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05.14.08 Madden 09 Tackling Engine Blog & Video [Glossary] - Procedural: This means results are changed by the hardware during gameplay - in essence an animation can be changed as it plays back instead of having to be pre-canned - Ragdoll: When physics are used to take over posing a 3D character, usually with a system that behaves like a crash test dummy, or a dummy with springs attached called "Powered Ragdoll".
Intro First off I want to say hello, this is my first blog as the animation director for the Madden and NCAA football titles so I wanted to offer up a brief bio/intro so you guys can know where I am coming from. I started my career in film working as a special effect animator and technical animator, moving on to lead animation and rigging on films including "X-Men2". I moved to games about 5 and a half years ago, but still do action sequence and fight choreography pre-visualization for films once in a while (most recently on "Transformers" and "Jumper"). In 2003 I moved with my family to Vancouver to work as a Senior Animator for the FIFA franchise. After 2 years I was promoted to Animation Director and worked on a few other titles at EA-Canada, most recently as the Animation Director for "NBA Street Homecourt". While working at EA-Canada I collaborated frequently with Ian Cummings as all EA Sports titles now share our proprietary next generation animation technology that I have spent many years working on designing with my colleagues. After Homecourt, Ian Cummings and the team here made me an offer I couldn't refuse, to move to Orlando and work on the historic Madden NFL franchise. As a former football player myself, and a guy who loves working on sports titles, I jumped at the opportunity to transfer to Tiburon and work on one of EA's best games. Animation technology for simulation sports is held to a far higher standard than any other genre in our industry. Animation volume is also about 10 times that of an action title, and our character to character interaction is at a level that no other genre of game must even come close to dealing with. I have always been one who likes to attack the most complex challenges head on. So on to the fun part! The all-new Tackling Engine One of our primary pet-peeves in Madden NFL has been in the responsiveness of tackling. We wanted to feel like as a ballcarrier or defender you are always in more control. The feeling of delay before a tackle started really took away from responsiveness. Also the "suction" you get when being pulled into tackles, well, sucks. We found that the cause of the delay was searching through our 300 and some odd tackles for one that "matched" the current scenario as close as we can, and while this may only take 1/10th to 1/4th of second, I found that delay un-acceptable. So we invented a whole new way to tackle this year...
(Read full blog and see new video HERE from the Madden09 site)
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