Brad Lindsay Animating Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
The Computer Animation grad is bringing Spider-Man and Iron man to the screen at Vicarious Visions
Saying that comic book fans are a dedicated group is putting it lightly. Every time a new film or video game based on a classic superhero franchise is released, the comic book community is ready to scrutinize everything from the costumes to the dialogue, making sure they’re faithful to the source material.
So you can imagine the pressure Computer Animation graduate Brad Lindsay has been under while working as an Animator on the upcoming Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 game at Vicarious Visions – where he’s been responsible for translating such comic book legends as Spider-Man, Captain America, and Iron Man to the screen.
“We’ve got a huge fan base, and if we aren’t true to the characters, then we’re not being true to the fans,” he says. “Iron Man alone has gone through upwards of 30 or 40 iterations because we know he’s going to be watched very closely by fans. Everything we do goes through a lot of different reviews until it’s at a point where it’s as good as it’s possibly going to get.”
Ultimate Alliance 2 is an action role-playing game where players fight through some of Marvel’s biggest story arcs, including the classic Secret War and Civil War series. Brad has been working on the game since late 2007, and during the past two years he’s been responsible for everything from the mission animations and A.I. encounters for different levels, to creating the special “fusion attack” animations for the over 20 playable characters.
“That was the real ‘wow factor,’ for me when I first started,” he says. “We’d get new characters every few weeks, and being able to work on these icons that I’ve seen in comic books and movies was really cool – just getting my hands on them and executing how they would actually maneuver through their world.
“I really had a lot of fun working on the villains, like Green Goblin. He was great because we were able to give him a lot of emotion. We went in and animated his cackling, and those cool bombs that he hurls, and then his glider. He’s got a lot of variety in what can be done with him, and that’s the kind of character you just love to get as an animator.”
Being the second entry in the popular Ultimate Alliance series, the studio has been dedicated to taking the game’s presentation to the next level. This is reflected in the more realistic tone of the graphics and gameplay, which still have a comic book feel, but are more grounded in real-world physics and environments. On the animation end, this meant sitting down with the game designers and acting out the character movements to determine how they would actually move and flow in different situations.
“There’s been a lot of discussion about how the characters would execute moves, and the emotion behind them, because from an animation end we wanted to step it up quite a few notches,” he says. “So we really tried to do a lot of new stuff from the ground up and take a lot of reference from the comics for posing and getting the emotion of the characters across.
“All of the art has really been polished up nicely, because we’re trying to create a new standard for this franchise. There’s a lot going on in it, and hopefully players will be able to take that all in and know that we’re trying to give them the best game possible.”
From the gameplay clips we’ve seen, Vicarious Visions has definitely created something special with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, and you’ll be able to suit up as your favorite superhero when it hits shelves this fall for the Xbox 360, Wii, and Playstation 3. Thanks to a huge showing at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego, the anticipation from the online fan communities has been growing even bigger as launch day approaches – something that’s kept Brad and the rest of the development team inspired as they wrap up production.
“I’m very proud of the work that I’ve gotten to do, and I’m glad that people are so stoked about the game.” he says. “When you read the forum comments from people that are practically in tears that it’s not out yet, it’s very encouraging – just to know you have so many Marvel fans out there that are rooting for us to make them a great game. You just get this really cool goose-bumpy feeling where you know you’re working on something that so many people are going to enjoy.”
So you can imagine the pressure Computer Animation graduate Brad Lindsay has been under while working as an Animator on the upcoming Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 game at Vicarious Visions – where he’s been responsible for translating such comic book legends as Spider-Man, Captain America, and Iron Man to the screen.
“We’ve got a huge fan base, and if we aren’t true to the characters, then we’re not being true to the fans,” he says. “Iron Man alone has gone through upwards of 30 or 40 iterations because we know he’s going to be watched very closely by fans. Everything we do goes through a lot of different reviews until it’s at a point where it’s as good as it’s possibly going to get.”
Ultimate Alliance 2 is an action role-playing game where players fight through some of Marvel’s biggest story arcs, including the classic Secret War and Civil War series. Brad has been working on the game since late 2007, and during the past two years he’s been responsible for everything from the mission animations and A.I. encounters for different levels, to creating the special “fusion attack” animations for the over 20 playable characters.
“That was the real ‘wow factor,’ for me when I first started,” he says. “We’d get new characters every few weeks, and being able to work on these icons that I’ve seen in comic books and movies was really cool – just getting my hands on them and executing how they would actually maneuver through their world.
“I really had a lot of fun working on the villains, like Green Goblin. He was great because we were able to give him a lot of emotion. We went in and animated his cackling, and those cool bombs that he hurls, and then his glider. He’s got a lot of variety in what can be done with him, and that’s the kind of character you just love to get as an animator.”
Being the second entry in the popular Ultimate Alliance series, the studio has been dedicated to taking the game’s presentation to the next level. This is reflected in the more realistic tone of the graphics and gameplay, which still have a comic book feel, but are more grounded in real-world physics and environments. On the animation end, this meant sitting down with the game designers and acting out the character movements to determine how they would actually move and flow in different situations.
“There’s been a lot of discussion about how the characters would execute moves, and the emotion behind them, because from an animation end we wanted to step it up quite a few notches,” he says. “So we really tried to do a lot of new stuff from the ground up and take a lot of reference from the comics for posing and getting the emotion of the characters across.
“All of the art has really been polished up nicely, because we’re trying to create a new standard for this franchise. There’s a lot going on in it, and hopefully players will be able to take that all in and know that we’re trying to give them the best game possible.”
From the gameplay clips we’ve seen, Vicarious Visions has definitely created something special with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, and you’ll be able to suit up as your favorite superhero when it hits shelves this fall for the Xbox 360, Wii, and Playstation 3. Thanks to a huge showing at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego, the anticipation from the online fan communities has been growing even bigger as launch day approaches – something that’s kept Brad and the rest of the development team inspired as they wrap up production.
“I’m very proud of the work that I’ve gotten to do, and I’m glad that people are so stoked about the game.” he says. “When you read the forum comments from people that are practically in tears that it’s not out yet, it’s very encouraging – just to know you have so many Marvel fans out there that are rooting for us to make them a great game. You just get this really cool goose-bumpy feeling where you know you’re working on something that so many people are going to enjoy.”
