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以动画设计方式增加游戏设计筹码原则之五

发布时间:2011-11-29 10:39:35 Tags:,,,,

作者:Michael Jungbluth

节奏(Timing)

动画领域的运用

节奏在动画领域的字面定义是完成某动作所消耗的图像或帧数。但此简单定义有违此原则的真正深意。是的,节奏控制动作或物体的速度,体现内容如何遵循现实世界的物理定律。这有助于体现比重原理。若量大,移动速度就慢,若量轻,移动速度就快。若节奏过快或过慢,玩家就会错过某些内容。深入节奏原则,你会发现它和音乐存在许多共同之处。(请点击此处阅读本系列第1第2第3第4第6节内容

音乐是呈现优秀节奏的惯用方式。没有什么比准确地、反复呈现相同调子更令人心生厌烦。大家喜欢听的是韵律。它令我们跟着打拍子,翩翩起舞,以及进行歌唱。这也体现在大家的移动方式。不要让玩家按关键帧循序渐进地移动。若你希望他们放缓速度,感受某瞬间,就让他们定格于某姿势。因为与挤压&拉伸类似,你希望得到反差效果。这些支撑内容是大家所期待的。你希望玩家持续关注动作会以何种方式在何处发生。

动画家将节奏分解成若干不同步骤,这在按关键帧呈现模式中表现更突出。首先,确定自己的核心姿势。你很少会通过这些姿势体验期望的动作或情感。这些是最重要的元素,你希望能够以最清晰的方式呈现。你希望这些内容能够拥有最佳动作表现力、重要性和表达。只要具备这些元素,你就能够知晓每个内容应持续的时长,然后将其拍摄成系列动画。这是你把握节奏的地方。获悉某姿势应持续多久,姿势切换的速度。若运用得当,我们不仅能够读懂动作和表现,我们还会逐步发现角色开始变得活灵活现。

timing face from gamasutra.com

timing face from gamasutra.com

只要定格核心姿势,你就能够制作中间内容。此时你就能够弄清核心姿势主要节奏中间省略的内容。你定不希望均衡地沿着运作弧线设置中间内容(游戏邦注:这就好像在歌曲中采用四分音符)。你定希望插入若干不同间隔,这是人之天性。

节奏虽然易于理解,但却是最难掌握的原则之一。此处没有普遍解决方案,需靠感觉感知。但你定不希望匆匆绕过此步骤。若你在完整制作动画前通过缩略图或布局完善节奏,将能省下大量工作,因为角色已设定合理节奏。

游戏设计领域的运用

在游戏设计中,这些节奏实践能够逐一转化。把握何时放缓或加速玩家脚步是我们控制紧急情况的方式。若我们无法丰富节奏,那么玩家的继续欲望就会因出现厌烦感觉而终止。若他们是庞大而绚丽的角色,那么你投放多少爆炸进攻就毫无关系。若他们没有变更目的或反应,那么敌人的形体规模多大就无关紧要。

但设计优质节奏需极大勇气。这意味着你有时需相信自己能够放缓角色步伐,相信玩家依然会继续投入那些缓慢的内容。在制作游戏过程中,我遇到最多的问题是“加速”理念。若NPC停留片刻进行探讨,或在操作前花费额外时间进行思考,你定会听到某人称系列事件需更快呈现。这总让我心生畏惧,因为若所有内容都加速,那么也就无所谓快速。所有内容都非常均衡。当然就另一面来看,若所有内容都非常缓慢和拖拉,那也就无所谓重要内容,因为在玩家看来所有内容都一样繁重。

当面对紧迫时间期限时,节奏是我首先着眼的元素。若能固定节奏,你就能够确定目标。即便你无法瞄准其他所有基本要素,只要能够把握目的,内容依然能够活灵活现。若节奏很好,玩家能够感觉到。游戏将流畅和自然地呈现,即便边缘有些粗糙,弧线不那么流畅,玩家依然能够完成内容。

上述原则都旨在丰富节奏。预备时长就是所谓的减弱或渐强过程。渐进和渐出所起作用显著,因为你定不希望支撑内容过于单调。出现单调支撑内容是设计师和总监在加速节奏时所担心的情况。次要动作和运作弧线用于连接各种不同节奏。

timing chart from gamasutra.com

timing chart from gamasutra.com

节奏是带动音乐家、喜剧演员和故事叙述者的元素,是连接观众的生命线。在“加速内容”盛行开发领域的时代,“进行润色”也许是更好的选择。优质节奏和韵律是精髓。确保游戏核心内容不是系列重复调子。

