Physics Animation in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

In this 2017 GDC talk, Naughty Dog's Michal Mach explains how to drive physics objects with animation more predictably, with minimal distortions and almost absolute artistic control.
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[@alextownley9388]

Damn right you had potential lol. Uncharted 4 has some of the best animations in any game ever made. Bravo 👏

[@controversialgaming1364]

It's still the best looking game of this generations

[@aideniridescence1437]

I'm not a animation professional but I was surprised when I talked to one and said the the best animation was from Tomb Raider in PS4 because to me Uncharted 4 was way ahead specially with animation noises; there's plenty of them in Uncharted 4 and it makes it looks more realistic and featured.

[@zeflox444]

no cuz any body can make cuz it is just procedural animation and an indie game devolper can make keyframed animations and procedural animations like this just work hard enough the company worked SOOOOO HARD

[@pixelmentia]

Such an incredible game from start to finish, with too many great moments to count. Not many series end so gracefully.

[@CaveyMoth]

Wow, from Silent Hill: Downpour to Uncharted 4?! That's freaking amazing.

[@Noah-Lach]

Absolutely phenomenal work. Only Red Dead Redemption 2 has come anywhere close to dethroning Uncharted 4 in the animation department. And if the gameplay footage of The Last of Us II is any indication then Naughty Dog will continue to hold that coveted position for a ridiculously long time.

[@ISetYourFaceOnFire]

Thank you for calling rdr2 out on that. the animations in that game are pretentiously slow, boring and tediously monotonous, like everything else about rockstar's games, which are dated, average and nothing special. Their stories are the only bright spots, with max payne 3, san andreas and bully being their best games ever (sorry people rdr1 is overrated imo), Naughty have the right balance of everything, and their gameplay really felt brutal in the last of us 1 not to mention animation quality. rockstar games thinking they are above e3 is laughable. naughty dog know they aren't, but with their quality resume, they ought to be.

[@aurorajarvis5502]

I disagree with Mr. Set your face on fire. It's hard to call Rockstar's animation quality anything but boundary pushing. I wouldn't say the game's attention to detail is pretentious either, because it succeeds at impressing most people at pretty consistent intervals, hours in you notice little details that are insane. And people talk about the lack of fast travel and how everything's far too complicated for it's own good, but for me it comes as a welcome change from all those shallow empty open worlds. The problem comes in with the input issues, a problem that naughty dog's games do not suffer from in the slightest. There were people who mentioned that they didn't care about a framerate improvement on PS4 pro in 1080p because the game felt perfect. Naughty Dog's real achievement is creating such a complicated set of animation trees without making the game feel laggy, it's not just rockstar that has trouble with this. It's Witcher 3, Horizon Zero Dawn, Assassin's Creed and most other triple-A games.

[@BTISME123]

Riley Jarvis exactly, the difference is that uncharted’s animation work feels more smooth than red dead redemption but red dead has way more complex animations

[@raghavagarwal8196]

@@aurorajarvis5502I'm no developer but although rdr 2 has complex animation (thanks to high high budget ).....there is complete lack of clarity or rules driving them......they don't happen consistently enough.....uncharted has the best animation with constraint limits

[@weaverquest]

@@aurorajarvis5502 Horizon Zero Dawn has the most responsive, tight controls of any open world action/RPG I have ever played. In fact, I would argue that it is even better in that regard than Uncharted 4 and since the enemy machines in HZD are much faster and more vicious than enemies in UC4 it kinda requires it. I take it you didn't actually play Horizon Zero Dawn yet.

[@diffraction163]

50:50 truely, an epic cinematic moment. i like how the shirt collides with the desk while remaining a strong pose... jokes aside, that talk really helped me understand a thing or 20 things about physics animation :) thanks a lot!

[@MarcusOttosson]

Haha omg, the timing of it all xD

[@Anhtique]

Uncharted 4 had some of the best ragdolls I've ever seen. The way the bodies fall to the ground are so convincing. He did an amazing job!

[@HuGiv5]

Last of us 2 gonna be insane

[@trgamer3193]

must be :D

[@trgamer3193]

Must be :D

[@1985NEVETS]

Can you imagine. Everything they've learned put all into it. Can't wait.

[@THELANKANCOMRADE]

Hugo Azevedo don’t expect anything like uncharted 4. There are no big set pieces to showcase this kind of thing.

[@kwedl]

THE AMERICAN PATRIOT You don't need setpieces to be impressive. TLOU is a lot more slow paced and usually less enemies, which allows them to push tech, animations and AI way harder.

