• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Awkward 90's CGI

L

lazygecko

Member
Let's take a moment to look back at and appreciate the early years of CGI implementation in video games. Back when the artists were just starting to get into it and didn't know what the hell they were doing.

The humble beginnings of Blizzard's cinematic department. Overall it's not that bad for its time, but once we get to the scene with the king...

Mortal Kombat 4 is a well known classic.

Inca gets points for the sheer WTF-ness.

My grand favorite is Dragon Lore from Cryo. Everything here is just so perfect. The flat skybox wall in the background. The floaty movement animations. The way the red haired dude just glides along with the door he's opening... What really seals it is the bad guy regressing into this sort of default T pose you always see in 3D modeling programs.

Show me some other gems that are worth looking at. Wether it be FMVs or promotional art. Bonus points for poor animation, underdeveloped scenery, and action-figure limb anatomy.
 
P

pixlexic

Banned
its not really about not knowing what the hell they were doing more so than there not being the same tech and tools we have today.

Early CG was literally all key framing with little to no kinematics.
 
K

Krejlooc

Banned
While some may call it awkward, the sterile yet creepy look of 90's Rare CGI always looked awesome to me:

2WJcrxR.jpg


Brp4AQg.jpg


34q8P6P.jpg


ly2bmpx.jpg


Someone recently posted some Mario 64 CGI promo art that elicits the same emotion from me:

zRBolpA.jpg


I can't really explain why these look so cool to me. The crudeness almost lends them a surreal quality. They just look awesome, IMO. They remind me almost of that TV show Reboot.
 
U

unholyrevenger72

Banned
lazygecko said:
My grand favorite is Dragon Lore from Cryo. Everything here is just so perfect. The flat skybox wall in the background. The floaty movement animations. The way the red haired dude just glides along with the door he's opening... What really seals it is the bad guy regressing into this sort of default T pose you always see in 3D modeling programs.

Show me some other gems that are worth looking at. Wether it be FMVs or promotional art. Bonus points for poor animation, underdeveloped scenery, and action-figure limb anatomy.
Click to expand...

Still better than Dragon Age 2
 
L

lucebuce12

Member
The sheer difference from Warcraft 2's CGI to Warcraft 3's is staggering. Warcraft 3's CGI still holds up today while W2's... well...
 
B

Beyonce Beytwice

Member
This extends to movies as well, like the first Toy Story.

By the way, it's '90s, not 90's. The ' replaces the 19 and the s comes straight after the year.
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Member
I was glad MGS dropped using CG.
Remember the Tokyo trailer or E3 trailer one of them, was nothing but CG and it looked odd. Even had it been only for cutscenes.
 
D

Dragoon En Regalia

Member
Spring-Loaded said:
that was me

A bit higher resolution:
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's the good stuff. It's like the Metroid Prime box cover, but for Metal Mario.

ReBoot definitely has that sort of optimistic, janky love of early CG animation that got increasingly weird as the show dove into darker territory.

Tekken 1 ending cinematic is still the king, though.
 
P

Polioliolio

Member
Freshmaker said:
Tekken 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEwWoEqiScc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtHGjIUdaXQ

Them curves. That walking...
Click to expand...

That porn music..


Jawmuncher said:
Jawmuncher said:
I was glad MGS dropped using CG.
Remember the Tokyo trailer or E3 trailer one of them, was nothing but CG and it looked odd. Even had it been only for cutscenes.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Whachoo talkin' 'bout? Metal Gear Solid? I don't think it's ever used CG cutscenes.. that's in game, or at least in game assets.
 
P

Phediuk

Member
I thought it was weird how in Final Fantasy VII there were two different kinds of FMVs, one where all the characters were all superdeformed but looked more detailed than ingame, and another one where all the characters were realitically-proportioned and had fully-featured faces.

Why did they go through the trouble of creating two entirely different sets of CG models and then switch between them haphazardly? Seems like a waste of time.
 
K

Krejlooc

Banned
RyudBoy said:
and then I saw this on Sega Saturn... O_O

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-6dVdfIgEk
Click to expand...

This is an awesome intro, especially the music. Kinda sucks that the video posted doesn't have the subtitles, though. The vagueness was so interesting with little motivation beyond "Please, I beg you...Don't let him reach the tower! The dragon knows the way..."

Who is him? Why can't he reach the tower? What is the dragon?

The beginning to an incredible story spanning 3 games. What a game.
 
RoadHazard

RoadHazard

Gold Member
KainXVIII said:
Nope, still think its great, lol.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I mean, I still love it, and nothing gives me nostalgia like it (and this - 2:23 and onward is just amazing), but the CG is undeniably dated as hell. For LBA2 it was already much, much better, although the animations were still pretty shit.
 
P

Polioliolio

Member
Phediuk said:
I thought it was weird how in Final Fantasy VII there were two different kinds of FMVs, one where all the characters were all superdeformed but looked more detailed than ingame, and another one where all the characters were realitically-proportioned and had fully-featured faces.

Why did they go through the trouble of creating two entirely different sets of CG models and then switch between them haphazardly? Seems like a waste of time.
Click to expand...


And yet the best looking ones, the in-game combat models, were neglected for everything but combat.

As much as I loved that game, and how I still think it's pretty good, those super deformed characters look like absolute shit and always have.
 
K

Krejlooc

Banned
Polioliolio said:
Whachoo talkin' 'bout? Metal Gear Solid? I don't think it's ever used CG cutscenes.. that's in game, or at least in game assets.
Click to expand...

He's talking about the 1997 pre-debut trailer (as in, not the one shown at E3) which featured CGI cutscenes:

9mMGJGD.png


MGS looked radically different in its infancy.

94E1CEAF3.jpg
 
T

Toxi

Banned
Polioliolio said:
Haha oh dear.. That was awesome.

Also, is his head actually a cheetah head? I thought it was supposed to be a mask.
Click to expand...
It's supposed to be a mask, but he still emotes with it in a lot of gameplay and cutscenes.

It's also a jaguar, not a cheetah; jaguars live in Mexico, and King is a luchador.
 
P

Polioliolio

Member
As awful as all of this looks, it's the kind of stuff my animation courses in college (a decade after this game CG) wish they had students producing.

3DSmax. So many bad memories.. countless hours modeling objects, and no matter how well you modeled, it always looked lifeless and made from simple geometry.

Studying that stuff was such a waste (in my case).. Should have focused on fundamentals, drawing, and photography.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

LTTP - Halo MCC (PC)
LTTP
35
3K
Reality Czar replied
Why gamers complain about their games being taken away |OT| Censorship Controversy Central
|OT| NSFW 26 27 28 29 30
1K
182K
Pantz replied
Netherrealm Studios is pushing the fighting genre forward with MORTAL KOMBAT X
2 3 4 5
236
28K
clockpunk replied
  • Locked
Mass Effect: Andromeda | Review Thread
50 51 52 53 54
3K
338K
ModBot 2 replied
Mass Effect: Andromeda | Review Thread (READ MOD POST)
26 27 28 29 30
1K
222K
OléGunner replied
Top Bottom