夸张(Exaggeration)

动画领域的运用

简单模仿生活并不够,通常为真正把握情境、角色情感和核心元素,你需夸大表达或姿势。这是你体现动作或情感力量的渠道。这同样与挤压、拉伸密切相关。把握夸大哪个姿势或情感非常重要,这样你才能够选择相应情感和身体节奏。若你夸大所有内容,那就失去夸张的意义,很快玩家就会负担过重。

游戏设计领域的运用

在设计领域,这能够有效带来强大机制,带领角色进入某些适合特定情境的体验风格。需要玩家广泛思考其运用的夸大玩法风格或机制能够带给玩家探索感觉,将他们带入更有益的实验过程。若你的机制非常稳固,大可尽情在游戏进程中进行夸大。这意味着你将愉快地设计某些效果显著、富有粘性的内容。这随后变成玩家能够最大限度地从中获得乐趣。起初深入过度,最后再绕回去的情况要好过不够深入。只有过度强化内容,令其破坏机制,你才能知晓其中极限。将夸大内容呈现給玩家能够赋予他们权利感,让他们觉得自己操作的内容非常庞大(游戏邦注:这需确保预备和贯彻内容相对应)。

exagg wolf from gamasutra.com

exagg wolf from gamasutra.com

通常在有机会运用挤压和拉伸时,人们倾向走极端。这促使相关负责人怯于拓宽这些原则的运用空间。但这不是说要完全消除这些原则,而是要鼓励大家进行负责任的运用。若角色、道具或机制的目标非常清晰,那么相关工作人员就会尊重其目标,只进行适度夸大,令其能够引起情感共鸣。但若你排除这些原则,相关工作人很快就会变得拘谨,冷漠看待其真正的潜力。通常你很难达到真正的目标,通常是略低一等,因为他们害怕触及真正极限。

排除这些原则会令作品和创作者迅速丧失生命力。此原则旨在超越虚拟现实,创造真实感。通常我们的感觉、思维和情感都是现实的夸大版。此夸大方式令虚假、不真实的表达变得真正可信。我们需注意不要进行不真实的夸大,令内容变得过于戏剧化,超越极限。

exagg cry from gamasutra.com

exagg cry from gamasutra.com

所以虽然这些工具对开发者而言非常重要,但我们需留心其运用方式,不过超越极限。因为可信性是真实夸大的必要条件。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Adding Weight to Your Game Design Part 9: Timing

by Michael Jungbluth

Timing

Applied to Animation

The literal definition of timing in animation is how many drawings or frames it takes to complete an action.  But that simple definition betrays how deep this principle truly is.  Yes, timing controls the speed of an action or object, showing how it respects the laws of physics in the world it inhabits.  And that helps to define its specific weight.  If its big, it moves slow, if its light it moves fast.  And if your timing is too fast or too slow, the player will miss what it was that just happened.  But when you drill down deeper into the principle of timing, it shares a lot in common with music.

Music is the universal language of what good timing is all about.  There is nothing more boring than the same note being played over and over in perfect time.  What people love to hear is a rhythm.  It moves them to tap their feet… dance… sing. This is also true with how someone moves.  Don’t just make them go from pose to pose, one action right after the other.  Make them HOLD on a pose if you want them to slow down and feel the moment.  Because much like squash and stretch, you want the contrast.  And those holds are the anticipation everyone waits for.  You want to keep the player interested in how and when the movement is going to happen.

Animators break their timing down into a few different steps, most obviously seen when using pose to pose.  First, you find your key poses.  These are the fewest poses you can use to get across the action or emotion you want.  These are the most important, and the ones you want to make sure are the clearest.

These are the ones you make sure have the best staging, weight and expression.  Once you have those, you figure out how long each should be held, and shoot it as an animatic.  This is where you figure out your timing.  How long one pose should be held, how quickly one should transition into another, etc.  If done properly, not only will the actions and performance read, but you can already start to feel the character coming alive.

Once you have the key poses timed out, you create the in-betweens.  And this is when you figure out the syncopation between the major beats of the key poses.  You don’t want to evenly put your in-betweens along the arc, as that’s essentially just using quarter notes for a song.  You want to pepper in some different spacing, as that is where the spontaneity of life lives.

Timing, while simple to understand, is one of the hardest principles to master. There is no universal solution and it is something that has to be felt.  But you don’t want to rush past this step.  If you make the effort to perfect the timing in thumbnails or layout, before you fully produce the animation, you will save yourself a lot of work knowing that you have the heart of the character already beating properly.

