how Overwatch broke everything to animate its characters

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[@Quick-Silver206]

Alls I know is that a certain subset of animators has kept Overwatch more relevant than it's creators have...

[@wnihaunter3943]

giggity

[@salty_deez]

Rule34?

[@badmonkey5972]

wait they made Overwatch into a videogame??

[@Quick-Silver206]

@@badmonkey5972 it's wild ain't it? The porn was so popular it got a video game

[@StylizedStation]

This 'subset' of animators actually came up with several breakthrough technologies in animation. Might be too spicy to talk about for a KZbin audience though.

[@cloudbankcity]

as someone who's always been interested in animation i thought everyone knew about smear frames LMAO

[@lodewijk.]

basically everyone does but itms not so obvious how to implement it in 3D animation

[@DaisiesTC]

@@lodewijk. It is very common in 3D animation and has been since pretty much the beginning of 3D animation, just not common in games. But there are definitely games that have done it before, like League of Legends and Jak & Daxter.

[@Neothunder240]

@@DaisiesTC Tobe more specific, the cocnepts of stretch and squash are very common in 3d animation, but this amount of deformation to create literal 3d smear frames isn't by a long shot. Mostly because it requires specific arstyles and rigs to even be possible.

[@mauwwwww]

@@Neothunder240 they're more common than you think. But you're right it depends on style

[@kerosenn7016]

Yeah I’ve extracted Overwatch models before and the amount of bones they have purely for the body is insane compared to others in the industry

[@LostTerminalVideos]

To be fair, NPR 3D animation studios have been doing stuff like this for decades. Overwatch was just the first game to implement these methods of animation

[@charliewagner6387]

Even in games it wasn't the first. I think here it's just an occurence of Overwatch being a high-profile AAA game of which the animation is pretty well regarded, but AFAIK it's usage of smear frames is not revolutionary. I get that videos need to be hype and keep your attention but this is kinda sad.

[@silly118]

Huh? The first? These methods have been in the Animatior's survival kit since the beginning of time. Literally lesson 101 in every 3D animation courses.

[@readyforlol]

The original Jack & Daxter for the PS2, which released in 2001, was already doing that. Overwatch wasn't the first game to implement these methods of animation. Not by a longshot.

[@SL4PSH0CK]

Oh cool, I haven't been in the middle of the video since I browse the comment section 1st, so I guess this odd animation is a way to create the illusion of fast movement

[@MangaGamify]

That's my fave animation, NTR 3D

[@theblackunicorn261]

Say what we want about the company, but their art and animation teams never let us down

[@alexradice8163]

Diablo 3

[@xscripto280]

wow@@alexradice8163

[@extraterrestrialgoose8738]

Junker Queen's Five Fingers highlight intro would like to introduce itself

[@-zushen]

Tier Sets in wow

[@hampler6027]

the problem is that the art and animation team is the only one that didnt let us down

[@thelordz33]

They didn't "break the rules." Smear frames are almost as old as animation itself.

[@dizzyndead]

yea that title is rlly clickbaity and even the vid seems like its trying hard to keep your attention just to say that its smear frames lol. i love stylized station but this is odd

[@snesmocha]

@@dizzyndeadstylized station in a nutshell, it’s getting worse as of late

[@natayaway]

3d smear frames done at this level are more difficult. blizzard has shared a whitepaper at siggraph regarding their techniques in authoring their genman rig to incorporate smear frames into their animation pipeline

[@TonkarzOfSolSystem]

I think they meant that they "broke the rules" for 3D animation in games. That's not true either as smear frames in 3D animation in games is nearly as old as 3D animation in games (check out Mario's jump kick in Mario 64 kick for an early example).

[@natayaway]

@@TonkarzOfSolSystem those aren't smear frames technically, it's just scaling specific sections of the body, not making them noodle-y. even in smash melee which uses a proper skeleton and has it mostly all in the same mesh instead of tris cobbled together, it isnt noodle-y there either, its still just scaling with a weight paint that ends on the elbow and knee.

