Halo 3: ODST Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: I really hope the opening cinematic animations get improved
  • Subject: I really hope the opening cinematic animations get improved
Subject: I really hope the opening cinematic animations get improved

I just saw the full opening cinematic (watch it here) and while I have to say that it looks incredibly awesome (especially when the carrier jumps), the ODST animations look... poor. Like I said, practically everything else about the trailer is amazing, the drop sequence couldn't be cooler, but I couldn't help but noticing that the human animations just didn't look realistic. I hope that they get some more polish before the game ships.

  • 06.04.2009 11:25 AM PDT

Mike Lowery: [singing] Bad boys, bad boys what ya gonna do? What ya gonna do when we come for you?
[Marcus starts ad-libbing the first verse]
Mike Lowery: Dude, you gotta learn the words.
Marcus Burnett: We usually only do the chorus

note:creating an actual humanlike character is a very hard task,the walking is a thing most games find hard to recreate,and making the model skin animations and coding it all together can take days,weeks of work

  • 06.04.2009 11:27 AM PDT
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NO GROUP INVITES!!!

It's about the style. IMO they looked good. Remember, all of the ODSTs are annoyed and tense due the coming jump.

It's not as Halo 3's animations are much more realistic. The moment when Miranda is hit for example seems a bit strange.

  • 06.04.2009 11:28 AM PDT

On Waypoint I'm rocketFox;
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Old GTs; RebelRobot, Flamedude

Hmmm.... Must agree. Buck looked really weird when he was talking to Dare in front of the squad, very strange movement. Maybe it is going to get another work-over.

  • 06.04.2009 11:29 AM PDT

As long as there is a cinematic sequence similar to Monsters in Halo Wars, i'll be happy

  • 06.04.2009 11:30 AM PDT

Old School

i agree with you actually, there wasnt something quite right about the part when Dare and Buck walk in, looked a bit ....cheap? (maybe wrong word to put.)
however, the rest of it was awesome, i cant wait to watch the drop pods gettin shot out of the ship on my tv. looked so good, even more exciting than the chief in the escape pod crashin into halo!!!

[Edited on 06.04.2009 11:31 AM PDT]

  • 06.04.2009 11:30 AM PDT
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Do you think I suck? Do you haet me for my opinion?

Don't fear! Join The Anti USGov League and flame me freely!

It's an older build, don't worry.

Nathan Fillion is in the game? And so is Tricia Helfer?

KICK ASS.

  • 06.04.2009 11:30 AM PDT

We're building a better world...all of them, better worlds.

The cinematics for Halo 3 and ODST are done with the in-game engine. As such, they will not look as beautiful as a fully rendered computer animation running at full power.

The reason they do it this way is so players feel less like they are being pulled out of the game when a cut scene plays. Sure, the visuals are less impressive, but the entire gaming experience benefits from it.

  • 06.04.2009 11:31 AM PDT

i don't mind, and if you don't like them, skip them.

EDIT: MADMAN also has one of the best observations in this thread.

[Edited on 06.04.2009 11:33 AM PDT]

  • 06.04.2009 11:32 AM PDT

Just viewed this scene again, and i realized I really really like the way Bungie put the transitions from the cinematic sequence to first person view, It's really well done!
Edit: This scene, and Dutch's scene (setting charges)

[Edited on 06.04.2009 11:35 AM PDT]

  • 06.04.2009 11:35 AM PDT

93% of statistics are lies. Formerly Xfire Grunt. Unfortunately, you can't change the WLID for your BNET account, so I had to create an alternate account. My other WLID was spam city (and it was my e-mail account too).

I don't think the Halo engine models "human" characters (faces, etc) very well, it does a much better job on environments and vehichles. COD is the opposite. However, if you think about it, the Halo engine was built to render MC, and MC doesn't have a face, so the human faces, etc, were probably secondary when the engine was being built.

  • 06.04.2009 11:36 AM PDT

We're building a better world...all of them, better worlds.

All things considered, I think Bungie's cinematics team is one of the best in the business.

  • 06.04.2009 11:47 AM PDT
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Give me the same quality of cut scenes as seen in Halo Wars. Whether such pulls gamers out of the experience or not is up for debate. Frankly, I think Bungie's decision to build the cinematics in game is based on economics.

For those who played Halo Wars you know exactly what I'm talking about. The cinematics in that game were very memorable and, I might say, added additional value to my Halo Wars experience.

