It's Time To Take Gaming Seriously

It's Time To Take Gaming Seriously
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Another skill for the animator's portfolio is that of acting and pantomime. "Often in the development of a game you have to get across a character's action within twenty frames without dialogue, and pantomime can play a lot in that," says Shane Tarrant, Assistant Director of Animation, producer of the Turok series for Acclaim Studios. "When we are creating characters we may not have a point of reference. For example in creating Turok, we don't know how a dinosaur walks or acts, so the animator needs to have some acting ability in order to create that movement in the real world and move it into the game."

Multi-player possibilities have brought a new level of fun and competitiveness to the modern video game. © Acclaim Entertainment.

In anticipation of the more cinematic, enhanced gaming experiences of tomorrow, Acclaim Studios has created a "Cinematics Department" that works with the voice actors and movie quality scenes, but in addition to the ability to draw, their animators are also able to act out, both physically and on screen, the roles they are creating.

The end of the day goal for most animators may be to work on films and television, but they may want to consider stopping off at the video game developer's studio along the way.

"Working in gaming provides excellent exposure to many different aspects of animation including the computer and special effects skills required by cinematic projects," remarks Tarrant. "Also I have heard that working in the movie industry is not always steady work, where if you are a solid animator you are in demand in video gaming."

And, it is reported to not pay badly either. Beginning video game animators can expect to command in the neighborhood of $35,000 per year and salary's upwards of $100,000 are not unheard of. This may encourage happiness in both the right and left sides of the brain.

The Major North American Video Game Developers Are:

7 Studios
Acclaim Entertainment, Inc.
Activision, Inc.
Agetec, Inc.
American Softworks Corp.
Atlus U.S.A., Inc..
Bungie Software
Capcom Entertainment
Cerny Games
Crave Entertainment
Digital Anvil
DreamWorks Interactive, LLC
Eidos Interactive
Electronic Arts, Inc.
Enix Corporation
Fox Interactive
GT Interactive Software Corp.
Hasbro Interactive Inc.
Humongous Entertainment
Incredible Technologies, Inc.
Infogrames Entertainment Inc.
Insomniac Games
Interplay Entertainment Corp.

Konami of America, Inc.
LucasArts Entertainment Company
Midway Home Entertainment
Mindscape (The Learning Company/Mattel, Inc.)
Namco Hometek, Inc.
Naughty Dog, Inc.
Neversoft Entertainment
Oddworld Inhabitants
Red Storm Entertainment, Inc.
Shiny Entertainment, Inc.
Sierra On-line
Square Electronic Arts LLC
Stormfront Studios
Sunsoft, U.S.A.
Surreal Software, Inc.
Take 2 Interactive Software Inc.
TerraGlyph Interactive Studios
The 3DO Company
THQ, Inc.
Titus Software Corporation
UBI Soft Entertainment Inc.
Universal Interactive Studios, Inc.
Working Designs

A Washington, DC-based freelance journalist, Jacquie enjoys writing about the electronic entertainment and edutainment mediums, including the Internet. She is a frequent contributor to the Washington Times and Krause Publication magazines. She has won the 1998 Certificate of Award granted by the Metropolitan Area Mass Media Committee of the American Association of University Women. Jacquie is a fan of animation and video games but admits to being unable to play them!