Cuphead's Animation Process and Philosophy
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ส.ค. 2017
- In this 2017 GDC bootcamp, Studio MDHR's Jake Clark explains his design and animation processes for the game Cuphead, and shares practical ideas and tips for 2D animation.
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I'll go through a million "how-to" videos, but none of them are as valuable as hearing an artist talk about their process.
L
I recommend howtobasic if ur looking for how-to videos
John Field Show it’s so damn close to 666 likes
Warzombie3701 # I turned it to 667
Donkey Kong YOU *MONSTER*
A great example that shows that a delayed game can pay off in a great way, waiting time for cuphead was really worth.
Cuphead and A Hat in Time came out at the same time after both being delayed for years and they turned out great, but let's not pretend that's the norm. Most delayed games are just stuck in development hell, being pulled in every direction with no clear vision, wasting resources.
@BlueDiamond
It pays off for us sometimes, but not always for the corporation. Obviously, they'll go with the option that makes the more sense for them. Also, not all companies have the same brand recognition as Valve or Blizzard. They also don't all have the same size.
You also have cases where a publisher has multiple developers working for them. If one dev needs a time extension, it can throw off the entire release schedule for that publisher.
It's not always as easy as "just give them more time and it will pay off".
"A delayed game is eventually good, but a bad game is bad forever."
Jorge Vila k
I feel the problems arise when there's a budget involved. Delay a game too long and a small company will run out of money to development. A lot of smaller games come out early not because the devs want to push it out before it's ready, but because they have to in order to keep development funded. And the Catch 22 in this case is that if people aren't willing to buy the incomplete game, then the game will likely never get finished.
Hey GDC editors: please linger longer on the slides, especially when the speakers are showing off the cool artwork they are talking about.
Foomandoonian i'm always stressed out when i see the presenter glance towards what i assume are the slides like WHAT IS HAPPENING OVER THERE AAAAH
Foomandoonian thats why we have pause buttons lol
Alec Skinner the man is talking about what is on the slides, we can put information to a picture whilst hearing it. It's not just about getting a better look
yeah i didn't understood why we spent something like 15 minutes without this side by side presentation we can see at 6:00 for exemple.... Was just daimn practical, and then... just one or the other. Why da F?!
I mean, he's changing the slides....
I love people being creative
Such a simple yet genuine comment.
Sand Bag simple is good
LETS GET CREATIVE!
Alex Bee Quick question. Why is it that green is not a creative color, but black is?
+John Velasquez IS THIS A DHMIS REFERENCE
The attention to detail is amazing and it makes me feel comfortable with the delays. I'd rather it come out when it's completely finished than it being rushed.
doesn't mostly everyone feel the same? but I suppose you say this to convince others.
Preach!
Jose Castillo no as much people want things perfected many want the game now especially when developers or company's put a time constraint to meet a dead line or the holidays
I am glad to see they want to make everything as perfect as possible
Seriously! When they were making a game that was fully animated I was like, "Damn. This is gonna take a WHILE".
And it all turned out to be worth it. The game is a masterpiece.
"Breadwinners for Nickelodeon"
oh, you poor soul.
Yeah, thank god he redeemed him self.
Who cares
Everyone except you.
JakeyStar 2017 If you watched that show, then you would know why we care
Sketchbook Online I watched the show but I never finished it due to how terrible it was.
"A bit thicker"
The best decision.
icarus212001 thicc
10:30
I hope Cuphead inspires more cartoon style video games. There efforts really payed off big time with this game.
Their*
Miles Harris
It was a 7 year process. Have fun waiting for a decade for each game.
For games of this caliber 7 years is easily worth it. Traditional animation can do things that other variations of the medium cannot and visa versa. Traditional animation is defiantly worth keeping alive imo and this game is a prime example. I hope this game inspires many to follow in its footsteps.
@@milesharris335 if you like hand drawn animated games then I think you'd love Skullgirls, tho I kinda have a feel you already know it jfjds
on my way
If they make an art book of this game, I'm SOOO buying it.
Soulful Arts well… they did
A little late commenting here. They have in fact created an art book on Cuphead. I just recently purchased it on Amazon.
This guy may not be as old as alot of developers but he's very talented and creative.
This game is WAY WAY WAAAAY more amazing than i thought
Hand drawn Animation is soo tedious and time consuming. But man it's awesome seeing your work come to life.
Poor guy worked on pretty meh/crappy stuff before cuphead. I'm just glad he's finally gotten his big break with cuphead
This game is one of the most authentic games ever!
