Junior and Senior animator GET

Hey there, San-Fans!
The team of Out of Line at Nerd Monkeys is now on it's third month of remote work from home.
It took us a while to get organized but we quickly turned it around and managed to speed up and scale production while keeping everyone safe at home.

It was back in March, that Inês Pereira joined us exactly on the week that we moved out of the office and into the safety of our homes. It was an odd position to be in as for a Junior Animator. At the time, the idea was to guide her and help her as much as possible to integrate into the team and the animation pipeline alongside a Senior Animator. Of course that quickly proved to be impossible as we hastily packed our computers and moved into improvised offices at our homes.

Fortunately for us, Inês has proven to be a true professional, not only with her art but also with her commitment and that in turn allowed us to feel confident in giving her more complex tasks and animations and it shows.

Here's what she has to say about herself (we kept her words and made no corrections):

"Hello! My name is Inês and I'm your local Junior Animator! It hasn't even been a year since I left college so this is still baby's first experience when it comes to the real world. It's way more responsibility but also way more rewarding! Besides your typical school assignments, Out of Line is the first project I'm part of. I'm from Almada, but attended high school in Lisbon and college in Portalegre. I've been pretty sure I wanted to be an animator since middle school, and I've been following that path ever since. Whether it was film & TV or games wasn't a choice I was focused on making: I just really wanted to animate. I tend to think of animation as very close to acting, as we are technically acting through our animations. I think that's part of the reason why I love this area so much! I'm a big theater nerd (specially musical theater) and like with acting, I think each animator brings a new version and new life to each character they do and I just think that's really cool. Plus I really like drawing, so these two combined made me end up here. From here on out, my focus is learning and improving as much as I can. That's my main goal! I don't have much else set in stone as of yet, as I'm mostly seeing where life takes me (ugh this sounds awfully hippie, I know). Still, you're not getting rid of me that easily! I still got a lot to show and a lot of work to do, so hopefully you'll see me a bunch around here! See you soon, Inês"

Inês Pereira working on a Cutscene for Out of Line using the Spine software

Meanwhile, and considering the amount of animations that were planned to go into the game, a Senior Animator was already planned to enter the team. We just didn't expect it to be doing it all so... remotely.

An ad was placed on Nerd Monkeys Facebook on the 31st of March, seeking for a Senior Animator. Alongside other personal contacts a few dozens of emails were received from Portuguese professionals here in Portugal and abroad applying for the position. We were super happy to so many young professionals with great portfolios, which in turn made our job that much harder in picking someone that would be the right one.

After doing all the interviews for the potential candidates alongside a few tests, one final person was chosen and, fortunately for us, he accepted our offer.

João Vasco Leal started working as a Senior Animator for Nerd Monkeys, directly from his home in London on the 22nd of April. Being a seasoned professional working as an animator he immediately started working with our characters and rigs and in a few days he was turning over complete and finished animations. Awesome.
 
 Here's what he has to say about himself (we kept his words and made no corrections):

"As a kid he was a big fan of comics, video games and cartoons, nowadays... not much has changed!
With quite a few years of experience both in Portugal and in the UK, he was able to amass a wide number of diverse projects that include childrens illustration, animation for music videos, commercials, video games, VR experiences, amongst others.
He brings with him his passion for entertainment arts and pop culture and that is reflected in his work."

João Vasco Leal working remotely with the Out of Line team

Both Inês and João are using Esoteric Software's Spine animation package to create the in-game character animations and cutscenes, but this you already know since we already covered it in a previous post ;)

You can follow João's work here.

That's it for now. Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
And stay safe!

Understand, rubber band?

Remotely working

Working remotely or remotely working?

As the international crisis of the corona virus pandemic takes over the world, we at Nerd Monkeys here in Lisbon, Portugal decided to start our quarantine 1 week ahead of the government imposed one. It seemed obvious that this was the correct course of action as many other companies were already taking the same steps.

So, since the 16th of March, everyone has been officially working from home.
For some team members this is a brand new experience, while for others it is something that has been part of their lives for some years now.

