Learning from Animation in Film vs Games

Animation in both films and games serves as a powerful storytelling tool, but the way it’s employed and the lessons it offers can vary significantly between the two mediums. Each brings its own strengths and challenges to the art of animation, and learning from them can help creators improve their craft, whether in animation or any other form of storytelling.

The Power of Animation in Film

Films have long been the forefront of animation innovation, with studios like Pixar, Disney, and Studio Ghibli setting the standard. In the world of film, animation is often used to create worlds and characters that are either fantastical or too costly to produce with live-action techniques. The beauty of animation in this context is its ability to fully control and manipulate every frame, bringing seemingly impossible scenes to life.

Key Lessons from Animation in Film:

1. Visual Storytelling
   Film animation focuses heavily on visual storytelling, where each frame serves a narrative purpose. Whether through a character’s facial expressions, gestures, or environment, the animation can tell stories without words. This approach allows filmmakers to convey emotions and actions in a unique way that live-action often can’t, especially in fantasy or abstract settings.

2. Emotion Through Detail
   Animation in film has the power to evoke deep emotions by focusing on subtle details in the characters’ movements. The “squash and stretch” principle is an example of how animators exaggerate movements to make them more expressive and impactful. A simple look or a character’s reaction to an event can be exaggerated in ways that resonate emotionally with the audience, something live-action actors might struggle to convey in the same way.

3. World Building
   Animation allows for the creation of entire universes that defy the constraints of reality. This flexibility gives animators a unique opportunity to experiment with aesthetics and imaginative designs that could never be done practically. From the fantastical realms of Spirited Away to the vibrant settings in The Incredibles, animation is a powerful tool for crafting new worlds. Learning how these worlds are designed, how characters fit into these environments, and how the environment tells its own story is a crucial lesson for creators.

4. Character Design and Appeal
   Character design in animated films is a key aspect of making characters memorable. Animators focus on creating designs that not only look appealing but also convey a lot about the character’s personality and motivations. Characters like Woody from Toy Story or Elsa from Frozen aren’t just designed to look good; they are designed to resonate with the audience on an emotional level, which can influence how an audience relates to them.

Animation in Games: Interactivity Changes Everything

While animation in film is passive—audiences watch a story unfold—animation in games is interactive. The viewer becomes a participant in the experience, often controlling the actions of characters, influencing how the animation progresses. This adds layers of complexity, requiring the animator to consider both the movement of characters and how they react to player input.

Key Lessons from Animation in Games:

1. Responsive Animation
   In games, animation must be responsive to player input. A character’s actions are not only determined by the animator but by the player’s commands. Learning how to make animations that feel fluid and immediate in response to user input is essential. For example, in games like Uncharted or The Legend of Zelda, the player’s actions (running, jumping, climbing) need to feel natural and satisfy the player’s desire for control. Responsive animation that matches the player’s input enhances immersion and makes the gameplay feel more intuitive.

2. Creating Fluid Transitions
   Games often need smooth transitions between different animations. Characters might be walking, then suddenly sprinting, or transitioning from running to performing a combat action. The challenge lies in creating seamless transitions that don’t break the player’s immersion. Techniques like blending animations, where movements transition smoothly based on player actions, are widely used in game development.

3. Physical Interaction and Feedback
   In games, the visual feedback from characters and objects plays an essential role in how players interact with the world. For instance, in God of War, Kratos’s movements are deliberate and carry weight, communicating power and control. The way these animations affect the game’s physics and feedback—such as how enemies react to attacks or how the environment interacts with the player—helps ground the experience and makes the world feel real and responsive.

4. Character and World Interactivity
   In animated films, characters may react to each other and their environments, but in games, interactivity is paramount. The challenge in game animation is ensuring that the world feels alive and responsive to both the player and the environment. Every interaction, whether it’s with an NPC (non-playable character), an object, or a dynamic world element, requires animation to support this response. Learning from games, creators understand how animations in reaction to player actions can contribute to storytelling, often enhancing the player’s sense of agency and immersion.

5. Animation Layering and Complexity
   In a game, multiple layers of animation often have to run simultaneously. A character could be walking, and at the same time, performing an action like drawing a weapon or interacting with an object. These animations need to coexist without clipping or interrupting each other, which requires a deep understanding of animation layering and blending. The complexity increases as developers must ensure the animations work not just visually, but also in terms of gameplay mechanics, such as collision detection and physics interactions.

Conclusion: Combining the Best of Both Worlds

While animation in film and games has different core focuses—one being linear storytelling and the other being interactive engagement—both mediums share fundamental principles of animation that can be applied across fields. By studying animation techniques from both, creators can learn valuable lessons that extend to their own projects, whether they are designing characters, building worlds, or bringing stories to life.

1. For Film Animators: Focus on how to build worlds that aren’t just visually impressive but are emotionally resonant. Pay attention to how subtle movements can tell a story and use animation to elevate the emotional experience of the viewer.

2. For Game Animators: Strive to make characters and worlds responsive to player input, ensuring that animations support gameplay while enhancing immersion. Also, work on blending multiple animations smoothly to create natural, interactive movements.

The potential for cross-pollination between the worlds of film and gaming is vast. For example, game developers could learn from film’s attention to emotional depth and character design, while film animators could draw from the interactive and responsive nature of game animation. Both can grow stronger by borrowing from each other’s best practices, ensuring that animated storytelling continues to evolve and captivate audiences in diverse ways.