Applied to Game Design

In game design, these practices in timing translate one to one. Knowing when to slow the player down, or when to speed them up is how we control urgency.  If we don’t vary the timing, their sense of needing to continue on will halt quickly due to a feeling of boredom.  It doesn’t matter how many explosions you throw at them if they are all the big and flashy.  It doesn’t matter how big the enemies are if they never change their purpose or reactions.

Good timing takes a lot of courage though.  It means you have enough faith in your abilities to slow it down sometimes as well as having enough faith in the player to stay invested in those slower moments.  The one thing I have encountered more than anything while making games is the idea of “Speed it up!”  If an NPC stops for a moment to talk or takes an extra second to think before acting, you can usually guarantee someone will say that sequence needs to happen faster.  And that always makes me cringe, because if you speed up everything, then nothing is fast.  Everything is just even.  Of course, on the flip side, if everything is slow and drawn out, then nothing really feels important anymore, because everything is treated as equally heavy.

For me, when I am stuck with a tight deadline, timing is the first thing I focus on.  If you can nail the timing, you are nailing down the intent.  And even if you can’t focus on all the other fundamentals, if you can capture that intent, it can still feel alive.  And if your rhythm is good, the player will feel that.  It will play so smooth and naturally, that they will get through it even if it is a little rough around the edges and the arcs aren’t as fluid as you would like.

All of the other principles up to this point are used to spice up your timing.  How long you anticipate is your crescendo.  Slow ins and outs play a big part because you never want your holds to be flat.  Those flat holds are what designers and directors are always afraid of when they tell you to speed something up.  So to make sure those holds still feel good, make sure your slow ins and outs are appropriate.  Your secondary actions and arcs are what you use to link the different beats together.

Timing is what drives musicians, comedians, and storytellers.  It is the lifeblood of connecting with an audience.  And in a time when “speed it up!” is a common phrase among developers, a better phrase may be “spice it up!”  Good timing and rhythm is the weight of the soul.  Make sure the soul of your game isn’t just a series of one repetitive note.

Adding Weight to Your Game Design Part 10: Exaggeration

Exaggeration

Applied to Animation

Simply mimicking life isn’t enough, and often times in order to really find the emotion and weight of the scene, and of the character, you must exaggerate the expression or pose.  This is how you can show just how powerful an action or feeling is.  Again, this goes hand in hand with squash and stretch.  Knowing which pose or emotion to exaggerate is key so that you can really choose your emotional and physical beats.  Because if you exaggerate everything, nothing is exaggerated, and you will quickly overload the player.

Applied to Game Design

With game design, this is a great way to make certain mechanics feel more powerful than others, or lead the character into a certain play style that best fits certain situations.  Exaggerating play styles or mechanics that require the player to think openly to their application can really give them the feeling of exploration and lead towards beneficial experimentation.  If you have a really solid mechanic, then feel free to exaggerate it as the game progresses.  It means you will have fun designing something that you know works well and is engaging.  This will then translate to the player having fun with all the possibilities they are granted.  It is always better to push it too far, and then reel it back, than to not go far enough.  Because until you’ve made it so strong that it breaks the gameplay, you won’t know just what it is completely capable of.  Anything you can exaggerate and give to the player will empower them and make them feel like what they are doing is big.  Just make sure that your anticipation and follow through matches.

Often times, as with squash and stretch, people like to go overboard when they get a chance to use these.  And that often makes the people in charge scared of even opening up the possibility to these principles being used.  But instead of completely eliminating these principles, it is far more important to encourage responsible use.  If the vision of the character, item or mechanic is clear, then the people working on them will respect the intent, and only exaggerate enough to make them truly resonate.  But if you lock it off, the people working on its creation will quickly become stiff and cold to its true potential.  And instead of reaching the top of its realistic intent, you will get less than that, because they can be wary of even exaggerating it to its honest extreme.

Locking off any of these principles is the fastest way to drain the life of not only the creation, but the creator.  This principle is meant to push beyond just visual reality and into what it means to FEEL real.  And often times, our feelings, thoughts and emotions are exaggerations of reality. That exaggeration is what takes an expression from being insincere and fake looking towards becoming actually believable.  One just has to be mindful not to exaggerate insincerely so much that it becomes melodramatic and over the top.

So while it is as important these tools are always given to us as creators, we need to be mindful of how to use those tools and when to not overdo it.  Because trust is essential for honest exaggeration.(Source:gamasutra Part 9Part 10


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