[@Level-ts7xl]

as an indie developer who mostly create small PC and mobile games with pixelart, this shit blows my mind. these guys are a thousand years ahead of me in terms of knowledge and talent.

[@VBKing2]

No, they just have more people.

[@Ayoul]

@@VBKing2 Naughty Dog probably only goes for the top of the industry. They're not as big as a lot of other AAA devs and still dish out top of the line tech.

[@peachygamedev]

NaughtyDog indeed has an intense application and selection process. These are not chumps on their come-up

[@ZalvaTionZ]

Specialization.

[@brianmannion7097]

@@VBKing2 Rock at rockstars studio size for rdr2. They got everyone including the homeless guy down the street. Yet their character models were average compared to naughty dogs game from over 2 years ago. There is talent, tech and numbers that are the criteria for quality games. Not just having numbers.

[@Nagranddan]

Love how indepth it is! Michal Mach, we can see your attention to detail also! :)

[@tj2gaming631]

Great presentation!!!

[@GodofBoris]

One of the greatest games ever made

[@DragonBallG69]

This is a fantastic presentation

[@liquidebleu]

Really super interesting video ;)

[@Bad4bizbrad]

I now want to play through this again

[@becreative7072]

Honestly speaking no other game has impressed me so much than this and i loved every scene of it, its story its action sequences and i loved it still its never old its like evergreen game of all time

[@madmax404]

50:54 editor?!

[@STANNco]

What an epic moment am i right. Glad we were allowed to see it

[@trgamer3193]

yeah i think too....

[@SidPhoenix2211]

It is the scene when their jeep is attached with a winch and the jeep slides off the ground and is hanging off of a cliff. Then Nathan falls out and climbs back up into the seat and drives up.

[@listofromantics]

I LOVED Uncharted 4, and seeing this, I REALLY hope we get more entries in the Uncharted series. What they're able to achieve ON A CONSOLE is nothing short of magic. Naughty Dog is the Best of the Best.

[@spokeydoke]

thankyou very much for this video. i am very grateful for the info this channel provides which my school does not, and some teachers even discourage me from learning about.

[@Smokez360]

Your teachers have a backwards mindset. These things are the jobs of the future. Learning about different types of rocks is no good for most people.

[@spokeydoke]

NTB027 haha its true. thanks for the validation

[@Smokez360]

@@spokeydoke No problem friend. You just keep doing you and all will work out.

[@Kdubb815]

This was honestly so cool to watch, I want to design games and have the skills to put those out contextually. My goal would follow Naughty Dog's path of implementing strong story and character that evokes emotional responses like a show of movie would. But I want to go farther and add more freedoms in natural movement and interactivity with the environment and objects causing the player to be more immersed in the experience. Thank you Naughty Dog for inspiring people like me to always push for greatness.

[@HarshTalpada]

The way he is moving his body while giving is funny and ragdoll at a whole new level.

[@ferna2294]

Attention to detail at its finest.

[@videogamesare1]

I loved Mafia, so awesome

[@rocketpunchgo1]

I wonder if/when dev teams can use a sort of "global gravity" in games, then assign a specific (real world) weight to objects and let the engine take care of the rest. With proper adjustments, bodies will fall correctly, leaves will float gently, small objects/large objects will behave appropriately, etc.

[@RatedRLoquender]

I just played Uncharted 4 for the first time lie 5 months ago. I was so surprised in every second of the game. Even the loading screen. And the game is still blowing my mind.

[@jesperhagstrom]

Naugthy dog are so good that they put out instructional videos so other studios can follow them

[@JolanXBL]

I can totally see Nathan doing these poses in the game when he's bored :D

[@loop5720]

DUDE, THIS IS REALLY NICE! I LOVE REALISTIC GAMES

[@Zeemas]

You gotta thank this dude and their Ragdoll Profile system for the insane animation work in the latest TLOU PT2 gameplay trailer. Don't know how much of it was enhanced but it's insane.

[@lateral1385]

Uncharted 4 is the best game I have ever played

[@daveynorton]

Completely off-topic, but I hope we get this level of physics in GTA6, this is amazingly good.

[@petrofsko]

Utterly wonderous to say the least uncharted 4 set the mark totally astounding game

[@alex17k81]

This man is so nice!

[@NeckNoddin]

I'd buy any game by naughty dog can only expect greatness

[@jmmenell]

So amazing, I really hope they do a GDC talk for Last of us part II soon

[@leejim584]

amazing

[@ManuVyas-social]

fantastic!!

