Games and Animated Films
The beautiful thing about computer video games is that it is a combination of different arts such as animation, illustration, story, sound effects, music and programming. For anyone who has played a game and walked away from the experience feeling like you visited another world for a short time or were wrapped up into finding out what happens to the main character, then you know what I’m talking about. Games can literally feel like you’re watching a movie.
Just as there are a lot of different stories to tell in film, there are a lot of different types of video games on the market. Our group is currently working on 60 second arcade style games on Facebook. Check out Collapse! Blast, Bayou Blast or Mystic Ice Blast.
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| All of these fun arcade style games feature a main character. Click on an image to play! | ||
The Pixar Master Classes
Gamehouse artists Kaari, Jeremy, Christian, Lynwood, Galadriel and Robert attend the Pixar Master Classes.
Last week the artists at Gamehouse were given the opportunity to attend a special event in Seattle called the Pixar Master Classes hosted by Vanarts (an art school located just across the border from us in Vancouver BC.) If you’re interested in the animation business for games or film, I would highly recommend this course.
The first day’s class was given by Andrew Gordon, an animator that has worked on many familiar characters from Pixar films such as Edna Mode, the tiny fashionista in the Incredibles to the hilarious Mike Wozowski, the green one eyed best friend of Sully in Monster’s Inc.
Gamehouse Artists working on camera angles during the Master Classes.
It was a special treat for us to attend this lecture and listen to an industry veteran speak at great length about the animation process. As you can guess, there are a lot of similar problems that feature animators have to deal with in their every day work as do game animators.
The best advice I heard from Andrew was to “Stay humble, talk to the director to find out what they want from the performance.”
That advice is absolutely true in the games business as well! At the end of the day you’re making a game with a group of people, the best approach is to leave the ego at home, find out what the game designer or producer need from the artwork in your games.
The second day class was given by story artist Matthew Luhn, head of story at Pixar who has worked on practically every film from the studio including Toy Story, the blockbuster film that really got the studio off the ground 20 years ago. This very entertaining presentation included some class participation where the Gamehouse artists got to create their own story and work on camera angles. We had a blast and learned a lot from Matthew.
It’s never too late to learn something new
Swag from the Pixar Master Classes
The Pixar Master Classes are being hosted by Van Arts. If you’re interested in becoming an animator for either the games business or for the film business, they have a great animation program. Other schools that you might want to check out include, Animation Mentor, an online animation school, CalArts and Rode Island School of Design.
Be sure to check out our job board for opportunities to work here at Gamehouse. Play Collapse! Blast, Mystic Ice Blast or Bayou Blast and have a great week!
Jeremy Jones
Lead Artist
GameHouse