. 00:03:04.550 --> 00:03:08.989 With these different Z coordinates, we create depth in the shot. Things closer to the camera 00:03:08.989 --> 00:03:13.959 pan faster, and when you zoom in or out, pieces get bigger or smaller faster depending on 00:03:13.959 --> 00:03:19.970 how close to the camera they are. That’s how I set up Scribble Kibble environments. 00:03:19.970 --> 00:03:25.659 But in this Transistor sequence, the characters farther away are moving faster. So these position 00:03:25.659 --> 00:03:30.970 coordinates are likely done by hand, either all individually, or in addition to the base 00:03:30.970 --> 00:03:38.709 3D camera. You set up the 3D environment and then also tween stuff because it’s moving, 00:03:38.709 --> 00:03:42.709 not just standing there. Like the sword, which gets launched in this direction. And the man 00:03:42.709 --> 00:03:45.090 who rushes out to take the blow. 00:03:45.090 --> 00:03:50.450 By the way, he is one painting, duplicated, with a mask over the top half so when the 00:03:50.450 --> 00:03:56.489 sword hits it, it slides over the bottom half of the painting but under the masked top half. 00:03:56.489 --> 00:04:02.209 The sword is sandwiched between the two copies of the man. 00:04:02.209 --> 00:04:08.819 On top of your art are lighting effects. Some are simple faded circles. Others are particle 00:04:08.819 --> 00:04:13.110 effects that create little floating sparkles and light flashes. And there are light rays 00:04:13.110 --> 00:04:18.380 placed here and on top of the triangle symbol on the jacket here. There is also a very light 00:04:18.380 --> 00:04:23.410 fog effect on top of the art. All of this is to make the piece more dynamic and animated 00:04:23.410 --> 00:04:27.550 looking than it would be with only the still art. 00:04:27.550 --> 00:04:32.460 The whole piece is timed to the music, so the climactic moment here in the animation 00:04:32.460 --> 00:04:41.090 is punctuated by the climax in the song itself. The lyrics give additional meaning to what 00:04:41.090 --> 00:04:46.220 is happening, but you miss out on that part without the context of the game. 00:04:46.220 --> 00:04:50.130 The animation seamlessly fades into the 3D game environment. 00:04:50.130 --> 00:04:54.440 It’s so simple but so incredibly effective. 00:04:54.440 --> 00:05:05.240 Planning the lyrics in the music, the instrumentation, the art, and the events to all work out to 00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:11.449 happen at the same time is a skill for sure, but you could make this without being an animator. 00:05:11.449 --> 00:05:20.460 If you can make illustrations but not animation, you could still make this cut scene. 00:05:20.460 --> 00:05:24.479 Cease and desist Cease and desist 00:05:24.479 --> 00:05:27.610 You want me to stop what I’m doing now And put my pencil down 00:05:27.610 --> 00:05:28.270 Doesn’t matter if it’s paid or free Stamp out every bit of creativity 00:05:28.270 --> 00:05:31.259 It won’t stop you if the use is fair You don’t care 00:05:31.259 --> 00:05:33.620 Cease and desist Cease and desist 00:05:33.620 --> 00:06:00.190 You want me to stop what I’m doing now And put these lyrics down 00:06:00.190 --> 00:06:05.889 Put ‘em down. 00:06:05.889 --> 00:06:11.590 Well I won’t. 00:06:11.590 --> 00:06:13.480 Hmph.