|
|
 |
| Interview with Tim Borrelli |
|
Tim Borrelli, sole master of TimmyLand, willed me to send him some questions.
I summoned forth the effort to create said questions and direct them his way.
He then summoned forth the effort to answer them and then sent them back.
This is what happened:
To start off, tell us a bit about yourself. Who you are, where you went to
college, some stuff you do in your free time, etc etc etc.
Let's see... you know my name, because it's up there in title thingy... so I
can't lie about that. It all started back in 1976, I was a twinkle in me
mother's eyes... shortly thereafter I was watching cartoons in my home in New
Rochelle, NY. Then I went to Syracuse University, home of the 14 foot snowfalls
and the Orangemen, who have time and time again gotten my hopes up of winning a
football or basketball championship, and then fallen short, thus ripping my
heart out and letting it fall to the cold, hard ground.
In my free time, I like to crochet, run up to random people and tell them I am
the boogeyman, and giggle at the most nonsensical things. No, I am kidding. I
giggle at everything. I also like to go out to the amazing bar scene here in
Champaign, have a few, relax after a days work, and find my way back to play
some Tribes. As we all know, I am the greatest sniper in all of Tribes. :) I
also like to work out, cook, read and watch cartoons. Those all relax me.
Cartman kicks ass.
What exactly is it that you do at Volition?
I am the lead character animator on Summoner. I think I've animated two thirds
of the animation content of them game, the current content consisting of over
2700 in-game and cutscene animations.
I also make the programmers cringe when they see all the animations that are in
game. Muhahahahaha. I'm probably going to be told to re-export all the
animations for that. Oh well. :)
Do you have any expert tips on lawn care?
Hire a landscaper, and make sure he employs good, hard working individuals. :)
Our readers are dying to know, probably with the rest of the world, what
exactly is the "Corona Squirt" incident?
Due to legal obligations, all I can say is that it involves a corona, a lime, a
squirt, and a look of disgust. And laughing. I'll leave the rest up to you. :)
Halo or Tribes 2?
Like I need to answer this one... Halo of course! Kidding. Tribes 2. "<psshht>
You stayed in Corona's crosshairs for too long."
How did you first get into animation with 3D Software?
My father works at a computer store, and I grew up working part time there from
the age of 14 till about 20. I got hooked on games as well as creating art on
the computer, and when someone at the office brought in a copy of Strata Studio
Pro, I started messing with it and eventually found my calling. When I got to
Syracuse, I went through 2 years of hell programming graphics in Pascal (ack),
C, and C++ with OpenGL. After that, we started using Alias PowerAnimator. When I
got to Volition, I learned 3D Studio Max. Since my drawing skills weren't up to
par with most animated series and movies, I was thrilled when I learned one
could animate with a computer. I took all the traditional animation classes I
could find, and applied the same concepts to 3D animation.
About how
would you say are planned in Summoner (or already there)?
I think we'll have over 75 cutscenes, totalling over 75 minutes of amazing
camerawork, effects and animation. Don't worry, they're not all only 1 minute long.
What would you say is the hardest part of your job?
Hmm. This has to be getting all the work done that is necessary as fast as I
can, but also keeping the high quality that is expected of Volition artists.
Also, with the addition of Jason Shum, another character animator on Summoner,
helping him keep his work consistent and helping him improve, through critiquing
it, can be hard at times as well. You never know when you are saying the wrong
thing, even though it's meant in a constructive manner.
What do you think is your greatest achievement so far in Summoner?
For characters, it's a toss up between Titus (the Stone Demon) and the Orenian
Samurai. Both were a lot of fun to animate, and I am happy with how they both
came out. For cutscenes, I can't say until I'm done. :)
How would you say animating cutscenes compares to animating characters?
This is a good question. For in-game characters, each animation is a cycle. So
the action starts at a pose and ends at the same pose. With cutscenes, you have
to take into account position of the characters over the course of the entire
thing, shot by shot, from start to end. Also with cutscenes, you have to deal
with the characters acting, not just performing an action. Getting human emotion
pegged correctly is difficult, and figuring out the right times to use different
expressions, without overdoing it, is insanely hard. It's worth it in the end,
though, when it comes out looking how you envisioned it.
