The Art of Destiny's First-Person Animation

In this 2015 GDC session, Bungie's David Helsby shows how Bungie creates high quality first-person animation that supports Destiny's cutting edge gameplay.
Update: Due to a technical error, the last portion of this talk is not currently available on KZbin or the GDC Vault. We do apologize for the inconvenience.
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[@MrTheedarkhorse]

Bungies animations are consistent in feel. Like they collectively have a personality (and thats not easy to do) The feeling of movement in Destiny stood out for me. As it did in Metal Gear Solid 5. Nice talk, thankyou for sharing, David

[@Lorentz_Driver]

too consistent it's boring

[@Volker_A4]

I could cry, this is such a treasure trove of information.

[@rowanunderwood]

70 FOV is high?? Geez guys I put mine at 90 whenever there is an option to. Since TVs, monitors, and seating distances are different for everybody, why is FOV EVER FIXED?

[@cB-sr9kd]

One reason is that when you change the FOV, it tends to mess up HUD elements or other UI stuff, and so if you want to implement an FOV slider, you have to do a lot of testing and fixing to make sure none of that HUD stuff gets messed up no matter what the FOV is set to. Pretty sure there's other stuff it complicates as well.

[@rowanunderwood]

True . . . it can also mess up stuff like occlusion culling and even FPS since a higher FOV needs more polygons to fill up that extra real estate. I still vote for a slider though. If Minecraft can do it, everybody should be able to it :)

[@Biru_to]

More often than not, UI is a flat overlay on top of the 3D world, and therefor FOV shouldn't/doesn't have to affect the UI.

[@travisconnelly6659]

Many online multiplayers lock it as it can give a competitive advantage to have more info on screen

[@NovemberHotel]

This was actually really really awesome. Props to David Helsby and others who made Destiny feel so good to play.

[@BackfallGenius]

wish he talked about how to animate the moving parts on the weapon. there's lots of futuristic elements that add a lot of polish when they're moving on the weapon.

[@Aegis_Mind]

In many cases, you make a skeleton of bones for the moving parts, similar to a character rig.

[@dXXPacmanXXb]

This must be so much work

[@elektra81516]

When you know what you're doing, it's really fun

[@onyxJS]

why did you get replies from te weirdest person lol

[@LegitDeepSix]

finally, I've been waiting for this talk for awhile!

[@spacepirate1955]

?

[@punalmanalan2346]

@@spacepirate1955 ?

[@anthonyfergerson3444]

"dont take control away from the player or slow him down" *proceeds to make numerous bosses in D2 that have invincibility phases because you're killing them too fast*

[@thefunnybuddy4138]

That rule only applies for player movement.

[@FraserSouris]

They meant don't slow the player's movement down.

[@charliejones5953]

@@FraserSouris fanatic tethers you and 9 times outta 10 doesnt drop you when u break his shield so u end up getting blown into a wall and dying

[@themcuber2348]

@@charliejones5953 ur just bad lol

[@alexo2303]

@@thefunnybuddy4138 what's the point of the being the fastest if you cannot kill your enemies just as the same.

[@morbid1.]

I like when fps games support 21:9 ratio... it's so good to have all this space around

[@LittleRainGames]

Neurotyczny Kot i could never go back from 21:9

[@TheDannyMcGee]

When he says "contact happens on frame 5" or "the knife holds for 6-7 frames", etc. - how are those "frames" calculated? Is this at 30fps, or 60fps, or 24fps...? I imagine this is some sort of standard animation convention, but I have no real training or experience with animation so I'm curious

[@kevindahlke6042]

late response, but frames are determined by your target framerate. Since Destiny is targeted at 30 fps, that makes for a frame every 33.33 ms of time. At 60 fps that figure is halved for a time of 16.67 ms. In animation using frames as your amount of time is very standard since most animation is running at a non-variable framerate so each frame is a consistent amount of time.

[@TheDannyMcGee]

@@kevindahlke6042 Late but still useful - thanks for the response!

[@LittleRainGames]

Ahh so thats how they did their legs, i though it was part of the FP animations. Well there's a lot of the work away.