[@johnnyfreetanga5506]

And just wait for The Last of Us II animation...

[@cewein]

Holy, 16:40 animation was funny

[@forhonor8540]

thats not an animation.

[@cewein]

For Honor yes, a know it's a kind of ragdoll, but there is the animation of joel moving with ellie ragdoll body

[@theocrei669]

got me laughing so hard as well.. lol

[@Neuronwhisperer]

He's not exactly the vibrant stage type, but this was really interesting. Not in the industry (though somewhat knowledgeable that I could follow) and still watched the whole thing

[@Peterx648]

I even didn't know how many czech people was working on TLOU! :) Glad to see our people working on such hits

[@Mcquiz95]

I'm making a wild guess that a lot of them worked at 2K Czech before that.

[@dominikbury2]

You sure he's czech? Thought he was polish?

[@Nick-kb2jc]

why does it matter?

[@bardeeaaaa]

That name is dangerously close to Micah

[@proe4414]

It's polish name Michał which is directly translated as Michael ;d

[@freffo3407]

I want Nughty Dog to make a TinTin game together with Steven Spielberg. But this time for all platforms.

[@claudiamart1106]

técnicamente es el juego más impactante que vi en mi vida y eso que soy de Xbox pero naughty dog es el papa de toda esta puta industria

[@damiantorres3081]

Para mi lo único malo son las físicas de los npc al recibir los impacto de bala son malisimo.

[@lamborgini86]

eso is rockstar games

[@johnnyfreetanga5506]

Naughty Dog lleva años queriendo hacer lo que en su momento hacían los Final Fantasy de Square. Subir el listón técnico mundial en el mundo de los videojuegos cada vez que sacan un juego. Y lo están consiguiendo.

[@claudiamart1106]

@@johnnyfreetanga5506 creo que el juego cumbre es the last of us que además de unas mecánicas jugables BESTIALES tiene una historia y personajes memorables incluso más que uncharted

[@johnnyfreetanga5506]

@@claudiamart1106 Uncharted 4 es técnicamente superior. Tiene tantas features increíbles. El barro, como funcionan las físicas, el gancho o el cabrestante. El arma y com se ensucia, ese detalle me volvió loco. Mírate estos vids: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnLXpKlnltyof5o Por otro lado, completamente distinto y que no se debe mezclar al hablar de tecnología, la historia es algo subjetivo, pero si, parece más elaborada en The Last of Us.

[@NSaTur]

39:07 Looks like cut content because I don't remeber driving into a crowd

[@nicnac8021]

0:57 kzbin.info/www/bejne/aH6ooYyfiJeUhas

[@raphael1882]

No it’s in the game actually

[@johnnyfreetanga5506]

Money to Michal (without e) Mach face. People like him is the industry, not Neil Druckman and relatives. Tech is the core and power of games.

[@CaCriGuz]

Great talk! Thank you so much :D

[@Drecon84]

Videos like this convince me more and more that the profession of 'Game Artist' is quickly disappearing (as well as the Game Programmer by the way). To do anything with games you need to have so much knowledge of both art and programming that you can't really separate the two anymore.

[@mdd4296]

The artists have been trained in using the tools the programmers created and/or give his input into the programmer's work since time immemorial. In small studios, the two's jobs often mix as well.

[@MegaLoquendo2000]

I got really attracted to these topics, what's the major I should get if I want to do this kind of stuff?

[@kloa4219]

Computer Science + Physics/Mathematics Math makes coding easier

[@chrifus31037]

HUGE video game !

[@damiantorres3081]

Lo que no entiendo es porque solo Rockstar utiliza euphoria en Max payne 3 y RDR2 los resultados son increibles los tiroteos son superiores a cualquier juego que ahi hoy en día.

[@fightfannerd2078]

rock star needs to learn from them

[@VWLuka]

We thank POLAND for this guy / naughty dog :)

[@Ratchet1338855]

I can’t understand anything without it being shown on DOUGHNUT DRAKE

[@bewsket]

this is why after playing U4, i can't stand the new tomb raider games (rise and shadow of the tr), the Lara's animation feels so rigid and definitely looks so outdated it makes me cringe everytime i make a jump in those games. I mean almost everything about new tomb raider games seems like an effort to cash in on Uncharted's success thanks to the techincal brilliance brought to the game by guys like Michal.