Diogo is obviously pretending to work. You can see in his glasses the cubes from Minecraft reflected.
Also, he is working on the laptop while holding a coffee mug. At least he could have disguised it a little bit better.

 

Francisco is a bit smarter. He decided to take a photo showing his computer screens with Unity and some artwork assets. You would be almost fooled to think he was actually working but then you notice it. Right there. In the left corner. A Nintendo Switch! ahAH! You can't fool us Mr. Santos!

Genebra is a programmer and because of that he thinks he can outsmart everyone else due

to his (supposedly) more logical thinking. Well Mr. Spock, you can't fool us!

If you look closely to his fingers of his left hand, you can perfectly see he is using WASD in conjunction

with the mouse on his right hand! HE IS PLAYING AN FPS GAME!

You see Mr Watson, he thought his Photoshop skills were just perfect enough

to hide the images on his screens, but he forgot to hide the most obvious piece of evidence... HIMSELF!

Filipe doesn't even hide it. Here he is "producing"... with a Nintendo Switch in his hands.

At least he is honest about it even if the photo was taken by surprise by his wife.

Wilson's face says it all.
Nobody believes you dude.
We know you were playing videogames last week.

Mafalda said she didn't want to take a photo.
So we asked her dog to sneak one for us.
Here she is playing in her iPad instead of working.
She has no idea her photo will be on this blog.
Thanks pooch! Woof!

Inês Pereira is our new intern!
We can definitely with all certainty say she is indeed working!
It would be rude to assume differently anyway, so here is a "short" introduction written by her.

"Hello, I'm Inês and I'm from Almada. I've always been pretty sure I wanted to do something related to animation since I was a kid. I attended high school at António Arroio, where I studied Audiovisual Communication with a focus on Multimedia. From there, I moved out and attended college in Portalegre, and now I have a degree in Design and Multimedia Animation. Yay! Now while Nerd Monkeys is my first experience in the area, I did work retail for a little while (super glad I'm not there anymore, considering what's going on). I only spent four days in the studio before this all went down and we had to start working from home, which does make me a little sad because the learning process and getting feedback does become a little tougher. But hopefully all of this gives me a little more time so that when things eventually return to normal, I'll be going full steam ahead~!"

Boring, just like every other intern.

Anyway, have a nice isolation week!
Take care, teddy bear.

After Holidays!

So the holidays are now in the past and the new decade is here.
The team took some time to get ready for 2020 and also to shift gears into maximum warp as we start this new year at full throttle (yeap, lot's of car parts metaphors in this one, also, a Start Trek one).

So to keep the holidays spirit intact and bring the joy and happiness that only exists when you spend time with your family (or not), here are some photos and quotes from all our Out of Line team members.

Having said that, you may notice that we are getting bigger! Some new (and old) team members have join (or rejoined) the team. Also, a few of them never actually left and kind of hang around backing the team and waiting for the right moment to step in. But this is a story for another post... maybe.

Francisco Santos - Designer, Artist of All-Things, Pro-Biker

Francisco in Dublin wearing a fence

Francisco says:
"I went in to the cold of Dublin to spend my year's end.
And, in the middle of all that Guinness, I took the opportunity to visit an interactive museum about the vikings and Dublin's medieval era. There I could try out replicas of gear worn in those days.
It's funny to think that swimming caps have evolved so much!"

You think you are so clever and funny, Francis. But you aren't. At least now we can smash you with a pipe in the head and you won't feel a thing. GET BACK TO WORK!

João Genebra - Programmer, Unity Master, Mechanics Tinkerer

João fake photo of him riding a horse

João says:

"It was a good holiday break.

Between spending time with family and friends for Christmas and new year I also went to West Elizabeth to work for a few days on a family ranch.

This is me on a break after feeding the chickens and going for a horse ride."

Our programmer thinks he can trick us by doing some Photoshop magic and bashing a real photo with a photo of his head. BUT HE CAN'T. We can totally see this is fake! Nice try though. NOW, GET BACK TO WORK!


Diogo Vasconcelos - Producer, Boss, Late

Diogo was yet again late at sending his photo and comment so...

