Paul Messerly: Lead Animator
Past Projects
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Prima Games: When did you come onto the project?
Paul Messerly: At the very beginning. I was one of the founders of Infinity Ward, so when it all fell apart, I came here immediately.
PG: Once you decided you were doing Titanfall, what did your job entail at that point?
Paul: We started off with a blank slate. We didn’t have models or rigs or any real tech to start with. We knew we wanted giant robots, so we started with that. The biggest problem was that we were working too much from 2-D concept art, so they never moved right. The arms and legs didn’t have the range of motion we needed. We kept cutting them up and redesigning them and sending them back to the art department. Eventually Joel, our Art lead, started doing all the concepts as scratch built model kits to make sure their physicality made sense. The first year was a lot of rough R&D, figuring out how things needed to be built so they could move in dramatic ways. The next phase was about figuring out how to get giant robots to be fast, robotic, heavy, and epic all at once. We tried a lot of tricks in the mocap studio to find that perfect combination of those elements. Everything from ski boots, and jumping stilts, to a 30 pound weight vest.
Figuring out the movements for the Titans was one of the most challenging tasks for the animation department.
PG: I imagine that sort of differed for the various Titans. Like an Ogre walks a little differently than an Atlas or a Stryder.
Paul: The Atlas class Titan was our primary focus throughout development; the other Titans came online very late. The Stryder and Ogre really only came to life in the last five months. Early on the focus was on making sure each robot type, Titan, Spectre, and Marvin, all felt different and had unique personalities.
PG: What about the alien creatures in the game?
Paul: At one point the game was very focused on those. It was a monster-hunting game at one point, so we had a lot of creature designs. A lot of the ones we animated didn’t even make it in the game. In the end we decided to focus on the creatures that would help bring the world alive without interfering with the core Pilot vs. Titan gameplay. The Flyers worked out really well in this role but most of the ground-based aliens were cut.
Early on, we worked with some Navy SEALs. The intensity in their movement was great. So we based our AI off them. Initially. In the end, we wanted to do a little more. We started to need faster and more acrobatic AI to keep up with players, so we brought in some stunt men. The end result is a mix of SEAL and free runner. The defining factor of the AI is that while they are epic in their own way, they are dull compared to the players. The contrast between how the AI move and the player is what makes the player feel like a hero.
The Titans strike unique poses following Titanfall sequences.
PG: One of the iconic moments of the game is when you call in a Titan and it just comes streaking down from the sky and takes a really cool stance upon landing. What kind of work went into animating that sequence?
Paul: We did a lot of different takes on that. I came up with the pose that they land in, it looks like a kneeling knight, and Bruce did the reentry and landing. We had just that one Titanfall animation for a long time. But now each titan has his own pose. The Stryder has a ninja pose and the Ogre is just a giant scary ogre, I guess. (Chuckles). The original direction for the Titans was to make them feel like a monster, like an Ogre!
PG: And the Stryder is very different.
Paul: Yeah. The other guys tend to do heavy steps to get up and turn around. He does little jumps as he changes stance. The big breakthrough for Titans was when we nailed rodeo and then moved on to all the mounting animations. Before that, they still felt like lifeless walking tanks. Once we put in the rodeo, embarking animations, and the custom melees they became unique personalities…especially once they could grab you and put you in the cockpit. At that moment they change from being a robotic vehicle into your giant robot buddy.
Animators spent a long time working on the various mounting and rodeo animations.
PG: That’s one thing we found interesting—how fluid the animation is when you get inside your Titan. Is there more than one way to get into a Titan?
Paul: Yeah, there are 12 embarking animations. Most of them are for that kneeling ground pose. You can go from the front, and you just go straight in. You go in from the side and he grabs you and puts you in. You go in this way, and grab on to his hand and swing in or you slide between his legs if you approach from behind. My favorite is the power slide between the Titan’s legs.
PG: No wonder it’s so fluid—you’ve done animations for each of those positions.
Paul: Yeah. And then each Titan has its own unique set of embarks. We spent a lot of time on those. (Chuckles) And these animations are the key to their unique personalities. The embarks and the melee animations really sell them as something that is alive and connected with their Pilot. There is a bond between the Pilot and their Titan.
PG: When you’re playing the game, are there any animations you pick up on that help you tactically?
Paul: The easiest ones to pick up on would be the Titans. We did specific Titan reloads for each weapon, so you can really tell, even from a distance, which weapon they have when they reload. The biggest tell is when a Pilot is about to eject from his Titan…the Titan brings its arms out to the side with hands pointing up.
PG: Then there’s rodeo—that animation of when you hop on board and then you rip off that panel. Is that the same or different on every Titan?
Paul: Every Titan has different hatch layouts and different rodeo animations, so there’s probably about eight get-on animations for each titan. While they are all different animations they’re all basically the same length so there is no game-playing difference between them.
PG: When that panel is open, what is exposed there? Or what are you calling that in-game?
Paul: We always call it the Titan brains. The Titan brains have several different destruction animations to represent different damage states. This gives you a visual clue to how close to doomed state the Titan is. The final state has a little piece of the Titan brain that falls out and hangs there to show you the brain is pretty much dead. One other visual clue is that the Titans have unique animations for doomed state. The Titan will stumble and shake when its in doomed state.
PG: Do you have anything special that you want people to know about Titanfall? Something they might not already know?
Paul: The thing that’s probably most overlooked is some of the core AI behaviors. The AI move around in squads using hand signals and calling out targets to each other. They also react differently to each type of threat. They will only attack a Titan in large numbers and usually from the flank—when the Titan sees them and turns to shoot at them they all run away. One of my favorite things is them tripping over themselves to run away and falling down and just freaking out. (Chuckles) Actually, one thing most people probably don’t know about, ’cause it doesn’t happen that often, is that if you corner a Grunt with your Titan and he’s alone, he really freaks out. He’ll drop his gun, put his hands up, get on his knees, and beg for his life. There’s all these crazy little behaviors they do if there’s nowhere for them to go and a giant Titan’s pointing a gun at him. (Chuckles)
We worked very hard to make the Grunts be the ones that make you feel special. If the battlefield is quiet and they see you run past, they’ll stop and salute you. They talk about how badass you are and the cool things you do, so they’re the ones that make you feel like a superhero.