GDC is 2 weeks away, and this year I’m running the Tech Animation Roundtable again. I’m hoping to get more animators, character artists and AI programmers involved this year so we can get some great discussions on everything that goes into character performance- from concept, to model, to rigging, to animation, and into game.
I hope to see many of you there, and let your non-tech animator friends know about it as well! Here is the current schedule:
I’m willing to come to the roundtable(s). As it is my first time being on the GDC(hurray! ) I’d like to ask you if every roundtable has the same agenda and you guys are talking about the same topic again and again so that everybody can listen to the discussed things.
Or is it more an evolving iteration so somehow the last gathering sums up most of the discussions?
Each day typically has a different agenda- sometimes a topic spills over into the next day, but more often than not each roundtable session stands on its own. If you are interested in reading about last year’s, I wrote a GDC trip report, here:
Awesome! Looking forward to seeing everyone there!
We’re a little over a week out, and I’m starting to figure out some jumping point topics. Anyone have anything they’d like to discuss right off the bat?
[QUOTE=anim8d;14519]Awesome! Looking forward to seeing everyone there!
We’re a little over a week out, and I’m starting to figure out some jumping point topics. Anyone have anything they’d like to discuss right off the bat?[/QUOTE]
I can’t think of any specific topics off the top of my head, but I had an idea about how you could break up the discussion between days. You had mentioned at one point that you wanted to perhaps focus less on technical animation and more on character performance development as a whole, so it might be interesting to focus one day on engineering concerns, one day on content concerns, and maybe even a day on gasp production concerns. This could be a double-edged sword in that people who don’t have the appropriate domain knowledge for a specific day’s discussion might feel disengaged, but the flipside is that different disciplines would really get to hear from each other, and if you were to state on the first day what each day’s dicussion focus was going to be, people could opt out.
Has Maya caught up with Motionbuilder to be good enough for a mocap pipeline?
Mocap prototyping in production. How many people are using in house Kinects and other cheap setups to get a first pass of animation in?
Looking good vs Feeling good, where is the line drawn and who is the arbiter?
These might all start flame wars, but I’d be curious to see how studios handle them.
I’d second Seth’s idea of posting the agenda for each day up in advance. I’m sure people would love to know if a topic close to their heart is going to get discussed so they can prioritize the roundtable against other talks.
PS: Erik, I’ll take Anders to as many talks as I can =)
Having a timetable of planned topics beforehand would be nice.
I definitely have to prioritize the roundtables against other talks.
I’m interested in hearing anything about the topics Ikruel mentioned.
As I’m attending the GDC for the first time. It’s always good finding anything out about the peoples weapons of choice(Maya, Max, Motionbuilder) regarding the task they have to solve and how the figures are averaged.
How many are using Maya, MAX or Motionbuilder in terms of character setup, animation, export to engine, etc. . What plugins/middlewares do they use(purchased vs. self developed). Which engine did/do they work with in their last or current project.
Do you make surveys about these application in order to see how the whole industry branch evolved over the years?
I think we’ve all been to enough roundtables to know, you can make all the itineraries you want, at some point after that first flight takes off you’re going to be kidnapped by separatists and the whole thing is going to go way differently than it was supposed to.
Just come up with some topics (I really like Luiz’s, let’s come up with some more), open a bottle of wine, and let’s see where the roundtable takes us, shall we?
Great topic ideas! Definitely love the production concerns and look good vs. feel good topic ideas.
I’m in agreement with Rob about setting daily itineraries. I could do so, but we’ll never stick to them. Also, I worked with the GDC folks to move one session to avoid conflicts, hence the 5:30 Thursday time. It was slated to go against the Resident Evil bone code talk, though I see now that I am up against Gear 3 Cinematics that day- ARGH.
Whatever the schedule, I am hoping each session will be filled with enthusiastic participants! I’ll be sure to direct the conversation in a way that will (hopefully) keep everyone interested in coming back
Awesome time! Thanks a lot guys, it was very interesting.
What a pity that the roundtables were only one hour. They could be a whole day if you ask me.
Any chances that might happen for the next GDC?
) I’d like to ask you if every roundtable has the same agenda and you guys are talking about the same topic again and again so that everybody can listen to the discussed things.