I seriously cannot wait for this game. This was one of the best ones I have seen on it.
;)
long live traditional animation
This is seriously cool, haven't clicked on a video this fast in a while.
I really liked this talk. I always enjoy when people put some humor in them plus this guy seems to have a lot of passion in the project.
I'll give him credit for being up in front of such a huge audience. He looked really nervous, and the constant pacing was quite distracting. It was so interesting to see how they animate, and how much effort went in to preserve the authenticity!
i was thinking the same thing. He should have rehearsed in front of someone and got some feedback. This is why its good to take speech classes as well. I just wanted to bolt his feet to the ground the whole time.
3 years later. I gotta say. Cuphead truly is a work of art. I appreciate the work that went into it immensely. So much so I bought it for my 7 year old and he went nuts over it and beat it before I was able to get around to it.
>does math
>2016
>hmmm.jpg
he put >does math
I urge you all to watch Max Fleischer's cartoons. He's all but unheard of now which is criminal in itself - let alone the fact that Walt Disney stole his ideas.
Seconded
Thirded
He didn't steal anything, get over yourself.
Walt Disney didn't steal anything, but yes, everyone should watch Max Fleischer's stuff, if not for anything than to get into the mood and mindset of the Cuphead game!
Anyone can dream few can actually do it. Fleischer was a dreamer Walt could actually put it into practice. Thus he won the cartoon war.
He's honestly not awkward. Just imagine doing a project for about 3 years knowing every sing detail of it inside and out. All of that shit is packed in your head and you have to present it in about 30 minutes. People who think alot tend to stutter and repeat themselves.
Fun fact: Betty Boop was originally a dog, as seen in the reference notes @10:05. At some point, she became a human character, though I'm not sure if Max Fleischer or his animation studio publicly acknowledged this.
this is not a indie game This is a REAL ART
A game is a real art
Hi, yes :)
The two are not mutually exclusive.
It's still an indie game..
ya, but indie games are real art.
Totally agree. The movement of characters is too realistic these days, they don't squash n stretch enough. The beauty of animation is being able to move characters in crazy/fun ways, so why not do it. This game looks amazing and I can't wait to get my filthy mits all over it! 😄
Exactly! This is also why I hate it when people complain about animated characters not looking realistic. Fx. One Piece, some people complain that most of the women are too skinny, and have too large breasts, and that it's unrealistic, but why not? This is the one medio where this stuff is possible, so why not just do whatever you feel like with it?
I agree that its starting to be something I notice. Using heavy reliance on basic rigs seem to make people forget that these characters aren't limited by flesh and bone, you can do wacky shit with them. Except most of the time they still use realistic motions and don't have the fluidity that older cartoons seems to have employed with glee.
I wish people gave Ub Iwerks the credit he deserves!
What I seriously hate about animation in videogames especially (but also in some TV shows and movies) is both _lack_ of realism in realistic characters, and too much realism in cartoony characters. The former look like lifeless marionettes, the latter like people in costumes.
Realistic animation has it's place, but it makes me sad that we don't get nearly as much fun loosenes as we used to
Lol that cigar boss. Can't wait to play this gameeeeeee
Amazing artwork
Bland Blend the ironic thing is that he’s a mini boss of king dice
Part of the reason I watch these GDC vids is to see how all the different speakers cope with their immense nervousness.
This was really interesting + informative as someone who wants to do 2D animation for a living. People who liked this should definitely check out another video on GDC's channel called "Making Fluid and Powerful Animations For Skullgirls"
When you play you can really feel the hard work and passion that they put into their game.
The mermaid is one of my favorite bosses in the game so its fascinating to see how she was made. So stoked for release! I've already pre-ordered.
A lot of cartoons nowadays still use traditional animation, but they use digital coloring and compositing to make it look all digital. CN is the best example. Steven Universe is all hand animated, but digitally colored/composited.
This animation is miles above Steven Universe's though. Or really anything on TV.
As far as I know CN themselves heavily encourage the use of flash though, to save time and money. Shows like Johnny Test started out hand drawn then quickly switched to flash.
The key poses/animations are done on paper, everything else is done digitally
Cuphead was also colored digitally though
CyBro Cuphead was ONLY colored digitally using photoshop. Everything else was done by hand
he worked on bread winners?! you poor poor guy.....
that game looks sooo pretty
that looks gorgeous
Interesting, didn't know that 3D is all about roundness and how 1930s cartoons transition into that better than more pointy 2D styles.
