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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.02 - MAY 2000

Oddworld Inhabitants: Weird Name, Great Game by Jacquie Kubin Abe and his fellow Mudokons have a lot to celebrate with this top of the line game. © Oddworld. The cinematic backgrounds of creator Lorne Lanning and company co-founder Sherry McKenna may be the element that has given Abe's Oddworld an edge in the competitive video gaming world. The game combines the emotional response of the player with compelling game play, melding two different creative universes perfectly. "The story to the game is key to everything we do here, giving the world and the characters so much more background and depth than just characters whose sole purpose is to carry a gun," explains Scott Easley, Senior Animator Oddworld Inhabitants and winner of an Emmy award for animation. "Even in the species of the bad guys you have sub-categories. All the Mudokons or the Slig guards are not the same. This gives the characters an illustrious palette that makes them fun and challenging for us to work with." From the movie shots to the game play the animation is always eye-catching. © Oddworld. The Game Oddworld's first two games, Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus, put gamers into a first-person world lorded over by the Magog Cartel, with Abe and his fellow blue Mudokon's slaving away as underfed and overworked labor at Rupture Farms. At the end of Abe's Oddysee, the gamer has destroyed the Glukkon's factory and their store of Mudokon bones used to make their favorite beverage. As one can see, this places the hapless Mudokons on the very bottom of this world's feeding chain. It also presents a unique challenge to the animators in the "skinning" of the characters who are nothing but skin and bones. "Skinning refers to assigning the skin to follow the bones, or the skeleton, of the character so that it follows the limbs and moves realistically," says Angie Jones, Oddworld animator and co-author of 3D Studio Max 3 Professional Animation. "I have heard this process can take from four to nine months at feature houses, but in this game world we normally get a month to do each character." Gamers must help Abe find a new promised land away from the Glukkon Factory. © Oddworld. That might sound as though Oddworld Inhabitants is being run by the demanding Glukkons, but nothing could be further from the truth. Working for the San Luis Opisbo group sounds almost like going to animators’ heaven as the environment has been designed to foster creativity, health and happiness among its sixty plus employees. They even have a pool table. However, the support necessary to create the best game possible may be the animators’ favorite perk. "With other companies there were always shortcuts, but here if it is important to the story it will be done, and for me that is important," says Jones. "Even though I never am completely happy with my animations, I know the standards are so high here to start with, that my work is best. I can create within the time constraints."

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