We all saw your research material in your Designer Diary over at PC IGN. How
often did you have to do that type of research and what was the best research
material you repeatedly viewed?
Hmmm. I probably did it for one third of the animations I did. A lot of them
warranted being different enough that I would run out of ideas for attacks and
other motions. The best materials I've viewed have been Braveheart (great horse
riding and battle sequences) and a tape that Matt Kresge had a friend make,
which contains all sorts of kung fu fighting sequences.
The Summoner Geeks movie you animated was a big hit around the gaming land -
is there a possibility of seeing more movies like that or old movies like that
being released in the future? How many of said satire movies exist?
I am amazed and thrilled at how well Summoner Geeks was received. I would love
to do a follow up, perhaps after Summoner is done and I have the time. Whether
or not anything will be released isn't up to me, as there are legal issues that
come up when dealing with copyrighted material. As for how many satire type
movies currently exist, I won't say, but they do take up 1GB of my hard drive...
Have anything else to add?
I would like to apologize to that cute little Timmy kid who came to visit our
offices on his field trip. Timmy, I am sorry I tried to make you mow my lawn. :)
[ed. Click here to see what he's talking about.]
As usual, here are the reader submissions. We actually had some good questions, which I was both shocked and amazed at.
Boxers or briefs?
Boxers, unless I'm playing a sport. Guys, you know why.
Who was the original character in the Summoner Geeks video before you changed
it to the Red Faction guy?
Heh, I wonder who would ask this question as though they knew there was an
answer? [ed. That would be Orange - was there ever any doubt?]... It was a Blue Imp. I'm happy I changed it.
Which artist on the Summoner team has the biggest hair?
If James Hague keeps up the "no haircut till we ship" thing, he will. I think
Kresge might be the winner right now, though.
What is the best type of lawn mower?
The L33T mower, I believe sold by John Deere.
I believe this is Timmy enjoying his new L33T Mower from John Deere.
Pic by Orange.
Am I getting drunk? Roll the dice to see if I'm getting drunk!
You shouldn't drink, because if there are girls there, they might just think you
were some sort of lush trying to hit on them. :)
What kind of time and manpower is needed to create cutscenes?
Well, right now, on Summoner, we have 2 setup/camera/export/make-it-work-in-game
guys (Kelly Snapka and Frank Marquart) and 2 animators (myself and Jason Shum)
going almost full time on them. The setup guys setup the cameras, bring the
elements needed for the cutscene into the Max file, and then hand it off to us.
Once we are done with the cutscene, it goes back to them to be exported into the
game.
Between the 2 of us animators, we animate about 4 to 5 minutes of cutscene
animation per week. Ideally, we would be able spend more time on them, but this
sort of speed is necessary, especially this late in the project. The best part
about going this fast, though, is we get them done and they still look good. And
we learn from each one, so we know what we can spend time tweaking on the next
one, streamlining the process even more.
What do you find are the most difficult expressions/gestures to create with a
character?
Sadness. Hesitation. Uncertainty. All types of animation where subtlety is
required. It's very easy to go overboard on posing and facial expression, giving
something that should be emotional and realistic, a very cartoony quality. In
any given line of dialogue one can find possibly 10 places to put a pose and
change an expression. The hard part is, figuring out which one or two places
will best convey the emotion being set by the dialogue.
Are there any other game cutscenes you can think of that have been an
inspiration to you?
In recent memory, Final Fantasy 8. Yes, they were mostly mo-capped, but the
facial animation was brilliant. It's the kind of emotion I hope we are able to
convey through the cutscenes in Summoner. [ed. For those who are lost with the "mo-capped" deal, mo-capped means "motion-captured". If you're still lost, well, I can't help you.]
Thanks again to Tim for answering the questions! Yay!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Volition Watch is copyrighted 2000 of Volition Watch Network
except where Volition, Interplay, THQ or respective authors may apply.
Web Design by Chris Haskett, Ben Dekarske, and Kyle Spahn
|
|
|
|
|