[@timesoldier810]

I still don`t understand why they changed Auto-rifle animation for Destiny 2

[@shftin2gear]

what do you mean?

[@timesoldier810]

@@shftin2gear In D1 AR is lifted to pull the charging handle. In D2 Rifle stays horizontal then pulling handle and following with a motion that gives a toy feel, like you reload a 1 kilo rifle instead of a 3 kilo AR.

[@theslenderfox]

40:50 “If you have a high field of view like, y’know, in the 70s or something like that” Imagine considering 70 fov ‘high’

[@solaris5303]

He _clearly_ means vertical, equivalent to about 99° horizontal at 16:9.

[@XavierBJohnson]

when he talks about frames (melee hits on frame 3, 7 frame moving hold, etc.) what is the frame rate he's referencing? I'm assuming 30. But it occurred to me that it could be 24 or 60. Anyone know the industry standard for this?

[@AlexandreVasilchenko]

30

[@vonis22]

The black screen at the question section is not really appealing

[@wadekenny1723]

super helpful, a lot to learn from this talk

[@Fuuntag]

Is it just me or are there a lot of Destiny GDC talks?

[@milkywaylibrary]

nice bungie video containing bungie's tips on how to make bungie's game like bungie did!

[@frankiev3735]

LOL so any time someone asks me for an animation feature I'll say "naw it's not worth the waffles"

[@SailorUsher]

Why did the camera shut off.

[@cB-sr9kd]

Regarding "I promise you, it's much better with the music": it's still pretty cool without it.

[@Ray_2097]

Super interesting. Bungue games are the best feeling FPSes in the industry,now I can see why.

[@iamgeorgesears]

Nice fucking work with the camera. Professional!

[@matka5130]

Great stuff, love to David

[@user-xe3oj7xp5r]

After watching this I'm going to look like a smart ass when I'm able to answer everything in college lol thanks bungie! I'll work with yall in the future!

[@Hyp3Or]

Unfortunately, the pillars often contradict each other and frequently irritate me in almost every game (not specifically Bungie's). First person camera movements made by anything other than my own hand are an intrusion; like having my head grabbed and yanked around, compromising pillar 5 for pillar 4. There are 2 sets of eyes involved; my own, and the camera. It should be assumed that the camera 'is' my eyes, and approximating the experience of a head or eye on top of my own creates a distorting filter between me and the world. Games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 favour smooth transitions between movement animations, sacrificing pillars 1 and 5 in favour of 2 and 4. I believe that the similar pillars, 1 and 5, should be preserved at all costs. Without respecting them, I have no chance of connecting to the world.

[@gur1363]

Step 5 vs Stasis who will win

[@inkrot]

god damn 343 could learn so much from the first 7 mins of this

[@jaykinbacon2379]

Great talk! Bad camera man. Basically 10 minutes of black screen with no video of David Helsby answering the audience question :( _(Be sure to either retrain your camera men or fire 'em!)_

[@PepperPlay5]

thanks, Late Night Gaming

[@vama89]

Great tips

[@hhbi]

Булджать, где пчелы, почему ты все еще обьясняешь титанфол

[@crewchannel4591]

Watching while grinding bounties

[@shadydesperado2590]

40:48 lol he thinks a high FOV is in the 70s, I guess that's console development for you

[@ThiagoJaqueta]

I literally couldn't play D2 for more than 30 minutes because even with an FOV Slider, the maximum value available is """105º""" (Which is misleading and is actually more like 100º). As an example, Counter-Strike at 16:9 makes me motion sick with it's 107º HFOV, and that's a slow-paced game.

[@_mrgrak]

great talk, terrible editing - why do we view a black screen from time to time?

[@maxi_rv_raxor]

Terrible is a strong word, Let's just say inconvenient.

[@rosecoloredboi1849]

2021 and destiny is still the only fps game that doesn't give me motion sickness

[@willl5659]

The game on its own is phenominal, the content can use some work though.

[@TheShinyHaxorus3D]

I mean this was cool but alot of this is like base level knowledge to be an adequate FP animator.

[@scottbates6412]

Buy our next dlc pack to find out "what makes a bungie game a bungie game" ..... -.-

[@Lorentz_Driver]

Meanwhile they've been using the same mid animations for a decade.

