Why this role interests me
I am very much more interesting in visuals, fluid animation that brings a character to life, I struggle with the skills needed to storyboard or produce, and I very much have an insterest in the games industry, I have made video game sprites for a past project and I really enjoyed the process of animating, testing and adjusting, as well as being able to have other people experience what I’ve made.
How the pipeline works
Reading a blog post on the games animation pipeline by Harvey Newman who was a 3d animator working at Lionhead at the time, the process is much the same as the regular animation pipeline, writer to artist (to model builder and rigging teams if 3D) then its handed over to, and distributed among the animation team, then depending on whether it is a test animation for the game or a final animation the animator will work accordingly. Everyday every person working on the same part of the game has a meeting to update each other and make sure everyone’s on the same track.
The skills needed
Some of the skills that are crucial to game animation are having knowledge of videos games and how they work, knowing how the game will be played, and the insight into the users experience can aid in creating immersive animations. Knowledge of how games are built and game engines, using how they will process your frames will prevent any errors and keep the process running smoothly.
In every kind of animation communication is key, but in this instance you are working with programmers, who have no knowledge of animation as much as most animator have no knowledge of coding, so communication and understanding exactly what needs doing in crucial.
Why I feel this role would suit me
I feel I would fit into the role of an animator in this field because I have an attention to detail, and when making sprite animations for example, the tiniest of movement must be smooth to keep the immersion, and every one of the actions must fit together seamlessly, which means perfecting the animations you are tasked with doing. I also think my communication skills are good enough that I would be able to handle a project that must be seemless across animators, coders and several other teams.
References
https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/games/animation/animator-games