'The People Behind Booker and Elizabeth' Part II

That was a little odd, I wasn't sure what the purpose was., attacking the actress or in effect, attacking the charactor. The latter I could understand in a wierd way to find the correct emotional resonance. The former...stuff it.

@Cloudenvy: I agree, hopefully the animated sequence matches her delivery, so far what they showed in the top left corner didnt, but maybe it wasnt complete.

@Livingitlarge224 said:

@snaptroll: I wouldn't say it is a "homage" so much as a critical deconstruction... the Randian society flies apart rather spectacularly. What you are saying is kind of like saying "I don't want anything that pays homage to Nazis, so I'm not going to watch Inglorious Bastards"

Exactly. Perfect analogy duder.

@snaptroll said:

I'm not giving my money to any piece of media that pays homage to batshit crazy Ayn Rand. I don't care how good it is.

Saying it "pays homage" is a stretch.

@snaptroll: I wouldn't say it is a "homage" so much as a critical deconstruction... the Randian society flies apart rather spectacularly. What you are saying is kind of like saying "I don't want anything that pays homage to Nazis, so I'm not going to watch Inglorious Bastards"

I'm not giving my money to any piece of media that pays homage to batshit crazy Ayn Rand. I don't care how good it is.

Ken Levine: "The camera is on Courtney's face so we can get her emotional reference..."

Riiiiight... right. ;)

And yep Courtney is still unbelievable cute.

Hey Courtney has the same headphones on as me! I already feel so much closer... I'm sad :(

@MadLaughter said:

Jesus Christ, that was intense. Troy seemed to be trying to walk a narrow line between the 'berating' and 'she's got it'.

God, no kidding, what a fine line to walk. I mean you can clearly see what the point is but I'd still feel uncomfortable as hell in his shoes.

@Wintermute: Ditto to that. I think these vids have been great. Such a raw insight into what it takes to create a character. Looking at this now, the idea that people were worrying that Elizabeth was just an 'escost-mission-character' are totally unfounded.

I want Infinite so bad. Ever since I saw that 15 minutes of gameplay I have been unbelievably excited.

I hope they make him say "get bent' sometime during the story.

If only Troy Baker had yelled "Get Bent!" at her my week would have been complete.

I love these, these are awesome. Keep these coming Irrational.

Courtney is amazing. I actually got chills. watching her voice act

I saw some of this stuff in some panel recording  a while ago. It's kind of crazy how they get that emotion out of her.

Funny that people criticize aspects of the game, yet they clearly didn't pay full attention to the video itself. I personally found the animation of Elizabeth's face -- which is very stylized and comparable with how Pixar model humans -- to be subtle and effective. I'm not sure what you're looking for. Lots of facial movement and Jim Carrey-esque grimacing? Ken Levine seems to push the right buttons as well.

Irrational seems to want to aim for as few cutscenes as possible in this game. Now that is a very hard task. I recommend you listen to the interview that Levine conducted with Guillermo Del Toro, where he speaks at length about the issues they're faced with.

I'm defending this, because I feel that some people are criticizing things that are trivial, or seem to stem from a misguided sense of how things should be.

Ken Levine needs to back off sometimes. He wants a reaction, but it doesn't fit the moment. Then the animators dress it up with all this gaudy character animation which has no bearing on the performance.

The only thing genuine was the VA's face in that first performance. The animators ruined it with all their bullshit dressing, like adding rims and a flame job to a Shelby Cobra.

She was right, too, he totally berates her and then gets that reaction, and then the following moment is softness, detached from everything prior. It's a reaction for the sake of a reaction.

Perhaps I'm being too critical of an unfinished product, but I've seen nothing of the story elements in this game that really grab me. Just a bunch of dressed up tripe around something that could be very good if just let to shine on its own.

/clap

I have to agree, for such a emotional story, the in-game facial animation is leaving a lot to be desired.

I think it might be harder to do complex animations for an in-game model, as 99% percent of games have a huge difference between the animation in and out of cutscenes, i.e. the Uncharted series. One of the exceptions would be L.A. Noire, a game built pretty much around that technology.

I hope they address that in the final product, though I'm sure the game will be incredible anyway.

Must be fun to write AND direct the voice actors - a sort of production element, not necessarily associated with the game producer AND company owner. Clearly something Ken Levine wanted to do.

Any body else wanted Tory to yell "Gent Bent" at her? *sigh*

i really hope they get some of the actor's performances in the game, otherwise what a waste a talent.

Why the face reference?

