Animators of videogames are changing their primary software packages, emphasizing richly-detailed characters and expecting a leap in animation talent.

"In the past, game animators would have been required to make a good run loop, to make a good dying loop, but now we're asking for hitting the mark and hitting the point where the lighting works well, and basically creating drama," says Steve Sinclair, lead programmer for Digital Extremes, who's working on a next-gen title. "Before it was just creating plausability, [now] we want to create a sense of dramatic purpose."

The power in next-gen console platform games is just too much to ignore--even computer games makers are putting out their titles for consoles. Read on to see the how the next gen is changing all facets of videogame animation production.

Current project/platform: Dark Sector, a third-person shooter-adventure game; next-gen platforms. Digital Extremes is best known for its first-person shooter games, notably the Unreal series done in cooperation with Epic. The Toronto studio just finished Pariah, for PlayStation 2.

How are next-gen platforms changing the way you work?

"They are increasing consumer expectation, so it changes the way we work in that we have to get the best tools we possibly can, develop new techniques and increase our animators' skill, as well as everyone else's on staff. The competition is increasing and the capabilities of the hardware have increased to the point where the level of detail, at least the graphic fidelity, means that a lot more work has to go into creating the assets. Before you had to make a 300-triangle mesh for Unreal and now it's in the millions, so that changes the way we work quite a bit."

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