Are You Meant to be a Game Animator? (probably not)

       This week's article is about what it takes to be a game animator. While some people may think that all animators work in the same way, this article points out how that isn't true. Now that video games are becoming more prominent in this day and age people are learning more what goes into one, and since every video game is animated there is a ton that goes into them.
        Mostly this article talks about the differences in animation. For video games, the exaggeration has to be altered because gamers expect a character to have a certain responsiveness to their input. The exaggerations have to be subtle and not so much that it feels as if the gamer is not controlling the character. Feature animation exaggeration is more cartoony and stylistic but VFX is subtle and realistic.
        Audience holds a lot of weight for both film and VFX. Animated films are viewed passively, and animators can cheat angles and camera views because viewers are not actively interacting with them. Video games are a different story because the audience member is always actively interacting with the animation. Animations have to constantly read from every and all angles because audience members are always looking around and interacting with their surrounded environment.
        With game animation, you create animation cycles and such in programs like Maya and then export them to a game program. Unlike film animation, where artists have to work to put a little personal flair into the design; game animation gives you full control of one character. An animator is assigned to create and see their character to the end of production so that the character is completely theirs and theirs alone.
        The article ends by telling you that it is important to look into all animation careers before settling on one. Exploring multiple animation careers gives you a well-rounded list of skills that you can use in the future.

        This article showed me that film animation and game animation are highly different. They have the same kind of concept but different ways to go at it, like with exaggeration and understanding of how to use the angles. The way games are animated does hold interest to me, but I don't think I would ever want to pursue it because there is so much extra and personal thought that has to go into the production. I do not that have that kind of focus.