how Overwatch broke everything to animate its characters

[@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?

[@badmonkey2468]

wait they made Overwatch into a videogame??

[@Quick-Silver206]

@@badmonkey2468 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

[@MangaGamified]

That's my fave animation, NTR 3D

[@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

[@MyNigaJesus]

​@@Daiyamaruuoverwatch 1.5 is a downgrade of overwatch 1

[@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

[@dreamhollow]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@縣]

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.

[@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".

[@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.

[@YetAnotherLowPopularityChannel]

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!

[@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!

[@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"

[@cadesanderson6896]

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

[@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._

[@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.

[@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.)

[@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.

[@Tsubest]

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

[@omarspiderahmed]

Interpolation has NOTHING to do with squash, stretch, and smearing. It has NOTHING to do with your ability to add control bones (and noodle bones) and just have a more advanced rig/armature in general. Interpolation just adds shit in between keyframes so your animation doesn't look choppy like it's straight out of an anime. Lack of interpolation will just literally play back your keyframes and that's it. Do you think we're back in the 1950s and have to animate EVERY SINGLE FRAME for an animation to look half-decent at a high framerate? OW characters (as well as LOTS of other cartoony characters in videogames. League of Legends is a good example.) are capable of squash, stretch, and smearing PURELY BECAUSE of the extra bones that give animators control. These extra bones USE INTERPOLATION THEMSELVES. Squash, stretch, and smear is a very basic and one of the most essential animation principles that's all over the 3D animation industry. You have basically explained nothing. You stated that overwatch utilizes these animation techniques and have given wrong and irrelevant reasoning. You have failed to explain the very thing the video is talking about. Interpolation has NOTHING to do with this video's subject.

[@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

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@Viltzu-hk5wh]

When are we getting a video about rain?

[@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

[@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

[@hoatd1993]

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

[@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?

[@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.

[@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

[@mrcrensh]

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

[@projectreznova]

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

[@blaze_burn]

Wow I didn’t even know this about Overwatch animation

[@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

[@stargateheaven23]

Overwatch has some of the best animations in the industry.

[@minionek247]

What do you mean by that?

[@stargateheaven23]

@@minionek247 ?

[@DakHamer]

Bruh the people who work on ow 🌽 work more than the devs.

[@slyose6154]

2:04 holy shit that tracer on the right is funny

[@ArcNine9Angel]

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

[@deusalpha]

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

[@yacoop7432]

What is the 1:00 animation?!

[@pusheen0405]

Someone said “Fog Hill of Five Elements”

[@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.

[@slurpymax9374]

hey why is the music at 1:25 drum beats only in one ear bro. I thought someone was knocking on my door.

[@alphagamer7023]

Thumbnail source?

[@Braindrain85]

The Account says "Fake Overwatch". Still feels very clickbaity, though. Especially since you can't make that out in the small thumbnail and actually take that as a blizzard statement. Very interesting video nontheless.

[@alphagamer7023]

@@Braindrain85 bro what?💀

[@nofabe]

@@Braindrain85 you do realise he was talking about the dva art, not the tweet

[@Braindrain85]

@@nofabe Wasn't very obvious. But after his "bro what?" I do know what he meant, yes ;)

[@victoriorobin8928]

Does anyone knows where the clip from 0:58 is taken fron?

[@LoLdeLuta]

A chinese animation, search for " fog hill of the five elements "

[@thecertifieddoctor]

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

[@xxhjmpxx]

What's the name of the animation that appears in the minute 0:56? Nvm I got it jajaja

[@lawnmowergirl]

Broke? It’s Squash and Stretch hon.

[@DownloadedPixelz]

Excellent video - accurate and well explained. However PLEASE STOP WITH THE LOUD ASS CLICK SOUND EFFECT FOR EVERY NEW SCENE

[@fuzzyquils]

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

[@luith4life140]

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

[@GrumpySylveon]

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

[@EmiliaHoarfrost]

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

[@NotSam09]

Does anyone know the game at 3:17 i've been trying to look it up for hours Edit: it's "The Finals"

[@Enzer0]

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

[@turtle_wax91]

2:33 mr breast

[@LoneWolf-tk9em]

That Battlefield Hardline crane destruction still blows my mind 🔥

[@somebodyspecial5663]

I can't unsee this now, thank you

[@nateghast6456]

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

[@jpbianchini]

What’s the game at 3:18 with the explosion?

[@dronnovik95]

Sqashing, stretching and overexaggerating movement is an old animation tecnique. Most of our fathers werent even born when it was used activly. Even if we only talking about 3d animation it was used before. Even games did it much sooner then ow. So saying that OW developers broke some imaginary rules of animations or did something innovating in this regard is either oblivious in author part or he is just taking viewers for idiots, so i cant take it seriously

[@asherabensour4873]

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

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@KulaGGin]

1:45 _"There will always be a smooth transition between 2 poses, making smear frames completely impossible."_ Wrong. This only happens if you use linear interpolation. There are other types of interpolation: cubic hermit interpolation, for example. You can use that instead of linear interpolation to achieve just the thing that you showed at 1:50. You just set the key frame, change the offset of the appropriate bone and set the appropriate cubic hermit interpolation with appropriate splines. You just achieved it.

[@МихаилСеверинов-б4я]

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.

[@dualmo7185]

They clearly all ate the rubber fruit

[@skeener1190]

Ok but what was that game with the crane?

[@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

[@paternosterandraz1264]

0:58 from where was that

[@BobbinRobbin777]

I don't care what recycled info you may have, i am NOT getting into Overwatch!

[@lucasscs9961]

Does it affect the characters hitbox?

[@snivydream]

0:58 where is that from

[@a_diplodon]

It's been years since I've seen a positive video about Overwatch lol

[@pandastuff4098]

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

[@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😮

[@alttab3566]

0:10 is that Zac from league of legends?

[@cintron3d]

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

[@0Just_a_dude-being_a_Guy0]

Lmao, Overwatch tried to do an PWee28 with that tweet. ROFL 😂

[@keags1545]

Whats the animation at 0:57

[@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

[@JohnDoe-hk4zx]

What’s that at 0:58?

[@nightcorewinter6738]

3:24 what game is that

[@gameriltsforever1093]

How it is made?? Some video tutorial?

[@FurryEskimo]

0:58 Source?

[@qwatschel3353]

Didn't Jak and Daxter do this with his movement back in 2002 or at least similar

[@Secret0zv]

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

[@therabbidt]

2:05 BAWHAHAHAHAA

[@trestinpeterson3324]

Source at 0:59?

[@spenzo]

what is 0:57?

[@iSuckAtGamesGG]

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

[@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

[@yumDOOM]

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

[@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.

[@AtLaw95]

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.

[@FlymanMS]

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