GTAV

GTAV_PS4

Rockstar Games | 2011 -2013

As a senior animator on GTA5 my responsibilities were mainly focused around in-game character animation for a variety of the games vehicles, ranging from Trevor’s beloved, banged-up, red ‘Bodhi’ pickup truck, through to more exotic forms of transport such as the mini-sub and combat tank.

Another area I was involved in was mission specific in-game scenarios. eg, The car scenes where Franklin and Lamar repossess the shiny super cars at the beginning of the game along with the scenes that punctuate the car race itself.

I was responsible for providing the final animation data for a large number of the above style of in-game cutscene across a large number of missions within the game.

I was also responsible for various mini-games that crop up throughout the gameplay, eg, the safe cracking minigame.

 Here’s a short reel showing a small part of the overall work that I was responsible for on the game.

 

Vehicle character work

At first glance the vehicle character animation might be considered trivial, character gets in, drives, get back out;  but there were a lot of animations required per vehicle/per seat to achieve the full gamut of gameplay possibilities that the game demanded and of course vehicle interaction plays a pretty central role in GTA.

The animation also had to be tailored to fit every vehicle type within the game, yet be available across a range of similar vehicles that differed in subtle ways and thus the animation had to be made generic to those types whilst still retaining good contacts through a variety of mechanisms including realtime IK.

A vehicles character animation set generally contained the following animations per seat :-

– Boarding and alighting

– Jumping out

– Exiting to a swim

– Jacking or being jacked

– Idling or driving

– Drive-by, shooting weapon or throwing throwables from the vehicle.

The vehicle character work I personally saw through from raw data to in-game functional were as follows :-

– All Vans (Bison, Bobcat, Boxville, Burrito, Camper, Gang Burrito, Journey, Paradise, Pony, Rumpo, Speedo, Surfer, Taco, Youga)

– Boats (Mini Submersible)

– Industrial (Bulldozer)

– Service (Ambulances, Security Vans)

– Commercial (Stockade, Mule, Benson)

– Emergency (Granger, Buffalo, Fire Truck, Riot Van, Police Transporter, Sheriff SUV)

– Military (Crusader, Rhino Tank)

– Off-Road (Bodhi (Trevor’s pickup truck), Dubsta, Dune Loader, Mesa, Rancher, Rebel, SandKing)

– Planes (Shamal, Luxor, Titan)

– SUV’s (Baller, Baller2, Cavalcade. Dubsta, Granger, Landstalker, Mesa, Patriot)

– Utility (Airtug, Caddy, Caddy2, Fieldmaster Tractor, Forklift, Sadler, Utility Truck Large, Utility Truck Small)

– Limited Use (Clown Van, Cutter, Freight Train driver, Metro Train driver, Docks Gantry Crane)

 

In-game Cut-scene/Scenario work

The in-game scenario data’s role was to embelish the main gameplay and would appear as a scripted event that might draw the players focus or even directly interact with the player in some way.

These scenarios would generally appear as one off single shot events that would be triggered by the player.

An example would be the mission  ‘Eye in the sky’ where I processed all of the events that the player gets to see from the helicopter camera.

 

Mini-Games

The mini-games were there to add another layer of gameplay and often act as some form of gameplay mechanism within the parent gameplay.

An example here would be the ‘Safe Cracking’ minigame which acts to slow the player in accessing the opponents loot during multiplayer matches and in doing so raises tension.

 

GTAV Link