[@philledzone]

Love or hate Overwatch, but the work put into their animations is amazing!

[@lucataranto6553]

yes, the animations and voice actors are really immaculate in this game. The people working behind the well-being of the game... not so much, but it is what it is

[@Daiyamaruu]

The game is amazing and always Will be. The people managing the game, not.

[@hydroflasks3571]

The game is nice. But if another company other than blizzard took control of it, it would be 100% better. it’s the only company that’s worse than EA.

[@longislandlegoboy]

@@hydroflasks3571Blizzard is many things, most of them are some variation of incompetent, but worse than EA is not one of those things

[@AyushSharma-ne9zs]

​@@Daiyamaruuoverwatch 1.5 is a downgrade of overwatch 1

[@antramp5494]

I died a little inside when he said "How they made a very special technique that changed the animation world forever"

[@diegocorvalan5435]

Is not as clear in the video but he means the tecnology, before this animation where possible and did happend in 3d but was all manual, with this is way easier

[@antramp5494]

@@diegocorvalan5435 Guilty Gear Xrd was revealed in 2013 Just correct me if I'm wrong about this one Edit: Just searched it up and they could indeed do the same thing with the models in guilty gear xrd. They just utilize more flat smearing (most likely manipulatable model on it's own) to look more like anime, but still used bendable models as seen in this video. Guilty Gear probably wasn't the first to do this, but it was before overwatch

[@boxerhummer]

​@@antramp5494also crash bandicoot was doing stuff like this back in the 90's. Not exactly the same but yeah, overwatch is not exactly a pioneer in 3D smearing in games.

[@dreamhollow]

I love smear frames. What a weird, useful technique for making fluid and believable animations.

[@chunkbungus]

0:30 Tracer be swangin' on the right lol

[@h.plovecraftn-4307]

😂😅hahaha

[@morbid1.]

What do you mean "broke the rules"... they literally followed all the rules of animation. If you don't know what are those, google "12 principles of animation".

[@PaulThureau]

"Broke the rules of videogames' standard character rigging", better?

[@readyforlol]

@@PaulThureau Except that stuff's been used in dozens of games since as far back as the early 2000s. Still very much standard.

[@NemoNobodySMT]

@@PaulThureau except it's not...

[@PaulThureau]

@@readyforlol I don't think the video was stating they invented it? We can all agree it's not the most common animation / rigging process for a AAA fps game, that's all

[@BainesMkII]

@@PaulThureau The video states the animators of Overwatch "made a very special technique that changed the animation world forever".

[@revulpes6071]

Love your videos man! but there is a mistake in this one. Every animator/rigger knows this is a very, very common technique. It's not innovative at all. I would agree they pulled it off perfectly, but to call it an innovation would be unjust to every game or animation studio that existed before OW. Still, great educational videos overall; please keep it up

[@itsasquid]

Yeah, this is a technique used a lot in film animation. I get that you don't see it a lot in games, but all it probably is that the tech animators incorporated a ribbon rig (God rest their souls). There's several tutorials out there showing how this works.

[@MisterBr0wn]

I think it isn't used a lot in games, because flat hierarchy, which enables such smears and tweaks, is a source of trouble when you start transitioning from one animation to another, since it's not only interpolating the rotation but also the position of bones.

[@therealpeter2267]

Most of what is shown on the channel isn't innovative at the current time, everything shown here has been done years before

[@lntelIectuaI]

its not used in a lot of games its the first 3d game using this

[@silvertaken]

Yeah, just as an example, Guilty Gear Xrd implemented the same technic, but executed diferently to adap it to a 2.5D (3D models, but still give the perception of a 2D game) fighting game. There are some videos documenting how it was done.

[@PolyglotPlays]

Dragon Ball Fighterz uses the same techniques to get that "anime look" we love so much and it's really cursed when you pause the game at certain moments but it's very effective at cveying motion and fast movement!

