For Perky Pickle Studios, they were brought on to the Crash Bandicoot franchise to help develop story. © Vivendi Universal.

A number of smaller studios are creating animation for publishers and developers of videogames, including for the console, PC and online platforms. In many cases, their work is limited to cinematics/cut scenes and promotional trailers. But there is more and more demand for in-game assets as well.

There have long been studios specializing in this market. “Companies like ours have been around a long time,” says Krissie Franco, vp production at Hydrogen Whiskey Studios, which has been in business since 1991. It has been creating gaming animation for 12 years, and doing so almost exclusively for the last 10, worked on franchises such as Civilization and WWE.

General animation companies are starting to get more heavily involved in game animation as well. Perky Pickle Studios, which launched in 2000, is one example. It creates animation, from preproduction through post-production, for all platforms and in all styles. Perky Pickle has worked on Vivendi Universal’s Crash Bandicoot franchise, and was involved creatively during the entire development process, according to owner Jordan Reichek. “There are incredible possibilities for us in animation to be branching out,” he says.

“The more lines you have in the water, the more bites you’ll get,” agrees Floyd Bishop, founder of Bishop Animation in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. His company has been in business since April 2005, and has worked on seven games for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 in the last year, including cut scenes for Untold Legends. Meanwhile, it has been busy on other projects, too, such as the hair and fur simulations for Nickelodeon/Paramount’s film The Barnyard.

Similarly, Realtime UK, a studio with 24 full-time employees, creates animation for games, including several titles in the Buzz! franchise for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Meanwhile, it also takes on TV animation, architectural animation and automotive and defense projects, according to managing director Tony Prosser.

Cinematic Convergence
Historically, game developers and publishers have gone to outside animation studios primarily for cut scenes/cinematics and for trailers, which are used to tease the games at industry events like E3. That still represents a large percentage of the outsourced animation work in the gaming industry. But increasingly, animation studios are also being asked to create assets used in game play. Bishop Animation, for example, has created models and rigs for a PSP title.

Franco reports that Hydrogen Whiskey has been doing in-game assets for the last five years, starting with the previous “next generation” of console games. It currently sees its work split about 50/50 between in-game assets and cinematics. The company is tackling three projects, one a high-res trailer for E3, one an in-game cut scene, and another involving the creation of pieces for gameplay — namely, shirts, pants and hair gamers can use to create their characters.

Cinematics and in-game assets are converging to a degree. Cut scenes often run on the game’s realtime engine, for example, and in-game assets are used to create the cinematics. The latter results in the characters looking virtually the same in the animations as they do during game play.

Creative Capers Ent. has done work in the online arena for Bounty Hunter (left) and AOL. Courtesy of Creative Capers Ent.

Beyond Consoles
Much of the demand for outside animation services comes from the console segment, where next-generation games, in particular, feature huge amounts of data. But animation studios are also working on games for other platforms, including PCs, online and mobile.

Creative Capers Ent., for example, creates both animation and in-game assets for PC and online gaming projects including Bounty Hunter, a number of Disney edutainment titles, and animated emoticons and casual downloadable games for AOL, according to creative director David Molina. The company is a full-service animation house that works on direct-to-video projects and features, in addition to games.

Left Brain Games produces sponsored online games for clients such as Wonka.com, Van Gogh Vodka and Weird Al Yankovich. According to president Andrew Keplinger, the company’s talent includes animator Dave Lovelace, known for his property Retarded Animal Babies, which has an online following. Left Brain is also considering making games for other platforms, including mobile phones and iPods.

Keplinger explains that the amount of Flash animation varies by sponsor in the kind of casual online game typical of advergaming. “It depends on where their budget is,” he says. Animation is usually one of a menu of add-ons that are over and above the baseline cost of the game. Still, the average online game is relatively inexpensive. “You can develop 10 online games for what it costs to develop one cell phone game,” Keplinger reports.

Next-Generation Growth Prospects
On the console side, the new generation of games — including the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 — should spur a greater need for publishers and developers to hire outside animation companies. “The production cycle on games is about a year now,” Bishop points out. “The cycle is so short, and the amount of assets is so huge.” In addition, the sheer number of videogames released in a year — exponentially more than films, videos or TV shows — adds to the pressure.