[@ID-su4wj]

8:59 not actual for Destiny 2. Crosschair straight in the center.

[@Altherot]

It was defaultly still lower on the screen for console, it was centered especially for PC version of D2 since people were used to that and it felt more "right". I like this little artistic change with lowered crosshair, it feels more like a Bungie-specific detail that sets their games apart, so even while playing D2 on PC I switched the crosshair to lowered one and just play with that one to have this Bungie-specific feel to it.

[@StephenZelenak]

@@Altherot The purpose of the lowered crosshair is for playing on a large screen while sitting on a couch. The reason it's centered by default on PC is because you're generally sitting close to the monitor and benefit more from higher FOV. I tried centered crosshair while playing on a television and the ground takes up half of the screen. I know what's on the ground, I care more about the guy shooting me from above lol

[@troudbalos333]

​@@StephenZelenak no. Lowered gives you more vertical fov so you see more of the world. Its an artistic thing. The first halo was centered.

[@StephenZelenak]

@@troudbalos333 It's partially but not entirely an artistic thing. It's also very practical. You can read about Bungie's Halo 2 play testing. They found that most people run around with the crosshair pointed at the ground when they're not actively shooting enemies. This is still true. Watch almost anyone play Halo or Destiny and the reticle will be on the ground frequently when running around. Lowering the reticle shifts the perspective slightly to allow greater effective FOV. Additionally, it allows you to see the enemies who may be above you in a game with verticality like Halo. However, if you play on mouse/keyboard on PC, it still makes more sense to center the crosshair and up your FOV a bit. Look at how many PC players complained about the lowered reticle in Hunt: Showdown. That being said, lowered is still my preference.

[@troudbalos333]

@@StephenZelenak so? Lowered isnt because console. Its an artistic thing so you can see more of the environment. Many games on console do centered. Halo ce was centered. They changed and made it their thing cuz it was more artistic and stuff. People playing that way is just a byproduct its not the reason why its lowered like??

[@Fogmeister]

So...

[@Robbu849]

I Don't want to sound like a jerk, but did he just mentioned that he mounted a go-pro on his head to experience first person perspective?

[@GnoClip]

I would bet this is guy is the single reason for the success for Destiny, it was the gunplay. Everything else was shit.

[@TShepard]

Except Bungie games play like garbage now.

[@krubex]

isn't this basic animation know how? Does this knowledge make you really a Senior Animation Designer? I mean you work for many years, 8 hours a day making animations and you really first tried to imitate the movement the camera on your head gave you instead of observing what your brain sees? I mean that is not new. This is how you do it for years. Maybe I should apply at bungie. Shouldn't be that hard...

[@Epcvan_LvC]

kruben people like you think making games is so damn easy

[@gst9325]

show us your animation resume please. because i think destiny have one of the smoothest, polished and just natural animation/movement/gameplay ever.

[@krubex]

I am currently studying media and computer science where i already got a small impression of game development. I learned in the third semester about human-computer interaction and how our body sensors (including the eye) work. I dont say that animating itself is easy. of course you have to think about many things with a lot of back and forth but in this video he tells so much obvious things like that the first person weapon have to react to your movement so that it doesn't feel attached to your monitor and that the player needs a feel for the body. How they use third person legs was interesting but sadly he didnt say how they made the shadow. is the shadow the same as from the third person view and the first person geometry is ignored? Animating is quite complex and there are so many cool smart workarounds and techniques he could show us but this was mainly basic stuff. The end product isn't bad. the first person gameplay is one of the best things in destiny but i just hoped for more in this video.

[@krubex]

Eukalyptus Baum fascial animations are a complete other topic. faces are the most difficult things in animating. But here we are talking about keyframing animation. for the knife attack he used 6 keyframes. of course there is more work behind that but nothing in comparison with fascial animation.

[@krubex]

Martin Kočíšek I don't criticize the animations at all. I criticize the basic talk. It let it look like that it is easy and i hoped for much more interesting things in this talk. the animations in destiny are very good but i hoped for more. I am still studying without really learning animation but many things were obvious to me.