[@BainesMkII]

Arc System Works has been doing it with their 3D games since Guilty Gear Xrd, which came out a few years before Overwatch.

[@lilwintery6434]

​@@BainesMkII I think this is implemented in a way that is different, the smears in guilty gear are created by hand to fit the locked 60 fps frame rate and static camera angle, where this is interpolated like normal 3d animation so it scales to any frame rate.

[@WidgetVTuber]

What you talk about is slightly different. Xrd, Strive, DBFZ, Granblue, Etc all look basically like a perfect anime shot if you pause the game during a super. What Arc System works does is a little bit more advanced than overwatch's animation team, where the bones are changed, distorted and moved around in order for 2D animation to translate to 3D. Where it gets cursed is when you move the camera to angles that the animators didn't fine tune because the shot wasn't meant to be viewed by that angle. As far as I know, Arcsys was the first to perform this technique with a 3D fighting game to make it look like 2D. Which is impressive considering Toriyama struggles having his characters look to make sense. I'm just hyped for GBFVSR!

[@xscripto280]

now imagine the devs had as much respect and commitment for the craft as the artists

[@diegocorvalan5435]

The devs are great, the company is shooting them constantly with dumb shit

[@lilowhitney8614]

Imagine the executives had this much commitment and respect and allowed the devs the resources to do their work.

[@V1Z13R]

Exaggeration, squash and stretch are part of the core principles of animation. That someone would be surprised animators would do this says they lack a fundamental understanding of animation. All they did was take techniques developed for classic 2D cartoons and applied them to 3D models. It makes sense when you look out how games limit the frames between poses in animation sequences to cut down on data processing. Extreme exaggeration makes the movement more dynamic and fluid when we have few in-betweens.

[@lilwintery6434]

but back in the 2014 reveal, this was the first time i've seen it in an AAA fps game

[@PrometheusXV]

The concept itself isn't novel, but applying it to 3D is much more intensive on such a scale. The technology needed to do this without the same manual intensity is fairly novel, and is mostly proprietary. Overwatch is the first game I know of to incorporate it into their engine, and Studio Orange is one of the first in Anime studios to develop the technology to do it almost automatically. Both were done in-house. Of course many 3D animations and games have incorporated smear frames, but the morphing technology to accomplish it in this manner is what's most impressive.

[@Jesterofthesky]

"All they did was take techniques developed for classic 2D cartoons and applied them to 3D models" he says like that's nothing and is straightforward to do. "Landing on the moon? That's not that hard, all they did was take rocket technology from WW2 and use it for people"

[@figbloppa7183]

To explain very shortly, the animation here is very common in 2d animation, you basically exaggerate proportions and stretch limbs to give a good sense of motion and impact. The technique is called smear frames.

[@nuzzyfutz]

1:56 That is pure nightmare fuel

[@BingBangPoe]

Applying the fundamentals of 2D animation (stretch & squash and smearing) to 3D models is one of my favorite trends ever. I love when animators do that. ArcSystem does a lot of that too in _Guilty Gear_ and _Dragon Ball FighterZ._

[@assassith]

You should do a part 2 of this video to show how Overwatch revolutionized the battlepass system in games

[@Markiboo]

How did they revolutionize it

[@feverdata6640]

@@Markiboo revolution in appearance of laziness

[@neighborgoods7624]

@@Markiboo its sarcasm, because this technique was not really revolutionary

[@DaisiesTC]

This is cap right lmao

[@dizzyndead]

@@feverdata6640it doesnt appear lazy, it IS lazy

[@captainphoton1693]

They Inovated so much that guilty gear devs were already doing that for years. But yeah it wasn't the same tools and technic. And both instances have their merits and can be used in conjunction to make even better effects I guess. (make a video about that game pls.)

[@stargateheaven23]

Overwatch has some of the best animations in the industry.

[@minionek247]

What do you mean by that?