Mafalda Claro - Associate Producer, Diogo's Life-line, Woman

Somebody else's dog. Photo probably stolen from Facebook

Mafalda says:

"This year the holidays were a time to enjoy family, relax and plan the new year (and the new projects ahead).  

I had a great family Christmas, full with cheese, ham, good regional wine and that typical "too much food" Portuguese table, but it was particularly special because it was our puppy's first Christmas: behold Tyr, The Lawgiver!"

Mafalda sent us a photo of her dog in a bed wearing fake antlers. Not only is the photo in a vertical super slim fashion (causing terrible design anxiety to everyone) but is she really expecting us to believe that she would own such a cute pup? I don't think so. Stealing photos from other people is horrible and you should know better! NOW, GET BACK TO WORK!

Filipe Duarte Pina - Co-Producer, Project Manager, Ex-Boss

The worst sleepers you could wear

Filipe says:
"Got a lot of really cool presents, but these sleepers that my wife gave me are really something else. I love Rick and Morty and actually owning such a silly thing as these oversized things just warms my heart, and my feet! Hahahaha!

This is horrible! You are happy because you got presents? Your family is not that important, huh? Also you are wearing sleepers shaped like the heads of two characters, does this mean your feet are constantly inside their bodies? ARGH! YUCK! ...GET BACK TO WORK!

Wilson Almeida - Designer, Breaker-of-things, Joke Master

Thank you Wilson, we totally won't have nightmares now

Wilson says:
"Squeeeeeeeak! Squeak..."

 Another team member who thinks we can't spot the terrible Photoshop mash-up. Listen, WE KNOW YOU ARE NOT A MOUSE. Now, stop this nonsense and go do your job... 
...wait
...that's not right.
...AH! GET BACK TO WORK!

Barna Nemes - Animator, Intern, magyar

Yeap, a Christmas tree. How original.

Barna says:

Tessék itt egy kép az idei rohadt nagy fánkról, ami alig fért be a nappaliba. De azért nagyon szép volt. Köszi a családomnak a sok finom kaját :D Puszi mindenkinek!

Really? How nice of you, Barna.
If you don't mind, would you please continue your work related affairs?
Thank you.


Happy holidays from the team!
Don't forget to follow us on Twitter!
Make it snappy, Pappy.

Production, bugs and inspiration

Hey there, "Out of Liners"!

Just like the title says, this blog post brings you an update on production, bugs and inspiration!

"Ahhhhh! Inspiration!" says the artist, "I thrive on seeing the work of other artists..."

"Ohhhhh! Money!" says the producer, "I thrive on smelling money..."

"Ehhhhh! 000101001!" says the programmer, "0101011101010101110010100101..."

Production

Getting money is obviously important to get a game released with a minimum degree of quality. Even if you are an indie developer working from home or have a fixed means of support, it comes a time when some outsourcing is needed, like translation, quality assurance, music rights, etc. etc.

Our Nerd Monkeys, producer, Diogo Vasconcelos, has been for the last year and a half trying to get a nice flow of cash so that we can establish a fixed road map for launching Out of Line with the quality it deserves.

It hasn't been easy, Diogo has talked with investors, publishers, platform holders and many other people trying to assess the interest, opportunities and getting much needed feedback from fellow studios and developers about what we need to get a to an excellent launch.

But we think he is almost there. We have some very interesting propositions that will fund our little game just enough so we can make it the best it can be. We can't obviously talk about it here, but keep your digital fingers cross, we are definitely almost there.

Diogo answers 2 phones while listening to music and pointing to pie charts

 

Bugs

Programming is the art of creating bugs, some would say. The more you code, the more potential bugs will arise. It's part of the job to write code and bring life to a videogame and then to go back and re-write that same code so it doesn't turn the CPU into a supernova.

João Genebra is constantly going back and forth with everything that he creates for Out of Line. But to help him out with bug hunting and code cleaning, he only uses the classic tools like MS Visual Studio, his trusty debugger and a notebook to keep track of all the bugs.

Genebra code from Out of Line

 

Inspiration

We talked before in the old blog about Francisco's inspiration for Out of Line, but has kept him moving lately? Is it some weird Dragon Crown's furry fanart or does he get high on Picasso's cubism?

