Visual Effects in Retro Games
As I sat down today and started trying to figure out the workflow for one of our levels, I realized that I’m not as up on my 2D Effects animation as I should be. As a vfx artist for feature film, I’ve been spoiled with getting to mimic reality. I develop procedural systems for effects that react to what’s happening in the environment and just behave the way one would expect based on a pre-determined set of conditions. Simulation! It’s a whole different beast from what I’ll be doing in our game!
Something that I find interesting is that over the years, I’ve been able to find an incredible wealth of knowledge out there on how to do the things I want to do. All around the world are people who are eager to share the secrets of their craft. There’s the Pixar libaray, countless SIGGRAPH white papers, super helpful people on forums such as Odforce, or 3DBuzz… and heck that’s just for 3d graphics… the amount of tutorials you can find on YouTube on everything from cooking to how to use YouTube. But what’s particularly interesting about this is that I find it very difficult to find information about classically animated effects.
I’m not sure what the cause is for this lack of information. Is it because classical animation is an art that was mainly done by introverted workaholics (Hey, no insult meant! For the most part I fit into that category too!)? Is it because the craft is now all but dead and those with the know-how are more interested in remaining employable by getting work when they can than teaching others how to take the work from them? Is it because the generation of artists most skilled with this trade grew up pre-interweb and just aren’t keen on typing up stuff on the blogosphere? Maybe the knowledge is out there but I suck at searching? There is some stuff out there if you know what to look for, but it’s honestly quite tough to find tips from experienced professionals on retro visual effects.
At any rate, as someone who is now trying to figure out how I’m going to be animating the graphics for a retro game, I just wanted to say that I’ve got huge respect for those out there with the classical animation chops to make cool explosions, and water, and magic swirly things that I’ve always taken for granted.
The first game that I remember ever taking notice of the visual effects in was probably Final Fantasy III (FFVI for the diehards that won’t tolerate me slandering the holy series by referring to it as it was originally known in the west) on the Super Nintendo. If you check out the intro, You’ll see that for it’s time this was actually a phenomenally well put together game.
There’s lots of great things going on, but lets stick with the effects… It begins with the ominous lightning and flaming text at the beginning. Once it starts panning around the city, we get to see some great steam and spinning parts showing life in the cold little mining town. From that point, you can skip to 3:42 in, and then we get to see the bits of snow falling as the opening credits play over a “3d” background. Graphics like this were pushing the boundaries of the SNES! And I remember at the time, that this was amazing! This was part of what got me interested in visual effects!
I remember in 1995, pausing and un-pausing this game, studying how that bolt beam was animated. This was magic to me. And I don’t just mean… this is what magic was conceptually… like… I thought I could cast these spells if I learned how to harness my innate MP… (I did think this) I mean… the experience of watching this stuff was magic. There were tons of great magic spell effects in this game, and in Chrono Trigger. But the thing with effects is, is that the best ones are usually ones that aren’t supposed to stand out. They’re ones that are just supposed to make you suspend your disbelief and help you be emersed in the experience.
I remember being in love with effects in early PC games like Quest For Glory. Stuff like the above waterfall is still beautiful to me today. I love that you can look at these insanely simplified blocks of colour are able to tell what they represent. When you get caught up in playing these games you never really give it a second thought. That’s a waterfall. You’ll drink from it, fill your waterskin, and cautiously try not to slip on the spray soaked rocks that you must climb… in order to talk to the crazy hermit, Henry. And it’s stuff like that waterfall that got me thinking about this post in the first place. The header image shows an explosion from Metal Slug: one of the most beautiful games I can think of, but it isn’t the explosions that have me captivated so much as it is the cycled water animation at the beginning of the third Metal Slug (embedding has been disabled on this video).
Anyways, I’ve just picked up the ebook of Elemental Magic, Volume I: The Art of Special Effects Animation, and I’m looking forward to checking it out.