There was one particular cut scene which occurred in H3 where the crew is getting ready for battle inside the ships hanger. It's a rather long scene. Anyhow, this cutscene was so bad, in my opinion, that it actually detracted from my H3 experience as I had one of those, 'what is this junk, Bungie must have been rushed'...

link to the cutscene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgLfhGnaMyI&feature=PlayLi st&p=AE2D36CC0771EB3E&index=3

  • 06.04.2009 12:14 PM PDT

Posted by: snaky jones
note:creating an actual humanlike character is a very hard task,the walking is a thing most games find hard to recreate,and making the model skin animations and coding it all together can take days,weeks of work


I understand that it is hard work, but what you are saying would be equivalent to making a crappy game and saying "Making games is hard" and saying that you are justified in making a crappy game.

I know that Bungie doesn't use any mo-cap, and everything is hand animated, but I just don't see a level of quality that I saw with Halo 3's cinematics in this demo. I recall reading that Bungie was using a third party to help them direct their cinematics with Halo 3 and that is one of the reasons why they turned out so well, maybe they did everything in-house with ODST and didn't go for that extra third-party quality control, which explains the difference. I'm just saying that I hope I see this get improved because I'm not very impressed with what we saw initially, especially when you consider how cool and well done all of the other parts of the opening cinmeatic are. Take a look at the space tether when the slip space rupture happens, you can see pain and debris come flying off of it and it looks awesome. I would be willing to be that someone watched some old archival nuclear blast test footage before throwing that effect in.

  • 06.05.2009 12:32 PM PDT

Posted by: bigturns00
Give me the same quality of cut scenes as seen in Halo Wars. Whether such pulls gamers out of the experience or not is up for debate. Frankly, I think Bungie's decision to build the cinematics in game is based on economics.

For those who played Halo Wars you know exactly what I'm talking about. The cinematics in that game were very memorable and, I might say, added additional value to my Halo Wars experience.

There was one particular cut scene which occurred in H3 where the crew is getting ready for battle inside the ships hanger. It's a rather long scene. Anyhow, this cutscene was so bad, in my opinion, that it actually detracted from my H3 experience as I had one of those, 'what is this junk, Bungie must have been rushed'...

link to the cutscene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgLfhGnaMyI&feature=PlayLi st&p=AE2D36CC0771EB3E&index=3


I actually thought that scene was rather well done lol! But if you compare the animations of all the characters, it just seems to be much more realistic and polished than what we saw from the opening ODST cinematic.

  • 06.05.2009 12:42 PM PDT

On Waypoint I'm rocketFox;
http://halo.xbox.com/forums/members/rocketfox/default.aspx

Old GTs; RebelRobot, Flamedude

Proper rendered CGI animations really suit games like RTS but they don't suit FPS at all in my opinion. It's too disjointing to suddenly go from one quality to another that you are very familiar with.

My problem with animation wasn't the choice of format, it was just the actual movement of Buck. It seemed a little over emphasized to me.

  • 06.05.2009 12:45 PM PDT

Posted by: tyler mckitt
Cutscenes give out gamplay information and what you are supposted to do.
If you hate them just press A.


Ya they definitely don't set up story or build on important characters. Yeah nothing like that. (sarcasm)

  • 06.05.2009 4:37 PM PDT

I don't think they can get any better. Halo 3's engine is a bit old in terms of facial animations and character model detail. From what I've seen they are pushing the engine to the limit in this game. The animations are far more fluid than in Halo 3's cutscenes.

  • 06.05.2009 4:48 PM PDT

Hey

a they kinda looked cartoony. But remeber Bungie put some hard work and a bucketload of bagels into this game.

  • 06.05.2009 4:51 PM PDT
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Posted by: ROCK3TTman24
As long as there is a cinematic sequence similar to Monsters in Halo Wars, i'll be happy


Same, Monsters=Best cutscene ever.

  • 06.05.2009 4:54 PM PDT

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In the Bungie podcast it is said that some of the polish had to be stripped away to make the demo, though this may be referring to gameplay, not cutscenes.

  • 06.05.2009 5:09 PM PDT
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IGNORE THE DAMN GAMERTAG! It's my brother's. Feel free to spam him with messages. >:)

A agree, actually.

  • 06.05.2009 5:19 PM PDT