[@stargateheaven23]

@@minionek247 ?

[@dreamisover9813]

Impressive, that is quite a level of squash and stretch. I think I have seen someone animate 3D smear frames in their own fighting game before with blend shapes, but it looked like so much effort. Also appreciate how well those videos are presented!

[@sprites4ever482]

This is an incredible technique that can give 3D animation way more personality. I think the same technique is being used in Nintendo's upcoming Super Mario Bros. Wonder, too.

[@hoatd1993]

That's why their animations are always so good. They know what they're doing, except for the gameplay.

[@D3NNKO]

Zenyatta has the cleanest/best first person animations in any videogame ever made periodt

[@Delsin42]

Highly debatable

[@sadako8559]

Minecraft Steve is literally like playing in VR wdym

[@Azyne]

I've loved seeing the Overwatch Animations in Slow Motion, they always go how a normal human can't and it's so funny to me

[@nutking44]

overwatch has a game?! thats crazy

[@Mo-rq6gj]

How old are you

[@mrcrensh3299]

overwatch: we created the noodle bones to make stretchy animations nintendo with dk64 back in 1999: sup

[@lawnmowergirl]

Broke? It’s Squash and Stretch hon.

[@Tsubest]

The elongated Cassidy looks like the cart titan and I can not unsee it

[@cadesanderson6896]

a part of my soul dies when someone called Mcree cassidy great vid btw

[@jjju3]

0:23 I do not want to be a pedantic asshole, but i do want to point out - this video is about squash and stretch! its actually in fact one of the 12 basic principles of animation, thought up by the "nine old men" of disney, and something that was published around 1981. it is literally baseline knowledge for animators lmfao.

[@AttacMage]

I think he's specifically talking about the noodle bones bit. I obviously can't say for sure, but it's likely that older games simply used one set of bones for their animations, and using two bones to control separate features is a newer development. Obviously squash and stretch has been around.

[@jjju3]

@@AttacMage actually not true! a lot of styalized games, i'd argue _most cartoon_ games from the 90s and 2000s use a lot of stretchy bones. you can see it in old platformers a ton, look at spyro, model warping is like a staple of the era. oftentimes it was used to get more out of low poly character designs, and of course to use the principles of animation.

[@AttacMage]

@@jjju3Might be misunderstanding, but the point I was making was about a second set of bones, rather than just animating a singular main set, which those games likely didn't do. Obviously not a universal benchmark, but Mario 64 has some stretch during Mario's punch, but they don't use any extra bones for stretching. I think the video shouldn't be calling it a crazy new thing unless it is specifically about those extra stretchy bones, and is just a bit too short and vague to be more than superficial. Just trying to find a reason for it being the way it is.

[@piyushguptaji402]

destruction is simple enough, just replace the prefab with a duplicate model which has been fractured and add physics to it. then spawn some debris and spark particles effects to further enhance the visual. this is a simple approach, but procedural approaches like that in "Teardown". i really don't know... seems like i gotta wait another week

[@alumlovescake]

I never noticed this before, now I see it it looks so noticeable, its odd because the art style doesn't look like the kind to suit this stuff but it never looked odd to me

[@thecertifieddoctor]

smear frames in 3d is really neat, i never would've thought to do that

[@luith4life140]

For anyone interested, the anime he used in the beginning is called fog hill of the five elements, would highly recommend

[@DiGiTMerC]

Yeah it is amazing how the animation have evolved. I remember like Red Faction 1, was my first game, that I have encountered with destructive environment, walls, surfaces etc.

[@charlotte80389]

2:14 weeeelllll they still do. the bone's scale values are interpolated. interpolation is needed everywhere to prevent animations from being choppy at higher frames

[@captain_n00by]

I hope the building destruction video mentions Silent Storm (2003). I had so much fun just dismantling building foundation with melee weapons and watching upper floors collapse appropriately.

