Exploring the Artistic Aspects of Dead Cells: Employing a 3D Process for 2D Animation
In the world of video game development, resourcefulness and innovation often go hand in hand. This is particularly true for Motion Twin, the cooperative studio behind the critically acclaimed title, Dead Cells. The team has honed their workflow to create high-quality pixel art animations efficiently, even with limited resources.
At the heart of their approach lies a collaborative structure that fosters creativity and efficiency. Motion Twin operates as a worker cooperative, with seven members who share equal decision-making power. Each team member also assumes cross-disciplinary roles, acting as both designers and programmers. This setup enables rapid prototyping and iteration, often completed in less than a day.
Efficient prototyping is another cornerstone of Motion Twin's strategy. By prototyping quickly and gathering diverse feedback early, they can iterate continuously. This approach ensures that the game feels responsive and is tested early, which is crucial for pixel art animations. The team employs an agile development approach, allowing for adjustments to be made quickly, ensuring that the animations meet the desired quality standard without consuming excessive resources.
Resource utilisation is another key area where Motion Twin excels. With a small team, each member contributes significantly, minimising redundancy and ensuring efficient use of resources. The team focuses on pixel art and roguelike gameplay, leveraging their expertise to create high-quality animations within the constraints of their resources.
One of the most significant aspects of Motion Twin's workflow is the use of a 3D workflow, inspired by games such as King of Fighters, Blazblue, and Guilty Gear. This workflow offers several advantages, including no need to redraw each frame, the possibility to reuse the same animation on various models, automatic generation of interpolation frames, and quick and easy retakes.
Thomas Vasseur, the lead artist on Dead Cells, admitted that he was not an expert animator and a newcomer to pixel art when they began the development of Dead Cells in 2015. However, he developed a homebrew program for rendering the game's models in a pixelated look and designed and animated every aspect of the game, from characters and monsters to special effects and most of the background.
This 3D workflow allows for the easy addition of new elements to existing models and the reuse of old assets for new characters. When implementing a new weapon, for instance, they can adjust the timing of the animations dozens of times in minutes. The animations are exported as a sequence of frames, allowing for the addition of blend modes for an added visual effect.
Thomas Vasseur suggests that reflecting on how to optimise the cost/quality ratio is essential when beginning a new project, regardless of the size of the team. By employing a collaborative, efficient, and resourceful workflow, Motion Twin has demonstrated that it is possible to create high-quality pixel art animations even with limited resources.
In the realm of video game development, Motion Twin's innovative approach has leveraged technology, such as data-and-cloud-computing, artificially intelligent tools, and smartphones for research and inspiration in creating their critically acclaimed title, Dead Cells. This combination of modern resources with traditional pixel art animations demonstrates the versatility of their collaborative workflow.
Moreover, the team's proficiency in artificial intelligence and smartphones fosters continuous improvement through AI-assisted optimization and remote collaboration, further enhancing their resourcefulness and efficiency.
