ABSTRACT
Video game animation is both an artistic and technical challenge. Regardless of the level of technical responsibility placed on the game animator, an understanding of the entire pipeline transforms regular game animators into indispensable resources as they wear many hats and help solve technical problems. Before a single frame of animation can be created, first there must be a character to animate. Early considerations that animators should express, many of which can even be anticipated at the concept phase, typically revolve around how the character will deform once skinned and animated. Nothing beats the visual eye of a dedicated technical animator making the final adjustments, so sufficient time for skinning each new character should always be included in the schedule. Beyond the rigging associated with the character, it should be at the animator’s discretion to make use of custom scene rigging to achieve the desired result as long as the animation still exports correctly.