[@somebodyspecial5663]

I can't unsee this now, thank you

[@turtle_wax91]

2:33 mr breast

[@user-mo2hn1th4b]

League of legens have this for many years, point of such thin is making feeling characters alive and they actions more visible, but in league of legends its a bit different since they have perspective "above" of characters, so they need to include this, and some characters look goofy when you watch at them from front. Really cool features, wish more games have something like that to explore.

[@blaze_burn]

Wow I didn’t even know this about Overwatch animation

[@projectreznova]

Bro, as a marketing stance, the format for selling ur patreon is insane wp!

[@deusalpha]

I wonder if that differs from the process they used for Jak and daxter, but great video, glad I found your channel

[@asherabensour4873]

i like how u explain it very well in less then 4 min

[@yveltalsea]

Also yessss, THE FINALS footage! That game is going to be SO good and I'm excited the next time you bring it up! Everyone pls look into it, its the most fun I've had gaming in years lmao.

[@Surfing_Pikachu]

I'm very excited for it as well! Also would you happen to know what game the next clip where the crane falls over is showing?

[@LoneWolf-tk9em]

That Battlefield Hardline crane destruction still blows my mind 🔥

[@ArcNine9Angel]

Therapist: Flexy Tracer hips can't hurt you 2:05 :

[@thefootballpunnedit]

OW is still an absolutely stunning game for smoothness... visuals and sound design. I remember the first time I played it being blown away at how smooth it felt just running out of spawn and looking around.

[@EmiliaHoarfrost]

OOOOOOOOOH YOU CAN SCALE THE BONES FOR SMEARS THANK YOU I NEEDED TO REALIZE THIS SOONER THAN LATER IN MY ANIMATION CAREER

[@fuzzyquils]

0:11 Killer Move: Lucio Series - SERIOUS PUNCH.

[@cintron3d]

Breakthrough? Maybe for their game engine. Blender had bendy bones way before overwatch existed.

[@miigon9117]

I have been playing the game since it's launch back in 2016 and have never noticed that all the animation looks like that in slow motion😮

[@carterbeaudry9671]

you can really notice stuff like this with the characters melee animations. the new omnivore symmetra skin is a really obvious one

[@therabbidt]

2:05 BAWHAHAHAHAA

[@norbertbryczek9574]

The original jak and dexter also used these kind of animations for the movement of the main character.

[@GrumpySylveon]

Literally didn’t care about Overwatch until the first clip showed them rubberhosing around I have to see what this game’s about

[@TheAkrillion]

I never knew how much I wanted Horseface McCree. I'll never be able to unsee that now and every time I play, I will see him and laugh my ass off.

[@mdnght5592]

the zenyatta orb spin reminds me a lot of the animation in One Punch Man (season 1 obviously), specifically the animation of giant muscle guy from the first episode

[@iSuckAtGamesGG]

i love when im playing widow hs and the enemy widow turns into an alternate throwing my aim way off

[@pandastuff4098]

Overwatch is the first game to use the core principles of animation

[@ezikhoyo]

It would be nice if at scenes like 3:15 you had a little text in a corner, stating which game that scene is from. The video context makes it obvious the second one is overwatch, but I have no clue, but am curious, which games the one before and after were.

[@r99716]

Control, then R6 Siege, then some Battlefield game

[@cypheredtv1667]

The slow mos in the beginning probably the most cursed

[@nateghast6456]

Today I learned that Overwatch is more cursed than I previously thought.

[@jamesschirano8598]

its a really interesting concept in video game animation, as i know it league of legends and riot use the same if not a similar method. it makes for very funky smears.