[@carrottoponcrak]

Horizon Zero Dawn killed Drake and Lara in one fell swoop lol

[@bewsket]

@@carrottoponcrak not really lol

[@thelegendgamer33]

Send similar to eurphoria ragdoll blending in RDR 2/ RAGE engine.

[@MrQuicheProductions]

Not really. It's the same process but it's way more complex in Euphoria,Euphoria give Behaviours to the in-game character

[@solaris5303]

Euphoria is just a physics engine, basically all of them are capable this. The behavior system also doesn't have anything to do with Euphoria, which simply handles physics and animation blending.

[@danwordgod2017]

@@MrQuicheProductions Yeah, Euphoria is way more than just physics, it also gives reactive AI to the characters, making them react more dinamically to everything in their enviroment.

[@hanbulban3131]

Uncharted 4 was amazing never understood the hate

[@dickyramadhan8657]

Which "hate"?

[@ISetYourFaceOnFire]

@@dickyramadhan8657 all popular, high profile games, coming from companies like naughty dog, and rockstar etc, will get "hate" so to speak. Like me. I don't particularly like rockstar and think their string of games since bully, san andreas, and max payne 3 have been kind of incredibly average and incredibly overrated. Yes, including rdr 1, rdr 2, and gta IV and gta V, story aside, all of those game's had incredibly generic, and average gameplay. They don't really excel at doing any sort of individual thing very well, instead, they merely do a lot of things in an extremely average way. Their stories are very good. Everything else, is average at best.

[@amiralimirhashemian6067]

i am one of the "haters" i love the game but the ending was very weak it ruined the whole franchise for me

[@BSAArklay]

I can see why people disliked it. They changed the lead writer. The story is not what its original creator intended. It’s not a bad game by any stretch but its not the definitive finale to the series I expected.

[@Vokr01]

Czech! ♥️

[@dragoxk4542]

2:05 ...But... I thought, safety was number 1 priority?

[@kloakovalimonada]

No idea crafty Czechs working at Naughty Dog!

[@Nick-kb2jc]

why does it matter?

[@vine01]

@@Nick-kb2jc why not express pride? Nick, do you not take pride in your fellow countrymen achievements?

[@floorpuncher3280]

Mich Mach

[@loop5720]

It's really great how detailed this game is with the animations and stuff, but people just don't really seem to care, they only say "Hmm, that's realistic."...xd

[@tuiwing]

15:01 "it looks pretty solid no? i mean ellies body is pretty solid" ERR sirrr THAT IS A 14 YEAR OLD GIRL

[@AceDeclan]

Isn’t this a little late?

[@adilk676]

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

[@xesf]

The slides were very well put, but reading the whole presentation from the slide notes put me off. Still very interesting to see the kind of details the team is putting into the games, subtle changes that do make a difference.

[@arghyadeepdeb4474]

Use euphoria engine

[@danielblank9979]

People don’t realize how much math goes into this crap... the people who have to do the physics especially in rockstar have to be one of the smartest people

[@h00db01i]

smart is the wrong word, they need a very specific intelligence aside from which they can be total idiots.

[@danielblank9979]

Linus Heinz Hirschi you’re right in that aspect... I just couldn’t think of the right terminology

[@h00db01i]

no problemo, it's just that praise always triggers me. I'm a very salty bastard by nature!

[@mrslowflow9569]

you can say the game is overrated..but cant deny..the graphics and physics are amazing.. they just need to reduce the motion blur..it really gives me headache most of the time😉

[@afsan2321]

The devs had a plan dutch. You can disable it if you want from the menu as well as control the intensity of the blur you want.

[@dickyramadhan8657]

@Titan slayer well your "overrated" opinion is indeed opinion too

[@andrewstuart669]

😑😑😑😑😑😑🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

[@andrewstuart669]

@Titan slayer 😑😑😑🙄🙄🙄🙄😒😒

[@carrottoponcrak]

Uncharted 4's story was whack, the rest was great.

[@briarwolverine9316]

Now I know why Mafia 3 sucks.

[@orijimi]

Because knowing that an entirely different studio helmed it wasn't enough?

[@ISetYourFaceOnFire]

i'd rather all that toned down if it meant i could play the campaign with a higher framerate.

[@Spermofdog]

Or you can wait for new consoles.

[@carrottoponcrak]

I love Uncharted 4 but I hate the story. Sam is a useless character who shouldn't have been in the game and the final ending is just lazy. I hate how ND went from "there are an infinite number of stories we want to tell with Nathan," to "this is Nathan's last story" in just two years smdh