The character was not showing any emotion in-game anyway, unlike the voice actress.

That's some pretty solid method right there.

Pretty cool stuff to watch, good idea showing these details.

Verbal abusive on games...who says isn't cool?

I know they want to keep HD video for subscribers, and I am fine with that. But that only really makes sense for original content like reviews and quick looks. If it is something like this or a trailer, there is no reason to watch it here in 360p when any other gaming site will have it available in HD.

Jesus Christ, that was intense. Troy seemed to be trying to walk a narrow line between the 'berating' and 'she's got it'.

As a heterosexual dude, I still can't get over what a staggeringly attractive man Troy Baker is. Get bent, indeed!

I wonder if there is a 'scream at the girl' button.

Very cool, its neat to see how the voice acting process works.

That was some pretty real shit, never seen the process get this... real. I hope they improve the facial animations a bit though, they're obviously not going for an LA Noire type thing but they're not quite expressive enough, despite the stylized look.

God damn she's a good actress!

And even then she wanted to do a re-take because she wasn't happy with what she put out.

Troy Baker is slowly, but surely becoming the new Nolan North. Just you wait.

I got goosebumps when Troy was yelling at Courtnee. These two seem perfect for this game, they've obviously put a lot of stock in their characters.

They managed to capture absolutely none of that emotion from the actor lol

I know they want to keep HD video for subscribers, and I am fine with that. But that only really makes sense for original content like reviews and quick looks. If it is something like this or a trailer, there is no reason to watch it here in 360p when any other gaming site will have it available in HD.

Wow this was really interesting.@bilbomarks said:

@Goldanas said:

Ken Levine needs to back off sometimes. He wants a reaction, but it doesn't fit the moment. Then the animators dress it up with all this gaudy character animation which has no bearing on the performance.

The only thing genuine was the VA's face in that first performance. The animators ruined it with all their bullshit dressing, like adding rims and a flame job to a Shelby Cobra.

She was right, too, he totally berates her and then gets that reaction, and then the following moment is softness, detached from everything prior. It's a reaction for the sake of a reaction.

Perhaps I'm being too critical of an unfinished product, but I've seen nothing of the story elements in this game that really grab me. Just a bunch of dressed up tripe around something that could be very good if just let to shine on its own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDIaDS9HhMw CRYYYY BABYYYYYY!!

I love you sir.

@cikame said:

It's good that those facial expressions come across so well......... *ehem*

I'm willing to believe the expressions in-game are a deliberate choice to avoid ugly or overly melodramatic animation and fit with their art style, but showing the side-by-side comparison was a mistake because it invited me to imagine what it could have looked like.

That was a pretty stellar vi-doc. The voice work in this game is pretty mind-blowing to say the least, I just hope they clean up the animation before next year's release. If there is ever a movie for BioShock Infinite (Infinite seems like it could be a great adaption) I hope they keep these two in the leading roles.

The animations and expressions the characters are giving doesn't match the voice actors at all. Elizabeth has such a plain look on her face compared to her VO

The art of voice acting is truly interesting. They probably should not have showcased the facial animation though as it's not there yet.

Also, I'll get bent for Troy Baker any day of the week!

Whatever. The Making Of of anything usually looks a bit weird and unsure. These guys are professional, Ken Levine is a pretty savvy man.

I'm sure they all know what they're doing, and the end product will be great (at least this part of it, haven't seen any gameplay yet - those highly scripted sequences in the previews don't count)

@Goldanas said:

Ken Levine needs to back off sometimes. He wants a reaction, but it doesn't fit the moment. Then the animators dress it up with all this gaudy character animation which has no bearing on the performance.

The only thing genuine was the VA's face in that first performance. The animators ruined it with all their bullshit dressing, like adding rims and a flame job to a Shelby Cobra.

She was right, too, he totally berates her and then gets that reaction, and then the following moment is softness, detached from everything prior. It's a reaction for the sake of a reaction.

Perhaps I'm being too critical of an unfinished product, but I've seen nothing of the story elements in this game that really grab me. Just a bunch of dressed up tripe around something that could be very good if just let to shine on its own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDIaDS9HhMw CRYYYY BABYYYYYY!!

The mouth movement in the actual game is pretty lame, I know it's still been worked on but seems a bit of a waste sometimes when they get great voice actors and then ruin it with characters that can't move their faces to match up with it.

That sure was awkward.

I just want Booker to tell someone to Get Bent

Oh wow... Jesus -_-;;

It's good that those facial expressions come across so well......... *ehem*