This is what Francisco had to say more than 2 years ago in an old blog post:
"I always try to find inspiration outside the media of vídeo games. In movies, short-films, music, or even classical or modern art, and taking all that into consideration I try to converge it to one single product.
For San, the main character of Out of Line, I found a lot of inspiration in Hayao Miyazaki animation movies. In movies like, My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies or Spirit Away where you can find as a main character, a young kid - in contrast with American animation movies, but that can stay for another topic). And I think that has a lot of power as a narrative component or even as an icon for the audience to relate to. "

Here is what he has to say now:
"I ́m always looking for inspiration to Out of Line, either with styles of animation, color palettes, character personalities, environment moods, etc.

Right now I'm looking at a lot of different stuff:

Genndy Tartakovsky style of animation. He is one of the gurus of animation and I really like his animation style, and I wonder how could it work in a 2D game animation without breaking up the gameplay too much.

In the game Gris, I really love the tone of the narrative and the way the story is shown to the player. That kind of subtle emotion storytelling is something I wanted for Out of Line since the beginning of the project, and it is really cool to see a game pull that off, as well as Gris did.

The Knights and Bikes loose and extravagant feel, gives the player a really interesting main characters. They manage to capture very well the childish personalities of these kids.

The Legend of Hei, it's a Chinese animated movie that has a really compelling main character. A strong but curious kid as a main protagonist that has a journey full of challenges to complete. And really inspiring to see how different stories work so well with a younger protagonist.

Le College Noir by Ulysse Malassagne, it's a comic book where - you guessed it right - the main characters are also adventurous young children that fight monsters and explore cool stuff.

And there are a lot more stuff that I could talk about, but I leave that for another awesome post.

The Legend of Hei

That's it for today!

Keep it in the tub, Bub.

Making the best game possible!

Hello and stuff
So, just like we said on the first post, we are moving on from the old blog to the new.
No more looking back, no regrets and so on. OH! Don't you dare go back there again and look at all that OLD art and stuff!

Studies for Out of Line environment settings

Current plan
So, we are all at Nerd Monkeys offices, working on Out of Line. The monkeys were kind enough to let us use their space and... err.. maybe even help us publish the game! YES! AND MONEY! Oh please, YES! We need more money to create this thing... well, not to create it, but to... you know, eat and pay bills and stuff.
Also, that money we got from the PlayStation Awards doesn't stretch that much, you know?

The PlayStation Awards!

Status of development
Right, about our game.
We have been hard at work on a multitude of things, on this second blog post we will cover two main aspects that we decided to improve upon the old ones. The brand new look of the game and the feature implemented way back late last year of the moving trees, plants and other objects.

The old game vs the new game = it's an all new game!
Out of Line was a project that came out of Francisco's mind back in the days when he was still studying at Etic. The first prototype was done in a short period of time and it was also Francisco's first attempt at it. So it's normal that things eventually get redone, and for the better! The art style and work has progressed immensely since those days has you can see by the comparison below:

2017 build

2018 build

"Look, there is some movement in the trees..."
A forest or any out door environment looks basic and dull if it's static. The same principal applies in videogames. In Out of Line, San is constantly traveling through slopes, platforms and patches of green grass so it was imperative that we reviewed our pipeline and somehow make things move convincingly. The first approach would be to animate everything individually, but that would take too much time considering the amount of assets in the game. Also, animating by bones or meshes would be probably very taxing on the CPU / GPU and doing it by keyframe would look too dated. The solution was to animate everything using a shader that displaces the texture's UV's. The shader takes a deformer texture, like an image with a gradient, and uses it's color values to distort the sprite. Then, to animate the sprite the shader scrolls the deformer texture.
Additionaly the shader uses a mask to define areas of the sprite that are not affected by the distortion.

Textture + mask + gradient (deformer texture)

Asset in Unity with animation (not loopable)

Everything looks so much better now, you can even feel the breeze coming through the monitor... hummmm... (hair sways gently).

San enjoys the breeze.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you enjoy our new dev blog here on blogger (not sponsored message). And don't forget to follow us here and on Twitter!

Hasta la vista, malabarista!