GamerVFXerAnimationer #5

Games: Assassins Creed developers Ubisoft have recently revealed that there will be no major instalment of the series coming in 2016, which is a relief for the gaming community in general for many reasons. Assassins Creed has never failed to impress, graphically its up there with the best looking games and the gameplay itself isn't half bad either, but with a full AAA title coming out every year since 2009 the excitement seems to have dyed down significantly.

The games always seem to have something missing, always bringing up the question of what the game could have been if they had spent just another few months polishing it. This year gap will do so much for the series if Ubisoft can capitalise on it, releasing teasers that actually excite the community would be a good way to go about it.

Just think, if Ubisoft can create the likes of Black Flag and Unity in just one year, a title with twice the development time could be in contention for game of the year.

VFX: Deadpool was a massive hit at the box office, breaking many records and surpassing almost everyone's initial expectations, but I'm not going to talk about Deadpool as a character today, and focus on Colossus.

To act out the scenes for Colossus it took a man reaching almost 7 feet tall in platform shoes and an additional headpiece to get close to the height of the steel-skinned monster. The face was based on another actor, and the voice acting done by another, if you think that having 3 different actors working on one character is extreme then you'll be surprised to know that it doesn't end there. Some of the motion capture was done by another actor and the facial recognition done by the fifth, its extraordinary that it took 5 different actors combined to get Colossus looking as Colossus should.

Digital Domain was the company put to the test to create Colossus and personally I think they did an amazing job.

Animation: I always like to find smaller animation projects to talk about for animation, and try to show something different that I personally think looks unique and nice. I struggled to find a full video of 'The Loneliest Stoplight' and couldn't find much information on how it was made, however the look of the video is really simplistic and I really like the look of it.

Created by Bill Plympton, The Loneliest Stoplight shows different scenarios of a stoplight at a 4-way intersection. It's set in what seems to be a desert, presumably to give off a more barren feel. Its one of those videos that gives character to an object with no feelings, many incidents occur around the lights that convey the fact that the light is helpless to everything.

The art style is really nice, its simple and very cartoon-like. I'll link the trailer for the video below.

The Loneliest Stoplight