As just a video game fan, I found this presentation so interesting. It also put into light how hard it is to make a great video game.
"Don't do the math"
Kross Gonzalez Yeah, don't do it. It's off by a year! :p
"Math, not even once"
17:59 I love the childlike simplicity of this instruction! 🤣
This cigar is no longer pure in my mind 23:00
Cigars were never pure to begin with
It doesn't help that the cigar looks like a penis getting crushed by a shoe which is exactly what happens in the crushing porn he talked about.
DragonScythe fr
ElyskeTheDonut This comment has 69 likes now...
ElyskeTheDonut I
I always loved the style of old cartoons. I'm glad somebody was able to recreate that style with incredible similarity.
Little did the audience knew, the game would be a MASTERPIECE.
I'm honestly so blown away by the amount of creativity and effort put into this game. It truly is a masterpiece
People.. Just focus on the presentation and get the information from the guy. Stop worrying about how he acts and talks. It's not a high school assignment for you to grade.
mytommy That's exactly what we're trying to do. A big part of presentation is to maintain composure and speak clearly and fluently or else you'll distract the audience.
The most important part of public speaking and giving presentations is your speaking and presentation. Having only interesting information can only get you so far, and it's important to keep an audience engaged. We are allowed to critique him
MrMrannoying exactly who? Assholes? I think we'd like to see one of these "we're" people present to hundreds of people.
MrMrannoying I got the info pretty clearly. It wasn't that distracting. Helluva lot better than I could do lol
People are distracted by how he acts and talks? I thought he did fine.
well that turned out pretty good in the end
It's sad when a video game puts more effort into their animation than the vast majority of animated shows these days.
Gorgeous.
10:30 "thiccer"
... proceed.
𝓮𝔁𝓽𝓻𝓪 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓬𝓬
making a GDC before the game is out? Sounds like No Man Sky thing to do.
What did I expect from an anime girl icon
Stop referring Cuphead to No Man's sky. this game will be good, no matter if it fails, the animation has guaranteed 5 stars
+MrPhantaze it's at least persona 5
Funny, I was just watching a livestream of the mermaid battle and commented on how much I loved the animation of her hips...
Best $20 I’ve spent on a game in a long time.
All those years for this game was worth it lol
Hats off.
Arthur Hakhverdian nah, hats on, gotta be sunsmart
I remember seeing him in the hallways in Capilano. Nice guy.
This is amazing. Rough crowd, some people I guess can't appreciate the hard work and passion put into these things. It's evident that this is a project made from the heart.
CombatWombat19 how is it a rough crowd?
Well said
Sean Watts Moore Not really very interactive or engaging with him
You can't hear the crowd because the purpose of these videos is to record and listen to his presentation, not the crowd, so they only record his mic.
It doesn't make sense to create a presentation video with dirty audio.
Not to mention it would be rude to react to someone trying to present their product... he doesn't want a standing ovation; he's not an entertainer.
This was a great way to see how Cup head's animation process works!
It was totally worth it!
17:14 it's really interesting. one can still see the keyframes a bit, but it look's so authentic
You can tell how much work went into this game, it's just amazing that people still care about trying something new in this industry and actually bite the bullet.
I thought that the cigar's death animation was hilarious and brilliant. Good choice!
Thank you for this! It's amazing to see the character and animation development of this game! I especially love how he went into how the cuphead team actually studied the character designs of the 1930s. A big pet peeve of mine is when people try to make something in a "1930's cartoon style", but dont do any research or studies on *how* those characters back then were designed.
The guy animating for Breadwinners did Cuphead? Good for him!
Wow! So cool to see how the designs were such a culmination of so many different ideas / iterations from Jake, coupled with the suggestions from the art director. I tried adapting a few characters I liked of Sim Gretina's as Cuphead bosses, but I had the benefit of only having to merge two similar styles. It was a lot of fun.
Ive been gaming since 1981 and Cuphead is by far the most genius and creatively animated game with stellar game mechanics Ive ever seen. Each boss is so unique, yet the overall style carries perfectly throughout the entire game. I havent even played it and its my favorite game. Truly a masterpiece. You guys deserve all the awards you can get.
Jake: "this animation was too gnarly for a rated E game"
Jake 30 seconds later: "so anyway I was looking at some CBT for reference..."
