Half-life 1 Trailer by James Benson

That was some ridiculously bad pacing.
 
That was some ridiculously over-exaggerated overlapping action on the wrist. It was the limpest piece of meat since Jurassic Park: Trespasser.

The first couple of scenes were so over-animated I thought that was going to be the running joke throughout the whole trailer (I guess even in hindsight it was, although clearly not intentional).
 
I definitely agree with some of the above posts. The person clearly has talent in animation, but over-exaggerates everything he does.
 
Yeah um those huge metal doors and shit were moving like they were made of plastic, jangling around and shit. That was way exaggerated. And things falling WAY too fast. Reminds me of pixar. What the **** is with animators ignoring semi-realistic gravity? And terrible choices of sounds for some of the things. And what was with the vent part? Let's replay the same animation 6 times in different scenes.
 
He sure knows how to animate through PoV.
 
yeah the first weapon is a little wobly, im not a animator but al the rest of the animations are pretty good (as in acceptable). Only the crouching in the vents wtf is it with that.
 
Damic said:
yeah the first weapon is a little wobly, im not a animator but al the rest of the animations are pretty good (as in acceptable). Only the crouching in the vents wtf is it with that.
Click to expand...

Have you not played Half Life? I thought it was a little joke at how much vent crawling there is.
 
What an exhibitionist. I almost choked on the amount of exaggeration in this video.
 
Operator said:
Have you not played Half Life? I thought it was a little joke at how much vent crawling there is.
Click to expand...

this. very obvious reference to the amount of vents there were - though they all look very similar, the video made it clear that it was flashing between different vents. thought that was quite neat, personally.
 
Wow I can't believe people actually missed the reference to how much time you spend in vents in Half-life 1, call yourself fans!?
 
It wasn't executed very well. I get that there's a lot of vent crawling in Half Life. Maybe if the animation wasn't repeated 6 times or if something funny like the music stopped during it, then it would be more clear that it was intended as inside humor.
 
Vent crawling was huge in the 90s, Goldeneye, Half-Life, Metal Gear Solid. Then Parkour had to came along and flash its fancy running shorts at everyone to send the entire duct industry into decline! Damn you to hell open spaces, damn you and your lack of claustrophobia.
 
The animation is a bit overdone I guess, especially in that second video. It's like in animated films when characters faces are always moving and changing shape, just looks silly. Still, it's pretty cool.
 
ZT said:
It reminds me a lot of the movements in Monsters Inc. Especially the movement of Mike and Randall. How they move around very quick and clumsily.
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Yes, because Gordon Freeman and Mike from Monsters Inc. have practically the same personality..
 
Which has nothing to do with what ZT is saying. Personally, I agree; the movements are far too exaggerated and cartoonish for the style and candour of Half Life - things seem to flop and jerk around everywhere
:naughty:

 
kineaesth said:
Which has nothing to do with what ZT is saying. Personally, I agree; the movements are far too exaggerated and cartoonish for the style and candour of Half Life - things seem to flop and jerk around everywhere
:naughty:
Click to expand...

It does, though. The way Mike moves around in that clip is different than the way someone else would move around if they were in the same situation (imagine if you put Arnold Schwarzenegger in the same situation, he definitely wouldn't be moving the same clumsy way) which is why I think it's weird he compares Mike to Gordon Freeman considering I'd never think of Gordon as a quick and clumsy fellow.
 
He's saying that the movement of the "Gordon Freeman" in this trailer reminds him of the movement of Mike from Monsters, Inc, not that Gordon and Mike have the same personality or are anything alike. Simply that the way the trailer is animated reminds him of Monsters, Inc.
 
kineaesth said:
He's saying that the movement of the "Gordon Freeman" in this trailer reminds him of the movement of Mike from Monsters, Inc, not that Gordon and Mike have the same personality or are anything alike. Simply that the way the trailer is animated reminds him of Monsters, Inc.
Click to expand...

Sorry, by my first comment to ZT I was trying to say that since it reminds him of Mike, and that since Mike and Freeman have such different character traits, that the artist who made the video was animating Gordon in a way that wasn't fitting to the character, which is bad -- and since he is comparing it to Pixar I thought it odd to compare it to something regarded as high quality.
 
I don't understand the criticism for the animations being too exaggerated. I mean if I was in a gunfight, my limbs would be frantic with movement simply because of the desperation to not get shot. I think everything is well done.
 
I wasn't even talking about the gunfights. But you're totally wrong. The limbs in the 'gun fights' aren't frantic, they're like all loose and ****ed up like a damn string puppet.
 
Oh man, I forgot how hilarious the marines' radio chatter was.
 
The questions that comes to mind is "why".. unless you have actually animated before, you shouldn't speak ill of what he's done. All I'm thinking is... once again.. "why".
 
Inanimate said:
unless you have actually animated before, you shouldn't speak ill of what he's done.
Click to expand...
This is such stupid logic. NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO CRITICIZE ANYTHING UNTIL THEY'VE DONE IT THEMSELVES

But I have animated before.

It doesn't even have to do with the amount of skill. It's just poor choice of style. He spent too much effort in making the animations complex, and the end result just looks unrealistic because it's so exaggerated and cartoony.
 
Inanimate said:
The questions that comes to mind is "why".. unless you have actually animated before, you shouldn't speak ill of what he's done. All I'm thinking is... once again.. "why".
Click to expand...

I majored in animation in college.

Technically he's a great animator, he's got talent. I'm definitely not the best animator but I can still critique things -- and some of the decisions he made, while executed well, were made in poor choice. Really, I'm just thinking, "why? why do you over-animate everything?"
 
How have you been? (you better get this reference).
 
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