Name: Ben Hutchings

Nickname: None

Irrational Title: Senior Animator

Qualifications: Not really, I took a CIT (Canberra institute of technology) animation course. I Worked for BII with other Irrational people. I have been working for IGA for 3 years, since they started.

Previous games worked on: Warlords 3 and 4, various little independent games as well, as a hobby.

The Vengeance skate park

Hardest moment in development of any game you have worked on: Trying to match the quality of animation to motion capture. I am working on the cut scenes for tribes now, that's all I do. I don't do any in game animation at all. Half of what we have got is motion capture which is obviously pretty good, so I have to animate the bits that we don't motion capture for, so it obviously has to look consistent. That is fairly hard, there is a lot of work to be done, heaps of animations and cut scenes.

First Gaming system: Atari 2600. Dick Smith grey box thing, that was really really awful. I was mostly big on the Amiga 500 that was my all time favourite. I still play it. I did my first computer animation on it back in 88.

Earliest gaming memories: Turning on the TV, turning up the volume and hearing the sounds of the tanks going around on the Atari 2600 and being really really impressed because they where going [tank noises].

Favourite game of all time and why: James Pond Robo Cod, Mario 64, Unreal Tournament where you do all the different games like capture the flag that was pretty cool. That was one of the most exciting games I have ever played. I am not a gamer and I don't play games much, I get exposed to a lot of games working here.

Games currently playing: No, not playing any games at the moment. I like to look at MAME now and them. I like looking at the artwork in the old games. I am interested in 2D sprite art.

Console or PC: I like the whole mouse and keys thing, with first person shooters I like the PC heaps more. There are some good driving games on console and you don't get viruses.

Single player or multi-player or co-op: Single player, because I don't have much access to the internet. We play multiplayer for little amounts of time here at work. It's good fun blasting people away playing against your mates, I like single player better though.

You are working mostly on cut scenes now?
Yes pretty much just on cut scenes.

Were you working on any other animations before?
In game animation, yes, but now just cut scenes, I don't do much modelling or texturing, just character animation.

What sought of percentage in reducing your workload are you looking at, when animating using motion capture?
Yes it does, it's the reason that we do it to save time.

Is it cost effective or time effective?
Time effective, it's very expensive, I'm not a big fan of it to be honest being an animator.

Is the motion capture done in house?
We had to go to Sydney for that. They have shut down now. It was called MadCap studios or something.

Did you get to put on a latex suit and jump around?
I didn't do it myself but they dressed up in those crazy suits with the balls. Ben Lee actually did a lot of the action animation because he is the directing guy that tells us how it is suppose to look so he did a lot of the flipping around and did a lot of Princess Victorias animations, acting really gaily, crying crazy and things like that. He was jumping around on the crash mat and getting shot. I had to push him over to give him the force of bring hit by a bullet, things like that, it was good *laughs*. He actually hurt himself quiet a bit, had a bit of pain.

How hard is it to keep with in the aesthetic provided? Is it difficult at the start and become easier as time goes on?
I don't know if it gets easier, I guess it just get better. I always think what I do is pretty good. Obviously there's a time limit so I don't feel it's completely awesome but I always wish I had more time.

It there a favourite thing that you have ever made, something that you thought looked really cool and has stood above the rest?
I love the work I did on Freedom Force, I think that's really cool. That was all original stuff as well. Is this interview about what we are doing now or is it broad and general?

Broad and general, talk about anything you like.
I am pretty proud of what I did on Freedom Force because I was the only animator at the time and pretty much did all the character movement in that game. I think folks were pretty pleased with what I did.

What tools are you using?
Just 3D Studio Max for animation.

I would like to ask about the idle movement in a lot of games. Is that the sort of thing that you are working on? Like you can't have a model standing completely still, they breathe or they move. What are your thoughts on that? Are you a fan of that sort of movement? In Tribes2 for example the heavy model breathes like it is panting it looks quite weird.
It depends on the game and the character. In freedom force because you pulled right out [camera view] we really did have to make them go a bit nuts, which looks really cool I reckon. I don't think characters should ever be completely still really, because it just looks wrong. It nearly always looks wrong when a character is perfectly still, like a human character. I see what you mean you don't always need movement, it can look a bit wrong when you have something huge moving just for the sake of moving. I think you still need it in a game just to keep the character looking alive.

Are there any other games where you have seen their animation work and particularly admire? For example the original Prince of Persia.
Yeah that was brilliant; I think they got that off frames of footage of real people. Yeah I was really impressed with that animation. Metal slug would probably be my all time coolest looking 2D animations that are really inspiring. As well as the fighting games like Fatal Fury, I think that is what it was called. Those games got better and better, I used that game as inspiration for Freedom Force when I did a lot of their animations. They were a bit static and I look at some Fatal fury stuff where they go really crazy and they have got really weird stances. That stuff is really impressive I think.

Thanks for your time Ben.