I really love this talk and getting to see the process the art design went through! I am an Art Historian at an entertainment university, and getting to hear you talk about this is so valuable to be able to relate that information to students!
it's really cool to see the process behind such a simple, yet complicated game like cuphead. and it's cool to see that part of his thinking process is whether he would enjoy playing it, and whether he would enjoy creating it. i feel like nowadays the thinking process is "can it make us well over 200% profit?" and if the answer is no, they force it to fit into their huge profit margins.
One of my all time favorite games thanks for the talk and thanks for all the art and memories!
Playing this co-op has been a delight every single time, made good friends that way.
Cuphead has such a unique art style, love the game 🙌
Fantastic work. Keeping one of the greatest art forms alive. Kudos!
Favorite GDC talk by far!
10:29 T H I C C
Wait, so everything you look at on the game (except probaby character movement) is on paper? If so, THAT IS DEVOTION
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:00 🎮 *Cuphead is a 2D action game inspired by 16-bit era games and styled to look like a 1930s cartoon, with traditional paper animation, watercolor backgrounds, and live-recorded jazz music.*
03:34 🖌️ *Designing characters for a 1930s cartoon style involves simplicity, solid shapes, round lines, and "rubber hose" limbs. Referencing classic character designs and considering gameplay and animation potential are key.*
12:07 🎨 *Animation starts with visualization and acting out the movements, using the body as a tool. Identifying non-negotiable elements and creating breakdowns help refine the animation process.*
17:38 🕹️ *The animation process for Cuphead involves creating hand-drawn animations on paper, scanning them, and inking them by hand onto paper, resulting in a time-consuming but unique visual style.*
20:44 💨 *Creativity plays a significant role in designing unique death animations in the game while considering the game's rating. Monty Python-inspired ideas can lead to distinctive and entertaining animations.*
23:41 🎨 *Cuphead's commitment to authenticity involves using traditional animation techniques, including paper animation, watercolor backgrounds, and live-recorded jazz music.*
24:49 🕹️ *The team's choice to stick with 1930s-style animation is not just about the look but also the creative freedom it provides for gameplay design, allowing them to come up with unique and imaginative ideas.*
25:59 🎮 *A significant benefit of the 1930s cartoon style is the complete freedom it offers for gameplay design. They can create any gameplay mechanics they want and then build the subject matter around it.*
26:23 🎈 *The 1930s cartoon style allows for creative and unconventional ideas, like characters turning into bottles, dancing lamps, and more, which adds to the game's unique charm.*
27:06 🎮 *Follow Jake Clark on Twitter for updates on animations, designs, and concept art related to Cuphead. He shares content based on what has been revealed in trailers and gameplay videos.*
Made with HARPA AI
THE DAY IS HERE!
Damn the animation at 16:05 is amazing
Very impressive dedication, it’s a game you can really get behind the success of
The dude is trying to get his steps on the counter while having a speach ^^
Love that animation style!
I love that she talked about the mermaid. She is one of my favorite characters !
Great speaking skills, it looks like the nerves hit him but he just powered through it!
if people like these are given recources given to big AAA , they would change the game industry
The issue is the AAA companies have bad development processes and usually only care about making money
The wait was worth it.
I'm glad to know professional animators also walk around like little kids imagining what they want before doing. Makes me feel less dumb
Love the aesthetic of this game.
Awesome talk, I've pre-ordered the game already looking forward to it.
congratulations to the whole team. keep up the good work guys !!!
I'll get the game for the animation alone. So much thought, dedication, and time went into it.
Anyone seen Clone High? *silence... proceeds to talk about it anyway*
Ballz out the coolest concept I've ever heard of
with such a little team,yet they did it, frame by frame!
we need more games with artsyles like cuphead
They’d be called copies
This was so damn informative.
love the art, love the gameplay. worth the wait!
Great game, very challenging, good animation, good sound track. Well worth the money.
One of the best Indie platformers.
Great to watch and learn this talk.
Man, we need more run n gun games. To this day, I still remember the joy of playing and beating metal slug.
Maybe you shouldn't put Breadwinners on your resume....
eh B O O T Y. K I C K
Uh, yes he should? While Breadwinners is a bad show, being able to say that he worked on a show for Nickelodeon is an excellent thing to put on your resume, especially for animators.
McDuders it was just a joke my friend.
Regardless, I'll just leave that in here just in case people get the wrong idea.
McDuders alright.
Super cool presentation!!! Soooooooo much love put into this wonderful game!! Absolutely amazing!
That Cigar Boss is bad ass!
GENIUS!
"Coming 2016"
Comes out in 2017
Christopher Daniels +80 years
I haven't heard of Cuphead 'till 2018...so theres that.-_-