[@holydoggo4822]

before i knew about these smere-frame like animations i never noticed this sorta thing, now i can see it even when the game isn't slowed down

[@JesusChrist-yx8ew]

Love it how this vid isnt 10 min long

[@eggseed6543]

i feel like smear frames in 3d hurts the integrity of characters that appear to be more stiff and solid (such as robots), but the sudden stop movement at the end of each animation as you see in zenyatta's m1 animations can mask it well enough

[@amberlawrence9873]

They took the old school Disney "Noodle" style and adapted it to 3D. Makes sense, squash and stretch is one of the more important techniques used to create appealing, well timed animations. Especially with more stylized cartoony models. As many have already commented, Blizzards art team knows their shizz.

[@OttoVonBizmarkie]

there is so many things to love about this game I just wish it was handled by a better company

[@vaepuer2290]

I made a VERY small breakdown of rein's hammer swing for rigging during my time at university

[@estelleandersson4004]

I love Reaper's spinny arms

[@YanYan-zu8dc]

Look at mordekaiser (from league of legends) when he uses his q is hella good to see in slowmo

[@DarkChief2]

Is there a chance you upload more courses? 😅 I would buy more if you have more like the "environment survival kit" for more stuff like VFX, shaders, 3D modeling and stuff like that

[@chakibchemso]

You forgot: So ye, noodle bones are pretty cool!

[@Micha-Hil]

I know we're probably not gonna get this, but I'd really love to see more 2D stuff in Overwatch, like limited frames, impact frames, custom lighting, etc.

[@Nioub]

So Eder KFCard used to work on Overwatch… Everything matches now!

[@T3hPr0z]

Soooooo that's why i never seem to hit any of the enemy team, they just bend around my bullets matrix style.

[@disolsole9847]

He really knowns how to get people to click

[@Enzer0]

It's not new. Infact, it's one of the first principles of animation "Squash & Stretch".

[@mellowhny]

well they implemented the principle of strech and squash unlike other animations from other shooters wich makes it look a lot smoother and comic like and just better in general, but it's also more work and difficult to animate in 3d and no they did not come up with it strech and squash was always used a lot in 2d animation

[@FireFox64000000]

I think one of my favorite funny things that I ever learned about animation is the fact that if you want anyting to bounce or jiggle you have to add animation bones to it. Which means all the female characters in DOA have bone-in boobs.

[@LucasDarkGiygas]

Thanks for the video

[@upnoon]

That Cassidy animation broke me

[@Maxler5795]

Reminds me a little of guilty gear xrd. Which was a 3d game whos entire visual identity is them saying "no it isnt" until the camera moves

[@lukeGGlee]

no wonder the hitboxes are always wonky

[@joot622]

nah man the main animator for this must've had gear 5 active or something

[@PurplestOfThemAll]

TF2, a 16 year old game manages to somehow look better than a 2022 game(idk why)

[@alexis7APperez]

they got that Super Mario punch 😂

[@Viltzu-hk5wh]

When are we getting a video about rain?

[@secret6338]

Overwatch at normal speed: Yea, seems perfect. Overwatch at slower speed: What are these creatures?!

[@saitamaonepunchman8176]

cool video and all THE FINALS!!! YES!!! COVERAGE!!! MY FAVORITE GAME!!!! POST MORE I WANT MY GAME BACK!!!!

[@kartoffua4998]

Really cool that they put so much effort into their animation, a shame that blizzard is an A hole and they don't care about if the game is fun, or the user expierience in general

[@slothsarecool]

Still the best competitive FPS despite all the drama

[@D0ubleYouEss]

Agreed.

[@YungSinatraa]

Agreed

[@cc9787]

I have seen the BTS of games like Dragon Ball Fighters and animes like Gundam other animes where they use cgi and i was impressed that they did not keep the models as it is to make some shots better and stretch or deform them

[@retropunk5196]

It's called squash and stretch, the funny cartoon characters move like cartoons

[@gameriltsforever1093]

How it is made?? Some video tutorial?

[@FlymanMS]

I prefer my G-Mod T-posed animations but this is nice too ig

[@sarahybona]

Cassidys face got me Laughin for day XDDDDDD

[@benjifoxtheshy4130]

It's simple. The Overwatch characters have access to the toonforce.